Overview
This article will touch base on a few of the most well known gaps that exist with Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.
How do Google Analytics and Tag Manager work?
Our article, Using Google Analytics with Zaui, goes over some of the key terms used by both pieces of software. In a nutshell, Google will assign a client ID to everyone that visits your website and sends the information collected to the tracking ID or property where you can then access all of the data collected.
Here is where you can start to run into trouble. Both Google products are considered a third-party so, although, it sounds like a simple process for a piece of code to track the behaviour of a visitor to a website, it's far from easy.
There are many factors that influence the codes ability to fire every time someone lands on your website. The most commonly reported issue with Google Analytics and Tag Manager is missing data. Here are some of the top reasons for why that could be happening.
Adblockers, Cookie and JavaScript Blockers
Every third-party's worst nightmare are adblockers. In today's world, more and more users are becoming acutely aware of how much information is actually being tracked while they're browsing online. There are a number of different options currently available that internet users can use to block ads and third-party tracking, like Google Analytics and Tag Manager.
Some browsers also behave differently and have some built-in options to help protect users from sharing data they don't want to. Your mainstream browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Explorer all offer different ways to block behaviour tracking. There's also less well known browsers like DuckDuckGo that offer very strict protection against tracking of any kind.
You may have noticed that the number of websites asking for consent to track certain pieces of information or block JavaScript is rising really quickly since it's now required by law in many places such as the EU. If a user does not consent to tracking. there is no way around this. If a user chooses not to share the information with a third-party, there is nothing more than can be done.
Missing or incorrect tracking code on a page
It's easy to miss a page or two when implementing your tracking so if you start to notice an abnormal amount of missing information, it's a good idea to scan through all of your pages to ensure your tracking code is listed as high on the page above the <head> tag as possible.
Tracking code is too low on the webpage
To continue from the last point, make sure your tracking code is above the <head> tag on each page of your website. The reasoning behind this is to allow the tag to fire as soon as someone lands on your page. When the tag is too low, you may not be giving the tag enough time to fire since it needs to wait for everything else on your page to load first. Then, by the time the tag is able to load, it might be too late and the visitor has moved on in their browsing. Luckily, this is something that is fixable!
Too much noise on the webpage
In addition to the points listed above, if you have too many tags and "stuff" on your webpage, it could result in each tag not having enough time to run before the visitor moves on. When talking about Google Analytics or Tag Manager, each tag needs to communication with it's counterpart in either program and they do this one at a time. The next tag will not start it's own process until the tag above has been successfully (or unsuccessfully) executed.
Any changes are not retroactively applied
This is one reason for why it's very important to set up Google Analytics and Tag Manager correctly from the start. If you notice that something is wrong with your configuration a few weeks or months into tracking and you update some of your settings, all of the data that you've already collected will not be affected by this new change. The existing data will still show all of the information collected under the previous set up but all new data will have the new settings applied.
That's why we recommend always creating a "Raw Data" profile so that you ensure you collect all of the possible information and don't accidentally filter out important information down the line.
It's also good to keep in mind that neither program is real-time so any changes will take 24-48 hours to start taking any affect.