Send data to server-side Tag Manager

This article describes the different ways to send events to a server-side container. If you need more background information, take a look at how server-side tagging works.

This article discusses how to:

• Send data from a website to your server-side container
• Send additional data to a server container
• Receive data in your server-side container
• Send data from sources other than websites

Before you begin

This guide assumes that you already have:

• Set up a server container in Tag Manager
• Set up a tagging server

1. Send data from a website to your server-side container

You can route data through a server-side implementation via Tag Manager or gtag.js. Pick your implementation option.

Tag Manager gtag.js

Please choose your implementation option.

Optional: Send additional parameters with each event

You can send additional two types of additional parameters: Configuration-level parameters and event-level parameters. Configuration parameters influence how your Google tag behaves and can only be set on the Google tag level.

Event parameters specify additional information about an event and can be set for all events, select events, or page_view events.

Please choose your implementation option.

2. Receive data in your server-side container

When you send HTTP request to a server container, a client has to claim that request.

Key Term: "Clients" are adapters between the software running on a user's device and your server-side Tag Manager container. They receive measurement data from a device, transform that data into one or more events, process the data in the container, and package the results to be sent back to the device.

To view the list of available clients:

1. Open Google Tag Manager

2. Open your server container.

3. In the navigation bar on the left, click Clients. The GA4 client is pre-installed on your server-side container by default. If you need to work with Universal Analytics, set up a Google Analytics: Universal Analytics client.

4. Click the name of the client to view or edit details.

Optional client settings

In most cases, the client will require no modifications. However, your use case might be different and you might want to edit one of the following settings:

• Priority: Determines the order in which clients will run. Higher numbers run first, and the first client that matches the incoming request will become the active client for that request.

• Activation Criteria: Activation criteria define when the client will respond to requests:

  • For UA clients: Default Universal Analytics paths: The client will activate when the request paths include /collect, /r/collect, and other similar paths used by JavaScript files that send data to Google Analytics. This setting is active by default.

  • Default gtag.js paths for specific IDs: Use this setting to enable gtag.js JavaScript serving through your server container URL. When enabled, this client will activate in response to requests to the default gtag.js request paths, e.g. /gtag/js?id=TAG_ID. Click Add Measurement ID to add one or more destination IDs.

Optional: Receive additional data in server-side Tag Manager

If you are sending additional parameters, you need to set up the Google Analytics 4 client in your server container to parse the additional parameters and create event data out of them.

Some server tags will include the additional parameters in their outbound requests with no setup. To exclude those parameters, create a Transformation to remove the value.

To use additional parameters in other tags:

1. In your server container, click on Variables in the left navigation.
2. Create a New User-defined Variable.
3. In Variable Configuration, select the variable type Event Data.
4. In Key Path, enter the name of the parameter.
5. Give your variable a name and Save.

Now you can use the event parameter in any other tag within your server container.

3. Optional: Send data from sources other than websites

The Google Analytics Measurement Protocol can be used to enable server-side tagging support from sources such as mobile apps and server-to-server applications.

Mobile apps

To get your Android or iOS app to send data to your server container, you will create a custom image tag and configure it to use the Measurement Protocol:

1. In your mobile container (Android or iOS), click Tags > New.
2. In Tag Configuration select the Custom Image tag type.
3. Set the value of Image URL to a pixel image on the server container at the path in the Measurement Protocol client that you specified earlier. Append any desired Measurement Protocol parameters to the end of your pixel URL:
   https://custom.example.com/app?v=1&tid=TAG_ID&cid=555&t=screenview&an=myApp&version=1.6.2&aid=com.foo.myapp&cd=home
4. Deselect Enable Cache Busting.
5. Save the tag and publish the container.
6. In your server-side container, click Clients > New.
7. In Client Configuration, select the Measurement Protocol client type.
8. Set Activation Path to the path of your app's collection endpoint.
9. Save the client configuration and publish the server-side container.

Server-to-server apps

To send measurement protocol data to your server container, replace the www.google-analytics.com hostname with the domain name of your server container. For example:

POST /batch HTTP/1.1
Host: collection.example.com

v=1&tid=TAG_ID&cid=555&t=screenview&an=myApp&version=1.6.2&aid=com.foo.myapp&cd=home

To receive Measurement Protocol hits, configure your server-side Tag Manager installation with a Measurement Protocol client:

1. In your server-side container, click Clients > New.
2. In Client Configuration, select the Measurement Protocol client type.
3. Set Activation Path to the path of your server's endpoint.
4. Save the client configuration and publish the container.

Next steps

To send data in a true first-party context, you need to serve Google scripts, such as the Google Analytics library, from your own servers.

Load Google scripts through my server