TagMan, a marketing tag management firm that deals with problems associated with site tagging and tracking of online marketing campaigns, is sharing some interesting results from a survey about ad pixels and tag implementation. The firm surveyed 100 client and agency ad execs around the world, and found that 99% of those surveyed faced problems with ad pixel/tag implementation and management, costing them traffic and sales.

86% of respondents have had tags implemented incorrectly on the sites they manage, while 75% had seen delays in the implementation of tags due to website development cycles, says TagMan.

"The implications of tag management issues among respondents included loss of campaign performance data (65%), delays in launch of a new campaign (63%), delays in use of a new marketing technology (58%), loss of website traffic (31%), loss of website sales (28%). Only 1% said they never faced tag management issues," the firm says.

23% of client and agency respondents spend over $10 million a year on marketing technologies and services that rely on site tags. Still, over a quarter didn’t know how much they spent on IT resources to implement tags.

"Unless you are in the IT department, there is a tendency to gloss over the problems of ad tag implementation and management, taking for granted that somehow ad tags are easily added or taken away without cost or consequence, but as our study shows, there are huge costs and potentially significant loss of revenue from poorly managed ad tags," says TagMan CEO Paul Cook.

30% of the survey’s respondents said it took a week to implement a new tag on the sites they managed, while 24% said the person responsible for implementation spent 1 to 2 days a month on the task. In over half of the cases, the firm says, tagging sits outside the control of marketers.