There are many benefits to tag management, but one of the most important is the ability to substantially improve web site performance.

Online retailer Fingerhut, part of Bluestem Brands, recently reported a dramatic 49 percent improvement in page speed through its checkout process by doing one thing: adding Tealium to its web site.

Tealium enables clients to improve site performance by 1) replacing dozens of digital marketing vendor tags with a single line of code, and 2) employing a variety of best practice techniques, including asynchronous tag loading, conditional tag loading, and slow-tag killing. Fingerhut used conditional tag loading to only load certain tags on its checkout pages, instead of loading all of its tags on every page hit.

Read the entire Bluestem Brands case study.

Editor’s Note: The following is an interview with Jason Paulsen, global analytics manager at Avnet (NYSE: AVT), one of the largest distributors of electronic components. Jason got his first taste of analytics with eBay in 2004. He used Omniture data to help eBay’s power sellers increase their conversions rates. He then began working for Omniture directly in 2005. He left Omniture in 2009 to work for an independent consulting agency. He joined Avnet in 2011 and is in charge of the global analytics program for Avnet’s e-commerce business group.

1. Tell us a little bit about Avnet and your role at the company.

Avnet is the world’s largest distributor of electronic components. Basically, we provide all the components that make up most electronic gadgets – from micro-processors to power supplies to connectors – that go into everything from smartphones to fighter jets. I manage the analytics globally for the e-commerce team.

2. When did you first hear about tag management?

I heard about tag management at Omniture’s Summit in 2011.

3. How many digital marketing vendor tags do you manage via Tealium?

We manage five unique vendor tags, but we have more than 30 accounts from one vendor that have to be managed individually within Tealium.

4. Who is your web analytics vendor(s)?

We currently use Omniture. I know I’m supposed to say Adobe, but I’m old school.

5. In what ways has tag management benefited you?

While I don’t have specific ROI numbers I can share, I can tell you that we have saved significant IT resources both from a cost perspective, and more importantly, from a “usage” perspective. With Tealium, I no longer have to take a spot in the IT project list. This means my team members can have their projects worked on sooner, which drives their business more quickly.

6. You told us a great anecdote recently about how you made some key web analytics changes during a meeting. Can you repeat that here?

We were in the middle of a site redesign. There were some interesting discussions regarding how many of our users view our site in different languages. We had not been tracking that value. So, in the middle of the meeting, I opened my laptop, logged into Tealium, created a new variable and started sending language usage data into Omniture. By the end of the meeting, I had some initial data to share with the team. This will help us determine what languages we should focus on supporting in our redesign.

7. What has your experience with Tealium been like?

My experience has been awesome so far. The support has been tremendous. I haven’t been able to come up with an issue that Tealium couldn’t handle.

8. What’s your next big web analytics project?

My next big project is the integration of our online data into our CRM systems. I’m hoping Tealium can play a role in that as well.

- Thanks Jason!

Editor’s Note: The following is an interview with Gary Angel, President and CTO of Semphonic, a leading digital measurement and analytics consulting firm. Gary was recently named Most Influential Industry Contributor in the Digital Analytics Assocation’s 2012 Awards for Excellence.

1. Tell us a little bit about Semphonic?

Semphonic is a digital measurement and analytics consultancy. I often stress the word analytics, because we focus on delivering actual site and digital channel analysis to our clients, most of whom are very large, multi-channel enterprise clients. Most agency and internal teams that describe themselves as web/digital analytics seem to be pretty much limited to tagging and reporting. Getting clients to the point where we can do real analysis has also pushed us to deliver both infrastructure (tagging) and reporting solutions and, increasingly, it’s meant that we’ve been helping our clients drive analytics data out of traditional web analytics solutions into data warehousing. But the end goal is to drive change – and analysis is what does that.

2. When did tag management first come on your radar?

A couple years back. Seems like ages ago. I think the first real application we saw was actually with you guys. We had a client with a critical site section (The Account Application Process) that was built in  a manner that changes could only be done with a full development deployment cycle. So it took about six months to drop an image request on the page. And since it was the single most critical conversion point, they kept wanting to add tags.

3. What are some ways that tag management benefits web analytics?

Good analytics is dependent on good infrastructure. Costly, time-consuming infrastructure deployments greatly extend the time-to-benefit from analytics and can even chew up all the available measurement dollars.

Our team greatly prefers to do deployments these days with a Tag Management System (TMS). A TMS moves the bulk of the tagging work from IT to the measurement team. It’s actually much easier for us, in most cases, to customize the tag than to explain to an IT team how to do it. It also puts us in control of the measurement. I think it makes for better and cheaper implementations.

