Javascript

Ever so often I come across a Google Tag Manager setup where GTM’s own auto-event listeners don’t perform the task they were supposed to. Listener problems seem to be a hot topic in Google+ and the Product Forums as well.

There may be many reasons why your listeners don’t work, but a very common trend is that you have conflicting JavaScript libraries or scripts running on your page.

Let’s explore how listeners work before tackling the problem. You see, when you attach an event listener to an element in your Document Object Model (the collection of all elements on your page), the listener waits for the element to produce the action it is listening for.

There is a new version of this post for GTM V2 here.

While going over my previous post about using weather conditions to segment data in Google Analytics, I started thinking about performance issues. Since I’m using a visit-scope custom dimension, it seems futile to have it send the weather details with every single page load. The odds of the weather changing drastically during one visit are slim (unless you live in the UK), and I have yet to come up with a good reason to change my on-site behavior because the weather changed from a drizzle to a downpour.

A word of warning. This is not a developers’ post, a guide, or a thought experiment. This is a bona fide rant. Sometimes we just need to vent.

A couple of weeks ago, I checked one of our (inactive) client’s Google Analytics accounts I still had access to. What I saw in the acquisition report was this:

See how direct traffic gobbles up a great big share of organic traffic in late October?

There is a new version of this post for GTM V2 here.

[Last updated June 2014] I’ve fallen in love with Universal Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Together they form an incredibly powerful tool for marketing professionals. In most cases, I no longer need to post recommendations to my client for yet another page template revision, since with the tag manager in place, I can just add custom code via the admin panel. Add to that the power of Universal Analytics with its ultra-sensitive Measurement Protocol, and the ability to craft custom dimensions and metrics, and voila! I’m in a happy place.