As digital analytics experts, we’re constantly exploring ways to optimize our data collection and analysis methods. One such emerging technology that’s creating a buzz in the analytics world is server-side tagging. In particular, Google Tag Manager’s server-side offering has been making waves for its ability to transform the way we interact with data.
What is Server-side Tagging?
Server-side tagging is a method that allows you to manage your tags to measure user activity wherever it occurs. Instead of executing tags directly on a user’s browser (client-side), server-side tagging shifts part of this workload to a server. This server could be a cloud server or an on-premise server. The process involves sending data from your sources (websites, apps, devices, etc.) to a server-side container where it’s processed and then routed to the appropriate endpoints.
The Evolution of Tagging
To fully understand the benefits of server-side tagging, let’s take a step back and understand how tagging has traditionally worked.
Client-side Tagging
In the traditional client-side model, when a campaign is launched, the marketing platform prompts you to integrate a pixel or a code snippet on your website. This code snippet or ‘tag’ establishes a direct communication channel between your user’s browser and the third-party vendor’s platform that you’re using for your marketing.
However, the client-side model presents several challenges, with the most prominent being privacy concerns. Once you’ve implemented the tag, it can scrape all the data from your website, which raises concerns about the collection and misuse of personal data.
Server-side Tagging: A Solution
Server-side tagging was introduced to address these privacy and data security concerns. With server-side tagging, you send the data stream to a server in the cloud or on-premise. This acts as a staging area where you decide what data you want to pass on to your marketing platforms. This offers a higher degree of control over your data and what’s shared with third-party marketing platforms.
Benefits of Server-side Tagging
Server-side tagging offers several advantages that can make a significant impact on your data collection, analysis, and marketing strategy.
Improved Site Performance
With server-side tagging, the burden on your website or app is reduced because fewer tags need to be executed on the client-side. This can lead to improved page load times and overall performance of your site.
Enhanced Control Over Data
Server-side tagging gives you far more control over your data than client-side tagging. You can decide what data you want to collect and pass on to your marketing platforms. You can also remove any personally identifiable information (PII) before the data is sent, ensuring better privacy for your users.
Extended Cookie Expiration
Server-side tagging can help overcome the limitations of cookie expiration imposed by Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) features in browsers like Safari. With server-side tagging, you can store cookies from the server side, thereby extending their expiry date.
Reduced Impact of Ad Blockers
Server-side tagging can reduce the impact of ad blockers on your analytics. This is because the data is sent to a custom subdomain that you control, which is less likely to be blocked by ad blockers.
Drawbacks of Server-side Tagging
While server-side tagging offers numerous benefits, there are a few considerations to keep in mind:
- Implementation Complexity: Server-side tagging requires more technical expertise than client-side tagging. It can be more complex and time-consuming to set up and manage.
- Cost Implications: Operating a server-side environment can incur costs, especially if you’re dealing with high volumes of traffic and data.
Google Tag Manager’s Server-side Offering
Google Tag Manager (GTM) offers a robust server-side tagging solution. It allows you to run a GTM container in the cloud, enabling you to collect data from various sources, process it, and send it to the appropriate destinations.
The benefits of using Google Tag Manager for server-side tagging are:
- Ease of Implementation: GTM’s user-friendly interface and extensive documentation make it easier to set up and manage server-side tagging.
- Improved Data Quality: GTM’s server-side container improves data quality by consolidating all captured data into a single request. This data can then be processed and sent to the desired endpoints.
- Seamless Integration: If you’re already using GTM for client-side tagging, incorporating server-side tagging into your existing setup can be a relatively seamless process.
Getting Started with Server-side Tagging and GTM
To start leveraging the benefits of server-side tagging with GTM, you’ll need to have an existing GTM container tag on your site and be willing to use a cloud server. Once you have these in place, you can create a server container within GTM and configure your new tagging server in a few simple steps.
Final Thoughts
Server-side tagging is an exciting development in the field of digital analytics. It not only offers greater control over your data but also improves site performance, extends cookie expiration, and reduces the impact of ad blockers. While there are some considerations to keep in mind, the benefits of server-side tagging make it a worthy addition to your digital analytics toolkit.
As digital analysts, it’s essential to stay updated with these advancements and leverage them to extract more value from our data. If you haven’t explored server-side tagging yet, now may be the time to start.
