Data regulations are getting stricter. Privacy updates like GDPR, CCPA, CCPR, and other things like third-party cookie restrictions are limiting access to user data. And, customers can now stop businesses from collecting too much data about them.
In response to these changes, marketers are opting for server to server tracking. But how does it actually work, what are the benefits for advertisers, and is this really the gold standard for tracking user behavior?
In this guide, we’ll have server side tracking explained in a simple way. We’ll look at what it means, how it can help you bypass data collection roadblocks, and even provide a video that breaks down how it works.
Key Takeaways:
- Privacy updates are forcing marketers to abandon traditional tracking methods that are vulnerable to browser restrictions and have trouble bypassing ad blockers.
- Client-side tracking relies on the user’s browser to get data, so it’s often restricted, leading to incomplete or missing information.
- S2S tracking solves this problem by sending data directly to your server, giving you full control and accurate insights.
- Setting up server side analytics tracking might sound challenging, but dedicated software like RedTrack can simplify the process and deliver many insights.
An Introduction to Cookieless Updates
For years, marketers have used third-party cookies (also known as cross-site cookies) to track user behavior across platforms. These give you insights into your audience so you can display personalized ads that appeal to them.
With third-party cookies, you can access a range of customer data, including:
- browsing history;
- session time;
- search queries;
- IP address and location;
- demographic inferences;
- purchase intent.
But over time, these cookies started gaining a bad reputation, primarily because they monitored users too closely. And, regulatory bodies were quick to act.
Privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA are limiting the type of data you can collect. Also, with privacy-first tools like Facebook’s Conversions API, updates like App Tracking Transparency, and browser restrictions rolling out across the board, we’re officially heading into a cookieless future.
Now, marketers must find a better way to track customer data without crossing privacy lines, such as utilizing cookieless tracking software.
What Is Server Side Tracking?
Server-side tracking (S2S, SST, or server to server tracking) is a privacy-friendly alternative to traditional methods. It’s a secure and accurate way to track your conversions.
Instead of relying on a user’s browser to track their online behavior through third-party tools like cookies or pixels, server tracking routes that data to your server.
From there, it sends the information to your ad platforms or analytics tools. It’s just like creating a private lane for your data rather than sending it out into traffic. If you’re running campaigns on multiple marketing channels, server side conversion tracking lets you see the full picture.
S2S tracking is a solution that can help you track your clicks and conversions accurately. It aligns marketing between several channels, platforms, and networks and establishes a clear data flow between all of them.
How Does Server Side Tracking Work?
When a user clicks on a tracking link or views an online advertisement, your ad tracking platform generates a unique click ID. This ID is stored either on your server or passed directly to your analytics platform.
Later, when that same user converts (maybe they make a purchase, sign up, or book a free call), your system captures the conversion event and sends it back to the tracking platform, along with the click ID. This tells you exactly which click led to which conversion. That’s how tracking solutions know that it was that particular user making a conversion without breaching any privacy rules.
The unique identifier also provides some details about the user, including:
- their browser type;
- country;
- kind of device;
- operating system;
- internet service provider.
Once the conversion is confirmed, marketing platforms use a secure link (called a postback URL) to send that data back to your tracking system.
S2S conversion tracking will help you to know exactly when, where, and at what time the conversion was generated. This helps to make the optimization process quick and easy when compared to other forms of the campaign. However, to run all of this properly, you’ll need reliable S2S tracking software, such as RedTrack, that’s built for the job. When considering options, aim for a privacy-friendly solution that’s intuitive in use and provides reliable marketing data for further analysis.
6 Benefits of Server Side Tracking
What is server to server tracking important for, and why does it matter? Well, one of the best things about it is that it tells you when and where a specific conversion was made. This makes the optimization process quick and easy. Let’s go over some of the main advantages of the approach.
Data Security
When you process data on your own servers, you take control over how that information is collected, stored, and used. To compare, sending sensitive data through third-party scripts opens doors to security risks. The fewer hands your data passes through, the lower the chances of leaks or unauthorized access.
Clear Attribution
One of the biggest challenges in digital advertising is figuring out which campaign is actually delivering results. Server tracking simplifies this by assigning a unique ID to every click, making attribution modeling more accurate. You can trace where a lead came from, how they behaved, and what made them convert.
With better tracking and attribution, you can confidently allocate more budget to the channels and campaigns that drive the most conversions.
Better Performance
When tracking happens on the server side, it reduces the number of scripts running in a visitor’s browser. As a result, your landing page will load faster because there’s less strain on the user’s device.
Because users tend to abandon sites that take longer than three seconds to load, S2S can make a difference. It speeds up your pages, which can lower bounce rates and support your ads in performing better.
Accurate Data
With client-side tracking, you’re constantly worrying about ad blockers, privacy updates, and cookie restrictions. S2S is all about accurate data collection, it gets around those limitations by handling data collection without any interference. This keeps your reporting precise and error-free, even as browsers like Safari, Firefox, and Chrome tighten privacy protections.
Privacy Compliance
What is server-side tracking also great for? Compliance. Privacy laws aim to protect a user’s sensitive information from data breaches. S2S conversion tracking makes privacy-first tracking easy.
Instead of relying on third-party scripts that scoop up all kinds of personal info from a user’s browser, you’re the one in control. You decide what data gets collected, how it’s stored, and how it’s processed.
