Ah yes. The world of digital marketing tools. So many in fact you may begin to forget how many free trials you have signed up for. Anyone else starting to lose track?
I am going to do my part to give a shout-out to my favorite FREE tools that will help your business start making better data driven decisions instead of starting with a $1000 invoice from a SaaS.
Google Analytics
The window to your customer journey. This is the #1 tool I recommend that is free OR paid. It is that good. So much data in here that once you figure out how to read it, this may be your new favorite website to login to. Oh yea there’s a mobile app as well if you can’t stop looking at your website visitors and seeing what they are doing like me.
Google Tag Manager
Need to know where that person who purchased your annual plan came from? Tracking can be difficult and wires get crossed all the time, make it easier on yourself and use GTM. An afternoon watching Youtube videos and you may be able to figure it out. If not find a GTM expert to setup your “triggers” and “tags” for you and feed them back in to your Google Analytics and Ad managers.
Google Tag Assistant
So you installed all these tags on your website to track stuff, this shows you what tags are really there and if they are working properly. Google chrome extension must have.
Facebook Pixel Helper
Same thing as Google Tag Assistant but for Facebook Pixel.
Google Data Studio
Tired of logging into your Google Ads manager, then your facebook ads manager, then your linkedin ads to see how everything is performing? You can make your life a lot easier by setting up a dashboard in Google Data studio. They also have free templates to make setup quick.
There is a paid competitor to each one of these tools. Most of the competitors make it easier for you to integrate or have a simpler U/X. If you have some patience and can get through the learning curve of understanding how these tools work you will be able to start making data-driven decisions all throughout your business.