Server-side tracking for Bloomreach

Setting up server-side tracking along with client-side tracking for Bloomreach has many benefits, such as higher data accuracy, ad blocker protection, and security. However, the Bloomreach platform is pretty hard to work with, and such kind of setup may be challenging.

In this article, we’ll guide you through the process of setting up server-side tracking for Bloomreach, so you can start reaping the benefits.

Server-side tagging enables Google Tag Manager users to incorporate server-side measurement tags alongside the client-side tags. When used together, server-side and client-side tracking provides a lot of benefits compared to using only client-side tags:

• More accurate data. Server-side tracking helps reduce data loss due to ad blockers and browser restrictions, resulting in higher data quality.
• Enhanced security. Website visitor data is more securely protected by gathering and distributing it in a server-side environment.

1. Create server-side GTM container.

2. Download Bloomreach Engagement Tag for GTM Web Container from GitHub.

3. Download Bloomreach Engagement Client for GTM Server Container from GitHub.

1.1 In your web container, go to the “Templates” section → click “New”.

1.2 Click “Import” → add the template you downloaded from GitHub. Click “Save’.

1.3 Go to the “Tags” section → click “New” → choose “Bloomreach Engagement” tag type.

1.4 Configure the tag as it is shown in the screenshot below

To find the project token go to the Bloomreach admin → in the top right corner click “Project settings” → Access management (on the left-hand side menu) → API section.

The API endpoint URL is located in the same section as the project token and is called the “API Base URL.”

1.5 Add a trigger to the tag.

The type of trigger should be “Page View,” and the tag should fire on “All Page Views”.

2.1 in your server GTM container, go to the section “Templates” → click “New”.

2.2 Click “Import” → add the client template you downloaded from GitHub.

Click “Save’.

2.3 Then you need to go to the “Clients” section → click “New” → choose “Bloomreach Engagement” client type.

2.4 Configure the Client as shown in the screenshot below.

You can find the project token in the Bloomreach admin → in the top right corner, click “Project settings” → Access management (on the left-hand side menu) → API section.

The API endpoint is located in the same section as the project token and is called the “API Base URL.”

Click “Save”.

2.5 Publish changes.

As the final configuration step, you need to change the target URL in the Bloomreach Engagement initialization script. The target URL should be changed to the custom domain for server-side GTM, which can be found in the Stape admin account (see the instructions below).

To find the custom domain for server-side GTM, go to the sGTM container → Settings section → Domains (Tagging Server URLs).

You can check whether everything works using the Explonea Chrome extension.

The plugin should show no errors, and the value for the customer’s cookie ID should be in the section “Customer.”

To set up server-side tracking for Bloomreach, you need to have a web container and create a server GTM container. The setup requires configuring a Tag for the web GTM container and a Client for a server container. Such a combination of client-side and server-side tracking provides the following benefits: faster website load, enhanced data security, and higher data accuracy.

If you’ve got any problems with configuring server-side tracking for Bloomreach, feel free to contact our support team.