Add DTM Code Using Google Tag Manager

[alim92960278]

We currently use DTM on most of our websites and need to implement it on another site. Unfortunately our developers won't be able to add the embed code for at least two months because of a code freeze.

To get around this, we're thinking of using GTM. Any problem with doing this?

The code will only be added to two pages: A "login page" and a "login success page". This will be used to exclude existing customers from our marketing reports. I mention this to make it clear that we don't need full implementation on this site.

Regards,

Ali

[josh_donley]

Are you are asking if it is okay to deploy the DTM Header/Footer tags through GTM? If so, then the official answer is no, that is an unsupported implementation.

[alim92960278]

Thanks for the reply.

I'm trying to find out if it would work? If not what is the problem? I'm not concerned with supported/unsupported at this.

[aseelund]

There will be no support for this from either Adobe or Google, as on both sides is unsupported implementation.

Technically, yes, you can add html tags via each respective tag manager. What you CAN do is not necessarily what you SHOULD do

The best I can find is one thread on stack overflow where someone did this, but had issues with the Pageload Rule in DTM. Could have been their specific case, I didn't read into it too far.

adobe analytics - Google Tag manager code added with the help of DTM is not working - Stack Overflow

Code freeze is difficult, if you can manage to get a bypass approval for the dtm tag because it lives in the head tags and not content then maybe your teams can work with it. Not sure. That's the route I'd take. Do it right, or don't do it.

[josh_donley]

Embed Code and Hosting Options

Header and Footer Code

The documentation is pretty vague about why it won't work. It just says it will yield unexpected results and Adobe will not support deviating from the implementation instructions.

In truth, I have not really spent a whole lot of time investigating what actually breaks, what can and cannot be done when outputting the DTM tags through another tag manager or otherwise dynamically appending it to the page.  Because for me, the answer is simple: don't do it.  Adobe's tools (Target, Audience Manager, Analytics, etc. ) are enterprise level tools with enterprise level prices attached to them, so making sure I implement them in a way that is supported by Adobe seems like a no-brainer, even if it means sticking within the confines of its limitations.  If my clients lose data because something went wrong, that usually equates to thousands, sometimes millions of dollars lost. I certainly don't want to be the guy the finger gets pointed at. Especially if it's because of something I willfully did, like deviate from the instructions!

In any case, even having said all that.. there is no solid answer for "Will this work?", because the answer to that largely depends on everything you have implemented through DTM, which is unique to you.  But in general, I think for sure the biggest issues are with timing.  So, if you do not have anything implemented in DTM on a Tool level, and if you only have 3rd party tags implemented in page load rules configured to be output on DOM Ready or Window Load, and have them configured to be appended async, then in practice you will probably be okay outputting DTM through GTM.

But overall, all I can really say is give it a try. Add your DTM tag to GTM and thoroughly test everything you have deployed through DTM, and check to make sure everything looks good and works as expected.  But again (and I'm sorry for beating a dead horse here), understand that even if everything looks shiny to you, you're still on your own for support if things start looking shady down the line :/

[alim92960278 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the replies!

I decided to try this myself but couldn't get it to work. I could see data being sent in the developer console (Network tab) but it didn't look right. The name was different ("satelliteLib-7998b06......js") and it didn't include any parameters. Adobe Debugger didn't show anything!

Ali

[aseelund]

satelliteLib-7998b06......js is your library, that's where all of the code will execute from, so yes, you should see that in the console. if you see "errors" coming from this script, then something is blocking it or stopping internal execution and the beacon wont be sent.

in the network tab, if you filter requests for "/b/ss" you will filter only the beacons that are sent to tracking servers.

The data being sent will be in the parsed/decoded query string.

the target server will be your tracking server for adobe.

you can also use various add-ons in chrome to see a pretty output in console. (then you dont have to rely on network tab)