If you’re the unofficial “GTM person” on your team, you know the pain: the same tags, triggers, and tweaks, week after week. It’s not hard work, but it is maddeningly repetitive. You want to spend time thinking, not just clicking. This guide is for you—folks who are tired of Google Tag Manager grunt work and want a real way out, not just another “productivity tips” thread.
There’s a tool for this: Freckle. If you haven’t heard of it, Freckle lets you set up custom rules to automate the parts of GTM you’d rather not babysit. No, it won’t read your mind or fix your tracking strategy. But if you’re drowning in manual updates, it just might save your sanity.
Let’s get your time back.
Why Automate GTM Tasks?
Before you go all-in on automation, let’s pause for a reality check. Not everything in GTM should be automated. Some tasks—like one-off tracking for a weird campaign—are faster to knock out by hand. But for the endless tweaks (think: updating tag parameters, cleaning up messy triggers, or rolling out consent banners), automation is a lifesaver.
What’s actually worth automating? - Tag updates that follow a set pattern (UTM changes, event naming, etc.) - Bulk creation or modification of triggers - Routine cleanup (disabling old tags, fixing broken variables) - Standardizing tag configurations across multiple containers
Stuff that’s not worth the trouble? - Super custom, one-off setups - Anything you can’t describe as a repeatable rule (if you need an essay, don’t automate it)
If you’ve got a recurring GTM headache, there’s a good chance Freckle can take it off your plate.
Step 1: Get Freckle Set Up
Let’s not overcomplicate this. Freckle’s whole pitch is that it plugs right into GTM and works with your existing containers.
- Sign up for a Freckle account if you haven’t already.
- Connect your Google account (the one with GTM access).
- Link your GTM containers—just the ones you want to automate. Don’t go wild connecting every test project.
Pro tip: If you’re worried about breaking things, start with a test container. Freckle lets you preview changes before pushing anything live. Use this. Nobody likes panicked rollback emails.
Step 2: Identify Your Biggest GTM Time Wasters
Before you dive into rule-building, take a hard look at your GTM to-do list. What do you spend the most time doing, over and over? Don’t just automate for automation’s sake.
Some classic time sinks: - Renaming tags to match new naming conventions - Swapping out marketing pixels for new versions - Adding consent checks to existing tags - Cleaning up triggers after a site redesign
Write down the top 2-3 repetitive tasks. These are your first automation targets. If you try to automate everything, you’ll end up with a tangle of rules and more problems than you started with.
Step 3: Build Your First Freckle Custom Rule
Here’s where it gets practical. Freckle’s custom rules basically let you say: “When you see this, do that.” You can use templates, but the magic’s in custom rules.
Example: Standardize All GA4 Event Tag Names
Let’s say your team keeps naming GA4 event tags every which way. You want them all to start with “GA4 -”.
How you’d do it by hand:
Click into each tag, edit the name, save, repeat. Boring, slow, error-prone.
How to automate it with Freckle:
1. In Freckle, go to the “Rules” section and hit Create New Rule.
2. Set the Scope to “Tag”.
3. Add a Condition:
- Field: Tag Type
- Operator: Equals
- Value: GA4 Event
4. Add an Action:
- Action: Rename Tag
- New Name: GA4 - {{tag.name}} (Freckle supports variables—use them!)
5. Preview the rule on your container. Freckle will show which tags would be renamed.
6. If it looks good, Apply the rule.
That’s it. Every time you run this rule, it’ll update the names for you. No more manual edits.
Step 4: Test (and Don’t Trust) Automation
Automation is only as good as your tests. GTM is notorious for “silent failures”—stuff breaks, but you don’t know until your data’s a mess.
What to do: - Always use Freckle’s preview mode before applying a rule. - Check the GTM container for unexpected changes. Look for tags that shouldn’t have been touched. - If you’re changing how tags fire (especially things like consent triggers), do a real test on the site—use GTM’s Preview mode and actually click around.
Don’t:
- Blindly trust that every rule will work as intended, especially if you’re chaining lots of actions.
- Skip documentation. If you automate something, write down what your rule does and why. You’ll thank yourself later.
Step 5: Automate GTM Cleanups
One of Freckle’s underrated uses: cleaning up your GTM containers. Over time, most containers turn into junk drawers—old tags, half-broken triggers, and nobody knows what’s safe to delete.
With Freckle, you can:
- Find and disable tags that haven’t fired in months
(e.g., Condition: “Last fired before Jan 1, 2024” → Action: “Disable Tag”)
- Standardize trigger names so you’re not hunting for “FormSubmit” vs “Form_Submit”
- Flag variables that are no longer used by any tags
Don’t let this run wild. Review before you apply changes. Automation is not a substitute for judgment.
Step 6: Chain Rules for Real Workflow Automation
The real power comes when you chain rules together. For example, if you routinely onboard new clients, you might:
- Add standard consent triggers to all marketing tags
- Rename tags to match your agency’s naming convention
- Disable or archive legacy tags
Set up a Freckle rule set:
Group related rules so you can run them in one go—saves a ton of time, especially if you manage dozens of containers. But again, preview is your friend.
What Works, What Doesn’t, and What to Ignore
Let’s get real about limits:
What works well: - Bulk renaming, enabling/disabling, and standardizing tags/triggers - Cleanup tasks you’re always forgetting - Rolling out small changes across many containers
What doesn’t: - One-off, super-nuanced tracking setups (custom HTML tags with spaghetti code) - Anything highly context-dependent (if/then logic based on business rules)
Ignore: - Automation for automation’s sake. If it’s faster to fix something by hand, just do it.
Pro Tips for Staying Sane
- Start small. Automate one thing, see how it goes, then add more.
- Document your rules. Future-you (or your coworker) needs to know what’s running and why.
- Schedule reviews. GTM setups change. Old automation can break new stuff if you’re not paying attention.
- Don’t replace QA with automation. Always test after you run rules.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Automation isn’t about being fancy—it’s about not wasting your brainpower on stuff a robot can do. Start with the tasks that bug you the most, automate them with Freckle, and move on. Keep your rules simple, review often, and don’t be afraid to scrap what’s not working.
You’ll spend less time fighting GTM and more time actually shipping things that matter. That’s the whole point.