AI Infrastructure / Tracking
Client-side tracking is leaking. Ad blockers, browser limits, and consent gates drop a growing share of your events before they ever reach Google or Meta. A server-side Google Tag Manager setup moves the measurement to your own infrastructure, where it is harder to block and easier to govern. I audit the dataLayer, build the server container, and feed every platform from one clean event spec.
The classic setup loads every tracking tag in the browser: GA4, the Meta pixel, the Google tag, and a dozen others, all firing client-side. That model is failing. Ad blockers strip the tags, browsers cap cookie lifetimes, and consent banners block scripts until the user acts, by which point the conversion is often gone. Your dataLayer is also usually a mess, with events named inconsistently and key parameters missing, so even the data that survives is unreliable.
Server-side GTM moves the heavy lifting to a server container you control. The browser sends one clean event to your endpoint, and the server fans it out to GA4, the Meta Conversions API, and Google with consistent naming and deduplication. You get more complete data, more control over what leaves your domain, and a single event spec instead of tag spaghetti.
I map your current dataLayer, find the gaps and inconsistencies, and write a clean event specification everyone builds against.
A server-side GTM container on your own infrastructure that receives events and routes them to every destination.
GA4, the Meta Conversions API, and Google enhanced conversions wired server-side with deduplication. See attribution rebuild.
Consent mode and data governance so the setup respects privacy rules while keeping measurement intact.
I document what your site currently pushes, where events break, and which parameters are missing, then write the corrected event spec.
I deploy a server-side GTM container on infrastructure you own and route the clean events to GA4, Meta, and Google.
I verify events match across platforms, document the system, and hand your team a setup they can extend without me.
I do not subcontract tracking. I build server-side measurement for the brands I run growth for, and I run my own marketing operation on a self-hosted stack of n8n, the Claude API, and Postgres, where the same event-spec discipline governs every pipeline. I led acquisition at Elementor from roughly $200K to over $20M ARR as it passed five million users, and I led growth at cnvrg.io ahead of its acquisition by Intel announced in November 2020 (TechCrunch). When I build your tracking, I am handing over patterns I depend on personally. See the n8n and AI infrastructure work.
| Good fit | Not a fit |
|---|---|
| Ecommerce or SaaS with meaningful paid spend | No paid spend and no events worth tracking |
| dataLayer is messy or events are unreliable | Want a single tag added, not a rebuild |
| Want measurement on infrastructure you own | Happy with a black-box vendor pixel |
| Care about consent and data governance | No interest in privacy compliance |
Tracking builds run as an infrastructure project or fold into a broader operator role.
2-4 week audit of your growth stack plus a 90-day roadmap. Fixed scope, converts to a retainer.
A Google Tag Manager container that runs on a server you control instead of in the browser. The browser sends one event to your endpoint and the server routes it to GA4, Meta, and Google with clean naming and deduplication.
It is harder to block, less affected by browser cookie limits, and gives you control over what data leaves your domain. You also get more complete and consistent measurement.
A review of the events your site pushes to the dataLayer, finding gaps, inconsistent naming, and missing parameters, followed by a corrected event spec everyone builds against.
Yes. Server-side GTM is a core part of rebuilding attribution after iOS privacy changes. See attribution rebuild.
A fixed-scope diagnostic sprint runs $6,000 to $8,000. Infrastructure builds start at $5,000 per month. A full embedded operator engagement runs $8,000 to $18,000 per month.
Both options exist. On an advisor engagement I write the spec for your engineers. On an infra or operator engagement I build the container myself.
Yes. I build consent mode and data governance into the setup so measurement respects privacy rules.
GA4, the Meta Conversions API, Google enhanced conversions, and most analytics or ad endpoints with a server connection.
Book a 15-min call. I will audit where your tracking is leaking and tell you whether a server-side setup is the right fix.