This How-­To Guide will explain tags, tag management, how tags are used, why it is important to manage them and concludes with considerations for determining if you need a tag management solution. Marketers are working in an era where much of what they do is digital marketing. The capabilities for marketers to create stunning digital experiences and track a visitors journey through a website were unheard of less than a decade ago. The increasing sophistication of digital marketing is underpinned by a technology component that many marketers remain ignorant of: the tag. The technologies and applications that leverage tags are legion and comprise the core of marketing’s infrastructure, such as analytics and marketing automation. The importance and impact of tags is such that marketers need a better understanding of them so they can manage them more effectively. Read this 6-page guide to learn: - The definition of tags - How tags are used - The importance of tag management - Tag management implementation plan To obtain this document, visit us at http://www.demandmetric.com/register

1. How-­‐To Guide
Tag Management
By Jerry Rackley, Chief Analyst
November 2013
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Marketers are working in an era where much of what they do is digital
marketing. The capabilities for marketers to create stunning digital
unheard of less than a decade ago. The increasing sophistication of
digital marketing is underpinned by a technology component that many
marketers remain ignorant of: the tag. The technologies and
applications that leverage tags are legion and comprise the core of
ytics and marketing automation.
The importance and impact of tags is such that marketers need a better
understanding of them so they can manage them more effectively.
This How-­To Guide will explain tags, tag management, how tags are
used, why it is important to manage them and concludes with
considerations for determining if you need a tag management solution.
WHAT ARE TAGS?
JavaScript code that is embedded in an HTML web page. Tags are
sometimes also single pixels that are small and transparent, and
therefore visually undetectable on an HTML web page.
A web page may start its life with no tags. As requirements dictate, tags
are added to support the functions that tags enable. A single web page
can have multiple tags, and across an entire website, there is often a
proliferation of tags. Tags are routinely added to a web page by a web
developer or an IT resource using an HTML editor or Content
Management System to modify the page to insert a tag. For this reason,
© 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

2. How-­‐To Guide
even though marketing is the primary beneficiary of tags, there has been
a historical dependency on IT resources to place and manage them.
HOW ARE TAGS USED?
Tags are used to transmit information to external applications about
visits to the web page on which the tags are embedded. For example,
one of the simpler things a JavaScript tag can do is detect and transmit
er. The capabilities of tags
to detect, transmit or invoke browser plug-­ins go well beyond these
simple examples. For the most part, tags exist on web pages and
perform their designated functions outside the awareness of the page
visitor.
There are hundreds of external applications that rely on tags, including
those for analytics, pay-­per-­click ad tracking, testing, personalization
and marketing automation to identify just a few. When a web page
e tags are
activated. They gather the information they were developed to collect,
ability to communicate is not just one-­way. They are also capable of
delivering content to the web page or browser, such as personalized
content, an ad or a cookie.
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© 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.