EMQ 9 and Meta CPA reduced by over 50% with server-side tracking | 1900film

1900film is a Japanese digital advertising agency and Stape’s partner, focused on performance marketing across Google Ads, Meta, and Yahoo. When browser-side tracking started breaking down, 1900film needed a solution that could work reliably across dozens of client setups, handle Japan-specific e-commerce complexity, and scale without becoming unmanageable. 

All client accounts ran on standard Meta Pixel and GA4 via client-side GTM setup. However, as ITP restrictions tightened and cookie deprecation progressed, conversion data quality dropped. As a result, EMQ scores were low, while the attribution gap between ad platform reports and actual conversions was growing.

When Meta EMQ scores dropped, it became harder for the platform to accurately match users and conversions. This led to unstable ad delivery optimization and, in some cases, rising CPAs.

For a performance agency, poor data quality means weaker optimization, higher costs, and more challenging client communications.

Complicating matters, Japanese e-commerce cart platforms and chat-based form tools like the Tailor chatbot, along with affiliate-tracking setups, required custom solutions not available off the shelf.

1900film began implementing server-side GTM environments for each advertiser in order to improve the quality of data sent to advertising platforms.

This setup enabled the stable operation of Meta CAPI, Yahoo CAPI, and Enhanced Conversions in Google Ads. In particular, since many companies in Japan use Yahoo! Ads, support for Yahoo CAPI was a major advantage.

The implementation combined several Stape features:

• Stape Store enabled more stable retention of first-party data, making it easier to improve the accuracy of conversion data sent to ad platforms.
• Cookie Keeper extended cookie lifetimes to maintain session accuracy. This was especially valuable in Safari and mobile browsers, where measurement is particularly prone to instability due to ITP.
• Custom Loader improved tag loading reliability and reduced the impact of ad blockers, ensuring required tags fire correctly.
• Duplicate Transaction Checker variable prevented duplicate conversions from being recorded. Deduplication was a critical factor in maintaining measurement accuracy.

Initially, implementation took around three to four weeks per advertiser, including DNS configuration, tag migration, CAPI integration, and testing. Now that the implementation process has been standardized, 1900fim can complete new setups in about 1 week.

The primary technical challenge was the integration with services used in the Japanese market. Japanese e-commerce sites commonly combine cart systems, chatbots, and affiliate measurement tools from multiple external providers. Because site structures vary significantly from one advertiser to the next, simply placing tags is not enough to capture the required data.

This made it necessary to design custom dataLayer configurations for each advertiser and to use postMessage to receive event data from external tools. 1900film adapted its tracking architecture to handle these complex setups, and Stape’s sGTM infrastructure provided the flexibility to accommodate scenarios that standard implementations could not cover. Specific integrations were completed for local cart platforms such as EC Force and Repist, and for chatbot services such as Botchan.

That accumulated expertise became the foundation for a new product. 1900film created an affiliate measurement service · track-19DD. It is built natively on Stape’s sGTM infrastructure, enabling advertisers and agencies in Japan to adopt high-quality server-side tracking more easily. The platform is now commercially available in Japan, integrating with major Japanese e-commerce cart platforms and chat-form providers. 

Before implementing server-side tracking, there were cases where insufficient data was being sent to Meta CAPI, resulting in low EMQ scores.

When EMQ scores are low, it becomes harder for Meta to accurately match users and conversions. As a result, ad delivery optimization can become unstable, and CPA may increase. After leveraging Stape to build a server-side GTM environment, the quality of data sent to Meta improved significantly.

Across all CAPI implementations, Meta’s EMQ scores reached an average of 9. In addition, advertisers who fully implemented the Stape Store reduced their Meta CPA by more than 50%. The discrepancy between conversions shown in the ad manager and actual conversion numbers was also reduced. This made it easier to make decisions regarding ad operations and increased the reliability of reports delivered to advertisers.

By sending more accurate conversion data to advertising platforms, Meta’s algorithms began receiving higher-quality signals. As a result, ad delivery optimization improved as well.

1900film uses Stape not only because it enables stable server-side GTM operations, but also because it provides the data quality, cost efficiency, scalability, and adaptability required in real-world advertising operations within the Japanese market.

One of Stape’s key advantages is its clear pricing structure, which makes it easier to keep operational costs low even when deploying it across multiple advertisers. The server environment is also stable, making it easy for agencies to scale across many client projects.

In addition, by using Stape Store and Cookie Keeper, it becomes easier to improve the quality of data sent to platforms such as Meta CAPI. Even in environments where tracking tends to be unstable, such as Safari and mobile browsers, it helps maintain more accurate data collection.

Furthermore, Stape can flexibly support environments that are difficult to handle with standard implementations alone, including Japanese e-commerce cart systems, chatbots, and affiliate tracking tools.

Stape is not just a hosting service; it functions as a foundation for advertising measurement infrastructure. The reason 1900film was able to build its proprietary ASP platform, “track-19DD,” was that Stape’s infrastructure was stable and easy to extend.