Server Side Tracking for Google Analytics via GTM

Last Updated: November 30, 2022

What is server-side tracking for Google Analytics and beyond?

The server-side tracking is server to server tracking. You set up server-side tracking via server-side tagging.

In the case of server-side tagging, you do not add third-party JavaScript code (pixels) to your website. Instead, you track and send users’ data to your server.

Your server then processes and transforms the users’ data into a format that third-party vendors (like Google and Facebook) can understand.

When you use server-side tracking for Google Analytics, you do not add the Google Analytics tracking code on your website with or without GTM.

You do not run Google Analytics on users’ web browsers. Instead, you run Google Analytics from your web server.

To really understand server-side tracking, you first need to understand client-side tracking.

What is client-side tracking?

When tracking websites, or mobile apps, we generally use client-side tracking, commonly achieved through tags in Google Tag Manager (GTM).

This method involves setting up a tag that collects data from the browser (client)  and directly sends it to the individual data services like Google Analytics, Google Ads and Facebook.

The client side tracking is browser-based tracking. You set up client-side tracking via client-side tagging.

In the case of client-side tagging, you add third-party JavaScript code (also known as pixels) to your website.

This JavaScript code sets up third-party cookies on your users’ web browsers when it is executed. These third-party cookies send your website users’ data to your ad platforms.

However, Web browsers like ‘Safari’ ultimately control the behaviour of these cookies. They enforce rules on how third-party cookies can be used and set.

Ad blockers can also control the behaviour of third party cookies. They can stop the third-party JavaScript code from being executed on a user’s web browser.

And when the JavaScript code is not executed, no third party cookies are set.

So when you use client-side tagging, your tracking tends to be unreliable as it is at the mercy of your website users and web browsers.

Why should you switch to server-side tracking?

Browser-based tracking and cookies (especially third-party cookies) won’t last long. Server-side tracking is the future.

The progressively stringent privacy regulations and the ever-increasing tracking restrictions from web browsers and ad blockers have made browser-based tracking unreliable. And it is only going to get worse.

If you want to run profitable advertising for the foreseeable future, you have to switch to server-side tracking. There is no other alternative.

You probably know that an increasing number of users are now using ad blockers. And browsers continue to restrict access to more and more user data. 

These tracking restrictions create big data gaps on conversion paths and make it very difficult to understand customer purchase journeys and advertise profitably. 

So how do you track users’ data then? Is this the end of website tracking as we know it?

No.

It is actually the dawn of new and more powerful tracking called ‘server-side tracking‘. 

You need to switch from client-side to server-side tracking. You move all your tracking pixels to the server-side, whether Google Analytics, GA4 or Google Ads.

You run all tracking scripts from your web server instead of the client-side. You can then make third-party cookies, first-party

You can then prevent at least some of your data from being blocked by web browsers and ad blockers.

Note: The server-side tracking does not give you the liberty from following the GDPR guidelines any less strictly. 

Advantages of using server-side tracking

The following are the key advantages of using server-side tracking:

#1 Unlike client-side tracking, server-side tracking cannot be blocked by web browsers or ad blockers. Server-side tracking means server to server tracking. The web browsers do not come into the picture here.

#2 Through server-side tracking, you can fill those data gaps on your conversion paths created by client-side tracking.

#3 When using server-side tracking, you can use third-party cookies in the first-party context.

#4 The server-side tracking is the future of web analytics tracking as the client-side tracking and cookies (esp. third-party cookies) will be gone soon. It is just a matter of time.

#5 The server-side tracking is especially useful for tracking and optimizing Facebook ad campaigns. Through server-side tracking, you can set up Facebook Conversion API via GTM.

How much does server-side tracking cost?

The server-side tracking is not free to use. To set up server-side tracking, Google recommends that you run at least three instances of App Engine on the Google Cloud Platform.

The cost per server instance is around USD $40 per month. So for three server instances, it would cost you around $120 per month or $1440 per year.

If you run a very high traffic website, you may need more than three server instances. So if you need, say, six servers, it would cost you around $240 per month or $2880 per year.

And here is the bummer. We are only getting started. This is just the computation cost and the bare minimum you can expect to spend each month.

The actual cost would depend upon network egress (all outgoing HTTP traffic from your server endpoint) and logging.

I tested server-side tracking on my website for a month, and it cost me $250. If I start using it full time, I am looking at a bill of around $3000 per year.

And this is assuming that my website traffic does not increase over time. Because the more traffic your websites get, the more third-party tags you send data to, the more you will pay.

