Tags, Load Rules, and Data Mappings

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In this article:

• About Tags
• Add a Tag
• About Load Rules
• Using Load Rules
• Create a Load Rule
• About Data Mappings
• Create a Data Mapping

The Tealium Tag Marketplace currently offers over 900 tags. A tag loaded through iQ Tag Management runs identically to the same tag that you would hard-code into your web pages. A tag in iQ Tag Management has the following components:

• Tag Configuration
  The settings for the tag, such as account ID.
• Load Rule
  The condition that determines when to load the tag on your site.
• Data Mappings
  The configuration that sends data to the tag using values from the data layer.

About Tags

Before you add your first tag, let's review how it works:

• No Coding Necessary
  Setting up a tag does not require any coding. A tag in iQ Tag Management offers a user-friendly interface to configure and deploy a vendor's tag to your site.
• Deploy Tags Directly from iQ Tag Management
  After the Universal tag (utag.js) is added to your site, tags added in your account configuration are loaded directly on your site after you publish your changes.
• Multi-Functional Tags
  A single instance of a vendor tag in iQ Tag Management typically provides all of the tagging functionality required by that vendor for your entire site. While the vendor might require different tag code for different types of pages (product detail page, shopping cart page, and purchase confirmation page), these are all provided in one instance of the tag in iQ Tag Management.

Add a Tag

This example uses the Google Analytics tag, but you can use any tag. If you are adding your own tag, it will be helpful to have the vendor's code snippet or implementation guide for reference.

Use the following steps to add a tag:

1. In the sidebar, select iQ Tag Management > Tags.
2. Click +Add Tag in the upper right.
   The tag marketplace displays.
3. In the search box, enter Google Analytics (or another vendor name), select a tag, and click +Add.
   The tag configuration window displays.
4. In the Tracking ID field, enter UA-12345678-1 (or your own tracking ID if you have a Google Analytics account).
   
5. Click Finish.
   Your first tag now displays in the list of tags on the Tags screen.

Now that you have a basic data layer and your first tag, you're ready to set up a load rule to determine when the tag will be triggered.

About Load Rules

A load rule determines when a tag is loaded on your site and when the tag fires. A rule is made up of one or more logical conditions based on values in the data layer. When a load rule is assigned to a tag, the tag is only loaded when the condition evaluates to true.

The page_type variable is often used in load rules because its value represents the types of pages of your site, such as category, product, cart, or order, which makes it ideal for creating rules to load tags on specific pages of your site.

The Universal Data Object (UDO) also contains built-in variables that collect basic information about the page where it's loaded. These variables include cookies created by utag.js, standard DOM variables from the page, and Tealium-specific variables about the loaded configuration.

The built-in variable named domain will be used to demonstrate how data layer variables are used with load rules.

Using Load Rules

You can configure load rules directly from the tag configuration window or from the Load Rules screen. The default load rule is named All Pages, which loads the tag on every page of your site where the Universal Tag ( utag.js ) is installed. To only load a tag on specific pages, create a load rule with the necessary condition.

Conditions are formed using the following parts:

• Variable
  The data layer variable to use in the condition.
• Operator
  The method used to compare the variable against another value, such as equals, contains, greater than, or is not populated.
• Value
  The value to compare to the variable.

Example Rule: Shopping Cart page

This example load rule uses the page_type variable to identify the shopping cart page.

Condition: page_type  equals (ignore case) cart

• Data Layer Variable: page_type
• Comparison Operator: equals (ignore case)
• Comparison Value: cart

Create a Load Rule

The next step is to create a rule that identifies your live production website so that you can ensure that your tag is never loaded on your QA site. The rule checks that the built-in variable domain does not contain stage or qa, which would indicate that it's the production site. If the domain is qa.yourdomain.comor stage.yourdomain.com, the rule evaluates to false and the tag is not loaded.

Use the following steps to add this load rule:

1. Click the Google Analytics tag you just created to expand the available options.
2. In the Load Rules area, click Edit.
   
3. Click +Create Rule.
   The Add Rule dialog is displayed.
4. In the Name field, enter Production Site.
5. For Variable, select Domain.
6. For Operator, select does not contain.
7. For Value, enter stage.
8. Click + to add an AND condition.
   
9. For Variable, select domain.
10. For Operator, select does not contain.
11. For Value, enter qa.
    
12. Click Done to apply the load rule.
13. Click Apply to update the tag.

Great! Now you have a tag that only loads on the production site (only domains that do not contain stage or qa ). You're ready to apply a data mapping to send data to your tag.

About Data Mappings

A data mapping connects a value from the data layer to the corresponding variable in the vendor tag. For example, a vendor might collect page name information in a variable named pName, but your data layer has this value in the variable named page_name. To send the value of page_name to pName, use a data mapping. After the data mapping is configured, the value from the data layer variable is always passed to the vendor variable when that tag is triggered.

Create a Data Mapping

To add a data mapping:

1. Click the Google Analytics tag you just created to expand the available options.
2. Under Mapped Variables, click Edit.
3. Click the Variables field, and select page_name.
   You can optionally begin typing in the Variables field to narrow your search.
4. Click + Select Destination.
   The mapping toolbox is displayed.
5. Select page_title as the destination variable. This is the vendor's variable name.
   
6. Click Done to return to the tag configuration dialog.
7. Click Apply.

That's it! The Google Analytics tag is now configured to pass the value of page_name from your data layer to the page_title variable.

Great job, you are well on your way! Now that you have successfully configured your new marketplace tag, you are ready to learn about extensions and how to use them.