TagMan Survey Shows Significant Opportunity for Online Marketers to Optimize Third Party Tags without Losing Attribution Benefits by Reducing Them
NEW YORK, NY – Amidst growing concerns about slow loading web pages and the resulting loss in sales and conversions to ecommerce businesses, a new survey by global tag management leader TagMan (www.tagman.com) reveals that a majority of respondents (81%) are concerned or very concerned about page load speeds on their sites. At the same time, nearly 60% say they’ve taken some steps to improve site speed but feel they could do more.
The survey also shows that nearly three-quarters (71%) are aware that optimization of third party marketing pixels/tags can hasten page load times, while 35% have actually reduced or removed tags to improve site performance.
Numerous studies show that slow loading pages can have a negative impact on ecommerce conversion rates. According to an Aberdeen Group report, every extra second a page takes to load can result in approximately a seven percent loss of conversions . Additionally, a Forrester Research report indicates that 40 percent of shoppers will wait no more than three seconds before abandoning a retail or travel site .
Third party marketing tags, or pixels, can be a key contributor to slow loading pages, as they’re often stored and loaded inefficiently. Most ecommerce sites incorporate five to seven tags per page, with each tag taking up to 1/4 of a second to load which can mean approximately 1.25 seconds for the site’s pages to load, or a 10-15% loss in potential sales.
According to Paul Cook, CEO and founder of TagMan, the survey findings reveal an opportunity for more companies to optimize third party tags to increase page performance without losing the benefits of these tags by removing them altogether.
“Most marketers are aware that vendor tags are a key contributor to latency, yet a majority haven’t taken measures in this area. Those that have, have gone to the extreme measure of taking tags off their site, which also takes away their tracking and reporting benefits,” said Cook. “Until now, there haven’t really been tools available to effectively improve how tags are loaded without compromising their reporting value.”
TagMan also announced today the availability of TagMan 3 with Smart Tag Loading techniques that speed up third party tag and overall page loading times (see separate release, “TagMan Announces TagMan 3 with Smart Tag Loading,” July 18, 2011).
Survey Methodology and Highlights
The “TagMan Ecommerce Page Load Speed” survey was conducted in June 2011 through an online questionnaire powered by SurveyMonkey. It was completed by more than 60 digital marketers across brand retailers and advertisers, marketing agencies and technology providers chiefly in the US and Europe.
The findings include the following:
Concerns about page load speeds:
o 50% said they’re concerned about page load speeds on their sites;
o 31% said they’re somewhat concerned;
o 17% said they’re neutral;
o 2% said they’re not concerned.
Ranking of how slow loading sites impact an organization (1 most impact, 5 least impact):
o reduced conversions (51% ranked this first in importance);
o visitor abandonment (46% ranked this second);
o perceived negative brand experience (47% ranked this third);
o reduced repeat visits (49% ranked this fourth);
o switching to competitive sites (40% ranked this fifth);
o other mentions: negative impact on search engine optimization (SEO).
Whether or not actively taking steps to improve speed and performance:
o 59.4% have taken some steps but feel they could do more;
o 14.1% are not taking steps but are investigating options;
o 14.1% believe they’re optimizing to the fullest extent;
o 12.5% are not actively taking steps to improve speed.
Measures being taken to improve site speed:
o optimize page code (63%);
o performance monitoring (56%);
o reduce page weight (55%);
o reducing or removing 3rd party tags (35%);
o more web servers/locations (22%);
o site acceleration (22%);
o unsure (9%);
o Other (3%).
Awareness that optimization of marketing tags/pixels can improve performance:
o 71.9% are aware;
o 28.1% are not aware.
Download the full survey results by clicking here.
About TagMan
TagMan is the global leader in tag management, with the industry’s most mature and proven platform for the enterprise. Since launching the first, independent tag management platform in 2007, TagMan has been helping over 100 customers solve tagging, site performance and attribution-related challenges. With over 180 vendor tags currently implemented, the award-winning TagMan platform provides customers complete agility in managing existing partners and working with new technologies without the burden of costly implementation projects and resources. Continuing to lead the market in innovation, TagMan is the only enterprise-level tag management platform with robust solutions for improving site performance, optimizing data collection and addressing privacy at a global level. Learn more how customers like Ancestry.com, Virgin Atlantic, Subaru and others are seeing significant ROI from using TagMan, at www.tagman.com.
