As advancement continues in digital data gathering, utilization, and performance, technologists from all across the market are all seeking new ways to capitalize on tracking code. The growth in data being brought to bear is providing new opportunities for media delivery and advertising revenue. But it also is creating an increasingly complex technical landscape that can (with the help of good intentions from marketing, ad operations, privacy and IT departments) leave a site littered with a variety of scripts, pixels, and frames. This introduces all sorts of risk for a site operator – but it’s not enough just to take a less is more approach. Taking advantage of particularly suited technology can give website owners a meaningful edge in the data-driven marketplace.
Tag Management and Evidon
The innovative and much-needed group of technologies collectively called Tag Managers or Tag Management services enable companies to clean up their page code and funnel everything through a gateway – the tag manager’s own tag. It’s an effective and efficient way for site operators to organize all their partner technology.
an Evidon TrackerMap™ showing Play.com employing a tag-management architecture through DC StormIQ
At Evidon, we’re often asked how our services compare to those of tag managers – and whether one is an effective substitute for the other. In short, Evidon Encompass and a variety of tag management services work in different but very complementary ways to help a site owner gain full control of their pages and data. To illustrate, consider the task of decluttering and organizing a website as a military operation – one that involves reconnaissance, execution, and evaluation.
Evidon Encompass – the Reconnaissance Specialist
The first step in the tag control exercise is to understand the theater where it will take place. This can be a difficult prospect, as the setting for this particular operation is the invisible web – tags that act, frequently without any visible presence on a page – and often appear on the site at the invitation of another tag, which can be difficult to detect even by those that run the site. Evidon Encompass can reveal the invisible web in a number of unique ways. Evidon Encompass shows the tags that appear on a page, the path by which they arrived, and how they are performing in comparison to other sites across the web. Additionally, it provides detailed information about each technology company with a presence in the page code. We derive this information from a combination of data from a panel of eight million Ghostery users and a specially-developed set of lab-scanning technologies.
Executing with Tag Managers
After users have ascertained a clear picture with Evidon Encompass reconnaissance, it’s time to get everything in order. This is where a tag management solution really shines – not only can it help decrease the hours spent on deployment, but this single-container approach can help improve a site’s performance and drastically reduce the risk of data leakage through tag redirection. Tag managers allow website owners to act on the intelligence provided by Evidon, helping them sort through useful tags, remove duplicates and tags that perform poorly, and add workflow management to deploying new tags.
Evaluation – a Team Effort
Tag management services can then help website owners keep tabs on the scripts, pixels, and widgets being loaded through their service. Evidon Encompass gives users a view into anything else deployed on their site, and shows the paths trackers might take – even through a tag manager – to arrive unexpectedly. Many organizations have several departments with ideas about website content, and to maintain real control over a site’s performance and user data, routine monitoring of site activity is a must. Here Evidon Encompass and a website owner’s tag management partner can complement one another to provide deep, ongoing intelligence about any site’s population and performance.
The key to real control is a solid hold on all aspects of the site management exercise – reconnaissance, execution, and continued evaluation. Evidon Encompass and a tag management partner can work together to provide a unique tactical advantage in the battle against web page disorder.
About Evidon
Evidon (www.evidon.com) reveals the invisible web. Our technology gives brands, publishers, networks and other businesses around the world unique insight into the digital ecosystem—including unparalleled intelligence on the marketing technologies that underpin the commercial web —and the power to control their impact on business.