When using server-side tracking, you have to be very careful not to collect unnecessary data.

What is GTM server-side tagging?

We set up server-side tracking via server-side tagging, and when the server-side tagging is done via GTM, it is called GTM server-side tagging.

At Superweek 2020, Google announced server-side tagging via GTM, which means you can now run Google Tag Manager in a server-side environment.

Server-side tagging is a new way to use Google Tag Manager (GTM) in Google’s Cloud environment.

It has its own benefits, such as reduced page load time, better security, and better control over the data that you send to Google Analytics and third-party tools.

Like the normal Google Tag Manager container, which resides in a client-side environment, the server-side container resides in the Google Cloud environment:

GTM server-side container

A server-side container also uses the same concepts, like tags, triggers and variables, that you have used earlier.

A server-side container acts like a proxy in-cloud environment that you own. Instead of sending hits directly to the endpoint server (like in client-side GTM), you send hits to a server-side GTM container and then to the endpoint server, which collects the data.

A typical client-side GTM container looks like below.

server side tagging Typical Container1

As you can see from the image above, whenever a user makes a server request with different devices, the Google Tag Manager configuration without server-side tagging depends on a container in the website to send hits data to various third-party collection servers.

But in the case of server-side tagging, the Tag Manager configuration runs in a cloud environment. Running multiple scripts on the devices does not affect the website or application performance.

Let’s see the below image for the detailed working of the server-side tagging container.

server side tagging Server side container

As you can see from the above image, the server-side container runs in the Google Cloud platform owned by the customer, and only the customer has access to the data sent to third-party tools. You have complete control over the data on how it’s being routed to the third-party tool.

How does GTM server-side tagging work?

Let me explain how server-side tagging works in a step-by-step method.

#1: When a user visits your website, a pageview request is made to the webserver through a server request.

server side tagging server request

#2 Simultaneously, the client-side GTM container fires a ‘web tag’ that acts as an adapter between the scripts running on a user’s device and your server container.

It takes the required measurement data from the user’s device and sends it to the client in the server-side container.

server side tagging web tag

Note: We are still using the client-side GTM container, but in this case, instead of directly sending data to third-party tools like Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Facebook, it sends data to the client in the server-side container of GTM.

#3 The client in the server-side container is the type of adapter that receives measurement data from ‘web tag’, processes that data into one or more events and packages up the final data to send back to the requester.

server side tagging client

#4 Now, in the server-side container, you can create multiple tags based on the requirements and then send them to the final third-party tools.

server side tagging third party tools

Benefits of GTM server-side tagging

#1 Reduced page load

One of the great benefits of server-side tagging is reduced page load time. As we define all the tags in the server-side container, the JavaScript loads in the cloud and then sends the data to the individual third-party servers which collect the information.

The server-side container is configured in such a way that it can map any incoming HTTP requests to the vendor format required by third-party tools like Facebook, Hot Jar, Google Ads and Google Analytics.

You can reduce all the JavaScript and third-party pixels running on the devices to the server-side container and thus improve user experience.

#2 More secure and safe

In a typical GTM implementation, the GTM container resides on the client-side. The data processing can be exposed to the spammers who can send fake pageviews and events to your analytics property.

However, in the case of server-side tagging, the data processing happens in the cloud environment that only you own and have access to.

This makes server-side tagging more secure and safe as all the hits to third-party tools are credential-based without exposing sensitive data to the device.

#3 Extra control for data collection

In server-side tagging, your server-side container resides between the user’s device and the endpoint.

It acts as an intermediary for requests from users, processes them in the cloud and then sends the data to the endpoint.

Since third-party tools don’t directly connect to the user’s device, there are no data leaks or setting-up of third-party cookies.

You have complete control over what data is being sent to the endpoint tools, and these tools are communicating only with your server.

Key concerns for server-side tagging via GTM

Even though server-side tagging has great benefits, a few key concerns need to be evaluated before opting in.

#1 Cost

Yes, server-side tagging comes with the cost incurred to host the server-side container in the cloud. Note that the server-side GTM container is still free to use, and the cost incurred is only to host it in the cloud.

In general, a minimum of three servers are required in the Google Cloud platform to host this solution, and it could cost $120 USD or more per month.

If you track more data and process it in the cloud, the solution will cost more depending on the number of server calls.

#2 Technical skills

To set up server-side tracking, Google recommends that you run at least three instances of App Engine on the Google Cloud Platform.

