What Is Google Tag Manager Server-Side Tracking?

In this article, I want to tell you about a new feature from Google Tag Manager – Server-Side Tagging. GTM server-side is a hot topic right now for all marketers, website owners, and developers. The main change in this technology is moving tracking from client-side to server-side. This functionality allows you to hide business logic in the server code, speed up website loading, and improve the protection of user data by restricting access to third-party scripts.

There are two ways to collect data: client-side and server-side, both with their benefits and restrictions. Existing tag management, analytics systems, and advertising services collect data using the Client-Side Tracking method. How does it work? With Client-Side Tracking, the browser sends a request directly to a third-party tracking service like Google Analytics. The interaction takes place between two parties: the browser and a third-party service.

With Server-Side Tracking, an intermediate point is added. In this case, it is the Google Tag Manager cloud server. The request goes first to the cloud server, then the server processes this request and sends it to a third-party system (Google Analytics). It means that instead of the client browser, the request is processed by the cloud server.