First 30 slides from this talk, full slides to be posted soon.

1. #emetrics @PHILPEARCE
New York
26th Oct 2016
Learnings from the most Advanced GTM
Deployment I have ever done!
(On a site with 1 billion hits a month)
By Phil Pearce

2. I`m an Analytics
Adventurer & Explorer!
I recently did 8 countries in 12 weeks = 4.6 days per country

3. Agenda
1. Set the scene
– Size
– Complexity
– Timelines
2. How we got there
– Tools
– Strategy
3. Conclusion & take always
– Checklist
– Solution Library
4. Questions

4. Last week I did a
twitter survey….

5. “How many Google Tag
Manager installations have
YOU done?”
1. Newbie: 1-3 installation
2. Experienced: 4-10
installation
3. Advanced: 10+ installation
Survey results
https://plus.google.com/117298997433687198127/posts/dW5TjdS7XEV
https://twitter.com/philpearce/status/779678727861104640
Super Experienced
people

6. AdWords…I have done alot more than 10 GTM & GA Implementations

7. This is the story of
one such implementation…

8. So, a beautiful but
HUGE new client just signed!
• 400 man-hours GTM project
• 600 GA classic events
• GA classic to Universal pageview migration
• Inhouse TMS.js migration to GTM
• 6 CMS platforms
• Only 3 months to complete!
• Fine per task, if not completed within the timeline!

9. Project Complexity
Source: builtwith.com/detailed/behemothclient.com
Over 6+ CMS platforms &
multiple analytics solutions!

10. Project Size
Huge site!
Number of pages indexed on Google
2,680,000 results
350,000 results

11. Switch from GA classic
to GA universal
Migrate existing 200
GA events in GTM
Add 400 GA events
(auto-events)
Move pageview from
TMS.js (inhouse TMS)
into GTM
Preliminary GTM
account audit
Behemoth
Project Timeline
to climb the mountain

12. 3 month Deadline…
If missed = financial penalties per task!

13. In Reality…
Inhouse IT dept slow to respond, thus
impossible to enforce the task based fines.

14. How did we get to the Summit?
And more importantly...
• What went right?
• What went wrong?

15. The Win was deliver by
Technical & Tactical working together!
BusinessTechnical

16. Plus lots of Tools & Techniques!
Technical (Phil)
• Testing Tools
• Strawman Test environment
• Separate DEV & LIVE environments
• Auto-QA
• Failsafe deadman switch
• Security
• Governance of Logins & access levels
• Controlling Risk factors
Tactical (Agency)
• Task prioritisation
• Split based on “required client
dependencies”
• Sorted based on cost vs benefit
• Weighted based on strategically
important items
Wins MistakesWins Mistakes

17. Tools
Technical

18. GA classic >> GA universal
migration comparison +/-2%
Download Link removed in Taster slides

19. Auto-QA for lots of GA events
Download Link removed in Taster slides

20. GTM auto-event config file
Reminder: open the import files in notepad, then find & replace
Download Link removed in Taster slides

21. Separate GTM-live & GTM-Dev

22. 1. Server-side switch example
Code hidden in taster
slides

23. 2. Client-side switch example
<!– Client Side Switch: Google Tag Manager: Output myGTMID -->
<script>
var myHostname = window.location.hostname;
var myGTMID = 'GTM-xxx1'; // LIVE
if(myHostname === 'staging.behemothclient.com' || myHostname === 'localhost'){
myGTMID = 'GTM-xxx2'; // DEV
}
</script>
<!-- Google Tag Manager -->
<noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-xxx1"
height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>
<script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':
new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],
j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src=
'//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);
})(window,document,'script','dataLayer', myGTMID);</script>
<!-- End Google Tag Manager -->
Working example… saintsandstrangers.behemothclient.com
Code hidden in taster slides

24. PII prevention filters
PP01a: TidyURL - Replace email with EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com (start of string)
URL (.*?)(=|%3D)([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+(@|%40)[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)($|&.+)
Output URL $A1=EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com$A5
PP01b: TidyURL - Replace email with EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com (end of string)
URL (.*)(=|%3D)([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+(@|%40)[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)($|&.+)
Output URL $A1=EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com$A5
PP02a: Tidy EventLabel - Replace email with EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com (start of string)
EventLabel (.*?)(=|%3D)([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+(@|%40)[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)($|&.+)
Output EventLabel $A1=EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com$A5
PP02b: Tidy EventLabel - Replace email with EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com (end of string)
EventLabel (.*)(=|%3D)([a-zA-Z0-9_.+-]+(@|%40)[a-zA-Z0-9-]+.[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+)($|&.+)
Output EventLabel $A1=EMAIL-OBFUSCATED-BY-FILTER@gmail.com$A5
RegEx filter hidden
in taster slides

