Guide to Google Tag Manager Templates

Google Tag Manager

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In Google Tag Manager (GTM), a template makes it easy:

  1. To deploy and share a tag with others within your company.
  2. To use and share a variable with others within your company.

The template which is used to deploy a tag on a website is called the tag template.

The template which is used to deploy a variable is called the variable template.

Thus in GTM there are two categories of templates:

  1. Tag Templates
  2. Variable Templates

Types of Tag Templates in GTM

There are two types of tag templates available in GTM:

#1 Default tag (Built-in) templates – These are ready-made tag templates provided by Google.

#2 Custom tag templates – These are the tag templates created by you or a third party.

GTM provides dozens of default tag templates.

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How to find the default tag templates in GTM?

To see the list of all available default tag templates, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Login to your GTM account, click on the ‘Overview’ link and then click on the ‘Add a new tag’ link:

overview

Step-2: Click on ‘Tag Configuration’:

tag configuration

You can now see the list of all available default tag templates:

gtm default tag templates

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Google Tag Manager Community Template Gallery

Through the Google Tag Manager Community Template Gallery you can find and add the tag and/or variable templates created by third parties to your container.

gtm community template gallery
import tag template

The second method to access the GTM Template Gallery is by clicking on the ‘Search Gallery’ button under ‘Templates’:

search gallery

The third method to access the GTM Template Gallery is by clicking on this link: https://tagmanager.google.com/gallery/

community template gallery
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Introduction to Custom Tag Templates

Google allows you to create your own tag template from scratch so that others within your company can use them alongside the built-in tag and variable templates.  You can create and test your custom template via the tag template editor.

Follow the steps below to access the tag template editor:

Step-1: Click on the ‘Templates’ link:

gtm templates

Step-2: Click on the ‘New’ button in the ‘Tag Templates’ section:

create new tag template

You can now see the tag template editor:

template editor

Use this template editor to create, preview, test and run your new tag template.

Types of Variables Templates in GTM

There are two types of variables templates available in GTM:

#1 Default variable templates (Built-In Variables) – These are ready-made variable templates provided by Google.

#2 Custom variable templates – These are the variable templates created by you or a third party.

GTM provides dozens of default variable templates.

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How to find the default variable templates in GTM?

To see the list of all available built-in variable templates, follow the steps below:

Step-1: Login to your GTM account, click on the ‘Variables’ link, and then click on the ‘Configure’ button:

built in variables gtm

You can now see the list of all the default variable templates:

built in variables gtm2

Introduction to Custom Variable Templates

Google allows you to create your own variable template from scratch so that others within your company can use them alongside the built-in tags and variables.  You can create and test your custom template via the variable template editor.

Follow the steps below to access the variable template editor:

Step-1: Click on the ‘Templates’ link:

gtm templates

Step-2: Click on the ‘New’ button in the ‘Variable Templates’ section:

new variable tag template

You can now see the variable template editor:

variable template editor

Use this template editor to create, preview, test and run your new variable template.

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