Google Tag Manager and Voluum

Tracking scripts are everywhere and everyone uses them. If you think that your competitors do not - think again. They gather all kinds of information: number of clicks, time spent on a web page, page views, page scroll and many other. This information can help you optimize your content and your products.

Those tracking scripts are provided by various data analytics and tracking services. One of those services can be Voluum, with its conversion tracking pixel. The conversion tracking pixel is a tracking script like any other. It sends some information (click ID fetched from a visitor's cookie plus additional payout and txid values) to an external platform (Voluum) when a specific event occurs ("Thank You page" is loaded after a successful conversion).

But Voluum's conversion tracking pixel is only one of the many scripts that you might use. With a growing number of those scripts, they become harder to manage and maintain. Every time a change has to be made, a developer has to be called to modify a web page's HTML code.

What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager (GMT) has completely changed the way tracking scripts are managed. It gives regular people in the marketing department the power to handle them. You no longer need developers to be involved in strictly marketing affairs: Do you want to update a tracking script on your page? You can do it on your own. Do you want to add a new script? No need to call your page admin, everything can be done in Google's simplistic interface.

Google Tag Manager is the leading tag management system. It proposes the "one script for all" approach instead of the "every script for itself". This one script is actually two JavaScript code blocks that you should implement in the <head> and <body> sections of your web page that you want to track and analyze. Once you have done that, you can submit various tracking script in the Google Tag manager's dashboard and Google's magic scripts will take care of the rest. You can add new scripts or modify already existing ones and they will be fired by the Google Tag Manager's scripts.

Page Builders

At this point, you know that GTM is integrated with data tracking and analytic platforms. But what about the other end of the equation: those GTM scripts have to be put somewhere. Well, apart from manually editing your web pages HTML (by you or a web developer), various page builders offer an easy solution to inject pages that you build with a tracking code. And yes, also with GTM scripts. Sometimes the support is native and sometimes you need to install additional plugins. Either way, they offer a much better solution than a manual edit. Refer to your page builder platform documentation to learn, where and how to add tracking scripts.

Using Google Tag Manager with Voluum

To cut to the chase: you can use Google Tag Manager to manage Voluum's conversion tracking pixel and direct tracking script (lander or offer tracking script). There are several reasons why this might be important to you. But before we discuss specific use cases and the setup process, there is a quick remark to add: Voluum is not integrated with Google Tag Manager, however setting it up is as easy as implementing Voluum's scripts without GTM or even easier if you already have GTM scripts implemented on your web page.

Use Cases

There are several scenarios when using Google Tag Manager to handle Voluum's scripts would be recommended. Below you can find some exemplary ones, but bear in mind that this list does not exhaust all possibilities:

Solution:
Use Case 1: Using Google Tag Manager to Manage Conversion Tracking Pixel
copied!

I track conversions with the conversion tracking pixel. I have never used Google Tag Manager and I am wondering what it can do for me.

Let's assume that you use a conversion tracking pixel as a method to report conversions back to Voluum on your proprietary "Thank You Page". In this simple scenario involving the GTM might be beneficial if you plan or assume that some of the parameters in the conversion tracking pixel might be modified. For example, if you use the static value as a payout value, you might use the GTM to handle your conversion tracking pixel, so if you would ever want to change that value, you would be able to do so without editing your web page's HTML. Add the Voluum conversion tracking pixel URL as a custom image tag in Google Tag manager and have the option to edit pixel settings without a hassle.
Solution:
Use Case 2: I already have GTM scripts on my landing page and I want to use the direct method of tracking.

If you already have GTM scripts implemented on your landing page, you can add Voluum's direct tracking script as a custom HTML tag. This will allow you to use the direct method of tracking visits without the need to edit your landing page's HTML, which is the biggest deterrent for many users.
Solution:
Use Case 3: Managing Several Conversion Tracking Scripts
copied!

I use Facebook Pixel to report conversions back to the platform, but I also want to have information about conversion available in Voluum.

Employing GTM to manage your tracking script on your "Thank You Page" means that you can fire several independent conversion tracking scripts simultaneously. Once you inject your web page with GTM scripts, add both Facebook Pixel and conversion tracking pixel as tags in GTM and have the conversion information in all places you want.

