"Top Tips for Maximizing Tealium iQ" - First Data + WAD, Digital Velocity 2015

TOP TIPS FOR
MAXIMIZING TEALIUM
IQWeb Analytics Demystified
First Data
Tealium

TECHNICAL TIPS & TRICKS
Josh West, Web Analytics Demystified

 Senior Partner at Web Analytics
Demystified
 Member of Tealium’s Customer
Advisory Board
 JavaScript “ninja”
 Father of 3.6
 Pizza chef

FOREIGN INVESTMENT
1. Uses for the Currency Converter Tag
CC Image Courtesy of Marco Arment on Flickr

CURRENCY CONVERTER TAG
 Ajax request returns
latest exchange rates
 Put the tag at the top of
your list so it’s available
to the rest

CURRENCY EXTENSIONS
 Modifies a variable
 Must select input and
output currencies
Built-in Extension

CURRENCY EXTENSIONS
 Can create a new UDO variable
 Dynamically determine input
and output currencies
JS Code Extension

COOL USE CASES
 Workarounds for currency codes not supported by vendors
 Create standardized currency metrics based on a company’s
globally accepted currency code
 Create your own global exchange rate

STAY DIALED IN
2. Leverage the Tag Status
Checker
CC Image Courtesy of Leo Reynolds on Flickr

TAG STATUS CHECKER

TAG STATUS CHECKER
 Keep your tags up-to-date
 Easily see which tags are current and which should be updated
 Identify templates you’ve modified
 Save your templates before updating!
 Latest
 Old
 Customized
 Not customized

KEEP YOUR CODE FRESH
3. Scope and order are important

ORDER OF OPERATIONS
Pre-Loader Extensions
Load Rules
Global Extensions
Bundled Tags
Other Tags & Scoped Extensions

TIP #1
Avoid the crutch of the JS code extension
 Even good developers make mistakes
 But non-developers can’t debug those mistakes or own your
work when you leave

TIP #2
Not all tags have to fire all the time!
 A tag-scoped extension that returns false will prevent any tracking
requests from being made

TIP #3
Adjust the template so tags fire when you want
Will fire on page load and utag.view Will fire on utag.link

GET ORGANIZED
4. It’s easy to get lost…

LOAD RULES
 Find logical groupings (data layer
elements, vendor rules, etc.)
 Avoid load rules based on URLs

TAGS
 Identify tags based on where
they’re used – by country, page
type, or however your site is
organized
 Group “like” tags together
whenever order of operations isn’t
important
 Make it easy for new users to
quickly become location-aware

EXTENSIONS

EXTENSIONS
 Find a sort order that works for you (by tag scope, extension
type, etc.)
 Clearly label each extension by function and scope

YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND…
5. Put Tealium to work for you

THANK YOU
Twitter: @joshovest
Email: josh@webanalyticsdemystified.com

MAXIMIZING GOOGLE
ANALYTICS
Lorrin Nahinu, First Data

ABOUT ME
Lorrin Nahinu
 Been employed by First Data for over 2
years
 First Data is a global payment technology
and services company
 Web Development for 11 years
 SEO for 9 years
 Analytics for 7 years
Some Facts
 Colorado Native
 Known as a dessert baker at work
 Enjoy working on my yard and garden
Just a little bit

ANALYTICS BEFORE TAG MANAGEMENT
 Hours of implementation and testing
– Cost of a development team
 Confirming that all metrics codes are working properly on all pages
 Issues with trying to implement new code while previously removing all
the old code.
– Removing legacy code without any mishaps
 Tealium made all this easier because each code can simultaneously
work and there are no errors when each code is run

GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Maximizing the most popular analytics tool on the Internet

GOOGLE ANALYTICS
Google Analytics Facts
 Installed on more than 10 million websites
 Fluent in over 40 languages
 Used by the US Government to correctly
measure activity on Federal Agency sites
Benefits of Google Analytics
 Free
 Large community of followers
 Huge reporting capabilities
 Large amount of 3rd party plugins
 Integrates with webmaster tools for better
SEO reporting
The facts and benefits

GOOGLE ANALYTICS
 Google Analytics provides page views and page speeds for the entire website
 Google Analytics’ live data and property distribution
The rich data

PROBLEM THAT WE ENCOUNTERED
 Marketing wanted all form
submissions tracked on Brazilian
website
 Our window that expanded was
causing issues
 We needed to track each field
that was being filled out
 Through the Tealium Data Layer
we were able to record all the
data that was requested.

