67.9% drop in Direct Traffic: how Danish eCommerce restored attribution | Stape Care

In the summer of 2025, Stape's Care team received a server-side tracking implementation request from a Danish client whose eCommerce business specializes in selling prescription and non-prescription glasses. The client's website was built on WordPress and used a client-side Google Tag Manager setup for Google Analytics 4.

In this case study, we analyze the results before and after the implementation of server-side Google Tag Manager tracking for the customer. The full setup took our Care team one week to complete, including pre- and post-implementation consultations.

With the customer's client-side setup, browser-based tracking limitations, such as ad blockers and Safari's ITP, created a significant attribution gap.

Since Safari accounted for 31% of total traffic, a large portion of user journeys were incorrectly attributed as Direct in GA4 instead of revealing their true sources. This misattribution distorted campaign performance data, making effective budget allocation difficult and impeding business growth.

To improve marketing attribution, the Care team made the following changes to the customer's existing Google Tag Manager setup:

• Configured server-side Google Tag Manager tracking for Google Analytics 4 to reduce the impact of ad blocking software and ITP restrictions.
• Implemented the Stape Conversion Tracking plugin for WordPress to establish a seamless connection between the site and the server-side tagging environment.
• Enabled the Custom Loader power-up via the Stape Conversion Tracking plugin for WordPress to make tracking scripts less detectable by ad blockers and secure accurate marketing attribution.
• Activated the Cookie Keeper power-up via the same plugin to maximize cookie lifetime and restore attribution data lost to Safari's ITP restrictions.

Although the percentage of customers using Safari increased by approximately 10%, improved marketing attribution through server-side tracking significantly impacted core metrics in Google Analytics 4:

• 67.9% relative reduction in Direct traffic (11.1% compared to 34.63% of total events before the implementation).
• 36.1% relative increase in Organic Search traffic (29.47% compared to 21.69% of total events before the implementation).
• 56.8% relative increase in Paid Search traffic (28.27% compared to 18.06% of total events before the implementation).
• 37.5% increase in Total Reported Revenue.
• 184.1% increase in Average Purchase Revenue per active user.

These results were measured over the equivalent three-month periods before and after the day of implementation.

By setting up server-side tracking with Stape, you can:

• Achieve more accurate event measurement within GA4.
• Improve your marketing effectiveness through precise attribution.
• Gain earlier awareness of emerging trends across your analytics platforms.