Google Tag Manager Terms Glossary

API = Application Programming Interface, which is how software systems talk to each other

A Google-specific feature that adjusts how Google tags (Analytics, Ads) behave based on the user's cookie consent status (e.g., as given through a cookie banner). It allows tags to run in a limited, cookieless state if the user denies consent, enabling privacy-compliant data modeling.

The overall GTM account setup for a specific website or app. It holds all your tags, triggers, and variables. You install one container code snippet on your site.

In the context of Google Tag Manager, a cookie is a small piece of data stored in a user's browser that tracks behavior, preferences, and conversions across pages and sessions. Many tags deployed through GTM (like Google Analytics or Facebook Pixel) automatically set and read cookies to enable tracking and targeting. GTM includes a '1st Party Cookie' variable type that lets you read cookie values and use them in your tags and triggers.

Combines data for two or more domains. Suppose you have a website at test.com, and your website's ecommerce component is hosted by a third-party shopping cart on another domain: ecom-website.com/test. Without cross-domain measurement, a user who arrives to your online store and then proceeds to your third-party shopping cart is counted as two separate users, with two separate sessions of different durations. With cross-domain measurement, activity is captured as a single user.

A trigger that fires based on a specific event name that you (or your developer) push to the data layer using code (e.g., dataLayer.push({'event': 'newsletter_signup'})). This is the most flexible way to track interactions that GTM can't see automatically, like custom form submissions or modal pop-ups.

While a general web term, it's critical for GTM. The DOM is the browser's internal representation of a web page's HTML structure. GTM's click triggers and visibility triggers work by 'listening' to events that happen in the DOM.

A JavaScript object that temporarily stores information about your page and user interactions. It acts as a middleman between your website and GTM, making data available to your tags.

A feature that lets you publish your container to different 'environments,' such as a development server, a staging site, and the live production site. This allows you to test your GTM setup in a safe place before pushing it to all your users.

In the context of Google Tag Manager, an event is a specific user interaction or occurrence on your website that you want to track, such as a button click, form submission, video play, page scroll, or file download. Events are used to trigger tags—when an event happens, GTM can fire tracking codes to record that action in tools like Google Analytics. GTM has built-in events (like page views and clicks) and also supports custom events that you can define through the data layer to track virtually any interaction on your site

The Floodlight Sales tag allows you to keep track of how many items users have purchased, as well as the total value of those purchases.

Use Google Ads remarketing to re-engage with potential customers by adding your website and app visitors to remarketing lists. You can then target these lists with ads.

Tag Assistant helps you make sure that your Google tags for Google Analytics, Google Ads, Tag Manager, and more are working correctly.

A core GTM feature that allows you to browse your own site in a special mode. It shows you which tags are firing (and not firing) on each page, what data is in the data layer, and what values your variables hold. It's essential for testing and troubleshooting tags before you publish them live.

An advanced GTM implementation where you send data from your website to a single 'server container' (which you control) instead of directly to third-party vendors (like Google, Facebook, etc.). This server then forwards the data. It improves page speed, increases security, and gives you more control over what data is shared.

A tag is a snippet of code that sends information to a third party, such as Google Analytics, Google Ads, or a Facebook Pixel.

A feature that allows you to force one tag to fire only after another tag has successfully (or unsuccessfully) completed. This is useful when one tag depends on information or a cookie set by another tag.

A trigger is a rule that tells a tag when to fire (or execute). It listens for specific events happening on your website.

A placeholder for values that can change, like page URLs, click text, or custom data. Variables make your tags and triggers dynamic and reusable.

A snapshot of your container at a specific point in time. GTM saves versions automatically when you publish, allowing you to review history or roll back changes.

Google Tag Manager workspaces allow team members to create and manage separate sets of tag changes within a container, enabling independent development and version control.