Do you know these 4 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. 

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

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!

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.