How much does server-side tracking cost?

Two parts. Hosting is paid directly to Stape in your name, and scales with your traffic, from a small monthly fee for most stores. Setup is a one-off project, quoted after a short call once we know your platforms, domains and checkout. Book a call and we will give you a number, not a range.

How long does it take?

Typically 1 to 2 weeks from access to sign-off for a single store, and up to 3 weeks with several domains, storefronts or currencies. The build takes days. Testing every event and reconciling purchases with real orders takes the rest.

Will my reported numbers change?

Usually, and sometimes downward first. If your current setup double-counts purchases, as WoodWatch's did, reported conversions fall on go-live day while real sales stay the same. We put the expected change in writing before launch, so nobody mistakes a correction for a breakage.

Yes. The container sits in your Google Tag Manager account, the hosting is billed to your company, and the subdomain is yours. If you stop working with us, everything keeps running and stays fully readable by whoever comes next.

Is server-side tracking GDPR compliant?

It can be, when consent is handled properly. We carry your cookie banner's choice into the server and apply it to every platform, so declined visitors stay declined. Server-side tracking changes where data is processed, not whether you are allowed to collect it.

Does it work with Shopify?

Yes, along with Lightspeed, WooCommerce, custom builds and lead generation sites. On Shopify we typically keep the native integrations in place where they help and route the rest through the server, so nothing is double-counted.

Measurement infrastructure

Server-Side Tracking & Conversion APIs

Your ad platforms are bidding on data that browsers keep throwing away. We move your tracking onto a server on your own domain, so Safari stops resetting your customers and ad blockers stop hiding your sales, without touching anyone's consent choice.

Book a tracking call See how it works

15%

more tracking data reaching the ad platforms · WoodWatch, last 90 days

36%

of purchase events recovered from ad blockers and browser cookie limits · same store

50+

server-side setups built on Stape

sGTM container. event stream

live

event: purchasereceived ✓

dedup: event_id matchmerged ✓

consent: grantedforwarded

→ Meta CAPI202 ✓

→ Google Ads EC200 ✓

→ GA4204 ✓

Illustrative example.

Browser-only tracking

Signals lost silently

+ Server-side collection

Signals you control, deduplicate, and validate

What we build

A server-side Google Tag Manager container, hosted on Stape and running on a subdomain of your own site, in an account you own. Your website sends one stream of events to it, and it forwards each event to the platforms you advertise on: Google Ads (with enhanced conversions), GA4, Meta Conversions API, Microsoft Advertising, TikTok Events API, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others, wherever a server endpoint exists.

Because the container runs on your domain, the cookies it sets are first-party and survive browser limits that cut ordinary tracking cookies to 7 days. Because it is yours, you can open it, see every tag, roll back any change, and take it with you if you ever change partners.

What it actually recovers

Across the setups we have built, 15 to 20% more data typically reaches the platforms once tracking runs server-side. The gain is not even across the funnel. It is largest exactly where it matters most.

Bar chart of the share of events recovered by server-side tracking at WoodWatch over 90 days: page view 16%, view item 12.5%, add to cart 34.7%, begin checkout 34.7%, add payment info 30.2%, purchase 36.5%

At WoodWatch, page views were recovered at 16%, but add to cart, checkout and purchase events at 30 to 37%. Buyers are more often returning visitors, and returning visitors are the ones whose cookies a browser would have quietly deleted. That is the data your ad platforms bid on.

Read the full breakdown

What it will and won't fix

It does:

Keep visitors recognized for months on Safari and iPhone instead of 7 days
Get past most ad blockers
Send customer data from your server so platforms can match conversions to people
Give you one place to control what each platform receives

It does not:

Get around cookie consent. Declined visitors stay declined.
Fix a broken setup. Wrong conversion actions or double-counted orders get forwarded faithfully, which is why we audit first.
Bring back in-app tracking that Apple's App Tracking Transparency removed

If anyone sells you server-side tracking as a way around your cookie banner, that is a legal risk and a reason to walk away.

How a setup works

Audit what exists.

Which tags fire, on which pages, under which consent rules. Duplicates and dead tags are removed before anything moves.

Server container and custom domain.

A Stape container on a subdomain of your site, in your account, configured so the server and your site share an origin where possible.

One event stream.

Your website sends a single, normalized stream of events to the server instead of separate requests to every platform.

Server-side tags per platform.

Each event forwarded to each platform, deduplicated against the browser where the platform uses both, with a shared event ID built from the order number.

Consent wired through.

Your cookie banner's choice travels with every event and the server applies it to every destination.

Validated against real orders.

Purchases in every platform reconciled with your back office before sign-off, documented in a Measurement Acceptance Test.

Timeline: Typically 1 to 2 weeks from access to sign-off for a single store, up to 3 with several domains, storefronts or currencies. Most of that time is testing, not building.

What we need from you

Admin access to your web Google Tag Manager container
Access to your domain's DNS, or someone who can add one record
Admin access to the ad platforms and GA4 we are connecting
Access to your cookie banner (consent management platform)
The ability to place a test order, or a test mode on your checkout
A Stape account in your company's name. You own the hosting and the billing, not us.

What you own at the end

A server container in your account, on your domain, with full version history

Every platform connected, deduplicated and consent-aware

A Measurement Acceptance Test showing reported purchases reconciled with real orders

Documentation of every tag, trigger and variable, and a re-runnable test plan

A written note of what will change in your reports on go-live day, and why

Is it worth it for you?

Worth it if two or more are true:

You spend meaningfully on Meta, Google Ads or both, and bidding optimizes on purchases or leads
A large share of your revenue comes from Safari or iPhone users
Customers often take more than a week to buy after their first visit
You sell in markets where a cookie banner is mandatory
You run several ad platforms and want one place to control them

Not yet if:

Your site has fewer than about 1,000 users a month
You make under $10,000 a month in revenue

Below that, there is not enough data for the recovered share to change how the platforms bid. Turn on the free native integrations your platform offers and come back later. We will tell you the same thing on a call.

Proof

Seven days from the old vendor's shutdown notice to a live server WoodWatch owns. Meta had been counting about a third of purchases twice.

WoodWatch

They were paying monthly for a server they weren't allowed to look inside

Seven days to replace the server every conversion ran through.

Read the study

Monday Merch

From counting leads to bidding on what they're worth

50% of their traffic had no source. One configuration field was why.