25. Local Test Environment
"Strawman unit tests"

26. Local Test Environment
Click to
switch versions
Demo Link
removed in
Taster slides

27. Tactical (Business)
Business

28. Resource Planning Gantt (The "Who")
Download Link removed in Taster slides

29. Milestones & Deadline planning (The "When")
Download Link removed in Taster slides

30. Preliminary assessment of Scale of Task…
GTM audit Download Link removed in Taster slides

31. Governance:
Controlling multiple-user changes...
...whilst plane is in mid-flight!

32. Multiple users: Check-in/Check-out
Solution1: Check-in/Check-out processes
and enforce View | Edit access.
Email Role Account
Permissions
01.
LIVE
02
DEV
phil@agency.com Administrator manage users edit publish
dave@agency.com Tester view
brian@client.com Administrator manage users view view
mary@client.com Administrator manage users view view
mathew@client.com Tester view view
devtools@client.com Tester view
When Check-out set to read-only

33. Solution2: Create User sandboxes
User1 | User2 >> DEV >> LIVE
Multiple users: sandboxes
Email Role Job title Account
Permissions
01.
LIVE
02
DEV
Marys
Sandbox
Mathews
Sandbox
phil@agency.com Administrator Implementation Specialist manage users edit publish view view
dave@agency.com Tester Project Manager view
brian@client.com Administrator Systems Admin manage users view view view view
mary@client.com Administrator Analyst manage users view view publish view
mathew@client.com Publisher Marketing Manager view view publish
devtools@client.com Tester Robot Unit Tester view
GTM-xxx1 GTM-xxx2 GTM-zzzz GTM-xxxx

34. GTM user access audit
bit.ly/gtm-access-sheet2 << Example Tools

35. Summary of safety features
1. 2 stage authentication
2. PII protection - via GA filter on URI & eventLabel
3. JS error tracking profile
4. Inline switch for GTM-DEV / GTM-LIVE
(can be client-side or serverside method)
5. Failsafe/deadmans switch (dataLayer whitelist)
Info hidden on Demo slides

36. Unexpected avalanches...

37. Exceeded monthly hit limit!
Note: Hit Tiers above has changed after this project was completed, so there`s now more
granular tiers.
$$$

38. Solution: renaming universal
object “ga” to “ga2”
A/B testing tool was sending GA event hits
to all trackers on every page = 3x hits
Answer Hidden

39. Set utmz cookie - so that inline gaq.push
events still work, but don’t effect hitlimit
Solution: _initData
var _gaq = _gaq || [];
_gaq.push(
['_setAccount', 'UA-1-1'],
['_addIgnoredRef', {{Page Hostname}} ],
['_addIgnoredRef', {{Page Hostname - www removed}} ],
['_setDomainName', {{jsm_setTopLevelDomain}} ],
['_setAllowLinker', true],
['_initData']
);
plus.google.com/117298997433687198127/posts/McER3buexek
Code hidden in taster slides

40. https://plus.google.com/117298997433687198127/posts/R5r3Bp88ir7
Creative solution: Enable cross-domain tracking in the Cart
funnel without IT dept involvement

41. Automatic Process Summary

42. Project Learnings/Improvements
1. Remove "human factor"
(e.g. manual export from DEV to LIV)
2. Auto-QA change to use TagID and auto-detect if new GA event added
in GTM.
3. Enforce GTM audit at the beginning (not optional task)
4. Enforce a Project summary and feedback session at the end of every
phase (not optional task)
5. Move onto insight, dashboards, A/B testing or BigQuery sooner.
Hidden in taster slides

43. Checklist of Tools
Removed from taster slides

44. Thankyou & Questions
Phil Pearce
Senior Web Analyst and GTM specialist
phildpearce@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/philpearce
Web
Analytics
Exchange
mentor
750 GA
questions answered
Tracking
protection
group
Free Prize for the best question(s).

45. bit.ly/gtmdevguide2 (free)
Prize: GTM developer guide
free!!
bit.ly/gtmdevguide2

46. GTM benefits
Slides: bit.ly/gtmbenefits
SEO dataLayer
Slides: bit.ly/supercharge-ctr
working example: bit.ly/seo-jsonld
GTM import file: bit.ly/json-v2
CheatSheet: bit.ly/jsonld-cheatsheet
Templates for Agencies
(SEO, PPC, Analytics, GTM)
bit.ly/analyticstemplates
Free tools & Tips
(YandexMetrica, Quill, Google Surveys)
Slides: bit.ly/toolsandtips
Top 10 GA reports
to save you money
Slides: bit.ly/top10gareports
Report links: bit.ly/ga-report-list