Checklist LINK: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C7Ojteg-EWazi_xDEwlljwALppHxG3PY8lBuodGSmxY/edit?usp=drive_web&ouid=102383257734620162787 This session gives an updated overview of tracking gaps due to measurement settings, cookie consent and browser issues, also offering an outlook on server-side tagging.

1. Understanding
Tracking Data Quality and
Troubleshooting Gaps (v2)
Christopher Gutknecht | @chrisgutknecht | Bergzeit

2. Who Attended my SMX March Session?

3. UPDATED: What To Expect from this v2 Session
1. You will get tips for measurement settings & quality
Slides & Checklist: ....at the end
3. You will know the key sources for browser data loss
4. Get an updated checklist for your daily work
2. How to optimize your data with cookie consent loss

4. About Chris: Head of Acquisition & Optimization
Digital Marketer
Tech nerd
Climber
1997 2008 2013 2020
Dad of 2
Online Store for Mountain Gear
Aiming for 100M Revenue in 2020
14 Countries & 4 Languages
~ 100 Mio Analytics Hits / Month

5. Let’s Set Clear Expectations for this Session
Legal lectureMany hands-on tips
What this session IS What it’s NOT
Super techie, but a little
Not 100% new, rather 50%
Cookie consent insights
Server-side GTM preview
GTM and GA focused

6. RECAP: Cookies are spoiling the fun!

7. Three Dragons aiming at Your Data
2. Tracking Protection
3. Cookie Consent
1. Extensions

8. Measurement Challenges Today and Tomorrow
Let‘s look at proven
classics from the past...
...and the challenges of
an uncertain future

9. 3.
Browser
Issues
The Three Sources of Tracking Differences (I)
1.
Measurement
Settings &
Quality
2.
Cookie
Consent

10. The Key Stakeholders of Measurement Quality
Performance Marketer Web Analyst’s Issues
KPI Targets & ROAS
Cost Data
Own Channel Share
All Channels
Data Hygiene
Implementation
Privacy Compliance
Attribution
Only THIS will work!

11. Analysts: Report on a Central Source of Truth
Multi-Channel Attributed
(CENTRAL)
Single Channel Tracking
(DECENTRAL)
Rule-Based
Last-Non-Direct,
Linear
Advanced
Markov, Shapley
Deduplicated
Channel Logic as
1P Cookie
All Touch

12. Analysts: Report on Day of Conversion
Attribution Window
(e.g. 30 days = Standard)
Day of Conversion
(CENTRAL)
Day of Click
(PAID)

13. Your Analytics “Truth” is Probably Not Stable
> Benchmark Analytics against Your CRM Data
RevenueDiff-2-CRM
RevenueDiff

14. Benchmark Analytics Sessions vs Ads Clicks
↑ Sessions Higher
(Last-Non-Direct)

15. Server Redirect
Set-Cookie HTTP Header
JS-Tag based Hitbuilding
document.cookie API
Server Redirects vs Clientside Tracking
100% Coverage
Only for Paid channels
Non-consent cookie drop
Works for All channels
Prone to tracking loss
Consent-based

16. The Components of Web Measurement Quality
HygieneStability Speed

17. Stability: Test Your Tracking Pipeline in 4 Steps
Is GTM loading?
Is my cookie
layer showing?
Is GA firing on
consent?
GA transactions
coming in ?
> Scripts to automate these checks: bit.ly/smx-consentless

18. Otherwise: Yay our Conversion Rate! Wait…
Conversion rate Jump
Broken CSS of cookie
layer in blog
> Scripts: bit.ly/smx-consentless

19. The Components of Web Measurement Quality
HygieneStability Speed

20. Analytics = Hygiene
Make Hygiene a Top Priority for Analytics
https://www.distilled.net/resources/google-analytics-audit-checklist/
UTM Parameter Template
Referral exclusions
Master / Raw View
Prevent overcounting
Many more ...

21. PRO: Cross Device & MultiChannel Attribution
Cross Device Measurement Multi Channel Attribution
Define unique userId (uuid)
Use login & email signals
Override userid in GA
Multi Channel Funnel Data
Shapley / MarkovChain model
Sessions & Hits in a DWH

22. The Components of Web Measurement Quality
HygieneStability Speed

23. Analytics = Hygiene GTM = Speed
Make SPEED a Top Priority for GTM
Avoid custom calculations
Lazy load other requests
Use firing priority

24. How Speed Affects Tracking (Home, 20 Mbit/s)
gtm.js at 800ms, analytics.js at 1250ms

25. How Speed Affects Tracking (Fast 3G, 1 Mbit/s)
gtm.js at 4700ms,
analytics.js at 6300ms
On Fast 3G, Analytics.js is only
completed after 10 (!) seconds!

26. Scrutinize previous requests
How to Optimize GTM & GA for SPEED
Analytics & GTM SPEED
Load gtm.js early in <head>
Use resource hints (preconnect)
Measure speed with GA

27. Add pageType as Dimension,
PageLoadTime (PLT) as Metric
Set siteSpeedSampleRate
to 10 or 20%
SPEED Measurement in GA for Tracking
WORST!