So you would need to create, run and maintain your own virtual servers. Needless to say, server-side tracking can get very technical, very fast.

Even if you somehow set up these servers, you still need to set up a mechanism to send conversion data accurately from your website to Facebook, Google and other third-party vendors.

In the event of the same conversion event being sent twice (once via pixel and once via API), your third-party vendors (like Facebook) won’t be able to deduplicate event data.

This may cause issues with your ad delivery optimization and as well as attribution. Thus, this solution is not recommended to everyone as it is much more complex than you think.

#3 Available GTM resources

Server-side GTM containers are similar to typical GTM containers on the client-side, but they lack normally available tags and triggers.

In fact, there is only a handful of tags available in the GTM container:

tags available in gtm container

Now let’s dive into setting up server-side tagging.

How to set up server-side tracking for Google Analytics via GTM?

Following is the 10000 foot view of the steps involved in setting up the server-side tracking for Google Analytics via GTM:

  1. Create a server-side GTM container
  2. Configuring Google server for GTM container
  3. Send data to server-side GTM container
  4. Preview and debug the server-side GTM container
  5. Set up a custom domain

#1 Creating a server-side GTM container

Step 1: Navigate to your Google Tag Manager account and click on the ‘+’ button to create a container.

server side tagging create container

Step 2: Give your container a descriptive name, select ‘Server’ from the available target platforms, and click on ‘Create’.

server side tagging create container1

Step 3: Once you click on ‘Create’, a pop-up will come like the one below, asking you to provide the container with a tagging server (Google Cloud App Engine Standard Instance).

server side tagging create container2

You have two options to select from – ‘Automatically provision tagging server‘ and ‘Manually provision tagging server‘.

If you are new to the Google Cloud Platform select the first option (Automatically provision tagging server) where you will need to create a billing account and provide your financial details and Google will automatically create a tagging server for you.

server side tagging create container 3
server side tagging create container 4

If you already have access to Google Cloud Platform and have your own server you can select the ‘Manually provision tagging server’ option.

In our case, I already have access to Google Cloud Platform, so I will go with manually configuring the tagging server.

server side tagging create container 5

Note down the container configuration to configure the Google Cloud server in the next steps.

Note: If you have selected ‘Automatically provision tagging server’, the container configuration will be loaded by default while setting up the Google server.

#2 Configuring Google server for GTM container

Step 1: Navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/ and click on ‘Select a project’.

select project

Step 2: An overlay will appear. You can select the project from the available list or create a new project by clicking on ‘New project’. In our case, I will select from the list of available projects since I have already created one.

Click on ‘Open’ at the bottom of the overlay.

server side tagging select project 1

Step 3: A dashboard for the project will open. Note down the project ID.

server side tagging project id

Step 4: Now click on ‘Activate Cloud Shell’ from the menu bar in the upper-right corner.

server side tagging cloud shell

Step 5: A command prompt will appear at the bottom of your window, like below.

server side tagging command prompt

Step 6: Now, we need to set the cloud platform project in the cloud shell.

Copy the following command and paste it into the command prompt. Replace the <PROJECT ID> with the GCP project ID you noted earlier in step 6.

gcloud config set project <PROJECT_ID>

server side tagging command prompt 1

Step 7: Press’ Enter’, and an authorization overlay will occur to make the GCP call. Click on ‘Authorize’.

server side tagging authorize

Step 8: You will now see the project ID set to the new ID for which we will set up the server.

server side tagging command prompt 2

Step 9: Copy and paste the following command in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’.

bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://googletagmanager.com/static/serverjs/setup.sh)”

server side tagging command prompt 3

This script will configure the host for our server-side container. It will ask multiple questions for which we will need to provide input.

Step 10: Press “Y” and press enter. It will ask for “Container Config (Required)”.

Copy the container configuration we noted earlier in step 3 and paste it into the command prompt. Press’ Enter’.

server side tagging command prompt 4

Step 11: Now, It will ask for the policy script URL, which is optional, and we can skip it. Press’ Enter’ to skip it.

server side tagging command prompt 5

Step 12: The next input is to provide ‘Deployment type’. The options available are ‘testing’ and ‘production’. We are deploying this solution on a live website, so we will choose ‘production’.

Type’ production’ in the command prompt and press ‘Enter’.

server side tagging command prompt 6

Step 13: The next step is to provide the autoscaling option. Autoscaling lets your apps gracefully handle traffic increases, and it reduces costs when the need for resources is lower. It is recommended that this is ‘on’.

