• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer, January 16, 2013

Advancements in technology will require better Web site performance in 2013, as companies support content, attempt to sort through mounds of data, and start to add top level domain names in an effort to differentiate brands. Sifting through the data will likely become one of the major challenges for marketers this year because it means better site organization, which in turn requires tag management.

The online ad industry will continue to experience growing pains in 2013, as it finds its footing, but there are a host of companies supporting the space, including Google, TagMan and Tealium.

Demonstrating growth for the tag management sector in 2012, Tealium posted 480% increase in sales bookings and a 570% increase in revenue, compared with the previous year.

Deckers Outdoor, known for brands like UGG Australia, experienced a marketer’s worst nightmare as one of its ad pixels went down, slowing page load speed of its entire e-commerce network on Cyber Monday. Deckers had never experienced a delay or previous issue with that particular ad pixel, but the massive amount of traffic caused the tag to fail, resulting in 10-second delays on nearly all of its e-commerce sites, affecting traffic and conversions.

Early on in the implementation process at the time on the UGG site, Deckers' marketing team discovered the faulty ad pixel, so they logged into Tealium’s Web-based interface and turned off the malfunctioning tag.

Deckers Web Development Manager Nick Smotek estimates it saved the company from losing an estimated 160 to 200 orders per hour, translating to about $250,000 for the day.