28. 3.
Browser
Issues
The Three Sources of Tracking Differences (II)
1.
Measurement
Settings &
Quality
2.
Cookie
Consent

29. RECAP: Types of Cookies
> * Require consent: https://gdpr.eu/cookies/
Statistics *
Analytics
Marketing *
Profiling
Functional *
Preferences
Strictly
necessary
Access, Session

30. “Cookieless” includes all client storage
> All types of user profiling affected: cookielaw.org/the-cookie-law/
Cookies
Text, Flash
Fingerprinting
Analytics
Query String
click IDs
e.g. gclid
HTML5
Storage
Local, Session,
IndexedDB
Login

31. Wild West: Ask for Consent, Fire GA anyway
WHY?

32. How We Couple Consent With GTM Tracking
1P CookiedataLayer.push(
{event:consent'}
);
Session
Storage
First Page Next Pages Consent
Revoked
1P Cookie

33. From 75% to 90% Consent: Hide the Deny Option

34. A/B Testing Consent Layers: NOT the New CRO!
> Consent Rate = Click Through Rate Optimization

35. Consent Rate by Country: The Germans again

36. No Consent: Which Channels will suffer most?
Channel Suggested Tactic
Paid Search Save conversions
Organic Search
Retargeting Less display, shift to UX
Affiliates Save conversions
Email
Paid Social Save conversions
Expected Loss
> Less brute-force, more UX and user retention

37. How Can We Save Ads Conversion Tracking?
Landingpage
ClientSide
Tracking
Conversion Page
Conversion
Service
(gclid, orderId)
Ads
Import
ga.clientId
(user-based)
Ads-Redirect
Server
gclid
(click-based)
Client
Session
Storage
1. With Consent
2. NO Consent

38. Our Consentless Tracking Service
dataLayer.push(
{event:'consent'}
);
Consent Tracker
(session, consent,
transaction)
First Page
Reporting
- GA
- Consent
- CRM Data
sessionId
gclid
(device,channel)
> Implementation Details: bit.ly/smx-consentless

39. With old setup, CH still has 5% difference to GA

40. How much does it cost? Not much
Only cloud function cost
~60€ per month for 200k hits / day

41. Matomo On-Premise as Backup Tracking to GA?
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jkleinknecht_googleanalytics-ecommerce-activity-6635443896635703296-JxZc/
Prone to data loss
Only session scope
No Consent needed

42. Measurement Challenges Today and Tomorrow
Let‘s look at proven
classics from the past...
...and the challenges of
an uncertain future

43. 3.
Browser
Issues
The Three Sources of Tracking Differences (III)
1.
Measurement
Settings &
Stability
2.
Cookie
Consent

44. Two Forces in the Browser Space
2. Tracking Protection
1. Extensions

45. Analyse Your Traffic Trends By Browser (1 min)
https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/usage-trends/

46. Simo’s slides: slideshare.net/SimoAhava
Webinar > bit.ly/join-sdec

47. Tracking Protection By Browser: Overview
Browser Safari ITP Firefox ETP Chrome
1st Party Cookies 7 day limit If Strict Mode ✔No limit
3rd Party ✖ Blocked ✖ Blocked Only samesite
HTML 5 Storage ✖ Restricted ✖ Restricted ✔
URL Parameters ✖ Strips fbclid ✔ ✔
Full Referrers ✖ Capped ✖ Restricted Restricted
Fingerprinting ✖ ✖ ✔
Product Vision Only cookies w/login Focus on privacy Cookieless by 2022
Source: cookiestatus.com

48. Recap: Cookie Rewriting? > ServerSide GTM
> Resets Client-side Cookies via Set Cookie HTTP Header (Server-side)

49. Recap: Tracking Subdomain? > SGTM
https://medium.com/nextdns/cname-cloaking-the-dangerous-disguise-of-third-party-trackers-195205dc522a
> 100% controlled endpoint

50. Recap: Blocked GTM/GA? > Don’t try with SGTM
https://marthijnhoiting.com/detect-if-someone-is-blocking-google-analytics-or-google-tag-manager/

51. Recap: Let’s Go 100% ServerSide! > SGTM?
Backend Tracking
Client storage alternatives
100% Coverage
Direct hit building
No user interaction, scroll
ServerSide GTM
Solves many client issues
Reduce client load
Not production ready
Browser GTM still needed

52. Serverside GTM is additional, not a replacement
master event hit
(real-time)
gtm.js
collect.bergzeit.de
Client1 tag
Web BrowserServer
prebuilt request
tag
datalayer
DOM
> A typical scenario will involve two GTM container = Web + Server
Client2

53. For Now: Get to know GCP & Start Testing
Run GTM on App Engine
Export GA data to BigQuery
Potential cost for servers
No multi-cloud option yet

54. 3.
Browser
Issues
The Three Sources of Tracking Differences
1.
Measurement
Settings &
Stability
2.
Cookie
Consent

55. Predictions: More Complexity, Less BruteForce
More Complexity
- Incomplete 1P Party Data
- Tech & Data complexity
- CRO & Personalization
- Customer Focus (logins)
- Cross-site Tracking
- Retargeting & Ad Profiling
- Absolute Analytics values
- Full Customer Journeys
Less Brute-Force

56. Your Key Takeaways in Summary
1. There are many measurement settings to improve
slideshare.net/ChristopherGutknecht
2. Improving consent rate is a manageable task
4. Test the project checklist for your daily use
3. Browser data loss can be fought with serverside GTM

57. The updated Project Checklist in Google Sheets
slideshare.net/ChristopherGutknecht (comments)

58. Thanks for Your Time.
Looking Forward to Questions!
@chrisgutknecht
slideshare.net/ChristopherGutknecht