What is Server-Side Tracking in Google Tag Manager?

[@guidohummel7500]

That's what usually happens: I watched 10 different videos Get more confused than before I then watch Julian's video I feel I have 3 degrees in web analytics and web dev

[@americanstandardhomeservic3151]

You're such a freaking legend at explaining this stuff.

[@ImSEOKing]

I agree.

[@timchard]

Stripping PII is clutch, this video still nails it a year later :)

[@MilindGaikwadCL]

Thank you please keep making explain such topics good job

[@mohitroy2053]

Very Nicely explained!! Thanks Julian for putting this up:-)

[@mhelmhold]

Really good overview of this topic! Thank you!

[@juhakumpula8070]

Thank you for explaining all of this. That helped me a lot!

[@marekcech7365]

thanks for the summary and overview of the topic, I will probably develop a laboratory enviroment, make myself familiar with the topic and then offer it to the clients, same as I did with GA4 to put this in production you will need to make some data comparison so paraller original measurement in client side will be required

[@Charles-yq8vv]

Great video! Many thanks.

[@4eyedtechie]

Thanks for explaining this, man.

[@pedromucci3745]

I said it almost 3 times, but i will say it again. I love you bro!!!!

[@c3vzn]

Julian is a man of few words when it comes to replying to comments haha

[@ozgeslagunduz8928]

awesome explanation

[@ronan815]

Hi Julian, thank you very clear, would it mean that if the server is hosted in Germany, that we stripped out all PII that then GA is becoming GDPR compliant? From my understanding that would be the case.

[@blitz4darkmind]

Thank you for the great explanatory video! Does the tagging and preview servers store the request data? We will redact the PII data before passing it on. However, if this data is stored on our servers, should we be worried about data security and removing the data periodically?

[@RonyMattar]

Thank you Julian! I read a post for Himanshu he was saying that server-side tracking will more accurate than client-side especially with the increasing number of people who are using browsers with ad blockers. How do you go around ad blocking browsers?

[@vasistaservices8371]

How to set Goals in google Analytics 4?

[@mrespinosa]

Is it time to migrate to server side tracking at the moment ?

[@alno1]

Thanks for the introduction. I think this will be the future. Will this be a way to circumvent the upcoming browsers "cookiepocalyse"?

[@MeasureSchool]

yes, might be a way, but we'll see how this develops. It's no magic solution

[@hiteshrajput1079]

Thank you for this awesome video again, But I have a Question now, does this mean we can now send engagement events even for the people who opted out of tracking , like Ios device users , to FB to create Custom Audiences for the purpose of retargeting them with meaningful Ads , from Server side? Will FB accept that ? or will it reject ? More so .. How to retarget such audience then ? Please guide

[@ohmthenizer8984]

Thank you for a great tutorial. Could you share additionally what solution's requirement will deploy the server-side tracking?

[@MeasureSchool]

not sure what you mean

[@ohmthenizer8984]

@@MeasureSchool what I meant is why and when do we need the solution of server-side tracking. Thank you.

[@Penskeeee]

@@ohmthenizer8984 Why: Apple's cookie bomb When: Yesterday

[@Hairihusky]

In min 2.19 you're saying that it's "client-side tracking in a nutshell." Isn't it supposed to be "server-side"?

[@MeasureSchool]

you are absolutely correct. Didn't notice this before

[@paulSiteway]

He correctly says "Client-Side-Tracking" as the connection is from the user Browser client directly to the Server-Side-GTM Server. If the web-server itself would contact the Server-Side-GTM in the background, it would be a real server-side-tracking.

[@ezranewtons4023]

And what about the quality optimization of your site?

[@SvenGeorgiev]

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

[@bassamjumaa4644]

Well done ... Thanks Julian. Do you think this will give us the ability to send Mobile apps events to 3rd parties like Facebook?

[@MeasureSchool]

yes, potentially

[@samremonte382]

Do you think it's only an additional option? I mean will it replace client-side tracking in the future?

[@MeasureSchool]

could be

[@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?

[@MeasureSchool]

Well.. you are missing the point. GTM Server-Side doesn't run on the browser of the user. You still need to forward interaction-information to the server. You would do that with the normal GTM. Yes, you can track Events with Server-Side Container, but server-side alone can't track Button clicks. It needs a client implementation to track that data in the first place.

[@CaerelsJan]

@@MeasureSchool well yes I am missing the point. I don't see the point in doing all of this work if you still handle everything in the browser. The way I understand it, there's 2 big tracking issues now: - cookies being blocked by browsers - ITP blocking network requests to GA etc. I thought "Ah the solution is handling everything on the server. Whenever someone requests the page, we just push a GA hit on the server. No JS library needed." But that can't work with events. So you basically still need cookies and Javascript to handle the triggers. And so ITP and cookie blockers can still mess up your data. E.g. by blocking the request. You could say "Yes but we think ITP only blocks requests to the GA servers. Your own server won't be blocked". But you don't know that. ITP might still detect the request as "let's block this".

[@CaerelsJan]

@@MeasureSchool I'm missing something, aren't I? :)

[@thierry.lavallee]

Can Server side be also used to update data without the client being connected? For instance, pushing events based on emails communications, or shipping info or orders, or some other variables attributed to CRM offline activity?

[@MeasureSchool]

theoretically yes, but there needs to be a HTTP request - So either a webhook or some custom request that gets send.

[@thierry.lavallee]

Thanks@@MeasureSchool! Sure, but not from THAT user, rather from an internal system that gets triggered by a sales rep action for instance. Although, how do you get this linked to a specific user and follow though past activity? Any link to tutorial?

[@user-qw2pb9ct2d]

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

[@MeasureSchool]

yes

[@pandraus]

do you think the monthly costs are too much for bigger websites?

[@MeasureSchool]

cost are relative

[@ganheporassistir8138]

Do you have a server side tracking course for multiple platforms? I'd be interested in buying it for all my media buyers in my agency and recommend it to our partners

[@MeasureSchool]

nope, don't have that.

[@alno1]

I am submiting a content idea: *How to set a conversion goal event in GA4*. Everyone is looking for a way to set a simple conversion event in google analytics 4. (including myself). I think the best way for now would be to set it up through GTM but how to send the event to GA4? Thanks!

[@MeasureSchool]

Sounds great!

[@beyondtheclouds95]

huh so this doesn't really change anything from what the dev has to do (ie. create events w/ parameters in the dataLayer)

[@MeasureSchool]

well, the dev would need to setup the server side instance

[@erik.gasper]

Is that a solution to have a 30 day conversion window in Facebook again instead of 7 days? 🙂

[@MeasureSchool]

no

[@janikzeh2475]

30 day conversion is still there afaik. Facebook only changed the default window to 7 days.

[@rubenvanoostenbrugge2565]

How is this server side tracking? It still depends on the user running the javascript. This solution seems to be the worst of both worlds.

[@patjohn775]

This is unethical

[@MeasureSchool]

how so?

[@saltikkenan]

ı watched a video on youtube which recommends admurai google tag manager templates to setup facebppk capi since the templates are so wonderful that we will not get any deduplication problems etc. What do you think about it Julian. Thanks

[@MeasureSchool]

Nothing. Not tried it.