Google Tag Manager is a very handy tool which helps you manage marketing tags (a.k.a. tracking codes) in one place and deploy them (usually) without developer’s help. If you consider yourself a beginner, you’re probably wondering where to start? What’s the best way to learn Google Tag Manager? If you’re an intermediate or advanced user, you’re probably looking for new ways to improve your GTM knowledge?

In this blog post, I’ve collected a bunch of options how you can learn Google Tag Manager as fast as possible.

 

The Very Beginning

When I started using Google Tag Manager in early 2013 I struggled with almost everything. There was very little information how to get started and implement something meaningful, in addition to that the user interface was clunky and difficult to understand. There were only a few actionable tutorials available for non-developers like me at that time, so all I managed to implement was only a basic Google Analytics Pageview tag. And that’s it. *sigh*

Luckily, those times are long gone thanks to these awesome ways to learn Google Tag Manager.

#1. Free Online Courses

Free online courses will give you a good basic perception of what Google Tag Manager is and what its main components are. If you’re just starting (or just considering to learn), these online courses are one of your best options.

P.S. Not all free courses are mentioned in this blog post. To find more, go to my other blog post – Free Google Tag Manager Online Courses.

 

GOOGLE TAG MANAGER FUNDAMENTALS

Created by: Google
Level of difficulty: Beginner
Price: Free

This Google Tag Manager course helped me to understand key concepts of GTM and how they work as a whole. What I really liked about it was interactivity. Most of the video tutorials will ask you to complete particular steps right within the video – it will pause at some moments and will ask you to click particular elements in that video.

To be honest, at first I was confused and thought that video player just hung up, but actually, it was asking me to click a button. All in all, course’s interactivity was a really neat feature.

At the end of each unit, you’ll need to take a quiz.

I highly recommend starting to learn Google Tag Manager with this course.

 

GOOGLE TAG MANAGER FOR BEGINNERS

Created by: Measureschool.com
Level of difficulty: Beginner
Price: Free

This Google Tag Manager course (hosted on Udemy) is brought to you by Measureschool.com. Their founder Julian Juenemann is excellent at explaining difficult concepts pretty easily. I also recommend checking Julian’s Youtube account for more awesome video tutorials (not only about GTM but Web Analytics in general).

 

#2. Paid Online Courses

Another alternative how to learn Google Tag Manager is paid online courses. Unlike free courses, paid ones will give you a more personal and premium experience. By taking such courses you’re entitled to Q/A sessions which will give answers to all important questions right away.

 

Master the fundamentals of Google Tag ManageR (CXL Institute)

Created by: Chris Mercer
Level of difficulty: Beginner
Price: $299 ( I checked the price on July 27th, 2017)

It’s a 4-week, 8-class live course that teaches everything from creating and managing our accounts and deploying tags to setting up cross-domain tracking and using the dataLayer for advanced data measurement. There will be a test in the end, and you will get a certification of completion.

In addition to 8 in-depth classes, you’ll get access to short introductory video lessons on the fundamentals of Google Tag Manager.

 

#3. Paid Offline Courses

*Quick side note*

I have to admit, there is a pretty solid supply of offline Google Tag Manager training courses and I’m really happy for that. This means that people are getting more and more interested in learning web analytics and how to implement various tracking codes to their websites.

Well, first of all, thanks to Avinash Kaushik who made web analytics cool and trendy. But it’s also fantastic to see the growing variety of online marketing tools which make our work exciting and interesting each day.

*end of side note*

Live training sessions (a.k.a. paid offline courses) give you the most personal and premium experience. Participants work in a live Google Tag Manager account, do various exercises, take short quizzes (usually), and actively participate throughout the training sessions to reinforce the lessons.

This makes the entire learning process much faster. Once you bump into some obstacles, the instructor notices that and gives a helping hand by providing necessary answers/tips.

Usually paid offline courses take from 1 to 3 days. Since I am running such sessions myself, the optimal duration is 2 days (IMHO), because:

• It’s nearly impossible to cover all important GTM topics in one day. Well, technically speaking, it’s possible, but the amount of new information is overwhelming. People need some time to digest what they learn and one day is not enough.
• On the second day, I always like to recap what we’ve already learned.
• 3-day-sessions might be too exhausting to some participants (+ they usually have their day jobs, so taking 3 days off their regular work schedule might be too “expensive”).

 

Few Offline courses to mention

Level of difficulty: Beginner-intermediate.
Price: Various.

• Lunametrics – Google Tag Manager Workshop (United States)
• Jellyfish – Google Tag Manager Training (United Kingdom)
• Data Runs Deep – Google Tag Manager for Marketers and Developers (Australia)
• Digital Academy – Google Tag Manager Training (Lithuania), run by me.

Don’t worry if your country is not in the list above. There are many other Google Tag Manager training sessions, just google it. Chances are there’s at least one in your country. Otherwise, choose any other alternative mentioned in this blog post.

