What is not server-side tracking?
Debunking server-side tracking's false promises
- Article
- Technical Web Analytics
- Data Analytics
Server-side tracking is becoming a hot topic among agencies, marketeers and analysts. A lot of information is available on the subject, but it is not always accurate. Server-side tracking has often been sold as a miracle solution against data loss, GDPR and other unethical challenges.
We want to debunk those false promises and give a brief description of what server-side tracking does not.
❌ Server-side tracking is an alternative to 3rd party cookies’ sunset
We hear and read this one a lot, but no, server-side tracking won’t help you against the deprecation of third-party cookies as it is not intended for it. Rather, it is the third-parties responsibility to work out a solution compatible with first-party data.
Server-side tracking is here to help you stay in control of the data you collect and share. Browsers like Brave and Firefox are already working without third-party cookies, and browsers like Google Chrome are actively developing their own solutions. Even though it can help mitigate issues with cross-domain tracking and cookies expiration (under certain circumstances), it still requires coordination with various systems and services. Which is why server-side tracking should not be used solely as an alternative for third-party cookies’ sunset.
❌ Server-side tracking is a way to circumvent user consent, privacy and GDPR regulations
We can’t say this enough: do not use server-side tracking to negate the consent preferences of users and circumvent regulations. Migrating the workload outside of the user’s device does not mean that we can bypass their privacy and consent to be tracked or not. Moreover, besides your legal department not approving the set-up, you risk hefty fines from data protection authorities and governments enforcing local and international laws in the European Union.
For us, the individual rights comes first. Only if the user agrees, you can use server-side tracking to measure more accurately and enrich the data collected to provide better insights.
❌ Server-side tracking will allow you to track 100% of your app and website traffic
While you can recover the data lost from ad-blockers, you will not reach 100%, unless you enrich your data server-side from a backend source. The main advantage of server-side tracking is that you can have more control over the collected data, meaning:
- Clean-up, format and anonymise the data
- Enrich from other sources
- Create your own visitor data base and fill in your Customer Data Platform
The goal of server-side tracking is to collect better quality data instead of more quantity.
❌ Server-side tracking is a complex mystery-box that no-one can access
Even though the data processing and requests will no longer be visible in the browser, it does not mean that server-side tracking is an unknown process. We help you control where the server is hosted and how the data is manipulated, instead of locking you in with a specific vendor.
Additionally, many tools have created their own debugging and testing platforms to help you visualise everything that is happening in the server.
As with any new technology, your team may need to update its skills to work autonomously. Besides implementing server-side tracking, we can train your company to develop the right competences.
❌ Server-side tracking is only for large companies
Because of its relative complexity and association with large enterprises, it can be wrongly associated to high costs and long development times. However, server-side tracking can be valuable and adapted to smaller businesses as well. Costs mainly depend on the amount of data processing and storage which make it accessible to everyone.
A transparant partner
In conclusion to these debunking statements, we like to say that server-side tracking is more efficient, faster, reliable, secure and gives you overall more control. But as every tailor-made solution, the result will highly depend on configuration, usage and respect of best practices. Our advice is to choose a transparent partner that will guide you on every step of the implementation while giving you the control you desire and aligning with your growth ambitions.
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