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Google Tag Manager 101: Learn the Basics to Optimize Your Digital Marketing Efforts

Google Tag Manager is a powerful platform capable of redefining how digital marketing campaigns are run. With all that power, learning Google Tag Manager can be a daunting task, but at its core, Google Tag Manager is designed to make digital marketing efforts easier, and with a basic understanding of the fundamentals, you can make it do just that.

What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a tag management platform designed to streamline and optimize digital marketing efforts by simplifying the process of managing and deploying marketing tags. A tag is a snippet of code added to your website for various purposes, such as audience building or conversion tracking. Advertising platforms like Google Ads generate these tags. GTM manages these tags in one place, so you don’t have to manually embed them into your site’s code — a great option for those not versed in web development or HTML.

How Does GTM Work?

GTM works by having a single piece of code — a GTM container — placed across your entire website. Google has in-depth resources about how to place the container code here. From there you can add any tags to any page across your entire site.

Placing tags is only part of what makes GTM such a powerful tool. You can also control exactly what pages each tag will be placed on and under what conditions each tag will fire. These conditions are called “triggers”. The combination of a tag and trigger is the bread and butter of GTM. The tag sends data off to a platform, while the trigger tells the tag under what conditions to send that data. Triggers can be configured by a near-infinite number of different variables. Some common ones are page URLs, button click text, and form IDs.

How Does GTM Work?

Any institution running a digital marketing campaign can find some use for GTM. Once set up, GTM will make campaigns easier and more effective. Having all your campaigns’ remarketing and conversion pixels in one place will save time and keep everything organized. In addition, GTM can act as a launching point for more tools like Google Analytics.

GTM also offers an easy way to track conversions. Conversion tracking is essential for measuring the effectiveness of a campaign and better understanding your users. Without GTM, setting up conversion tracking can be tedious, and results might not be accurate. The key to effective tracking is ensuring that your conversions are only firing on specific actions, GTM makes this easy by using triggers. If you want to dive deeper, the blog post “The Ins and Outs of Conversion Tracking” breaks down exactly how conversion tracking can impact your campaigns.

An Example of What GTM Can Do

Let’s put everything we learned together with an example:

Scenario: You want to run a campaign targeting students who have visited your website but haven’t applied yet. To measure the success of this campaign, you want to track whenever a student applies.

Steps:

  1. GTM Container: Create the container and place it on your website.
  2. Remarketing Tag: Create a remarketing tag in the advertising platform and place it via GTM. Target users who visit specific pages, such as admissions, application deadlines, and how to apply pages.
  3. Conversion Tag: Create a conversion tag called “Application Submission” and place it using GTM. Set a trigger to fire this tag when the URL matches the confirmation page after an application is submitted (e.g., examplecollege.edu/application/confirmation).

Now, whenever a student who interacted with your ads submits an application, the “Application Submission” conversion is recorded.

Next Steps

Understanding Google Tag Manager and its capabilities is a journey, but with the right approach, it can significantly enhance your digital marketing efforts. By organizing your tags, improving conversion tracking, and leveraging the full power of GTM, you can take your campaigns to the next level. Embrace the learning process, and take the next step. Create your GTM container and get to tagging!

As a Google Premier Partner, Carnegie is uniquely suited to help you unlock the full potential of Google Tag Manager. If you need assistance or are interested in working with us, reach out to start a conversation.

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Google Analytics 4 Setup: A Guide for Community Colleges

Setting up a new analytics platform can feel overwhelming for a small team, but don’t worry – our helpful tips below will guide you through the Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup, making the process straightforward and effective.

What are Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager?

GA4 is the latest tool from Google for tracking website data. When combined with GTM, it allows you to track and monitor user events on your website, from page views to custom interactions. The best part? Both GA4 and GTM are free to use!

GTM offers flexibility, allowing you to add and remove tracked events without altering your website’s code. By configuring basic settings in GA4, such as data retention, enhanced measurements, and custom dimensions, you can collect and analyze precise, actionable data.

Setting Up Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager

To ensure effective GA4 tracking, start by setting up a GTM account and container. Then, add the GTM code to your website’s HTML. It’s important to create a Google Tag in GTM to send data to your GA4 Property and data stream. You can verify data collection is working properly by checking the Real-Time report on the GA4 home page.

For detailed setup instructions on how to set up your GA4 property, refer to our latest blog. If Google automatically set up your GA4 property from your UA property, here are some important settings to review:

  • Data Retention: The default is set to 2 months. To see more data in the Explorations, we recommend updating this to 14 months. To make this adjustment, go to Admin > Property Settings > Data Collection and Modification > Data Retention.
  • Ignore Duplicate Tracking: To ensure you’re only collecting a single instance of each event, you should turn on Ignore Duplicate Tracking. You can turn this setting on in Admin > Property Settings > Data Collection and Modification > Data Stream > Select your Data Stream > Configure Tag Settings > Your Google Tag.

What are Enhanced Measurements?

Enhanced measurements are a set of pre-configured tracking options in GA4 that automatically collect and track various user interactions on your website without the need for additional code.

