Google Tag Manager Server-side Tagging Tutorial - what it is, setup, and more

[@cirstearazvan24]

Really good introduction to this topic! thank you, Julius

[@renwang6157]

This is the most understandable video. good job!

[@TheSachinRK]

Thanks for this detailed video Julius, I can't wait for you to start creating content on App + Web configurations. Cheers

[@AnalyticsMania]

@Alexey Vorobyov Thanks for the heads-up. The URL changed a bit. But I've implemented the redirect so that the old URL would also work

[@federicotaboadela9692]

Brilliant explanation Juluis, thank you!

[@vincentmusschoot8142]

I made the step... Thank you for this nice and very well explained tutorial!

[@talkinglobby2818]

How can I move my fb pixel code to server side container? It seems there's no server side version of fb pixel available except conversion api which is also not exact equivalent?

[@TheFantayo]

Very good video. Very details. Every aspect is pretty much covered.

[@fares57]

So... for example, I have some custom scripts that manipulate the links in my website based in factors like document.referer, country (taken from 3rd party IPA) etc. I also have typical button and link clicking traffic . I need/ can to transfer these to a server side? Or I need to have both client side AND server side? Cause in this video I see no other use than just putting GA4 implementation through a server side tagging!

[@mattayre5787]

How do tags fired via GTM server side work, with cookie compliance banners, which are currently configured client side in GTM? I want to test some marketing tags being sent server-side.

[@AnalyticsMania]

A consent is stored in a cookie. Then you use that cookie's value to either block tags in the web GTM container or in the server container

[@MotoDiary2534]

We set up Facebook conversion api for server side tagging In that case, we create separate events on the browser and server side through Google Tag Manager and deduplicate it again. For example: purchase event But my query is to create browser and server side events while tagging server side for Google ads, But why not deduplicating it?

[@AltoLuxo]

to improve the speed of my website i need only use serveside right ? i mean i was hiting 100 speed before GTM facebook, analitics, google and now with everything from GTM im having 70 page speed, so to improve my speed i cant have any client side GTM right and only stick with client side GTM right ?

[@alvar_p4l543]

Thanks Julius, such an endeavor to make us understand a rather cumbersome new concept in GTM.

[@ilovemohinga]

Hi, may I know if this is a good alternative to combat the new iOS14 privacy policy?

[@Mike-op5us]

I am a digital marketing student and currently learning about cookies. I am wondering if google analytics cookies are considered third party cookie? If so, does this new server-side tracking change them to first-party cookies because it is now sent to your own domain (server) first before its sent to google analytics? Hope to get an answer :) Thanks!

[@GiulioInTargetGroup]

Hi Julius, I haven't understood one thing: if there are still tags on the user's browsers why there are "reduced loads on page"?

[@AnalyticsMania]

It will be possible to, say, have one GA tag, fire it. And then in the SS container, that data will be sent to both GA and FB pixel. That's one tag instead of two.

[@bethanydawn]

Is Server-Side tracking able to be set up on a Squarespace website?

[@marcusnielsen4716]

Do you have an updated version for this tutorial?

[@AnalyticsMania]

I have this (and many more things) in this course www.analyticsmania.com/courses/intermediate-google-tag-manager-course/

[@armenadamyan5890]

there is an instruction on how to configure on another server? not on google clouds platform

[@MrAlbertSi]

My understanding is users on a site who are using Safari or an adblocker aren't tracked properly in GA/GTM. Server-side tagging fixes this and allows us to track all users, is that right?

[@awakenthegreatnesswithin]

Is that true? Did it work for you?

[@onizukakimura]

I applied everything in the video for custom url. But when I tried to preview, it went to Google 404

[@samjonney3956]

Such a great video, i will defiantly subscribe to your channel and watch all your videos

[@joaoantunes8022]

Amazing explanation

[@zendonegan5470]

Hi Julius, can I filter traffic using this feature?

[@bryanmull1033]

Your explanation is spot on though why adding a second container speeds things up defeats the reason why Google created Tag Manager in the first place. If adding another container is the answer, is adding a third of fourth another way to continue to optimize? A container for every script? This also seems rather unnecessary.

[@AnalyticsMania]

I don't understand where you got that idea of adding more containers. There is one web container. It should remain that way.

[@kanoksaksihon9894]

Thank you Julius, for my understanding, the GA tag has to be active and data will send through the server-side. That means if users don't allow the cookie consent, the tag will not be active, and the server-side will not active as well. my understanding is correct?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Yes

[@kanoksaksihon9894]

@@AnalyticsMania Thanks

[@MrAlbertSi]

Will GA DebugView and GTM Preview mode work after we implement server-side tagging? Sounded like Julius said it won't.

