Measuring your visitor behavior gives you many insights and can offer a much higher return on your online efforts. Where until recently we mapped visitors with cookies, these are becoming less and less effective. The solution? Server-side tagging. A new feature in Google Tag Manager (GTM) that we will no doubt be hearing a lot about.
In this blog post, we’ll explain to you what server-side tagging is all about. We also rewind a bit, in case you’re not already using GTM. We introduce you to this tool, show you the benefits of server-side tagging and how to configure it.
What is Google Tag Manager?
For successful digital marketing, it is essential that you know what your visitors are doing. Google Analytics is a valuable tool for that, but when you don’t combine it with other tools, you can run into a lot of limitations. And that’s where Google Tag Manager (GTM) comes in. Use that in conjunction with Google Analytics to measure through goals on certain actions, for example.
By adding tags to your site, you can track your visitors and collect a wealth of additional user information. For example, you can see where visitors come from before they land on your site, whether they fill out forms and how far people scroll. There is also an integration with Cookiebot to ensure you are GDPR-proof.
With all this information, you can better tailor your site to the needs and habits of your visitors, as well as ensure that your calls-to-action (CTAs) are seen. In addition, this tool allows you to apply remarketing, for example through Google Ads or Facebook.
The nice thing about Google Tag Manager is that you don’t need high-level technical knowledge to install these tags. There are many templates for popular tags and you don’t have to fiddle in your site’s source code. This makes it easier for any marketing manager to add tags without the help of a programmer.
The benefits of Google Tag Manager
You can also insert tags manually, of course. But why reinvent the wheel? Google Tag Manager is a free tool that lets you decide what data is important to your marketing goals and what data you collect. Here are the main benefits:
- All tags neatly together
In one clear overview, you can see all the text you use on a website. That saves searching or inquiring, which in turn is nice if you have access to Google Tag Manager with several people in your department, for example. Just give clear names to the tags and triggers so that everyone understands what they are for.
- Full control
You no longer need programming knowledge to modify a piece of website code. After a programmer puts the general GTM tags on your site, you can add and remove tags yourself. That way you have complete control over what you measure, without depending on others. This allows you to move quickly and drive your online growth even more effectively.
- The source code remains undamaged
One wrong modification to the source code can crash your entire site. Fortunately, this is not possible with Google Tag Manager, because this tool only makes one adjustment to your website. You place so-called container tags once, which does require you to hire a programmer, which you then control from Google Tag Manager. This prevents the site from slowing down and at the same time keeps the source code clear for your web designer.
Trend in 2022: server-side tagging
Third-party cookies are no longer cool. Privacy laws and browser filters make such cookies hardly work anymore. This means that remarketing based on these cookies is no longer effective.
Google, with its Tag Manager, therefore now offers server-side clients to. In this process, tracking signals are no longer sent from the browser, but via the server to the final destination. Apart from more useful statistics, this also provides better performance and better security of user data.
If you don’t have server-side tagging set up yet, the 2022 threshold is a good time to configure it. You do that by creating a server container and selecting a GCP tagging server (cost: €30-50 per month). You then link this to a subdomain of the domain on which you want to measure.
Let 2manydots manage this for you
Seeing and analyzing user data is great. But if your schedule is packed with other tasks and responsibilities, you can’t afford the luxury of devoting much time to Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Fortunately, 2manydots can help you with this. We configure Google Tag Manager such that you track server-side visitor behavior that is relevant to you.
Of course, you can add, change or delete tags yourself. Or let us do that for you. Either way, we are an addition to your marketing team. Thanks to our periodic reports and analyses, you can see exactly what is going well and where things can be improved.
