Has your company been searching for a service that makes a difference? Are you looking for a solution that’s indispensable for your website or app? Server-side tracking—better known as server-side tagging—might just be the golden discovery you’ve been waiting for.
In today’s digital landscape, using server-side tracking is essential for achieving better results and collecting complete data. Yet, many businesses overlook this critical yet lesser-known technology. Is it due to a lack of knowledge or an underestimation of the impact of missing data? In this blog, we’ll explain the undeniable value of server-side tracking using real-world figures.
You might not yet know how server-side tracking can benefit your business, but chances are you’re already dealing with the problem it aims to solve.
Website visitors are incredibly valuable for businesses. However, due to GDPR regulations, these visitors are not always tracked accurately. The reason? Browsers like Safari, Firefox, and as of 2023, Chrome, block third-party cookies from external sources. This cookie-blocking results in the loss of critical data, which can negatively impact your marketing campaigns. Google’s server-side tracking solves this issue by converting third-party cookies into first-party cookies, preventing data loss. All the collected data is then sent to an external server via API connections, ensuring that your campaigns are powered by accurate and reliable data.
Before diving into the impressive numbers that demonstrate the effectiveness of Server-Side Tracking, let’s illustrate its importance with an example.
When data is blocked, a website visitor’s purchase behavior can’t be tracked. Imagine this scenario: a website visitor is influenced by your campaign and makes a purchase. Mission accomplished! The campaign costs are justified by the visitor’s purchase. However, if this purchase isn’t visible in your data, your campaign will continue targeting the same visitor. The likelihood of that visitor making another purchase on the same day is slim, and you’re incurring unnecessary campaign costs that could have been used to persuade a different visitor to make a purchase. Server-side tag management ensures that this valuable data is captured and accessible. By implementing this solution, you’ll gain the insights needed to optimize your campaigns, reduce wasted spending, and focus on converting new potential customers.
Now that you understand the functionality and the difference Server-Side Tracking can make for your business, let’s dive deeper into its advantages.
As mentioned earlier, unnecessary campaign costs are a thing of the past with Server-Side Tracking. Every dollar you invest in a campaign will now be fully utilized, ensuring maximum ROI.
Server-Side Tracking is immune to ad blockers. This means no data gets lost in the process, and you can finally trust your website statistics.
With server-side tag management, you maintain a clear overview. Operating with a single subdomain positively impacts your website’s speed and overall performance.
You’re in charge. Browsers no longer dictate which data is visible and which isn’t. You decide what data gets shared with external platforms like Facebook and Google via your website.
Another key benefit of using a single subdomain is the easier management of a Content Security Policy (CSP). Managing multiple domains can be a challenge, but with Server-Side Tracking, ensuring the security of your data becomes much simpler—keeping your data protection a top priority.
The implementation of server-side tracking is complex, but we’ll do our best to explain it clearly.
In the current setup, external domains like facebook.com track visitors through a script embedded on your website. However, an increasing number of browsers automatically block these well-known domains to ensure websites are as privacy-friendly as possible. This blocking occurs even if visitors accept your cookie banner.
The following diagram illustrates how this process works.
Server-side tracking takes a different approach. With Server-Side Tracking, a server hosted on your domain (e.g., measurement.2manydots.nl) collects all the necessary data. This includes events (clicks), browser types, IP addresses, and more. While you won’t send all of this data, you’ll have access to these variables to decide what to use.
Platforms like Facebook and Snapchat provide API endpoints, allowing you to send this data directly to them. Since the data is sent from your own domain (measurement.2manydots.nl), it cannot be blocked. This is known as first-party data.
You have full control over what data is sent and how it’s shared. These platforms then use this data to optimize your campaigns for better performance.
We can describe the benefits of server-side tracking all we want, but it’s the numbers that truly tell the story. We’ve implemented server-side tracking for various clients, and the results have been nothing short of astonishing.
In the graph above, you’ll see a blue line (without server-side tracking) and a red line (with server-side tracking). The data shows that the number of tracked events via Facebook was 35% higher than what the data without server-side tracking suggested. For this webshop, the ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) increased by over 200%.
The two graphs below further illustrate the clear differences in performance. These kinds of results are exactly what your clients need to see, right?
When you hear about Server-Side Tracking and its impressive results, you might suspect that it bypasses certain regulations. However, the opposite is true. With Server-Side Tracking, you maintain full control over all data sent to external platforms. The entire process adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ensuring complete compliance.
The era of free data is over. But data is far too valuable not to invest in. When you make that investment, you want to ensure the data you receive is accurate and actionable. Partner with 2manydots, and we’ll ensure you avoid unnecessary campaign costs while maximizing the potential of your marketing efforts.
