Every online marketing agency seems to struggle with this. Visitors to your website aren’t properly tracked in tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, Snapchat, and Pinterest. This can significantly impact the performance of your campaigns. Server-side tagging in Google Tag Manager is a great solution for this.
Browsers like Safari and Firefox automatically block first-party cookies from external sources, which means you lose valuable data you could use. Google’s server-side tagging is a method to convert third-party cookies into first-party cookies using a subdomain on your domain (e.g., analytics.2manydots.nl). This ensures all data reaches its intended destination without any issues.
Previously, it was common practice to load a snippet of code from an external party on your website. With server-side tagging via Google Tag Manager, all data first goes through a subdomain on your domain, adding a step to the process. The data is then sent from the server we can manage for you to the respective party. Besides tracking more data, you also gain much more control over data quality, and your website becomes significantly faster.
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a powerful tag management tool that allows you to quickly and easily place and update tags on your website or mobile app. By implementing tagging in Google Tag Manager, you can collect and manage data without needing to code each tag individually. This reduces the load on your website and improves loading speed while providing more control and security in managing your data. Server-side tagging through Google Tag Manager allows you to protect sensitive user information while gathering accurate and relevant data for analysis and optimization.
With server-side tagging, as used in Google Tag Manager, an extra layer is added to the process. This is known as the server-side container in Google Tag Manager. Instead of direct browser-to-server communication, the data is first sent to a subdomain that you manage. This subdomain acts as an intermediary where data is collected, filtered, and then forwarded to external parties. In addition to tracking more data, you also gain greater control over data quality, and your website becomes much faster.
The advantages are endless. Server-side tagging is alive and kicking, with new integrations added weekly and capabilities expanding continuously. We’d be happy to be your Google Tag Manager specialist.
With comprehensive tracking, you’re less likely to miss visitors, which means your ad spend can be used more effectively. Ultimately, this saves you money. Companies like Nemlig and Square saw a 40% boost in measured conversions. The days of third-party cookies are over!
This tool ensures that the data you need doesn’t go to unwanted services. The subdomain on which the server-side tagging container runs is unique and unidentifiable to ad blockers. We help you correctly set up your Google Tag Manager container to prevent this.
Instead of connecting to countless external domains, there’s now only one subdomain to connect with. With your server-side tagging container, you significantly optimize speed. In the latest server-side tagging update, it’s even possible to load the container via a path.
Other tools can also benefit from this clever technique. For example, you can send information to email marketing services like Mailchimp through a webhook, making your campaigns even smarter. It’s even possible to disable all client-side tags, further improving your website’s performance.
Managing a Content Security Policy (CSP) was always challenging due to connections from multiple domains. Now, you can link all this to your subdomain, making server-side tagging much simpler to manage.
You decide which data from your website goes to parties like Facebook and Google. Within the server-side tagging container, you can modify or even filter data out, something that wasn’t possible with client-side tagging. External services previously had full freedom to add code.
We prefer fixed rates, ensuring openness and transparency. You won’t have any unexpected costs.
Do you have questions or want to know more about server-side tagging? We explain how it works, how it’s implemented, and what to look out for. Need to know more? Check out our knowledge center.
We don’t need much help from you. All we ask for is access to your client-side Google Tag Manager container (server-side GTM), the addition of a DNS record on a subdomain, and any API keys, such as for the Facebook Conversions API.
We build a new server container on the subdomain, and all traffic is sent to the separate server. All our servers are hosted on Google Cloud Platform’s App Engine. Our server is optimized to offer server-side tagging at low, fixed prices. This way, the subdomain acts as a gateway to better and safer tracking.
The answer depends on various factors, including the complexity of your current website, the specific needs of your business, and the available technical resources. On average, implementation takes a maximum of 4 weeks.
First-party cookies are small pieces of data created and stored on your device by the website you visit. These cookies are essential for server-side tagging because they directly collect information about user behavior on the site itself. They are considered safer and more privacy-friendly because the data remains within the owner’s domain.
In contrast, third-party cookies are created by domains other than the website you are visiting. For example, on our website, ‘www.2manydots.nl,’ cookies from ‘google-analytics.com’ might be loaded. These are considered third-party cookies. They have always been significant for server-side tagging, as they collect information about user behavior across different websites. This is crucial for targeted advertising and in-depth analysis but raises more privacy concerns and is increasingly restricted by new regulations. Starting next year, they’re even set to be blocked by all browsers.
Google recommends using at least three servers in a production environment to minimize the risk of data loss in case of a server failure. Costs start at €120 per month, but for websites with higher data traffic and more tags, this can increase to between €240 and €300 per month. More information can be found here.
Our servers are identical to those used by Google. However, our approach with Google Cloud servers includes upfront payments and bulk purchasing, which lowers the cost per server when a larger number of servers are purchased for a longer period (more than a year). More information can be found here.
Every request sent to the Google Tag Manager Server container is registered by us. This includes all types of script loads, such as gtm.js, analytics.js, gtag.js, and so on. The total number of requests is closely related to the traffic on your website and the number of tags used. More information can be found here.
More and more platforms are opening their systems for server-side tagging. You can view all possible integrations here. Are you looking for a platform not listed? Contact us, and we’ll see what we can do for you.
Setting up a server-side tagging environment can be a complex task for many online marketers. We offer a personalized approach, presenting different options to find the best match for your organization. We ensure you won’t lose data unnecessarily.