Quick tip: always read the reviews of the course. If there are none, the course is probably is pretty new (or salespersons are pretty lazy 🙂 ). In that case, read about other courses offered by that company. Usually, the ratings of all training sessions correlate.

#4. Books

Practical Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager For Developers

Created by: Jonathan Weber and the Team at Lunametrics
Level of difficulty: From Beginner to Advanced

If you’re more of a book-person, I highly recommend Practical Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for Developers. Don’t be intimidated by its title. Although it covers various technical topics, you’ll understand them even if you’re not a developer. It starts from basic concepts and then gradually increases the level of difficulty.

It explains a concept and then takes you step-by-step on how to implement that concept. You should do the exercises if you want to get anything out of this book. This book consists of 50% Google Tag Manager and 50% Google Analytics tutorials.

I have it on my shelf, you should too.

Currently, there is an awesome deal on Amazon, you can get the Paperback copy for $22 (instead of $39). Get this GTM book on Amazon

P.S. I have also seen other GTM-related books on Amazon, but I cannot recommend them since I haven’t checked them out.

 

#5. Comprehensive Guides/Resources

Level of difficulty: From Beginner to Advanced

Let’s go back to free Google Tag Manager resources. After you’ve completed Google Analytics Fundamentals free online course (which I always recommend as the first step of this GTM-learning journey), go ahead and try these guides/resources:

• The Ultimate List of 90+ Google Tag Manager Resources, which are split into categories. If you’re thriving for even more resources, download the list of 120+ GTM Resources (Analytics Mania subscribers can download the list from every newsletter I send).
• Google Tag Manager Glossary (160+ terms). To make your life a little easier, I’ve assembled a huge list of Google Tag Manager (GTM) terms to help you avoid confusion in the future. Whether you’re looking to understand the language of GTM or help train someone else, this Google Tag Manager Dictionary should be your best companion.
• The Library of Google Tag Manager Recipes. An ever-growing list of ready-made GTM container templates with most common solutions. Download them, import to Google Tag Manager and you’re good to go! Expand your web analytics with ease!
• 100+ Google Tag Manager Learnings by Simo Ahava. This list contains a whole bunch of random (but very interesting) GTM-related tips.

 

#6. practice practice Practice

All these courses and resources would be useless without practice, so make sure to always keep GTM running in one of your browser tabs. Playing around with my personal projects + managing Soundest‘s GTM containers + working with personal clients is the main cause of my GTM breakthrough and growing skills.

Although there are still a lot of lessons to be learned, I feel that I’ve come a moderately long way. Here are my tips for you to get more practical knowledge:

• Do you have your own website/blog? Start tracking it with GTM.
• Do you work in an agency? Start implementing GTM in new projects. Real-life situations are what drives the knowledge. Are you working with a team? If there’s someone who knows GTM pretty weel, learn from them. Ask questions.
• Challenge yourself. Use Tag Manager Injector, inject your code to other websites (this happens only within boundaries of your browser. No, you’re not hacking anything) and try to track various elements: forms, clicks, page views, etc.
• Join forums, groups, and communities. If someone asks for help, try solving their problem. Don’t promise anything up front, because you’ll probably fail at first (due to lack of experience), but eventually, you’ll get better at this. Trial and error is the way to go.

 

Be up-to-date. Follow Others

Communities

Join these communities if you want to be the first to hear the GTM news, solve your problems, learn Google Tag Manager tricks, and get some new ideas.

• GTM Google+ community (personally, I subscribe to every new update)
• Official Google Tag Manager Forum
• Google Tag Manager Group on Linked In
• Stack Overflow – Google Tag Manager

 

Blogs/Websites

As for blogs, there is a bunch of noteworthy ones which you should subscribe to:

• Simo Ahava’s Blog.
• Analytics Mania (which you are currently reading)  #shamelessplug
• Measureschool.
• And others.

Pro tip: I prefer getting updates/new blog posts straight to my email inbox. Unfortunately not all GTM influencers send newsletters. My solution to that is Blogtrottr – a free service which regularly checks RSS feeds and sends me an email when a new post is published.  I do this with Simo Ahava’s or Krista Seiden’s blogs, for instance.

The majority of blogs have RSS feed, even though they do not display it publicly. Just add /rss to the end of website’s address, e.g. analyticsmania.com/rss. If you see some plain-text context, BINGO.

 

Conclusion: How To Learn Google Tag Manager

There are multiple ways to master GTM, both free and paid. My recommendation is to start with free GTM Fundamentals course (created by Google). In less than a day you’ll get the basics necessary for further growth.

Then, think of how much spare time do you have. Choose paid online or offline courses if time is a very precious for you. Otherwise, try learning on your own: follow blogs, watch video tutorials, etc.

If you’re an advanced user, consider Practical Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for Developers by Lunametrics. This book starts from basic concepts and gets more difficult towards the end.

But most importantly, keep practicing. You might keep reading all you want, but without actual battlefield experience, the theory is pretty much useless.

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and learn Google Tag Manager!