Tag management also gives you much greater ability to tune and customize the tag without impacting site and IT cycles. That’s critical because measurement is the tail, not the dog. Lots of measurement changes get de-prioritized or delayed when you have to run them through traditional IT cycles.

4. From an analytics standpoint, what are some of the signs that you may need a tag management system?

Honestly, I’m not sure you need signs. In my view, every tag deployment at the enterprise level would benefit from a TMS. But if I have to pick some signs, here they are:

• Governance issues with missing tags
• Measurement queue of tagging changes
• Reduced measurement designs to fit implementation cycles
• IT concerns with tag proliferation
• Constant changes to existing tags or foregone reporting because changes can’t be made
• Page load performance issues from tags

5. What are some of the things you should look for in choosing a good TMS?

We’re finding that the decision about a TMS blends two separate elements: IT and marketing. For years now marketing has been adding tags to the web site without a lot of feedback, governance or control. Interestingly, when it comes time to think about tag management, IT concerns tend suddenly to surface. That’s not a bad thing. I think you want to look at a TMS that supports core IT concerns around page weight, performance, control, and reliability.

On the other hand, measurement is a marketing function. The single biggest reason (by far) for having a TMS is to create a system in which the actual measurement design can be quickly and seamlessly controlled without tying up IT cycles. The current system of tagging puts tremendous pressure on the design-cycle to create a comprehensive infrastructure. It makes for bulky implementation process – and makes it very challenging to work on any kind of an agile cycle.

So I think the features that matter most in a TMS are the ones designed to facilitate that flow: configurability of the measurement system from a GUI, ability to control and deploy page-based customizations from a GUI, workflow management that provides sound governance, and a content structure or UI layer that makes it possible to track and manage large numbers of site customizations.

6. Is web analytics vendor lock-in a thing of the past with tag management?

I’m going to have to say no. Tag management DOES significantly reduce web analytics vendor lock-in. Tag implementation is probably the biggest single barrier to changing solutions – so the impact is real. But there are a number of other friction points that don’t go away. Collection design is actually somewhat different on different systems – so there is design and implementation work to be done even with a TMS in place. And, of course, things like training, reporting, data feeds, APIs, etc., all introduce significant friction. I think it’s fair to say that tagging is the one major difference between web analytics and other types of enterprise software when it comes to friction and vendor lock-in. But vendor lock-in exists in pretty much every single type of enterprise software.

7. Semphonic has grown tremendously. What are your plans for the future?

I wish I knew! Seriously, one of the hardest things in our industry is the pace of technology change. It puts a lot of pressure on consulting companies to constantly adapt. Going back to my first answer, I’m pleased with the increasing level of maturity in our industry. It’s creating real demand for customer analytics that actually drive the business. It’s funny to say, but we’re really starting to do the kind of analysis we hoped to do when we began the business 14 years ago. Digital is just catching up with the types of statistical, modeling and customer analytics techniques we were using 10-20 years ago in database marketing. That’s not because we somehow forgot the techniques – it’s because the infrastructure, platforms, richness of data, and customer maturity just weren’t there. Tag Management Systems are a big part of reaching that level of maturity – a level where implementation is a small part of your analytics program – not the whole enchilada.

Webtrends, Inc., the global leader in unified mobile, social and web analytics and engagement, today announced that it will begin offering turnkey web analytics integration through a new partnership with Tealium, the leader in enterprise tag management.

Through the partnership, announced in conjunction with eMetrics San Francisco, Webtrends will be able to deploy its leading web analytics solution on any site within minutes via a single line of code, giving organizations unprecedented flexibility in choosing the solution that best fits their digital marketing needs.

In previous years, implementing web analytics solutions was considered a costly chore because of the work associated with installing new code and customizing it based on business requirements. Through Tealium, Webtrends can deliver an advanced implementation within minutes or hours.

Read the release …

Tealium today announced that it has joined the Web Analytics Association (WAA) as a corporate member for enterprise tag management. The announcement coincides with Tealium’s appearance at the WAA LA Symposium tomorrow, Jan. 18, in Santa Monica, Ca. Said WAA President Peter Sanborn: “Tag management is rapidly becoming an established best practice in our industry. On behalf of the WAA Board and members, we welcome Tealium to the association.”

For more information, read the full release.

One of the many methods through which Tealium improves site performance is by using asynchronous loading of tags. This method is becoming increasing popular, especially after Google’s adoption of asynchronous tags in 2010 for its analytics product. Tealium is one of the pioneers in asynchronous tracking, first adopting the methodology for tag management back in 2008.

