Stay compliant, efficient, and profitable with server-side tagging

Increase ROAS with Server-Side Tagging

The company: Elverys Sports.
The goal: Overcome browser tracking restrictions and gather more accurate data.
The tactic: Move the tracking process from the client browser to the server.
The result: Better data leading to actionable insights and more ROAS.

What's the fast marketing tactic?

Elverys were having a hard time gathering useful data about their ads’ performance and effectiveness. This was leading to a poor return on ad spend as they were unable to use that data to produce insights and then improve those Facebook ads.

Using Facebook’s Conversion API they were able to implement a tactic whereby the source of their data tracking was moved from the client’s browser to the server itself.

This tactic is known as server-side tagging.

What was the result?

Before they’d used server-side tagging, they were being blocked from seeing lots of the analytical data they needed by Safari ITP and browser blockers. Now though, they could access that information directly.

This meant they could optimize their ads in accordance with the improved accuracy of their data.

On the user side, this also meant that fewer scripts were running on the client browser when viewing the ad, helping the ad load quicker and run more smoothly overall.

Server-side tagging is also in total compliance with data protection laws so users can be confident that their information is still being well guarded.

As a combined result of all these benefits, Elverys saw a remarkable boost in their ROAS which increased by 52% in GA4. There was also a big uptick in their Meta interface by 245%, and they were able to consistently improve their ads and better target them to relevant customers.

Why does it work?

To understand why this works you must understand the problem which stems from browser tools, addons, and privacy settings which prevent companies from tracking the way people online interact with their adverts.

Without accurate data of that sort, companies are not well-informed enough to make effective optimization and targeting decisions about their ads leading to a lot of wasted ad spend.

This works because it creates a much more reliable connection between ads hosted on sites like Facebook and the marketing teams behind those ads. It follows that with more accurate customer data, those marketing teams will be able to spend money far more efficiently and get the most out of those ads.

Learn how to leverage the power of Facebook’s Conversions API to track user behaviors and conversions with our Advanced Facebook Ads course.

The specialist behind this tactic

Rajat Sabulal is a digital marketing specialist based in Dublin. He is a Client Lead at Wolfgang Digital where he manages the owned media strategy (SEO, Content & Email) for clients.

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