An introduction to Matomo Tag Manager

Matomo Tag Manager is a plugin developed for Matomo Analytics. Note that compared to many analytics vendors Matomo Tag Manager is a dependent solution from Matomo. It means that you need to install Matomo Analytics in order to use Matomo Tag Manager.

Advantages of Matomo Tag Manager compared to other TMS solutions

  • It is a Free software, so you can investigate the source code and see that no data are sent to anyone except you, https://github.com/matomo-org/tag-manager
  • Matomo Tag Manager does not cost you anything except the web hosting.
  • The best TMS to use for Matomo Analytics.
  • As all TMS it will help you save a lot of time.
  • It works on intranet and can work offline which is great when you are in the plane/train and that you want to test it. 
  • You can educate yourself for free about TMS.
  • You can add any template you want without waiting for an approval: https://developer.matomo.org/api-reference/tagmanager/javascript-api-reference
  • All analysts are moving to Tag Management Systems and all analytics solutions are automatically integrating their tags within them..
  • You can easily learn advanced JS techniques.
  • You won't need to ask to a developer for help.
  • You can auto-correct yourself with the preview and debug mode.
  • You can easily fire advanced tracking code.
  • You can easily collaborate on the development of the major Analytics Free software solution: https://matomo.org/get-involved/

Disadvantages of using Matomo Tag Manager

  • As all TMS, if the container is blocked by a browser all the tags included within it won't be executed. By chance Matomo Tag Manager is seen as less intrusive so less chances that the container will be blocked, moreover you can always edit the source code in order to avoid blocking.
  • Developers will probably see the integration of Matomo Tag Manager from a bad eye, by chance Matomo Tag Manager include some security features in order to ensure that tags won't be publish without their approval.
  • If the server hosting Matomo is down... well of course Matomo Tag Manager will be down too and no data will be sent.

How to deploy your first measurement plan in Matomo Tag Manager?

As all TMS, Matomo Tag Manager is really straightforward:

  1. You copy/paste the container on all the pages of your website that you would like to execute some tags on. Note that you will need to perform this action only once.
  2. You select a tag that you would like to add to your container. All the tags listed in Matomo Tag Manager are templates. A template is a secure way to integrate a tag within Matomo Tag Manager. So to say templates are not supposed to break the website you will deploy your container on. If your tag is not listed, you can add a custom HTML tag. A custom HTML tag is not secure, it means that this is not a template so if your code is buggy then you will publish a buggy code.
  3. Select a trigger that you will associate to your tag. The trigger is the condition to execute your tag. The list is quite exhaustive but if you have done your work properly with the measurement plan you won't have any troubles to select the right one.
  4. Create your version: once your tag created, you can create the version. By creating the version you will officially include the tag and the associated trigger within the container. Once the version created you can then test it.
  5. Preview and Debug: you don't want to break the website you are working on don't you? That's the reason why you want to preview your work and debug it first. Thanks to this feature you can see if the container is acting the way you want, if it does then feel free to publish your work. If it doesn't then fix your tag and trigger until it shows you the desired outcome.

Ok, you now have the basics in terms of Tag Management System. All the rest is practising. Roma has not been built in one day and you can follow any trainings you want, you won't achieve a good result without practising and breaking your website. So have it a go, test different implementation on your local website and ask yourself the right questions.


Last modified: Sunday, 8 September 2019, 6:43 PM