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Google Ads Remarketing Tag: How to Use Google Tag Manager for Google Ads Remarketing?

The Google Ads remarketing tag gives advertisers a tool to track their Google Ads account, ensuring they get the data insights they need to make informed decisions that will ultimately improve their account performance.

This tracking and enhancement are made possible through Google Tag Manager (GTM), and it helps advertisers save time and effort by using tracking codes.

In this article, we’ll show you how to get Google Tag Manager working on your account so that you can leverage the benefits.

How Does the Google Ads Remarketing Tag Work?

Here is the basic concept of the Google Ads remarketing tag:

The Google Remarketing Tag helps you to more easily create remarketing lists by allowing you to place one tag across all pages on your site. Once your tag is in place, you can launch remarketing campaigns in your Google Ads account. Google tag manager helps to configure the user behaviors on your site or app. You can define triggers, which are user actions that alert GTM so it can capture valuable data. For example, any time a user loads a page, clicks on specific buttons or submits a form. This event will trigger GTM to collect the data and send it to Google Analytics.

Remember that Google Tag Manager does not replace Google Analytics. Instead, it helps users to easily add Google Analytics tracking code (i.e., a tag) to a website, deploy Google Analytics event code snippets, and define rules when each code must fire.

How to Set Up Google Tag Manager For Remarketing?

If you want to target your audience who already visited your website you have to follow several steps to implement the strategy. It’s easy to set up a free account in Google Tag Manager. Just follow this step-by-step guide to configure your account:

Visit the Google Tag Manager setup page.

Select Click here to create an account.

Next, you will see a prompt to enter your company information – account name, country, and website URL, and where you want to use the service (web, iOS, android, AMP). Complete this information, then select Create.

After that, you’ll receive codes and instructions to include one code high in the <head> of your page, and the other after the opening <body> tag. You can do this right now, or if you prefer, you can apply the codes to your site later as they are accessible in your dashboard. Once you’re finished, select OK.

After you complete the Google Tag Manager setup open your Google Ads account dashboard to set up the Google Ads remarketing tag.

In the Google Ads interface, navigate to Tools > Audience Manager from the top menu.

Next, select Audience sources from the left menu. If your Google Ads tag is already active, select Details. If not, you’ll see an option to create your tag.

On the Details page, scroll to the bottom Tag setup section, and click it to expand the view. Next, select Use Tag Manager.

You’ll see a box appear with your Conversion ID, which you can then copy and paste into the corresponding box in Google Tag Manager.

Now, from the Overview screen of your Google Tag Manager, select add a new tag to create a new Google Ads remarketing tag.

Give your tag a descriptive name. Make it short but concise, so that you can easily identify your tags at a glance.

Within the Tag Configuration section, select choose tag type. From here, select Google Ads Remarketing.

After you select Google Ads remarketing, a box appears. This box will include a field where you can paste your conversion ID.

Next, within the Triggering section, choose a trigger, which indicates where your tag will fire. In most cases, the Google ads remarketing tag should fire across an entire site, so you should select All Pages. Now, save the tag.

Finally, keep in mind that any edits you make in Google Tag Manager won’t go live until after you click the Save button in the upper-right. If you’re creating multiple tags or making a host of changes to your account, you can apply all these changes together by waiting to select the Submit button as shown in the below image.

Until you are finished with your configuration work.

After selecting Submit, your tag is ready to use. You will be able to view all your Google Ads remarketing tags in the Overview section, which you can find in the left-hand menu of the Google Tag Manager user interface.

So till now, you have successfully configured your Google Tag Manager For Remarkerting Tag. But it doesn’t finish here, You also have to keep an eye to see if it is working well or not.

How to see if your remarketing tag is working properly?

To avail the advantage of remarketing in Google Ads, the remarketing tag should be functioning properly. Check-in your Google Ads account to see that your remarketing tag is implemented correctly.

I. Click the tools icon menu button on the top right.

II. Under “Shared library”, select Audience manager.

III. From the menu on the left, select Audience sources.

IV. Under the “Google Ads tag” card, select Details. This is where you’ll see the status of your global site tag.

What you’ll find in the “Details” section?

Status of your remarketing tag.
How your tag parameters are performing.
Your tag code and implementation instructions.
You can check the status over the past day or 30 days.

What if your audience list is not big enough?

If your audience list is less than 100 active users then you might get an error message. If your audience lists have fewer than 100 active users, you may need to wait for your lists to accumulate additional users, particularly if the list is new. If you’re using multiple types of targeting or exclusions, you can adjust your ad group targeting to increase potential reach.

If you think there may be an issue with your list rules, check your audience list rules to make sure they’re working as intended.

What if your tag is inactive?

If your tag hasn’t been active in the last week then you might get an error message. To overcome this, review the tag instructions then validate your tag and check that you’ve added the custom parameters for your business type.

Wrap Up

Before Google Tag Manager, it was essential to hard-code tracking parameters into a website or app. As not everyone in paid advertising knows how to code, more often than not, businesses would turn to a web developer. In a large Google Ads account, with a business website that has hundreds of events, this way of doing things was not only expensive but also time-consuming and counterproductive from a marketing perspective.

Now with GTM, marketers are empowered to do more. With all tags stored in a central location, you can use Google Ads remarketing tags to enhance the performance of your Google Ads account. Ultimately, that helps you hit your goals and grow your business over time.

If you want to learn more about remarketing, read our blog post to Master the Art of Dynamic Remarketing in Google Ads.