It should not be a secret for everyone working with Google Ads that the more accurate data you use, the more successful your campaign will be. However, it is as simple to get such data as it may seem.

Ad blockers often influence the tracking scripts’ work, cookies may disappear earlier than you expect, and as a result - Google Ads does not provide you with realistic reports. Can something be done with that?

Luckily for you, yes. Google Ads server-side tracking is the approach that can ensure you are getting the most accurate customer data possible. The ads you launch will remain the same, but the reports will get sharper, cleaner, and more reliable.

Server-Side Tracking Explained in Simple Words

When a potential customer interacts with your ads, their browser collects the needed data (purchases or clicks, for instance) and sends it to Google. This method is called client-side tracking, and it is one of the most popular ways to gather information about clients and how they interact with your ads.

Server-side tracking is a relatively new approach to customer data tracking, which significantly improves the quality of information tracking, without changing the concept entirely. We mean, the main aspects of traditional client-side tracking still remain: 

• you can decide what you need and add the corresponding tracking scripts to the website;

• tracking scripts are fired in the client’s browser and gather the needed information;

• the data received is sent to Google Ads.

Server-side tracking adds 1 tiny nuance to this scheme: a server. All the tracked data is first gathered on a server (usually, a cloud one), from where it is sent to Google Ads when ready. Why is this server important? Stay with us to find out!

Its importance for Google Ads

To understand why server-side tracking is important for Google Ads and generally for any other platform, we must know the issues its colleague, client-side tracking, is facing. Let’s be honest, it has been showing great results, maybe even the best ones in the tracking industry, for a very long time.

But a lot of time has passed, many things have changed, and businesses need to adapt. Without diving too deep, there are 3 main aspects that ordinary client-side tracking cannot manage nowadays.

1. Updated privacy policies. Today it is strictly forbidden to share one’s private data with third-party platforms. This means that if your client’s name or address somehow gets passed to Google Ads, it may cause quite significant legal problems. With client-side tracking, this can easily happen at any moment.

2. Merciless ad blockers. It is quite a common thing for many people to install ad-blocking extensions in their browsers. It is understandable: the number of ads people are shown online can often reach unhealthy levels. These ad blockers, however, often block tracking scripts. This causes gaps in data sent directly from one’s browser to Google Ads.

3. Cookies get stale faster. In many cases, third-party cookies expire much faster than they used to. For those who did not know, client-side tracking relies almost entirely on third-party cookies, which makes it not too reliable in current realia.

Switching to server-side tracking helps businesses to manage all 3 issues mentioned above, and do that in a very effective way. When all the data is gathered on a server before sending to Google Ads, you have time, first of all, to remove all the private data, and secondly, to collect more data and fill in as many gaps caused by ad blockers as possible. 

Turning to the cookie issue, the best way to prolong their lifespan is to turn them into first-party cookies. The server-side tracking model offers several methods to do that. First-party cookies exist longer and improve client recognition, making every customer’s experience better and avoiding duplication.

Practical benefits of server-side tracking for Google Ads

Everything we described above is great, but what does it mean for your Google Ads performance? We can highlight several benefits you should notice soon after switching to server-side tracking.

1. Better conversion tracking. You will get better statistics on your ads and see more (maybe, all) leads and sales generated.
2. Better bidding. Google has algorithms that allow automated bidding, and they will work much better and more efficiently when they get actual and accurate data.
3. Better targeting. With more detailed information on the clients, you will be able to set your campaigns to be shown to people who are more likely to interact with them.
4. Better budgeting. When you know exactly which campaigns convert better, you can simply close those that do not and redirect the money into more profitable ones.

We would say that if you are an active user of Google Ads and similar platforms, in the current realia, it is a must to switch to server-side tracking if you want to stay compliant with the privacy policies and get a deeper insight into how successful your business is.

Conclusion

Many people see switching to server-side tracking as a tech upgrade. In our mind, such an approach is incorrect. Let’s imagine it this way: for years, you have been using a car to travel around our planet. Then something happened, most of the landmass disappeared underwater, and now you have to switch to a boat.

The concept is the same - you need a means of moving from one spot to another. But everything else is different. So, server-side tracking is not an update; it is adaptation. Do you know what happens to the species that do not adapt?