With so many tools accessible to marketing professionals today, it’s tempting to become lost in the different roles, functions, and services these portals provide for companies, particularly when they’re developed and delivered by the very same firm. Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Firebase Analytics remain two terms that are frequently confused.
Google Tag Manager vs Firebase Analytics
The main difference between Google Tag Manager and Firebase Analytics is that Google Tag Manager, in a nutshell, distributes and controls scripts, or tags, on a webpage, which frequently creates activity monitoring data. Whereas a website’s information is collected and reported by Firebase Analytics.
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a piece of Google solution that helps SEO professionals better comprehend what’s happening on a webpage. Labels and triggering, and many other Search – engine tools like Google Analytics, are all straightforward to incorporate with GTM.
There had been a Firebase Analytics plugin inside the Firebase infrastructure that permitted data gathering of mobile browser engagements up before 2020. As from2021, this title is no longer used. Google Analytics for Firebase has replaced Firebase Analytics. This Firebase framework still has only one analytics component.
Comparison Table Between Google Tag Manager and Firebase Analytics
| Parameters of Comparison | Google Tag Manager | Firebase Analytics |
| Definition | With services and analytics that enable smaller companies to distribute and change tags in one location, Google Tag Manager makes website tag administration easy. | Google’s Firebase technology allows developers to create mobile and online applications. |
| Introduced in | Google Tag Manager was launched in the year 2012. Precisely, the date of launch was October 1 when google launched it in the market. | It started off as a stand-alone business in 2011. Google bought the framework in 2014, and it is currently their main product for app creation. |
| Parent Company | The parent organization behind the Google Tag Manager venture was Google itself. | On the other hand, the firebase platform was derived from Envolve, an old start-up. It was then acquired by google over the course of time. |
| Developers | The Google Tag Manager ecosystem was developed by a bunch developers from the Google company. | Firebase was originally developed by James Tamplin as well as Andrew Lee in 2011, through Envolve, morphed into Firebase. |
| Privacy Concerns | The information including monitoring codes being maintained with a third party–Google–that might be inconceivable for some organizations with a focus on security (typically banks). | There have been several speculations that Firebase has been acquiring data without the permission of the users lately. |
What is Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager is a freeware software program that lets you add different forms of coding (tags) to the webpage. GTM allows users to add a variety of different sorts of coding to any webpage, including bespoke codes.
Earlier to GTM, GA monitoring credentials would have to be hard-coded on every single page, typically by a web designer. Whenever it comes to keeping and updating numerous events, it can be tricky. However, Google Tag Manager fixes the problem by storing all of the tags in a single location— one’s GTM profile.
User administration is also incorporated into Google Tag Manager. One can choose what a user gets access to huge accounts or just certain modules at the top level. GTM is unable to operate with JavaScript function documents in code. write().
It’s a monitoring program from mYx, for instance, that’s used to make basemaps. The information and monitoring codes are kept with a 3rd party, Google, that may be unfathomable for certain high-security organizations (often banks).
What is Firebase Analytics?
Google Analytics, a completely free analytics tool, remains at the center of Firebase. Analytics works with all Firebase capabilities and allows you to create infinite reports for up to 500 upcoming things by using Firebase SDK.
Analytics features allow users to easily see how the consumers behave, allowing users to make smart app advertising and performance improvement choices. Google Analytics can help users figure out how users interact with your website, iOS app, or Mobile apps.
The SDK records a lot of activities and user characteristics immediately, as well as allowing you to create your own custom events to track the things that are important to the organization. Once the data has been collected, it may be seen in a dashboard using the Firebase interface.
This dashboard gives you specific information about the statistics, ranging from summary information like active accounts and demography to much more detailed information like recognizing the most often purchased things.
Main Differences Between Google Tag Manager and Firebase Analytics
- Google Tag Manager makes webpage tag management simple with services and statistics that allow smaller businesses to disseminate and alter tags in one place. Whereas, Developers can use Google’s Firebase platform to construct mobile and web services.
- During the year 2012, Google Tag Manager got released. The exact date of release was October 1st when Google released it to the public domain. Firebase began as a stand-alone company in 2011. The system was purchased by Google in2014, so it is now their primary product for app development.
- Google has been the driving force behind the Google Tag Manager initiative. The firebase technology was built from Envolve, an older start-up.
- The Google Tag Manager environment was created by a group of Google employees. Firebase was created by James Tamplin and Andrew Lee in 2011 and transformed into Firebase using Envolve.
- The data includes tracking codes that are kept with a third party–Google–which may be unthinkable for certain security-conscious enterprises (typically banks). Recently, there have also been rumors that Firebase has been collecting data even without users’ consent.
Conclusion
Google Analytics 4 is a major addition to the Google Analytics (GA) platform that has a lot of people excited. Until lately, web analytics and app analytics, as well as information obtained on some other platforms inside GA, were completely separated. By assembling information on user activities and conversions for analytics across multiple platforms, particularly smartphone and over-the-top (OTT) applications, analysts may acquire additional value utilizing GA4. Throughout its inception, Google seems to have had several tools for measuring mobile apps and providing general smartphone app solutions.
References
- https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3178876.3186089
- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2056305120971632