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Performance

Server-side tracking

Also known as: conversions API · CAPI · server-side tagging

Definition

Server-side tracking sends conversion data from a business's own server to advertising platforms, rather than from the user's browser, recovering signal lost to blockers and privacy restrictions.

Browser-based pixels are blocked by ad blockers, restricted by tracking prevention in Safari and Firefox, and limited by iOS privacy controls. Server-side implementations send the same events from infrastructure the business controls, which typically recovers 15–30% of conversions that browser tracking silently loses.

It is not a privacy workaround — consent still governs what may be sent, and doing it properly means honouring consent state on the server as well as the client. Done correctly it improves both measurement accuracy and the quality of signal that platform automation depends on.

More in Performance

Attribution window

An attribution window is the period after an ad interaction during which a resulting conversion is credited to that ad — commonly 1, 7 or 28 days for clicks and 1 day for views.

CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

CAC is the total sales and marketing cost required to acquire one new paying customer over a given period, including media spend, agency fees, tooling and salaries.

Cohort analysis

Cohort analysis groups customers by a shared starting characteristic — usually acquisition month — and tracks their behaviour over time, revealing retention and value patterns that blended averages hide.

Consent mode

Consent mode is a mechanism that adjusts how analytics and advertising tags behave based on a user's consent choices, allowing modelled measurement when tracking consent is withheld.

Contribution margin

Contribution margin is revenue minus all variable costs — cost of goods, shipping, payment fees, returns and marketing — showing what each sale actually contributes toward fixed costs and profit.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors or sessions that complete a defined action — a purchase, form submission or booking — within a measurement period.

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