Adding a Conversion Tracking Pixel to Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager has a free or paid version. The former is suitable for small to medium enterprises and the latter is best for large companies. You can learn more about pricing details by visiting the following page: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/tag-manager/compare/

Regardless of the version type, the setup process is the same. If you already use Google Tag Manager, you can go to Step 3.

Create a Tag Manager account.
1. Go to the https://tagmanager.google.com web page and sign in to the Google account that you want to use or create a new one.
2. In the 1. Setup Account step provide the name of your account (typically a company name), a country name, and click the Continue button.
3. In the 2. Setup Container step provide the name of your container (typically a name of a product or web page), select where do you want this container to be, and click the Create button. In the following example we have named our container My Thank You Page but you can name it My Landing Page or otherwise.
4. Agree to Google's Tag Manager terms of service agreement by clicking the Yes button.
5. Copy the scripts from the Install Google Tag Manager pop-up window.
Once you have got your GTM scripts, you can inject them to your web page.

Back to top
Inject your web page with Google Tag Manager scripts.

Depending on your web page setup, injecting GTM scripts may look different in each case. In some scenarios you will have to manually edit your web page's HTML code, other times you need to provide them in the settings menu of your page building platform, and sometimes you only need to provide your GTM container code. Remember, you need to inject these code blocks to the web page that you want to track, so for tracking conversions you need to put them into the "Thank You Page", and for the purpose of using the direct method of tracking into the landing page. Find the most suitable scenario from the ones listed below:
- Enter GTM scripts manually
  
  In this case you will have to have the option to manually edit the web page's HTML code.
  1. Paste the first code block into the <head> section of your web page as high as possible.
  2. Paste the second code block into the <body> section of your web page as high as possible.
  3. Remember not to put these code blocks inside other tags or hidden iFrame containers.
  4. Submit your changes.
- Provide GTM scripts to a page building platform's settings
  
  Many page builders already have the option to automatically inject tracking scripts to all web pages that you create with them. Different platforms incorporate different layouts, but typically you have to look for this option in a settings menu. The section with this option is typically called "Tracking" or something similar. When you get there you should see two text fields that allow you to paste tracking scripts to the <head> and <body> section of your web page.
- Provide the GTM container code for integrated solutions
  
  Some platforms offer a native integration with GTM (on some occasions it requires installing additional plugins) and the only thing you need to do is to provide the GTM container code. You can always find it in the Google Tag Manager's dashboard:
With the GTM scripts added, the hard part is over. The last thing to do is to add a conversion tracking pixel as a custom image tag.

Back to top
Add a tag with a conversion tracking pixel

No matter if you already have some tags added to GTM or not, the setup is the same. You will need to obtain a conversion tracking pixel URL and / or Direct Tracking Pixel from Voluum to paste it into the new tag. Read the Track Conversions Using a Conversion Tracking Pixel and / or Tracking with a Direct Method articles to learn how to do that. Once you have copied the link to the clipboard, follow the steps below:
1. In the Google Tag Manager dashboard, click the Add a new tag option.
2. Provide a name for the tag and click the Tag configuration card.
3. Now you have two options to select depending on the type of Voluum script that you want to use.
  - For the conversion tracking pixel select the Custom Image as the tag type.
  - For the Direct tracking pixel select the Custom HTML as the tag type.
4. Provide the copied Conversion Tracking Pixel URL into the Image URL text field and click the Triggering card.
  - For the conversion tracking pixel: Provide the copied Conversion Tracking Pixel URL into the Image URL text field and click the Triggering card.
  - For the direct tracking script: Paste the copied script into the Custom HTML text field and click the Triggering card.
5. Select a trigger event that should fire your tag. In this scenario, you have only one trigger to select: Page view.
6. Click the Save button to save your tag.
7. Once you have added the new tag you have to publish it to make it work. Click the Submit button.
8. Provide a version name in the Version name text field and click the Publish button.
Your Voluum script is now live.

Back to top
Test your setup

We recommend testing every new campaign funnel. To test it, simply create a campaign funnel in Voluum and follow the visitor's journey from an advertisement to the "Thank You page" and see, if the visit and / or conversion counters increased by 1. Remember to test in in a web browser's incognito (private) mode.

Back to top