One brand, many markets – and even more stakeholders

How FELD M implements your complex web analytics tracking setup in a tag management system

It is not unusual that country websites differ not only in language, but also in content. This usually requires a complex web tracking setup in the tag management system, especially when multiple stakeholders also come into play.

The seemingly unsolvable difficulty: one tracking setup for multiple markets

FELD M already knows this scenario very well, as many of our customers are confronted with such a constellation and the different goals of the individual stakeholders. These partners, such as the web analytics department of a company, the management, the marketing department, the market managers, or the product owners usually want different information in the respective level of detail. An overarching KPI concept is, therefore, a prerequisite for such a complex tracking setup anyway.

Who needs which analytics data?

Focusing on the following two stakeholders, we exemplify how diverse the requirements for web tracking can be.

Stakeholder: Central Web Analytics Department

Often, there is a central department in the company that specifically manages web analytics and tracking. This department wants to ensure that tracking is uniform and scalable on all country websites. As a rule, the markets should not be able to change the uniform web tracking, as otherwise cross-country analyses are no longer possible.

Stakeholder: Market Responsibles

At the same time, there are also market managers who want to customize and track specific content on their specific country pages. For example, they may want to manipulate content to trigger A/B tests or they may want to track modules that they have developed specifically for the market. In addition to web analytics for their own market, market responsibles often want to integrate marketing tags on their local websites.

No size fits all – Different tools require different solutions

FELD M has already implemented this complex setup for several customers in different ways. But why do we need different approaches at all? This is mainly due to the respective tool stack of our customers. Every tag management system and every analytics tool has different functionalities. So there is no one truth. Or is there?

How FELD M reconciles the analytics requirements: The silver bullet for this kind of tracking implementations

We have found an all-purpose solution! The prerequisite for this is a tag management system that enables a granular role and rights concept as well as inheritance between different layers. We will go into these levels or layers in more detail in a moment.

Cheers to the data layer and tag management for advanced users

To address all the requirements of the stakeholders, a uniform and structured basis must be created. This basis is the data layer: a JavaScript object on the website that contains all tracking-relevant information. An identically structured data layer across all websites enables a scalable tracking setup in the Tag Manager.
With an appropriate structure in the tag management system, all tracking and stakeholder requirements can now be met. A modular structure ensures that there is no negative interference.

Layer 1: Core Tracking
Core Tracking is the key element for tracking all websites, regardless of language and content. It can be rolled out with almost no additional effort and ensures basic tracking.

Layer 2: Module Tracking
For specific modules that are used on different market sites, for example, or that require more detailed tracking that cannot be mapped via the core tracking, there is a second layer in the tag management system. Here, the core tracking is extended in a modular way.
Only the central web analytics department has access to layers 1 and 2. This ensures not only that there is uniform tracking across all pages, but also that more specific tracking requirements can be mapped. The central management of tracking means that all data can still be analyzed across all markets.

Layer 3: Market Level
Market managers can exclusively access this level in the Tag Manager. This allows them to make specific adjustments for their market and include special tracking, marketing tags or feedback tools. FELD M offers training on this so that individual markets can get the most out of their websites!

Low maintenance effort and high data quality: everybody wins

Thanks to the modular structure in the tag management system, the data quality remains high. There is low maintenance effort, which of course saves costs in the long run. So, we turned the conflict situation at the beginning, which involved different goals from various stakeholders, into a win-win situation.
A big advantage of the described approach in the Tag Manager is that an administration of tags can take place on different levels. The respective people in charge have access to the corresponding layers and can adjust on the global level, but also on the website level or market level. For this purpose, FELD M configures different roles in the tag management system to enable but also restrict accesses.
And analysts will be happy too: the web analytics data is of high quality and consistent across websites, applications, and markets. Happy analyzing!

FELD M will gladly advise your company on which tag management setup meets your requirements and which tag management system is suitable for this. We are specialists in the field of web analytics and have already implemented tracking systems including data layers for many companies of different sizes.
You can find out more about our digital analytics services and more about FELD M’s projects.