Server-side tracking technology is a growing trend in website analytics. It allows for improved data analysis, faster website page loads, and more secure user information storage while maintaining accurate tracking.
The most popular implementation of server-side tracking so far has been server Google Tag Manager (GTM). More and more vendors have started to support server-to-server tracking and released tags for sGTM. Using these tags, you can share website or app events and user data directly from your server GTM container to the vendor’s server.
Since the number of tags for server Google Tag Manager grows fast, it has become challenging to stay updated on which platforms support sGTM. Clients often ask us what tags can be moved to the server-side. When our agency creates a plan for implementing ss tracking for clients, we use an internal google sheet that has information about what vendors support ss tagging and what tags exist.
In this blog post, I want to share a list of all vendors that support server GTM, consolidate their requirements, instructions, and documentation. I will also share some comments about setting up ss tagging for these platforms.
We will try to keep this list up to date. If you know any other vendors that support ss tagging via sGTM and are not added to this article, please let us know in the comments.
What platforms support server-side GTM?Copy link to this section
| Tag name | Link to tag | Doc | How to | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Universal Analytics | server GTM | Link | Link | Should be used in combination with UA tags in the web GTM container, ss UA client, and ss UA tag. |
| Google Analytics 4 | server GTM | Link | Link | Google recommends using GA4 as a data source for the server GTM container. SS GA4 is required if you want to set up ss tracking for Google Ads or Floodlight. |
| Google Ads Conversion Tracking | server GTM | Link | Link | All ss measurement for Google Ads products relies on the GA4 Config tag in your web container to send data. It is required to have ss GA4 and Conversion Linker before setting up ss Google Ads. |
| Google Ads Remarketing | server GTM | Link | Link | All ss measurement for Google Ads products relies on the GA4 Config tag in your web container to send data. It is required to have ss GA4 and Conversion Linker before setting up ss Google Ads. |
| Conversion Linker | server GTM | Link | Link | Conversion Linker is used to help measure click data so that conversions are tracked accurately. In most cases, you should use the built-in All pages trigger for this tag. |
| Floodlight Counter | server GTM | Link | All ss measurement for Floodlight tags relies on the GA4 Config tag in your web container to send data. | |
| Floodlight Sales | server GTM | Link | All ss measurement for Floodlight tags relies on the GA4 Config tag in your web container to send data. | |
| Facebook Conversion API | Link | Link | Link | FB tag can inherit data from any server GTM client, or you can use it for setting up each event, product, and user parameter manually. With inherit option, the tag automatically parses event data and sends recognized parameters to FB CAPI. FB recommends using both web and server tracking, and in this case, event deduplication is required. |
| TikTok Events API | Link | Link | Link | Sends server events to TikTok, automatically transforms required user data to lowercase and hash using SHA256. Using both web and server tracking is impossible since deduplication is not supported. |
| ActiveCampaign | Link | Link | Link | Tag connects with ActiveCampaign API and sends event and user data to your ActiveCampaign account. It allows to: track events, create or update contact, create or update contacts + track events |
| Klaviyo | Link | Link | Link | Klaviyo tag for sGTM communicates directly with Klaviyo API and allows: adding new contacts, tracking user activity on-site, sending events and parameters |
| Mailchimp | Link | Link | Link | Mailchimp requires using the MD5 hash of the lowercase version of the contact’s email address for API calls. The tag allows: tracking events, creating or updating contacts, creating or updating contacts and tracking events |
| Slack | Link | Link | Link | Use this tag to send notifications to the Slack channel when any actions on the site trigger. |
| Telegram | Link | Link | Link | Sends notifications to the Telegram channel when any actions on the site trigger. Sometimes we use this tag (or slack) to test ss tracking on mobile devices. |
| HubSpot | Link | Link | Link | Hubspot tag allows: creating new contacts, updating existing contacts, tracking custom behavioral events |
| Snowplow | Link | Link | Link | Tag forwards events to a Snowplow collector. You can use SnowPlow Client or any other client that serves the standard events model. |
| Firestore Writer | Link | Link | Link | Firestore Writer tag allows: reading and writing data to Firestore, returning an array of Firestore documents that match specified query conditions. |
| Snapchat Conversion API | Link | Link | Link | Allows sending custom and standard events to Snap servers. Tag automatically normalizes and hashes user parameters (plain text email, mobile identifier, IP address, and phone number). It supports event deduplication. Stape handles Access Token refresh using Firestore. |
| Awin | Link | Link | Link | Set up Awin server-to-server conversion tracking. Tag allows storing the awc URL parameter inside the awin_awc cookie and firing the purchase event with all needed parameters. |
| Twilio SMS | Link | Link | Link | Helps to send SMS using sGTM. You should have an active Twilio account with SMS functionality to set up this tag. |
| Taboola | Link | Link | Link | Enables more accurate results, faster website page speed, and better data control. With the help of stape's Taboola tag for the server Google Tag Manage container, you can quickly implement Taboola s2s integration. |
| Outbrain | Link | Link | Link | On Pageview event tag stores Outbrain Click ID parameter inside the outbrain_cid cookie. Conversion tag sends a request to the post back URL with specified conversion event data. |
| Impact | Link | Link | Link | On a page view event Impact server-to-server stores the {clickid} URL parameter inside the impact_cid cookie. On a conversion event tag sends request with data about the conversion to the Impact. |
| Refersion | Link | Link | Link | Refersion s2s tag stores the rfsn URL parameter inside the refersion_rfsn cookie on a pageview event. When the Conversion Refersion tag triggers, it send a request with data about the conversion to the Refersion. |
| Xandr | Link | Link | Link | There are two types of events that Xandr tag supports: PageView and Conversion. PageView event stores the token URL parameter inside the xandr_token cookie. Conversion event sends the HTTP request with the specified conversion data to Xandr. |
| Twitter conversion API | Link | Link | Link | Send custom or standard events and use web+server or server tracking only. |
| Rakuten | Link | Link | Link | Rakuten s2s tag stores the siteID, ranMID, ranEAID, and ranSiteID URL parameters inside the rakuten_site_id, rakuten_time_entered, rakuten_ran_mid, rakuten_ran_eaid, rakuten_ran_site_id cookies on a page view event. On a conversion event, it sends event data together with coookies to Rakuten. |
| Mixpanel | Link | Link | Link | Mixpanel tag for sGTM can help you with these action types: Track, Alias, Reset. Each action type of the Mixpanel tag has its own set of additional settings. |
| Attentive | Link | Link | Link | Track events using sGTM. You should have a message program at Attentive with SMS functionality to set up this tag. |
| Pinterest Conversion API | Link | Link | Link | Supports event deduplication, standard and custom events, real-time server event testing. Does not require Access Token. You should use only a Pinterest advertiser ID. You can send event and product data. |
| Supabase | Link | Link | Link | Write any data from server GTM to Supabase. Return an array of Supabase documents that match specified query conditions. |
| Roq.ad | Link | Link | Link | Send events to Roq.ad trough server Google tag Manager container. |
| Sendgrid | Link | Link | Link | SendGrid tag for sGTM allows sending messages from SendGrid using the server Google Tag Manager container interface. |
| Mailgun | Link | Link | Link | Send emails in bulk or deliver transactional emails. |
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