But what exactly is asynchronous tracking and how does it improve site performance?

Before explaining the asynchronous method, it is important to note how tags load and why they slow down web sites. Most tags today are loaded in synchronous manner (think serial). When a page loads a synchronous tag, it waits for the tag content to load before moving on to the next content. The figure below shows an example of a page loading 4 tags in a synchronous or serial manner. The page starts by loading the first tag. After the tag has been completely loaded, the page moves on the second tag. The process is then repeated for the ensuing tags. Assuming each tag takes half a second to load, we’re looking at a total load time of 2 seconds to load all 4 tags.

Synchronous Tag Loading

With asynchronous tracking, the browser can load the different tags in parallel. It no longer has to wait for a certain tag to load completely before moving on to the next or the rest of the page content. This is shown in the figure below. Using our example of the page with 4 tags, we can see that the browser starts downloading the 4 tags in parallel, completing the process much faster. The 4 tags in this case are completed in a fraction of a time compared to the synchronous method.

Asynchronous Tag Loading

Asynchronous tracking has many benefits. One obvious benefit is improved site performance, as demonstrated above. Another benefit is improved tracking and data accuracy.  Because tags are loading in parallel to the rest of the content, they can be placed on top of the page, which improves the accuracy of data being collected.

Next Step:

Learn more about Tag Management
Request a demo of Tag Management Console

I’m a fan of data. And my favorite kind of data is clean and well-organized. And you’re going to need well-organized data before you begin your next project. It’s kind of like cleaning up your desk or tidying up your house. It’s just what needs to be done before the next project can begin. And your next project is the website re-design.

Assume your website will be around for a long time. Consider doing it right once and for all by building something that will last. Here are my top three reasons to unify (or clean up) your data before your next site redesign.

1) One Version of the Truth

I remember hearing this “single version of the truth” phrase often in my relational database days.  Is this something you hear around your office? The same thing you strive for with data stored internally should also apply to your tag vendors outside of your internal firewall.  You will have data that is shared across vendors.  (i.e. Both your Chat provider and your Analytics tools want to track what was purchased on the order confirmation page.)  If everyone gets the data from the same place then your data values will be uniform. In fact, a universal data tag is really your only option for uniform data.

A sample data object showing data that will be shared:
var my_page_data = {
product_name : 'blue widget XXL',
product_id : 'item12345',
product_quantity : '3'
}

2) Easy on the Eyes

Lots of poorly-named JavaScript variables can cause a headache.  And website tag vendors don’t make this easy.  No analytics vender will use “site_section”.   They might have you set “s.prop3″ to site section or set variable “CF12″ to site section.  But an implementor or contractor looking at the code is not likely to know that the value in s.prop3 is site section.  Which means they’ll need a secondary look-up spreadsheet.  And they’ll probably not have the latest version of this spreadsheet.  Which means they’ll probably implement the new tag vendor incorrectly.  This reminds me of a children’s book If You Take a Mouse to the Movies.

var my_page_data = {
site_section : 'energy efficient products',
site_sub_section : 'blue widgets'
}


3) Stand the Test of Time

I probably should have listed this as #1.  Most enterprises rebuild their website at least once a year.  If your site is changing then you’re likely to break things.  That is why you budget extra hours for QA.  Save the time and money by unifying your data now. You’ll be glad you did before for next year’s redesign.  If you change your HTML and the product can no longer be “scraped from the DOM” from a <span> item where “id=productField” then your custom code breaks.  Instead, make the decision now to prepare for your next site redesign and keep the data in a container that will not depend on your last HTML layout template.

I’ll stop with just these three reasons, but there might be a list of 10 reasons.  I’m pretty sure I could make the Yahoo home page with the article, “Top 10 Reasons to Unify Your Data Before Your Next Site Redesign.”

And with that said, Mike – tag you’re it.

Before starting this post, I want to point that this blog is for debate purposes only and Tealium does not use any ETags or Zombie Cookies.

There’s been a lot of news lately about the use of various techniques such as “local shared objects” or “HTML5 cookies” in order to re-spawn deleted cookie and bypass the consumer’s choice to opt out. These are sometimes referred to as zombie cookies. We at Tealium do not condone such practices and believe that consumers should have the choice to opt out if they want to. However, this post is not about the philosophical debate and there’s been a tremendous amount of discussions already on the topic. An example can be found here.

The topic that we feel has not been discussed is how these same re-spawning techniques can be used to actually improve consumer privacy. That’s right. Zombie cookies can actually be good for privacy.