Also, you’re not passing around someone’s personal information. Instead, the data you send is stripped of anything that could directly identify the user. That way, you still get the insights you need to optimize your campaigns without breaking privacy laws.
Omnichannel Support
If you’re running ads across multiple traffic sources, it’s hard to get full visibility into the customer’s journey. Server side conversion tracking makes this easier by capturing data consistently across every channel and device. Then, it links this data back to a unique user ID.
This matters even more when you factor in cross-device behavior. With cross-device tracking, you’ll know whether a user clicked an ad on Facebook, added a product to the cart on mobile, and then completed a purchase via desktop. Based on these insights, you can properly credit your best-performing channels and identify patterns that lead to conversions.
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Client-Side vs Server-Side Tracking
Let’s dot the i’s regarding server-side tracking vs client-side tracking. Both capture user behavior on your website. They use tracking links, unique IDs, and first-party data collection methods to map out the customer journey. However, they collect data in different ways and also vary in terms of reliability.
- Client-side tracking — relies on the user’s browser to gather data. It seems easy, but you might hit dead ends with ad blockers and browser limits. Also, it hands over a lot of control to third-party platforms, and as we’ve seen, this can backfire when you’re trying to stay compliant. When someone clicks your ad and performs an action, the browser tracks their behavior using tools like Meta Pixel or Google Tag Manager. But if they use strict privacy settings, that data might be blocked before it ever leaves the webpage.
- Server-to-server S2S tracking — allows you to collect data directly through your server and bypass ad blockers. That means fewer tracking gaps and full control over how data is handled. It’s also easier to comply with privacy laws, and you can mark yourself safe from most browser limitations.
Between these two approaches, S2S takes the win for being privacy-first.
Server-Side Tracking vs Pixel Tracking
Pixel tracking is a form of client-side tracking that requires you to place a small piece of HTML code (called a pixel) on your website. This code runs in a user’s browser and monitors their behavior. When someone performs an action on your webpage, the pixel sends data to your ad platform. However, all the data gets stored not on the server-side, but on the client-side.
Because they rely on the browser, ad tracking pixels can miss data due to the user’s privacy settings. S2S tracking solves these problems by sending data straight through your server, making it more reliable and future-proof.
Why Pixel Is an Outdated Tracking Method
Pixels were built for a time when most tracking happened in the browser. Privacy tools were more lenient then, so you could accurately monitor user behavior. But that world’s changed.
Today, browsers limit third-party requests, users can opt out of tracking entirely, and ad blockers are everywhere. Pixel is less accurate, it can easily be blocked by ad blockers, and users may simply delete cookies (which will affect your statistics). Therefore, the performance reported by pixels is not precise.
As a result, pixels are no longer enough to provide key insights into your audience. Worse, you have less control over how and when data is collected. That’s why marketers are now moving away from pixels and toward enhanced analytics server side tracking, where they call the shots.
The Gains of Using Server Side Tracking Tools
Server side analytics tracking provides valuable insights that help you fine-tune your marketing activities towards better and more effective results. It also enables you to integrate all of your marketing channels through trusted server-side tracking tools and establish the data exchange between systems.
Here’s how it works:
- Your affiliate networks receive conversion data from all of your traffic sources.
- Your ad platforms (e.g., Meta, Google, Taboola, TikTok, and Bing) receive high-quality postback data, which helps their algorithms optimize your campaigns better.
- Your ad tracking system pulls all of this data into a unified dashboard, letting you see what’s working and what’s not.
It keeps all your data in sync and gives you all the control you need to scale. But if you’re new to this, you’ll need to learn how to set up server side tracking. Doing it from scratch is time-consuming and involves technical expertise, but you can cut corners by implementing an S2S tool with an easy tracking setup. When browsing your options, pay attention to those that offer:
- Pre-configured solutions to save a lot of time and effort on fine-tuning a custom tracking infrastructure.
- Seamless integration with ad platforms, ad networks, and affiliate platforms, so you don’t have to manually set up each connection.
- Privacy compliance (e.g., those that filter out personally identifiable information).
- Real-time reporting, preferably with a centralized dashboard that lets you monitor data flow in real time and catch issues before they impact performance.
- Centralized data routing from multiple traffic sources to one central hub, rather than having it scattered across separate platforms.
- Ongoing support and maintenance so you’re not left hanging if something needs updates.
Final Thoughts on Server Side Conversion Tracking
With all the recent changes around user privacy and data collection, traditional tracking methods just don’t cut it anymore. S2S is a reliable alternative if you’re looking to get cleaner data to power up your marketing.
Setting up your own tracking system from scratch can get expensive and time-consuming. If you want a simpler way to get started, RedTrack is built to gather all the data you need, create unified customer profiles, and help you get the most out of your campaigns.
- RedTrack has 200+ integrations: affiliate networks, ad channels, and e-commerce platforms. You will find built-in templates from all the needed platforms to easily start analyzing performance.
- By default, you get server-side tracking with all the important marketing channels (Facebook, Google, TikTok, Bing, ClickBank, etc.)
- It is an unbiased source of marketing data that shows you your performance from different angles in a single report.
- You don’t have to worry about technical implementation, you have templates, out-of-the-box integrations, and plenty of tutorials to help you along the way. Besides, RedTrack has an outstanding customer support team and onboarding services.
Want to see how it all works? Sign up to take is for a free spin.