Type ‘on’ and press ‘Enter’.

server side tagging command prompt 7

Step 14: In the next step, we have to provide the minimum number of servers to host the container (minimum 3 to maximum 6). Type ‘3’ and press ‘Enter’.

server side tagging command prompt 8

Step 15: You will be prompted to provide the maximum number of servers. You can add up to 6 maximum servers, but in our case, three are sufficient. Type ‘3’ and press ‘Enter’.

server side tagging command prompt 8.5

Step 16: You will be asked to provide CPU target utilization. The target utilization level is the level at which you want to maintain your virtual machine (VM) instances.

For example, if you scale based on CPU utilization, you can set your target utilization level at 75%, and the autoscaler will maintain the CPU utilization of the specified group of instances at or close to 75%. Recommended to put at 0.6 (60%)

Type ‘0.6’ and press ‘Enter’.

server side tagging command prompt 9

Step 17: You will be prompted with the inputs you have provided so far and asked whether you wish to continue. Type ‘Y’ and press ‘Enter’.

server side tagging command prompt 10

Step 18: Once you press ‘Enter’, your server will be configured, and you will be provided with confirmation like below.

server side tagging command prompt 11

Note Down the target URL from the above image since we need to add this in our Google Tag Manager server-side container.

server side tagging command prompt 12

Congratulations! You have successfully configured your server now.

You can go to the dashboard and see the live requests coming in.

server side tagging live request

Now, set up the Google Tag Manager container with the target URL we noted earlier.

Step 19: Navigate to the admin section of your server-side Google Tag Manager container. Paste the target URL you have noted down in the input box named ‘Tagging server URL’ and click on ‘Save’.

server side tagging custom domain 20

Your server-side container is now ready to use.

#3 Sending data to server-side GTM Container

You can send data to a server-side container in the following ways:

  1. Using GTM: You can use regular GTM on the client-side to send data.
  2. Using Gtag.js: You can also use Gtag.js to send data to a server-side container
  3. Custom code: You can also write custom code.

In our case, I am using the regular version of a client-side GTM container.

Follow the below steps to send data to a server-side GTM container:

Step-1: Log in to your client-side GTM container and go to the ‘Variables’ tab.

server side tagging client side gtm Continer

Step 2: Select the ‘Google Analytics Setting’ variable. This is the variable that sends data directly to the Google Analytics server. We are configuring it to send data to our server-side container.

server side tagging client side gtm Continer 1

Step 3: A new overlay will appear. Click on the pencil icon to edit the variable settings.

server side tagging client side gtm Continer 2 1

Step 4: Click on ‘More settings’ and click on ‘Advanced configuration’.

server side tagging client side gtm Continer 3

Step 5: In the ‘Transport URL’ input box, you need to provide the tagging server URL so that instead of directly sending the data to Google Analytics, it will send data to our server-side container. You can find the tagging server URL in the admin section of the server-side GTM container.

server side tagging Tagging server URL

Copy this URL

Step 6: Paste the tagging server URL in the ‘Transport URL’ input box and click on ‘Save’.

server side tagging client side gtm Continer 4

Congratulations!!! You have successfully configured your client-side container to send data to the server-side container.

You can check this by enabling the preview mode of both the containers (client-side GTM container and server-side GTM container).

As you can see from the below image, the Google Analytics pageview has fired on the client-side container.

server side tagging client side gtm preview

The same is received in our server-side container preview window as a ‘page_view’ request.

server side tagging server side gtm preview

Our client-side GTM container is set to send all hits (pageview, events, transactions) to the server-side container.

From the above image, you can also see that the client is Universal Analytics, which has generated an incoming HTTP request.

This means that that is collected from the website and is sent to our server-side container.

Outgoing HTTP requests are ‘None’ since we have not created any tag in the server-side container, and hence no data is sent to Google Analytics.

Let’s proceed further and understand the preview and debug method for a server-side container.

#4 Preview and debug the server-side GTM container

You can preview the server-side container just like the typical client-side container by clicking on the ‘Preview’ button. It will open a new tab where you can debug your tags, variables, events, etc.

To understand it in more detail, let’s create an analytics tag in the server-side container.

Step 1: Navigate to your server-side container, click on ‘Tags’, and click on ‘New’.

server side tagging server tag

Step 2: Give your tag a descriptive name and click on ‘Tag configuration’.

server side tagging server tag 1

Step 3: An overlay will appear on the right-hand side with a list of tag templates.