Before I continue, I want to point out that there are two kinds of opt-outs today. The first is using the new “do not track” headers within new browsers. This is something that many vendors already support. Customers of Tealium for example can take advantage of Tealium’s support in this area to improve the privacy of their visitors.

The second method – which is more traditional – is to allow consumers to opt out of specific tracking. For example, a consumer may decide to be tracked through analytics tools but opt out of behavioral targeting.

Opt-outs are flawed

The problem with today’s opt-out mechanism is that they’re inherently flawed. Here’s why:

When a visitor opts out of a service, an “opt out” cookie is added to the visitor’s browser. The vendors’ scripts or tags look for the “opt out” cookie. If no cookie exists, then the tracking is continued. If an “opt out” cookie exists, the service stops the tracking. Because these services rely on cookies for opt out, when a visitor deletes their cookies, the visitor has effectively just opted back in.

Opt-outs require a more permanent state

The problem with today’s opt-out mechanism is that it is only temporary and stops functioning the moment visitors delete their cookies. The industry needs a more permanent way to allow people to opt out. As discussed previously, the browsers have come up with their solution in the form of “do not track” headers. The problem with these headers is that they’re an “all or nothing” proposition and do not provide visitors with the ability to opt out of only a category of trackers.

What if the industry started adopting some of the same zombie cookie techniques in order to provide a more permanent opt out mechanism? The same technology that is used in some instances to re-spawn tracking cookies can be used to re-spawn “opt out” cookies.

Remember, it’s not the technology but the application that matters. By using the same techniques, digital trackers can actually provide a more permanent opt out mechanism to consumers and better respect their request.

As of the writing of this post, we know of no tracker using such techniques for opt outs and we’re not recommending that vendors do so. But what do you think? Do you think that this technology should be used to provide a better privacy or do you think the industry should completely stay away from such re-spawning techniques?

My personal belief is that if a technology can be used to provide a valuable service to consumers, then it should be used.

And with that said, Ty – tag you’re it.

One of the  conversations that digital marketing teams engage in today’s environment is whether  they need a tag management system or not. As companies are increasing their use of digital marketing technologies, their need for a tag management solution increases. Up to now, most companies seeking a tag management system typically shared one of two characteristics:

• They deployed lots of different tags (i.e. analytics, ads, affiliates, etc.)
• They had a constant need to change tags (i.e. new marketing programs, trial of new vendors, etc.)

There are of course other factors that can prompt organizations to invest in tag management systems. For a thorough list, we recommend that you check out the Forrester research titled “How Tag Management Improves Web Intelligence” by Joe Stanhope.

Up to now the group least likely to require a tag management system included the two following characteristics:

• They don’t use lots of tags
• The have no plans to change their vendors

Sounds logical right? Think again.

Just recently, Google introduced a new feature in Google Analytics which provides valuable reports around page load performance, called Site Speed Reports. The new feature helps companies determine  the impact of site performance on their web site conversion.

In order to take advantage of this features, customers will have to update their tracking code in the following manner:

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-XXXXX-X']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);
_gaq.push(['_trackPageLoadTime']);
(function() { var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script>

The change of tracking code is not unique to Google Analytics. Just recently, Yahoo! announced that the Yahoo! Web Analytics tracking code V4 will no longer be supported.

In both cases, tag management systems let customers update their tracking code without changing their pages. For Tealium customers, this is just a matter of changing their templates from within the Tag Management Console.

We’re no longer seeing tag management as a technology deployed by customers that want to constantly add or change their vendors, but also by organizations that want to make sure that they’re deploying the latest version of their vendor tags. To find out more about how Tealium can help you leverage the latest features from your digital marketing vendors, contact us.

We are happy to announce the general availability of the SiteCatalyst Toolbox for users of Tealium Tag Management Console. So what does it do?

With Tealium, customers can simplify and streamline their page tagging by deploying just one tag on their site. Users can then log in to Tag Management Console and use the SiteCatalyst Toolbox to manage their complex SiteCatalyst implementations.

Some of the capabilities of this toolbox include:

• Variable mapping: allows users to configure how data can be passed to the various props, eVars and events. For example, users will be able to trigger certain events based on desired criteria such as failed searches or purchase types.
• Merchandising evars: allows users to get detailed reporting on merchandising attributes, such as popularity of products by size, color, brand and other attributes.
• Incrementor Event support: also known as numeric or currency support. For example, users will be able to easily measure the value associated with gift certificate redemption using such implementation.

The SiteCatalyst Toolbox is available effective immediately for all users of Tag Management Console.

Next Step:

• Learn more about Tag Management Console
• Request a demo of Tag Management Console