Tag Management System, (TagMan Inc named after same), simply put, is a way to deploy and manage all of your on-site vendor tags, pixels, analytics tags and tracking pixels agnostically in one place to create a control and simplicity previously not available, through one system interface. (These are also often called Tag Management Platforms). Not unlike a CMS behaves for your site content.
Tag Management Systems, simply do the same for your external 3rd party Saas vendor tags. Do visit our homepage at www.TagMan.com for deeper insight into TagMan and a video. For this short post, we will not get deep into ‘what it is’ – but want to clearly differentiate between a Tag Management System (TMS) and the other common ‘component attached to another service’ based services that are useful – but not as robust, agnostic nor complete a solution as a stand-alone Tag Management System;  however, all of which can and will be deployed through same. Namely: To help us to understand exactly what a TMS or a Tag Management System is before we talk about all the things they should do – let’s look at exactly what they are ‘not’ to start with.

1. Universal Tag? – Is that a Tag Management System?
2. Containter Tag solutions? – Are they a Tag Management System

UNIVERSAL TAG:

• Tag Management Systems should include, but are not a standalone  “Universal Tag or Universal Pixel” component
• A Universal Tag is generally considered as a “simplified platform for tagging “  It assists technology focused analytics experts in passing generic data so it can be mapped to a vendor-specific syntax at any time.
• A Universal Tag and other such deployment tools are generally attached to a web analytics vendor who can offer extraneous services as the product was born from their need to service clients.
• A Universal Tag, generally cannot deploy nor manage a complete Tag Management System, but a Tag Management System can contain and also deploy a Universal Tag – therefore ensuring freedom to switch when needed.

Question: Does your Universal Tag or “Tag Deployment Tool” have a corporate ownership/relationship spawned from a consulting company?

• EG: Is your deployment tool agnostic?
• EG: Do your existing analytics team and Analytics consulting agency feel comfortable with that ownership?
• EG: Will that agency ensure some tags work better than others?

CONTAINER TAG

• Tag Management Systems should include, as part of their complete service -  but are not a stand alone “Container Tag”  component
• A Container Tag solution is a simple piece of code that holds lots of tags and pixels on a page. You deploy and piggyback simple pixels and tags within a commonly ( i-frame container solution) .
• Container solutions allow you to ‘stuff tags’ into one solution; to assist slightly with containing certain tags or pixels without the site losing control.
• Container solutions are generally tied to an existing service such as an agency, ad-serving contract, data collection provider, DSP, exchange or other.   You only get the container ‘if’ you buy into their main offering.
• If you want to quickly change vendor (ad-server, media agency, DSP, Retargeting company etc) – you are a generally out of luck if they are also your main container solution hard-coded across your entire portfolio.
• You have no simple ease of visibility into the pixels/tags being stuffed into each container
• You have no real control over data ownership

-       A Container Tag, cannot deploy nor manage a Tag Management System.

Container solutions (eg, Floodlight, ZAP, UAT) can easily be deployed through a basic Tag Management System.  IE – Agencies and clients have no problem migrating Container Solutions into Tag Management Systems.

QUESTION:  Does the container tag solution you use leave you tied to a vendor you would not like to be tied to down the line? EG – are they agnostic?

• EG:  If a data/re-targeting focused vendor, is your container solution, or if one of your competitors invests in that business – is it the wolf, guarding the sheep?  Do they have yours and your consumers best interests and more importantly ownership and privacy concerns in mind?
• EG: If you want to leave them, what happens to all the data that they have collected for you the past year or so? Is it yours still?

TAG MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS To that end:  Container solutions and Universal Tags cannot deploy nor manage a Tag Management System – but, a Tag Management System (if the TMS is robust enough)  can easily allow you to swap out any and all container tags, universal tags or data management platform tags – without concern or being reliant / held hostage to a vendor. Our next post will focus on the deeper aspects of a Tag Management System and what you should look for in regards to the functionality. BTW – did you realize yet that TagMan stands “Tag Management” It’s not a cartoon super hero in a cape here to save your day; though we are very happy to do so!  Contact us for a demo, we’ve been doing this since 2007  and happy to show you all of our client success stories.