Privacy-friendly server-side tracking for Google Analytics (GA4)

by Olaf Brandt

From now on, website operators who wish to continue using Google Analytics for analysis will also benefit from consent-free data collection with etracker.

Server-side tracking addresses the challenges of modern web analytics: data loss due to ad blockers, browser restrictions and consent refusal. Server-side processing significantly improves data quality while meeting all the requirements of the GDPR and the TDDDG.

The solution is aimed in particular at companies and agencies that want to continue using Google Analytics while reconciling data protection and successful marketing. Many companies are already using etracker analytics and Google Analytics in parallel. Until now, however, the data was not comparable, as Google Analytics can only collect data from users who have given their consent when implemented conventionally. Thanks to the server-side data stream, companies benefit from the best of both worlds and a uniform database.

What makes etracker’s server-side tracking for GA4 special?

Privacy by default: Data protection-friendly data transmission is guaranteed by default. No configuration of data fields or transformations are required for this. The special etracker user and session IDs are used so that users cannot be re-identified.

Plug & play: Setup is completed in just a few minutes. Marketers benefit from the auto-tracking of page views and events, the automatically measured e-commerce events via store plugins and the custom events and conversions that are recorded via the etracker tag manager, e.g. via data layers or CSS selectors. A suitable SSL certificate is automatically created for setting up your own tracking domain.

All-in-one solution: The data stream via etracker is supplemented by the integrated modules for tag and consent management.

Data quality: Many server-side tracking solutions are GDPR-compliant, but not consent-free, as they do not inherently process the data in the mildest form in accordance with the requirements for legitimate interest. However, the consent requirement usually causes the greatest loss of data compared to tracking blocking and browser protection measures.

In addition to the data flow to Google Analytics, etracker also enables server-side data exchange with all major marketing platforms such as Google Ads, Meta Ads and Microsoft Ads. Further connections to Pinterest Ads and LinkedIn Ads are about to be released.

“With our server-side tracking for Google Analytics, we offer companies a future-proof alternative to traditional implementation – without compromising on data protection or data quality,” explains Olaf Brandt, Managing Director at etracker. “In combination with our content and tag management system, we offer a powerful platform for legally compliant digital marketing.”

The new all-in-one platform simplifies server-side tracking enormously. Existing Google Tag Manager configurations can be easily uploaded and adopted. The integrated consent management simplifies legal compliance, as the consent settings are made directly when the tag is added. This avoids duplicate configuration work or hoping for website scans and automatic blocking functions.

Especially with social ads, the combination of tag and server-based tracking has proven to be particularly successful in terms of marketing ROI. Both methods are supported by etracker with the particular advantage that conversions are automatically deduplicated and therefore not counted twice. This happens automatically in the background without marketers having to worry about it.