5 reasons to set up server side Google Tag Manager

Below we’ll outline the top reasons to get set up with server side Google Tag Manager, to help boost your tag management capabilities.

1. Improve load times

Client side tracking can often become bloated, not just as a result of the large number of tags that are being loaded, but as a result of the poorly written JavaScript that sometimes characterises 3rd party marketing pixels.

Sometimes reducing the number of tags in a client side Google Tag Manager container has a noticeable impact on data collection accuracy for other tags, and can help to speed up the experience for users.

Client side tracking is loaded from a visitor’s browser, and using their bandwidth. With server side tag management, a lot of that load is removed as tags are fired server side using server bandwidth and processing power.

2. Improve privacy protections for user data

Client side tracking often feels quite “set and forget”, often it’s not totally clear what data is being passed to tag vendor’s servers and in light of the ICO’s guidance on cookie and data usage on the web. These days it’s important for website owners and marketers to be more responsible when it comes to website visitor’s data, and to take a proactive approach to protecting user data where possible, while still optimising websites and marketing where possible.

Server side tag management allows marketers to be more specific about what and how data is passed to tag vendor’s servers. It’s possible to block data or hash it, to reduce the potential for misuse or data breaches.

3. Avoid the impact of browser level tracking blocking

Some visitors will want to opt out of tracking which is understandable, but some tech companies (Apple) and some browsers (Safari and Firefox) have made active changes to their technology to reduce the effectiveness of marketing data.

There is a moral quandary here, but it’s fair to say that if you want to reduce the amount of tracking that is blocked by client side browser extensions and browsers, then server side tag management may be one tool that you can deploy.

4. Get a sense of the the volume of data that is being lost to tag misfires

This is an interesting one, and often hard to quantify, but now we have a way of doing this finally!

Sometimes tags will not be executed on a site, and this can be down to poor load times, bandwidth issues, traffic volumes, or even just a problem with a website journey. This can mean that users are performing actions but there isn’t any data being collected on that action because tracking code isn’t able to load in time to capture that event or never fires at all.

Server side tracking gives us a greater chance of collecting data despite the potential issues i’ve outlined above, and in doing so gives us the chance to benchmark how effective our client side tracking is against a (typically) more reliable alternative.

5. Facebook Conversions API data can help fill in the gaps left by iOS changes

Last, and by no means least, since Apple introduced the iOS 14 update, we now have a tool to mitigate the impact of those changes that have resulted in massive decreases in the effectiveness of Facebook pixel data collection.

A lot of marketers reported huge drops in data collection volumes, and significant changes to attribution accuracy as a result of the iOS changes but also further changes to Safari’s ITP (Intelligent Tracking Protection.)

Added to all of this, server side Google Tag Manager affords us the most flexibility in terms of implementing the Facebook Conversions API in a way that the ‘1 click’ partner integrations and conversions gateways don’t. With server side Google Tag Manager we can make the best use of existing tracking but build on it and improve data collection where technology companies have taken steps to impact this.