Original Post
To make sure your setup tracking tags correctly, grab the following three tools and install them into your browser. You’re going to want to use Chrome (or a chromium variant), unfortunately, because Firefox won’t work.
Tag Assistant lets you validate, diagnose, and troubleshoot issues with your Google Analytics implementation in real-time. This way, you don’t need to do it the hard way and comb through the data layer.
Pixel Helper for Facebook will verify your pixel is working properly, troubleshoot common errors, and improve pixel performance. It’s designed very well. Google should learn a thing or two from them.
UET Tag Helper by Microsoft is like the ugly duckling of the bunch, but with all the recent moves Microsoft has been making, I hope that they grow into a beautiful swan. But this tag helper sucks at the moment… but grab it anyway.
Once you have them installed, pin the extensions so that you can see them.
Click the little plugin looking symbol then the thumbtack “pins” like below.
With all three tags pinned like this ^, you will see them when you browse your website
After you have them pinned, follow the instructions to turn them on and check them out. Go to some of your favourite sites and take a look at how they have their setup.
Tag Manager
You would be surprised how many companies there are in the web design world who ineffectively setup tags.
After you’ve oriented yourself to the tools a bit, check out your own website and see what you find.
Google is evolving Tag Assistant. We’ve worked with the Beta version a lot lately, and it’s pretty good. The concepts and UI are similar, but keep your eyes open to shift to always-on options for debugging soon. I expect Facebook will follow similarly as Google and Facebook are neck and neck in the space.
Pixel Helper
In Canada and the US, Facebook has really jumped to the forefront of digital advertising. Q1 2020 – Lots of people transitioned to digital life and started isolating themselves at home. Facebook has improved its ad platform over the years, but nothing like what we see now. With Facebook, you have much more granular control on “who” you target where Google has historically been about “where” you place your ads. Both have come a long way. Needless to say, you should install a Facebook pixel if you do digital marketing.
You can test your pixel and event firing at the same time. Depending on how you set up your privacy settings, you can automatically populate microdata and other data passed to Facebook.
UET Tag Helper
This one is easy. Install it, and you will see if your UET (Microsoft) tags are installed correctly. They should look like this:
Not much to go wrong here. It’s either on or off.
About the author:
The Best in the West – bringing over 20 years’ experience working with some of Canada’s biggest brands, Scott manages our Calgary office. His knack for getting to the root of a business problem means that no challenge is too steep for him.
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