Since server-side tagging is still in the beta version, there are currently only three types of tag templates. ‘Google Analytics: GA4’, ‘Google Analytics: Universal Analytics’, and ‘HTTP request’. In our case, we will select ‘Google Analytics: Universal Analytics’.

server side tagging server tag 2

Step 4: In the ‘Tag configuration’ window, you have the option to select the ‘Enable overriding settings in this tag’ checkbox. We will keep it unchecked since, by default, the server-side container inherits the analytics ID from the client-side container.

You also get the option of advanced settings, which is similar to the typical GTM container settings.

server side tagging server tag 3

Step 5: Click on ‘Triggering’ to create a trigger for our tag.

server side tagging server tag 4

Step 6: Click on the ‘+’ icon to create a new trigger. Give a descriptive name to your trigger.

server side tagging server tag 5

Note that, like a typical GTM container, you don’t get the predefined trigger ‘All Pages’ here. In fact, there is only one trigger type available, which is ‘Custom Trigger’.

Step 7: Click on ‘Trigger type’, and you can specify the trigger condition here by selecting the ‘Some events’ option. You can also create a new variable to define your trigger condition or choose the built-in variables.

server side tagging server tag 6

Step 8: In our case, we only want to pass data to Google analytics; hence we will select the condition as “Client name” equals “Universal Analytics”.

server side tagging server tag 7

Click on ‘Save’.

To give you a bit more of an idea about clients, you would have noticed that there is one extra menu in the server-side container called ‘Clients’.

Here you will find all the third-party tools to which you would like to send the data.

Currently, only two clients are available by default: ‘ Universal Analytics’ and ‘App + Web’. Hopefully, Google will come up with various clients (Facebook, Google Ads, etc.) here in the near future.

server side tagging clients menu

Step 9: Click on the ‘Preview’ button, and a new window will open like the one below with a blank summary.

server side tagging preview window

Step 10: Go to your website and visit any page with the client-side GTM container code available.

Switch back to the preview window to see multiple hits received from the client-side container. As you can see from the below image, a pageview request is generated, and multiple scroll events are also generated (I have implemented scroll tracking in the client-side container).

server side tagging preview window 1

If you click on the ‘Request’ tab on the preview window, you can check the Universal Analytics tag. You will also notice the incoming and outgoing HTTP requests to the Google Analytics server.

server side tagging preview window 2

To see the details of tags fired, you can click on the ‘Tags’ tab of the preview window and select ‘Universal Analytics’.

server side tagging preview window 3

It will provide you with tag details, outgoing HTTP requests .and the trigger condition of the server-side container.

server side tagging preview window 4

In the preview window, the ‘Variable’ tab will provide the list of variables enabled and their corresponding values.

server side tagging preview window 5

The ‘Event data’ tab will provide you with all the information collected and passed to the endpoint tool, like Google Analytics in this case.

server side tagging preview window 6

You can also check real-time reports in Google Analytics, just to be sure.

server side tagging preview window 7

Congratulations !!! If you have reached this point, you have now successfully…

  1. Created a server-side container
  2. Configured the server
  3. Create your first analytics tag in a server-side container
  4. Debugged and previewed the analytics call

#5 Setting up a custom domain

It is strongly recommended to map your custom domain to your server container endpoint. This is because the default server-side tagging deployment is hosted on an App Engine domain.

Instead, you need to modify the deployment to use a subdomain of your website in order to use first-party cookies on the user devices.

If you don’t map your custom domain, you won’t be able to use the cookie’s information. It will consider the App Engine domain as a third-party context.

If you have noticed, the preview window opens a Google App Engine domain.

server side tagging custom domain 1

To consider all your server-side containers in the first-party context, we can map your own domain to the server by following these steps:

Step 1: Navigate to https://console.cloud.google.com/ and select the project you have created earlier.

server side tagging select project 1 1

Step 2: Click on the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner and click on ‘App Engine’. An overlay will appear. Click on ‘Settings’.

server side tagging custom domain 2

Step 3: A settings window will open. Click on ‘Custom domains’ and then click on ‘Add a custom domain’.

server side tagging custom domain 3

Step 4: Add your domain name without HTTPS:// or www and click on ‘Verify’. In our case, I will use gtm.optimizesmart.com

server side tagging custom domain 4

Step 5: A new window tab will open in which Google will ask you to verify your domain.

server side tagging custom domain 5

Step 6: Select ‘Other’ from the drop-down list, and it will generate a TXT record which you will need to add to your DNS records to verify. Copy the TXT record.

