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Options to Implement Server-Side Tracking on Shopify

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In this lesson you’ll learn about the two server-side tracking options that Elevar offers. Plus you’ll learn more about the […]

Brad Redding

Brad Redding is the Founder & CEO of Elevar. Specializing in analytics, tracking, GTM, and conversion optimization.

In this lesson you’ll learn about the two server-side tracking options that Elevar offers. Plus you’ll learn more about the most common alternatives to Elevar and how each of the solutions compare to one another.

Server-Side Tracking Lessons:

Options Overview

The most common options for implementing server-side tracking on Shopify are:

  • Native apps maintained by Shopify or channel partners like the Facebook and TikTok channel
  • Elevar, which supports an end-to-end managed solution or an option to integrate with your own GTM server-side container
  • Segment for brands that want to utilize Segment’s CDP
  • There are other vertical solutions that focus on specific marketing channels like Anytrack, Littledata, and Stape (managed solution for GTM SS)

The following sections will outline details on each.

Shopify Channel Apps

As of Q3 2022 Shopify currently has channels that manage pixel installation and server-side conversion tracking for:

Facebook

This has the option to enable Maximum Data Sharing which enables the Facebook Conversion API for server-side tracking. This will share orders for users that hit your thank you page (or if you use post-purchase upsells, it will send the order on the post purchase upsell page as well).

If you need to send orders from other channels — like Subscription orders, international orders (ex. Global-E, Flow, etc), or other channels then these orders will not be sent to Facebook with this native integration.

TikTok

TikTok Events API works very similar to Facebook as described above.

Other channels or apps such as Snapchat, Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Microsoft do not have serve-side tracking built-in.

Occasionally you will find other apps built and maintained by the marketing channel (see Commission Junction as an example). However the majority of the time these are client-side tracking only and are not maintained with the velocity of Shopify changes.

For example — in the CJ app listing linked above, there is no mention of the Post-Purchase upsell tracking. So if you are using a post purchase upsell app like Rebuy or Zipify then you will be missing a significant number of conversions for users that never hit your thank you page.

Elevar Fully Managed Server-Side

Elevar offers two options for implementing server-side tracking:

  1. A complete end-to-end solution that you can connect directly in your Elevar dashboard without any complex engineering integration
  2. A GTM server-side supported version for brands that need more control over their server and have the technical team to support this.

Elevar Server-Side

This option allows you the benefit of server-side tracking without the hassle of having to own and maintain a Google Cloud server that is connected to your GTM server-side.

Here’s what this looks like:

elevar-fully-managed

You handle all of the configuration of your source (e.g. orders via Shopify webhooks) and destinations (e.g. Facebook Conversion API) directly in your Elevar dashboard.

Here are Sources:

data sources

And here is a quick example of you customize and configure your Facebook CAPI integration:

elevar-fb-capi

Once live with each of your destinations then you can see the exact data sent to each destination via Real-Time Conversion reporting:

real time reporting

The available server-side destinations include channels like Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, GA4, ShareaSale, Impact Radius, and Criteo.

You can view the full list of available server-side tracking integrations for Shopify here.

If you’d like a more detailed step by step guide of configuring this in your Shopify store, view our guide here.

GTM Server-Side Container (via Elevar)

This option allows you the flexibility to create and manage a Google Cloud server that is connected to your GTM server-side container type.

gtmss

 

You’ll notice in the image above there is an extra step required.

This is the process of importing and configuring the various pre-built client templates and tags inside your GTM server-side container.

You still need to install the same sources like Data Layer Listener and Shopify Webhooks as you learned about in Elevar’s Fully Managed version above.

 

gtm-ss-setup

Each destination setup provides a guide on how to configure and customize the GTM container you will need to import into your server-side container.

For a complete step by step walk-through of how to configure on Shopify, view our guide here.

 

Twilio Segment

Twilio Segment is the self described #1 Customer Data Platform and really pioneered this new category.

Segment also operates via a Source & Destination UI that allows you to add a Source of data (Shopify store) and connect to Destinations like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc.

Here at Elevar we have worked with many mutual customers over the years that utilize Elevar and Segment such as Rothys, Johnnie-O, and others.

We typically see brands that have have a substantial amount of destinations they need to connect that are outside of your standard marketing channels. It could be your own data warehouse, analytics tools like Amplitude, or personalization solutions.

Other Third Party Solutions

The following includes summaries on the most common alternatives to Elevar that we come across:

Stape.io

They act as a managed service for Google Tag Manager server-side container users. So instead of you owning your Google Cloud instance, Stape will manage it for you. They also maintain their own set of templates for GTM (similar to Elevar). The main difference is they do not utilize webhooks to route checkout and purchase events to GTM SS, including the various attribution data required.

Analyzify

They offer a one-time service fee to help configure your own GTM SS Google Cloud container that you manage and own thereafter. They also do not utilize webhooks but instead rely on client-side GA4 tags from the web container to route data to the server-container.

Littledata

First, they have a standalone app that connects Shopify store data to Segment (if you want to use Segment as your CDP). They also have server-side integrations with Google Analytics and Facebook Conversion API.

Continue Learning

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