[@AnalyticsMania]

It will work fine

[@diariodeumambicioso]

Really good job man. Thanks! :)

[@kevkondro]

Thanks for the guide! How the setup would look like, if we were to get the "events" into the tracking server directly from the backend? In other words, the event would not come from the client side and would not be sent to the TMG tracking server but instead the event (e.g. conversion event with various parameters) would come from the backend and be sent to the TMG tracking server and then distributed to relevant tracking partners (e.g. Adform, Adobe, QuantCast etc.). Or, Maybe for this purpose we do not even need to have a s2s GTM setup and instead build the direct connection between our backend and tracking partners?

[@FlorianSchoel]

Do you have info (links/articles) on how this affects the GDPR Consent Banner situation? Since there is no more 3rd party cookies - can it altogether be ignored, or since data is still being sent to 3rd parties through the server - still need to use Consent-Banner with all its drawbacks?

[@FlorianSchoel]

You answered my question at: kzbin.info/www/bejne/joaqi4CPrtR3hbsm55s For anyone else who might be interested.

[@AnalyticsMania]

Server side does not mean that you no longer need the consent banner. You still need it. Server side is just a technology.

[@andreasdenner7399]

Hey Julias, thanks for the great video. There is also a GTM docker image. Do you think that this is a solution that will be supported for long by Google?

[@MuhammadAliSilat]

Thanks Julius, this is an informative and detailed video. I understood the process and it seems easy to implement But, I am mostly working with small and mid-sized businesses so I wouldn't implement it for them. However, this can be beneficial for larger websites with 100 users and conversions.

[@CaerelsJan]

I've watched 4 videos on SS GTM already but I haven't found a single example of GA events or "button click" triggers in use for SS GTM. All the examples are pageview tags and pageview triggers (sort of). Can you make click trigger tags (e.g. "button click event") with server-side GTM or not?

[@AnalyticsMania]

It's the same thing for any GA event. The GA client will accept any GA request and will forward it further. GA4 client will accept any GA4 request, UA client will forward any UA request.

[@bibobibo1924]

Since the recording of your video, Google has added the "Google Tag Manager: Web Container" client to the server container. Does this client make it possible to let all the tags firing in the original web container, to be sent to the server container instead? Meaning that you wouldn't have to create all your 3rd party tags (like Facebook custom events etc.) all over again? Thanks

[@lucasappel5150]

Hi Julius, great video! Do you know whether serverside tagging is still in Beta? I actually can't find this information on official Google Sites. Do you also know by any chance whether it's possible to track Floodlight and Google Ads Tags with the http endpoint solution? (there still don't seem to be more templates except the GA ones so far)

[@RomanMurtazin]

Hi Julius! Are you going to update this video? =) There are a lot of new features that have appeared in GTM SS since 2020 =)

[@AnalyticsMania]

Maybe. Now the updated content is here www.analyticsmania.com/courses/intermediate-google-tag-manager-course/

[@SvenGeorgiev]

Hi Julius, what is the latest status here? So September 2021. Can SST still be ignored or do we as marketers HAVE to do this now?

[@AnalyticsMania]

You can still do a lot of stuff without it. But the real answer is "it depends on many things" and there is no quick answer to this. If you get a lot of traffic from apple devices, SGTM will help. Want to send data to FB CAPI? SGTM can help a lot. Small business? Most likely the cost of SGTM cannot be justified, etc etc.

[@SvenGeorgiev]

@@AnalyticsMania thanks

[@fotodino3358]

Hi Julius! - thank you for your high quality videos! I would have a question. In FB Events Manager when testing Events, there i can see that usually Server Events consist more client data, then the browser Events. Did you ever realize this issue? Do you think it makes sense to set it up in a way, that the Server Event will get preferred by FB, so that the Browser Event gets Deduplicated. Goal is to give Fb as much data as possible, and not loose it through deduplication, always prefer to deduplicate the event with less infos about the user&event. Would be very interested in your answer, thank you! greetings Ivo :)

[@marcossastre8096]

As an agency, if I get a paid Google Cloud Flexible environment, can I use that one for all my clients (with their own domains like track.client1.com track.client2.com etc, i.e different projects I guess?)? or each different domain needs its own paid Google Cloud Flexible environment? Thanks for sharing this, awesome content!

[@AnalyticsMania]

The client should own the tagging server, thus it is recommended that every client has its own project. Because imagine what would happen if one day your client want to cancel your services - they should still own their SGTm setup.

[@philippg2380]

For me it's also Client-Side, just there is a Server between. I hoped i can track events directly from my server to Google Analytics with a simple REST Client maybe. I think its better to go back to the good old tracking tools without external serrvices.

