Do you know these 4 benefits of server-side tracking?

Date
16 April 2024

Everything evolves, including marketing and analytics. For instance, server-side tracking - an old measurement technique - is currently experiencing a revival. This technique helps you collect data about your customers online. 

Server-side tracking instead of client-side tracking 

At iO, we know that data is essential to gain insights, improve your users' experience and optimise your ROI. But how do you reliably collect data as more and more browsers ban third-party cookies? 

The traditional way of collecting data - client-side tracking - is becoming increasingly limited because of privacy concerns and browser restrictions. Server-side tracking is the answer to this problem. In this blog post, we'll tell you more about the pros and cons of server-side tracking, how to set up server-side tracking yourself, what the best practices are and what it costs. 

Herentals-mensen-Pieter-smartphone | iO

Some great benefits of server-side tracking

Moving the tracking mechanism of scripts from the browser to your server gives you many benefits: 

1. Data enrichment 

By moving data to your servers, you can enrich these data with data from other sources, such as CRM data. This creates a more complete customer view. Surely it would be useful to forward a customer's loyalty tier to an advertising platform and create a look-a-like audience based on that so that your campaigns perform better?  

2. Data accuracy 

The second big advantage of analytics is the greater accuracy of your data. Because many browsers already block third-party cookies or because users use an ad blocker, the data you collect this way will be less accurate. Server-side tracking offers advantages over client-side tracking, such as bypassing browser settings and ad blockers. This results in more accurate data, leading to more reliable analytics-based decision-making. Always be transparent in your cookie and privacy policies though, no consent means no tracking. 

3. A better grasp of security 

Adding third-party scripts to your website always carries some risks. When you migrate these scripts to a server, you get a better handle on which data is collected and which data is sent to an external party such as Google and Facebook. This way, you can prevent an unwanted leak of personal information. 

4. Performance gains 

Finally, we need to talk about the performance gain. Instead of sending the requests to the user's browser, they are sent to your own server. This reduces the loading time in the browser, making your website faster for your visitors. Don't expect miracles here, but every little bit helps. 

Client-side vs. server-side tracking: all the pros and cons

Each configuration has its pros and cons, so we've listed them in a nice overview.

clientside | iO

Client-side tracking

Pros

Cons

serverside | iO

Server-side tracking

Pros

Cons

Whitepaper 'Impact of cookieless future on marketing'

In this whitepaper, we immerse you in the world of cookies, discuss what exactly is about to happen and how you can prepare your business for it. Enjoy!

Header cookieless future | iO

How do you get started with server-side tracking?

Now that you know all the pros and cons of server-side tracking, the next question is: how do you get started with this? 

There are some steps you need to follow to bring your server-side project to fruition. In our example, we assume you want to get started with the Google tool stack, but there are of course other providers such as Amazon. 

1. Setting up a server environment 

A server environment consists of two parts: a server container that you create in the Google Tag Manager interface and a tagging server that, in our example, is set up in Google Cloud. The tagging server will be the point to which you forward data. Don’t forget to link a billing account to Google Cloud, otherwise your data will not be stored. 

2. Create Client in Google Tag Manager 

A Client is an element that is specific to a server-side Google Tag Manager container. A Client listens for incoming HTTP requests, so to speak, and then does something with these requests. If we look at a GA4 Client, it will listen to incoming requests from Google Analytics 4 and transform the data from this into an event that can be used by other server-side tags. For example, you can set up the Facebook Conversion API using the GA4 client. 

3. Creating your first tag in the server container 

After you have created a Client, the next step is to create a tag. Just like in the client-side version of Google Tag Manager, you have several options here. Which option you choose depends on the platform that needs to receive data: Google Ads, Facebook, Google Analytics ... 

The advantage of these tags is their ease of use and simple interface, as you have been used to for years. Just add your server endpoint and a trigger to your tag and you're done!

Toon Pauwels

Improving your results with server-side tracking. Want to learn more about how server-side tracking can improve your business results? Feel free to contact one of our experts. 

Toon Pauwels - Digital marketer

Best practices for your server-side setup

Basically, you now have a working server-side tracking setup. However, there are still some optional steps you can take to make sure your server-side setup complies with best practices.

Capture browser data

In a server-side container, you only receive HTTP requests, which by themselves do not contain that much data. The advantage of client-side tracking is that you capture data from the browser automatically, which gives you more reporting options. Do you still want to store this browser data and forward it to your server-side container? Then look at your existing tags in your client-side Tag Manager. For GA4 tags, there is the option "Send to server container". This allows you to forward the entire payload from the browser to your server container.

Using your own domain for more data ownership

With a standard server-side tagging implementation, you forward the data to a Google domain: .appspot.com. It's best to create a custom domain, using a subdomain of your own. In our case, this could be measurement.iodigital.com.

If you do this, all data will be collected as first-party data, which is useful if you were to use cookies.

Enriching your data

Now that you have a working server-side implementation, it's time to enrich the data you capture from your website or app with data from your CMS or CRM. As we mentioned earlier, you can, for example, pass loyalty status from your CRM along to your ad platforms to help your campaigns run more efficiently.

Setting up data monitoring

It's great that your data collection now runs server-side, but sometimes things go wrong. For instance, your server might be temporarily unavailable due to a technical failure, or your website might be down due to a large increase in visitors because of that Black Friday campaign you launched. To minimise data loss, it is best to activate some monitoring rules that immediately alert you if something goes wrong.

Costs associated with server-side tracking

Server-side tracking is unfortunately not free, there is a certain cost associated with using a server. There are 3 things that can cost you money, which we are happy to explain in detail below.

Instances

If you use Google Cloud for server-side tracking, you need to consider the number of instances you need. We recommend a minimum of three instances, with an auto-scaling maximum of six instances. Three instances cost around €100 per month. You can always change the number of instances, should they no longer meet your current needs. Other providers such as AWS or Azure use the same principle, although their designation for instances will be slightly different.

Processing volume

Every time you transfer data from your server to an external platform such as Google Analytics, you must pay a small amount for this. Fortunately, the cost of this is negligible, even for sites processing 500,000 visits a month.

Logging

If you use Google Cloud's App Engine, every incoming request is automatically logged. You get 50 GiB per month for free, which is more than enough for many businesses. Once your credit is used and you are logging, say, 100 GiB per month, this can become a significant part of your total monthly cost though. You can disable this if necessary to save costs, although we don't recommend this.

First-party data: the first step towards cookieless

In digital marketing, privacy and first-party data are becoming increasingly important. Our experts will teach you how to develop a strong first-party data strategy in this whitepaper.

cookieless

Related articles