The importance of data tracking

The first step to marketing wisdom is data measurement, as many marketers will agree. But do you know why it is so important to carefully think about how to set up your data tracking? Good data tracking will increase the quality of your Google Analytics statistics and will give you more and better insights into what is happening on your website. To eventually get to the much-desired wisdom, you have to make sure that you are measuring the right data.

By now, you might be wondering: what do we mean by data tracking? Well, data tracking literally means ‘to follow your data’. With data tracking information from your website is being collected and user activity is being registered. It is possible to link all of your marketing- and sales processes to each other with good data tracking. You can gain insights regarding visitor activity on your website and measure specific conversions. A conversion is a goal you want to achieve on your website, like an online purchase, a newsletter subscription or a contact form completion.

Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager is a tracking tool of Google. It is possible to send all of the website’s marketing- and sales data to Google Analytics by placing your Google Tag Manager account code on your website and linking this account to Google Analytics. Then, you can make special events which you want to measure. For example, if a visitor plays a video, scrolls your page or clicks a specific button. You can also set up a timer to control a pop-up screen, to bring your newsletter to the attention of the visitor and ask for a subscription. Not only is it possible to set up and link these events, but you can also create conversion goals for the events. 

All of the settings in Google Tag Manager can be connected and forwarded to different marketing platforms and tools. Next to Google Analytics, advertising platforms like Facebook and Google Ads can be linked. 

Another thing you can do with Google Tag Manager is placing a piece of custom code, like a Hotjar or Javascript code, on your website. So as you can see, there are a lot of possibilities and uses for the tool. 

A quick recap of the possibilities of Google Tag Manager:

• Link all of your online marketing and sales tools to your website.
• Quickly adjust pieces of custom code in one spot.
• See exactly where the code is sent to and what you are measuring. 
• Measure data about every possible activity on your website, like an online purchase or newsletter subscription. All of this data is collected in Google Analytics, where you can get a clear overview.
• Easily place pieces of custom codes on your website.

Google Analytics

After linking your Google Tag Manager account to Google Analytics, you are able to send your website data to Google Analytics and check all of the results. But what is Google Analytics exactly? Google Analytics is a tool of Google that clearly displays all data on a website. It provides a clear picture of the flow of visitors, where these visitors come from, and which web-pages they have visited.

With Google Analytics you measure exactly what is happening on your website. With clear insights coming from your data, you can analyze your results and see what is performing well and what could be optimized regarding your campaigns, website or webshop.

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Using tracking to optimize your marketing

It is important to make your business goals measurable. By analyzing your website traffic you can gain important insights regarding your current marketing strategy and whether it is working optimally. You can use these insights to optimize your processes and increase your marketing results.

If a visitor on your website has to go through several steps before a conversion can take place, you can see at which step most visitors drop out using Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics. Through this information, you will know which step or page to optimize.

Additionally, it is possible to create specific remarketing lists. For example, think of everyone who has clicked on a certain button, has visited a specific page, or has completed a lead form. These audiences can be remarketed with a specific message, to get them to interact with your business again. The possibilities are endless once you have all of your data and information available.

Hide and Seek

Do you want more information about tracking? Do you want your Google Tag Manager set up in an optimal way? Do you need help with Google Analytics or do you have other questions? Have a chat with us! Hide and Seek is happy to help you with all your tracking questions.