Created by Simo Ahava, GTM Tools has already gained popularity due to its functions and ease of use. It includes many features that save time while working with GTM containers. The features include cloning the container, its visualization, and editing. GTM Tools has now been relaunched and is fully supported by Stape.
In this article, we will review GTM Tools use cases and how to work with the utility. We are working on developing and adding new features, so we’ll share our plans.
Stape’s GTM Tools will be helpful for a lot of people:
The tool is designed for everyone looking for an effective tag management tool. It helps you order, edit, clone, and visualize assets in the GTM container. These functions save a lot of time and nerves while working with GTM; keep reading to find the tool's pros.
The GTM Tools provides its users with such advantages:
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Open GTM Tools. To start using GTM Tools, you need to sign in with your Google account credentials.
After the signing-in process, you need to pick the Google Tag Manager Account you want to work on - click “GTM Accounts” → from a drop-down list and choose the account (if you have access to multiple accounts).
Then, choose the container you want to manage if you have multiple on one GTM account.
These are all steps required to start working with GTM Tools, and the next step is to choose what tools you need to use.
On the Container page, you will find a list of tools for the GTM container. Below, we describe in a nutshell what each tool does. Feel free to click on the tool name to jump directly to the section with its detailed description.
| Tool name | What the tool does |
| Inspect | Adds tags, triggers, and variables to the Cart to download, save, or clone to another container. |
| Visualize | Draws paths between container nodes and visualizes the dependencies between Tags, Triggers, Variables, and Built-in Variables. |
| Clone | Clones the container’s version into the current or another account. |
| Workspace mode | Make changes to Tags, Triggers, and Variables in the workspace. |
1. Clone only some GTM assets (Tags, Triggers, Variables). Unlike the Clone tool, with Inspect, you can see the container's contents and manage them as you need. Choose the asset you want to clone, add it to the cart, and clone it to another container or GTM account.
2. Changes to tag configurations and adding tags to a different container. If you are going to run a website with a similar structure and configuration settings but need to make some minor changes in existing tags, you can use the feature "Export overview as CSV" in the text editor, make those changes, and then upload the revised configuration to a needed container.
Firstly, you need to choose what workspace you would like to work with. By default, GTM Tools will inspect the latest version, but you can change it from the drop-down menu. The tool shows the number of each asset in your GTM container version.
Inspect tool provides the following features:
Explain the GTM ecosphere to a client. If you are a freelancer in digital marketing and/or analytics, you may have many clients who would like to know how their GTM container is built and its dependencies.
To build a map of your GTM container, click "Start visualization". No additional settings are required.
As a result, you will get the GTM container visualization like on the screenshot below:
You may use the following functions to work with the visualization:
Please note that when you hover the cursor on a specific asset, you will see detailed information about it. The information includes the Name, Asset (Tag/Trigger/Variable), and Type.
1. Creating a new website with a similar structure. If you are running a business and want to create a project with a similar (or the same) structure as the existing one, you can clone the existing Google Tag Manager container contents into another GTM account.
2. Building a container for a new client. The clone tool is helpful for freelancers who use standard naming for common Tags/Triggers/Variables and need a solution to copy the container's template into a new account.
The Clone tool is straightforward to use. You can choose the version of the GTM container you want to clone (by default, it is the latest version) and the target GTM account.
When the settings are configured, click "Clone".
Editing multiple assets. If you need to pause/unpause a few GTM assets, edit JSON, and rename Tags/Triggers/Variables without going to the GTM account. With Workspace mode, you can edit every asset you need in GTM Tools without opening multiple tags, triggers, or variables in new tabs.
The Workspace mode interface is similar to the Inspect tool. As the Workspace mode is used to edit and apply changes in the container, it takes the current version of the GTM container, and you can't choose the older version.
On the right side, you will see the legend.
Next to each section of the GTM container, you will see the following functions:
If you click on three dots next to each tag, you will see similar functions: Pause or Unpause, Edit folder, and Reset changes. However, there is also Edit JSON.
Edit JSON is a handy tool for changing the parameters of a specific asset. Thanks to this function, you can do it directly in GTM Tools; there is no need to download JSON files, go to an editor, and change parameters. Just click "Save" after editing the parameters.
When you have made all the changes to Tags/Triggers/Variables/Templates, click "Update workspace" to apply them and reload the page. If you want to decline the changes to all the assets, click "Reset all changes".
In the upper right corner, you can find "Cart."
To cart come the assets from the “Inspect” tool of Container. It serves as a temporary storage for Tags/Triggers/Variables. The items in the cart are organized first by Account, then by Container, and finally by asset.
In the cart, you can:
In the upper right corner near "Cart", you can find "Library".
The Library shows all your stored containers. The containers appear when you click "Save cart" on the Cart page.
Please note that the container configuration is stored in the Library for 12 months after its creation or after it was cloned the last time. If there is no interaction with the stored container, it will be deleted.
You have three options on Asset Library:
Feel free to share your feedback and suggest features you would like to see in GTM Tools on the Feature Request page.
GTM Tools is a powerful solution for Google Tag Manager management. It will be helpful for business owners, freelancers, digital marketing and analytics specialists. The tool provides a wide range of functions, such as container editing, downloading, cloning, and visualization.
The tool will save time and nerves for everyone who wants to organize and optimize a GTM container. Stay tuned for more GTM Tools updates!
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