For more insightful and actionable data, it’s important to turn on and configure the following enhanced measurements:

  • Page Views: This setting captures every time a user views a page. This enhanced measurement is turned on by default; no additional configuration is needed.
  • Scrolls: Enable this setting to capture when a user reaches 90% scroll depth on a page. Consider using (GTM to set up additional scroll tracking for 50% or 75% scroll depth for more detailed insights).
  • Outbound Clicks: Enable this setting to track user clicks that navigate away from your site. For tracking specific user clicks within your site, set up custom GTM tags to capture these interactions.
  • Site Search: Enable this setting to track the search terms users enter in your website’s search bar. Ensure you configure the search term query parameter in the advanced settings to accurately collect this data.
  • Form Interactions: Enable this setting to collect events for form completions on your site. Keep in mind that some forms may not be tracked by enhanced measurements and may require custom tags in GTM for accurate tracking.
  • Video Engagement: Enable this setting to capture embedded YouTube video views on your website, provided the correct JS API is set up. For other video players, configure custom tags in GTM to track video interactions like video_start and video_completion.
  • File Downloads: Enable this setting to track file downloads on your site through the file_download event. No additional configuration is needed for this measurement.

You can read more about each of the enhanced measurements in Google’s documentation.

What are Custom Dimensions?

Custom dimensions are user-defined attributes that you can add to GA4 to collect and analyze additional data beyond the default parameters. They allow you to track specific information about events or users, providing more detailed insights and enabling more customized reporting.

Many of these enhanced measurement events are automatically collecting additional data through parameters, which can be viewed in GA4 as dimensions. By adding custom dimensions to your GA4 property, you will be able to see more detail about each event in the standard reports.

Examples include:

  • Page Views: You can also view page_location and page_referrer.
  • View Search Results: See what users are searching for on your website through the search_term custom dimension.
  • File Downloads: Know what users are downloading through the link_text or link_url custom dimension.

To add custom dimensions, navigate to Admin > Property settings > Data display > Custom definitions > Create custom dimension. Key dimensions to add include page_location, page_referrer, search_term, link_text, and link_url.

Determine which custom dimensions to add based on the enhanced measurements you’ve enabled.

Actionable Insights from GA4

With GA4 tracking, enhanced measurements, and custom dimensions in place, you can now answer questions like:

Q: Are prospective students reading the content at the bottom of the program page?
A: Check the Event Report for the scroll event to see how far down the page users are scrolling.

Q: Are prospective students finding their program of choice, or do they have to search for it?
A: View the Event search_term to see if prospective students are finding their desired programs.

Q: What page were users on before they viewed the RFI form?
A: Check the Pages and Screen Report using the page_referrer dimension.

Q: Do users watch the program page videos?
A: View the Event Report for video_start or video_complete.

Next Steps

Setting up GA4 and GTM might seem complex, but with the right configurations, you’ll collect insightful data in no time. Need more help? Carnegie offers training and custom consulting for Google Analytics 4.

As a Google Premier Partner, Carnegie is uniquely positioned to help you understand and leverage GA4’s latest features. Interested in working with us? Start a conversation today.

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How AI Can Transform Marketing for Community Colleges

Marketing has always been about connecting with your audience at the right time and place. Today, that means meeting them where they spend most of their time: online. In line with this, the recent advancements in AI have transformed how we approach marketing. AI is not just a buzzword—it’s a game-changer, especially for community colleges looking to engage prospective students more efficiently and effectively.

The Markets Are Changing

Community colleges serve a diverse demographic, not limited to any one age group. However, it is Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, who are currently experiencing the most significant impact of our ever-evolving tech-centric world. As true digital natives, Gen Z’s interaction with content is distinct—they typically have an attention span of 8 to 12 seconds and are accustomed to multitasking. This generation favors visual and personalized content, making them much more responsive to marketing strategies that are customized to their preferences, from tailored emails to individualized course suggestions. This is why it’s more important than ever to begin harnessing powerful AI tools that can help you stay ahead of the changing markets and better serve the demands of your audiences, who expect personalization at every turn.

How AI Can Help

AI is a powerful ally in understanding and better serving your audience. Here are a few examples of how AI tools are already enhancing marketing efforts in significant ways:

  • Automated Content Creation: AI can help create compelling content quickly. It can draft initial text, edit for clarity, and ensure the tone matches what your students relate to.
  • Optimizing Campaigns: AI can analyze large amounts of marketing data to see what’s working and what’s not.
  • Predicting Trends: AI can look at past data and predict future trends, like which programs might see a spike in interest.
  • Engaging with Students 24/7: AI-powered chatbots can provide real-time answers to prospective students’ frequently asked questions, day or night. This round-the-clock availability helps in building a stronger connection with potential applicants.

AI Tools You Can Start Using Today

To help you get started, here are a few examples of AI tools you can begin using today to enhance your marketing efforts:

  • Copywriting: Need help getting past a blank page? OpenAI can help you create copy for emails, social media posts, and promotional materials quickly.
  • Grammar, Tone, and Style: Grammarly checks your writing to make sure it has no mistakes and sounds clear. WordTune gives you tips to make your writing easier to read and sound better, helping you show off your school’s unique style.
  • Landing Pages: Mixo and Archer make creating web pages that attract and engage potential students faster and less labor-intensive. These tools can help you test different layouts and content to see what performs best, making sure the first point of contact is impactful.

Challenges AI Can Help Overcome

Many community colleges face similar challenges: limited budgets, understaffing, and the need to adapt to rapidly changing technology. AI can alleviate some of these pressures by automating routine tasks, helping your staff focus on more strategic activities like relationship building and student services.

Ready to Take Your Marketing Efforts to the Next Level?

You’ve seen how AI can enhance your marketing efforts by allowing for greater personalization and efficiency. Now, imagine taking those capabilities even further with our tailored digital marketing and predictive modeling services. Our services fine-tune your marketing efforts to ensure you’re reaching the right students—those most likely to apply and thrive at your institution—with personalized messaging that resonates with them.

Contact us today to learn more about how our tailored solutions can help you harness the full potential of AI-driven marketing.

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