server side tagging custom domain 6

Step 7: Log in to your DNS record manager. In our case, I use Cloudflare to manage all my domains and their DNS records. Once you have logged in, select the domain name for which we will add the TXT record.

server side tagging custom domain 7

Step 8: Click on ‘DNS’ to enter the record settings, and you will get a window like below:

server side tagging custom domain 8

Step 9: Click on ‘+Add Record’ and select the type as ‘TXT’ from the drop-down menu.

server side tagging custom domain 9

Step 10: Paste the TXT record that we noted earlier in step 6 and click on ‘Save’.

server side tagging custom domain 10
server side tagging custom domain 11 1

Step 11: Now go back to the Google webmaster window and click on ‘Verify’.
Upon successful verification, you will get the below notification:

server side tagging custom domain 12

Step 12: Now go to the Google Cloud console. You will see the message as ‘Successfully verified ownership of <your domain name>’. Now click on ‘Continue’.

server side tagging custom domain 13 1

Step 13: Select your newly added domain and map it with the Google Cloud project by clicking on ‘Save Mapping’.

server side tagging custom domain 14

Step 14: You will get status marked as a green tick mark. Click on ‘Continue’.

server side tagging custom domain 15

Step 15: It will now provide you with a list of records that you need to add to your DNS to enable security. Navigate to your DNS console and add the provided list of records one by one accordingly.

server side tagging custom domain 16

Note that there are four “A” type records and four “AAAA” type records. You need to add these records to your DNS using the domain names like below.

  • Record type: “A” or “AAAA”
  • Name: gtm (prefix to our main domain)
  • Ipv4 address: record values which are provided in earlier step for ex: 216.239.38.21
  • TTL: Set to auto
  • Proxy status: set to DNS only

Click on ‘Save’.

server side tagging custom domain 17

Repeat this step for the remaining records.

Step 16: Once you have added all the provided records from the list, you will see the below window:

server side tagging custom domain 18

Step 17: Navigate to the Google Cloud console and click on ‘Done’.

server side tagging custom domain 16a

You will see the below screen with all records mapped to your custom domain:

server side tagging custom domain 19

It may take an hour or two for mapping to update in Google Cloud. Once updated, you will see the preview mode window in your own domain mapped.

But hold on, there is one more setting that we need to change before you can validate your custom domain mappings.

Step 18: Navigate to your server-side container admin settings and change the tagging server URL to your newly mapped domain.

For example, our tagging server URL was “https://ethreal-art-293017.uc.r.appspot.com” (App Engine domain).

Change it with your new domain URL like ‘https://abc.yourdomainname.com’. In our case, I will use ‘https://gtm.optimizesmart.com’. Click on ‘Save’.

server side tagging custom domain 20 1

Step 19: Enable the server-side container preview mode and visit your website. You will now see your custom domain URL along with the page_view tag firing.

server side tagging custom domain 21

Great, you have configured your custom domain to the server-side GTM container.

Conclusion

Server-side tagging offers great tracking benefits like reduced page load time, a more safe and secure environment and full ownership of data control. However, there are still a few concerns, like the cost associated with it and the technical skills required to set this up.

You need to carry out many steps to set up server-side tagging, like setting up a custom domain, setting the transporting URL in a client-side container, and then finally creating tags, triggers, and variables in a server-side container.

As of now, there are only two clients available in server-side containers, namely ‘Google Analytics: GA4’ and ‘Google Analytics: Universal Analytics‘. I hope soon there will be more third-party clients available to set up in community templates.

  1. How to Create Server Side Container for Google Tag Manager
  2. How to Configure DNS for GTM Server Side Container
  3. How to send data from Website to Server Side Container
  4. How to set up GA4 via GTM Server Side Tagging
  5. Setting up Facebook Conversion API via Google Tag Manager (GTM)
  6. Google Tag Manager Tutorial
  7. How to set up Data Layer for GTM Server Side Container
  8. GTM Server Side Preview Mode – Tutorial

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About the Author

Himanshu Sharma

  • Founder, OptimizeSmart.com
  • Over 15 years of experience in digital analytics and marketing
  • Author of four best-selling books on digital analytics and conversion optimization
  • Nominated for Digital Analytics Association Awards for Excellence
  • Runs one of the most popular blogs in the world on digital analytics
  • Consultant to countless small and big businesses over the decade

Get My Step-By-Step Blueprint For Finding The Best KPIs (32 pages ebook)

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