17% better Google Ads measurability for a Danish market leader | Obsidian Digital

Workwear-group.com, initially established in Denmark as Billig-Arbejdstoj.dk, is a leading e-commerce retailer specializing in workwear. With a dedicated team based in the city of Spjald and employing more than 100 skilled employees, the company has carved out a dominant position in the market. Operating from an automated warehouse, they efficiently distribute thousands of packages daily across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany and the rest of EU.

Since its foundation in 2009, Workwear Group has experienced consistent growth, a testament to its deep market and product knowledge, exceptional customer service, and a team of digital marketing experts.

Relying heavily on Google Ads for significant monthly seven-digit revenue, the competitive digital landscape necessitated an optimization of data provided to Google's algorithms (and those of other platforms like Meta) to maximize return on ad spend. 

To achieve this, Workwear Group, in collaboration with Obsidian Digital — a premier Stape-partner with operations in Denmark, Germany, Finland, and Bosnia-Herzegovina—explored the implementation of server-side tagging through Google Tag Manager.

Despite a well-structured Google Ads account boasting high quality scores and best practices, technical challenges hindered optimal performance, including:

• Google Ads tracking limitations to 24 hours on Safari
• User adblockers interfering with Google Ads tracking
• Purchases not always made from the device used for the initial search

To address these challenges, Workwear Group and Obsidian Digital employed server-side tagging via Stape, complemented by strategic enhancements:

• A custom loader was introduced to counteract adblockers and Safari restrictions, extending cookie duration.
• The "Cookie Keeper" function, alongside a Master cookie, was deployed to navigate around Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention 16.4.
• Consent Mode was activated to estimate data loss due to lack of cookie consent.

A unique hurdle was the absence of email addresses in the data layer for Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads. This was ingeniously resolved by scraping the DOM to retrieve email addresses for hashing and matching, enhancing conversion tracking accuracy.

The initial implementation of server-side tagging in the Danish market—Workwear Groups largest advertising expenditure area—resulted in significant gains:

• An immediate increase in measured revenue by 17%, translating to a seven-digit figure in additional annual revenue (in EUR).
• Improved load speed of website by moving scripts serverside
• Digital resilience in the movement towards a cookieless future

“Server-side tagging revolutionized how we value our Google Ads contributions, enabling more efficient budget allocation, growth, and increased profitability. It's now an indispensable part of our Google Ads strategy.” - Annika Gran, Performance Marketing Manager at Workwear Group.