THE DATA LAYER

VIRTUAL PAGE VIEW
Data Layer Creation
 Data Layer allows for us to set up a virtual
page view
 We placed custom javascript code within the
extensions tab and worked every time the
code was called and the event happened
 Each one of these functions helped us send
the data to the event section of Google
Analytics and give our clients great data
UDO Parameter
Data Layer and why we use it

TEALIUM SCRIPT
Data Layer Creation
 Data Layer allows for multiple UDO
variables to be recorded
 Our Tealium Script uses the utag data to
record the Event Category, Action, Value,
and Virtual Pageview
 Each one of these functions helps send the
data to the event section of Google
Analytics
Tealium Script

THE DATA LAYER SOLUTION
Google Analytics
 Data Layer allowed us to implement the
events without modifying the tag
 The Tealium script ran every time to record
any interaction that was happening with the
form
 Each one of these functions helped us send
the data to the event section of Google
Analytics (explained on the right)
Google Analytics Events

THE TEALIUM SOLUTION
 Using Tealium has helped us by allowing one tag manager for all of our
analytics solutions
 The Data layer has proved invaluable on an ever-growing website
where recording the form actions on all pages is tedious
 Easy implementation has sped up our development process
 Tealium made all this easier because a dedicated group of developers
managing analytics isn’t needed, just a few focused people

THANK YOU

TEALIUM TIPS & TRICKS
Justin Fitzgerald, Tealium

JUSTIN
FITZGERALDManager, Deployment Solutions
 10 years in software development
 3 years in tag management
 40+ Tealium iQ deployments
 4.5 USTA NTRP Rating

TIPS & TRICKS
Introduction
1. Work Flow
– Publish History
– Versioning
– Do’s and Don’ts
2. Performance
– Faster Tags
– Faster Pages
– Advanced Settings

TIPS & TRICKS: WORK FLOW
Why it’s important
 You will forget
 You will need help
 Plans change

Avoid: Default Version Names
 Difficult to browse
Avoid: Lazy Notes
 Be helpful to yourself and others
Version History

Specific Version Names
 Be detailed
 Keep the timestamp
Detailed Save Notes
 Be helpful to others
 Remind yourself what you did
Tip #1: Be Descriptive

“Staircase”
 Difficult to browse
 Not every save is important
Be cautious
“Clobbering”
 Last Prod version is lost

When to use “Save as…”
 When current version is Prod
 When starting a new group of edits
 When starting a new Dev or QA version
 When you aren’t sure
Tip #2: Save as

Configure Publish Settings > Version Workflow
 Require Approval for Prod publish
 Take Advantage of User Permissions
Tip #3: Workflow Management

Configure Publish Settings > Lock Profile
 Avoid concurrent user conflicts
 Take Advantage of User Permissions
Tip #4: Lock Profile

Tag > Advanced Settings > Publish Locations
 More control of your tags
 Avoid accidental publish to Prod
 Maintain separate versions of a tag
Tip #5: Tag Publish Locations

 Use descriptive version names
 Write detailed save notes
 Use “Save as…” effectively
 Prod Publish Approval
 Lock Profile
 Control Your Tags
Summary

TIPS & TRICKS: PERFORMANCE
Introduction
 Page Performance
– Prioritize the user experience
– Let the page render
– Keep your visitors
– utag.js default
 Tag Performance
– Prioritize tag execution
– Get your data
– Adjustable in TiQ

Tip #1: Tag Run Order
 Move Important Tags To Top
– Tags are run in the order they appear in TiQ
– Combine with “Wait Flag=No” for fastest
option
– No effect on page performance
 Move Slow Tags to Bottom

Tip #2: Wait Flag
 “Wait Flag”
– This flag determines if the tag should
fire immediately when utag.js is
readyor if it should wait until the page
is ready (DOM-ready)
– Default: Wait Flag=Yes
– Prioritize Tag: Wait Flag=No
– Most effective when utag.js at top of
<body>

Tip #3: Bundled Tags
 What is bundling?
– utag.js is loaded on every page
– Each vendor tag is loaded in a separate utag file
– Bundled tags are packaged into utag.js
– Consolidate many files into one

 Why is bundling important?
– Minimize downloads to page
 Google/Yahoo #1 tip for site optimization
– https://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html
– https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/performance/optimizing-
content-efficiency/eliminate-downloads?hl=en
– Improves HTTP performance for mobile users on 3G/4G
– Improves Landing Pages
 40-60% of users experience an “empty cache” page view
 http://yuiblog.com/blog/2007/01/04/performance-research-part-2/

Bundling “All Pages” Tags
 Configure Publish Settings
 Applies to tags with “All Pages” load rule
Bundling Individual Tags
 Tag Configuration > Advanced Settings >
Bundle Tag
 Good for “Conversion Tags”

 Understand Tag Load Order
 Wait Flag
 Bundle “All Pages” Tags
 Bundle Individual Tags
Summary

THANK YOU

"Top Tips for Maximizing Tealium iQ" - First Data + WAD, Digital Velocity 2015

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