[@AnalyticsMania]

With server-side, you get an endpoint to which you can send data. Nothing stops you from sending data from your server to that endpoint (thus avoid any client-side codes).

[@mattayre5787]

Is changing the transport URL completely necessary?

[@AnalyticsMania]

It was. Now there is a checkbox "Send to server container"

[@mr.yellow3250]

nice video ! I also wonder what is the difference between measurement protocol and ss gtm ? They are both server side but something must be different right ? :D

[@sanjiOPTV]

How many zones can one gmail account create?

[@adeelmushtaq2585]

Very helpful and easy to understand video, quick question, if i have mulitple GA tags like (pageview, events etc) so will i need only one client and 1 tag?

[@AnalyticsMania]

It can be enough to have one GA client and 1 GA tag in SGTM

[@adeelmushtaq2585]

@@AnalyticsMania Thanks for prompt response, what about HTTP request tag, will I not need that for events created in client side GTM?

[@AnalyticsMania]

@@adeelmushtaq2585 If you just want to send GA data from client side to server side and then to GA, you don't need HTTP request tag

[@adeelmushtaq2585]

@@AnalyticsMania Thanks a lot, you got one more subscriber :)

[@AnalyticsMania]

@@adeelmushtaq2585 great! Glad to have you among subscribers

[@MarceloOtero92]

Thanks a lot, Julius :)

[@jakubnizniowski3455]

Thank you for the guide! It's fascinating to see what's the future of the website analytics. I'm sure that my company will dive into it when it's more mature, as we do a lot for the website performance and we care about the privacy of the users - it's great to be in control of the data sent to tracking and analytics tools. The hardest part is that it's hard to train those new skills you mentioned without actually trying it and using it. So I guess the best way to start is to train on some less important or even test website before fully jumping in. Or maybe you can suggest how to learn by practicing HTTP requests and Google Cloud in another way?

[@AnalyticsMania]

No, I don't have specific tips on how to learn that

[@ddrci88]

How much will be cost for a vps gtm ? Per month

[@ВикторМашуков]

Hello! Does GTM Server-Side Tagging work well for SPA and PWA pages? Thanks!

[@AnalyticsMania]

Everything still depends on your client side tracking. Serverside gtm does not make difference here.

[@ShahzebZulfiqar]

Thanks man!

[@jasonfletcher8]

Great video Julius. Question after you complete everything you went over here. Do you send all your web tags to the server from the client side GTM? Or do you have a way to parse out the event data into variables and then turn them into tags from the server-side to the GA servers. Totally understand getting the "all pages" tag done like you said, but what about the specific tags we have? Which GTM do we start with, web or server?

[@CharlesR]

Hey Jason, did you figure out the answer to this?

[@mattayre5787]

@@CharlesR I'm still wondering about this also. Do all tags need to be migrated to server side or can just a few tags run that way?

[@CharlesR]

@@mattayre5787 I was only looking at it for Facebook server side and their WordPress plugin does all that for you now. I do the rest in GTM.

[@mattayre5787]

@@CharlesR so you just use your facebook tags server side and everything else is still client side?

[@CharlesR]

@@mattayre5787 well, it's my understanding that the Facebook plugin I'm using sorts out serverside and conversion API, using my own server, and I use gtm too so I guess the answer is yes. I did go through the rigmarole of creating a Google cloud server especially for it, so learned how to do it, but then never used it.

[@MarioBurgard]

Thanks a lot. Great help.

[@andreasdevjs298]

Thanks for the content!!

[@arnoweb]

Thanks, it's very useful.

[@sonusaha9052]

Can I create a two client name like -1 Google Analytics 2. GA4

[@AnalyticsMania]

yes

[@sonusaha9052]

@@AnalyticsMania If I create two clients than any effect, we will get to see on Universal Analytics and GA4.

[@md.noorealamkhan1088]

Informative

[@marekcieslak9426]

Ok but after free 3 month i must paid for Google Cloud?

[@AnalyticsMania]

Eventually, you will need to pay.

[@deekshabhadoria170]

What is the cost of per month if i have millions of traffic or pagviews on my website

[@AnalyticsMania]

0. Unless you stream data to BigQuery. Then check Bigquery's pricing.

[@deekshabhadoria170]

@@AnalyticsMania one more doubt if i have already gtag id then how can i use or where i use that so that i can't lost that traffic... If i am implementing this server side tagging

[@MaxRuso]

👍👍👍

Nice!! video

[@somesome23231]

oudated for GA4

[@AnalyticsMania]

Up-to-date content is available here www.analyticsmania.com/courses/intermediate-google-tag-manager-course/