B2B Server-Side Tracking + CDP = +20% tracked data

Overview

Converseon, a Netherlands-based marketing agency, specializes in B2B lead generation for mid-market and enterprise clients across Europe. Unlike agencies focused purely on media performance, Converseon’s core strength lies in customer intelligence and data-driven advisory, helping clients understand not just what happens in their funnels, but why.

By implementing Server-side Tracking across more than 100 client setups, Converseon built a reliable data foundation to power BlueConic, the Customer Data Platform (CDP) they use for client reporting. This approach enabled them to recover over 20% of previously untracked data, significantly improve data quality, and visualize complete B2B customer journeys that were once fragmented or invisible. With cleaner, more consistent data flowing into their CDP, Converseon can now automate reporting and focus human expertise where it matters most: strategy, creativity, and advanced tracking—shifting from simply reporting numbers to advising clients more effectively.

In this case study, Arjen de Groot, Co-founder of Converseon also shares practical insights from the field, including what to consider when setting up tracking for B2B marketing, how factors like audience, devices, and browsers impact data recovery, and the most common mistakes agencies make with server-side tracking—from unreliable consent setups to overly complex or cluttered GTM configurations.

The challenge
Incomplete data limited B2B insights

Before working with TAGGRS, Converseon relied on client-side tracking to measure performance for their B2B clients. As browser restrictions, ad blockers, and privacy awareness increased, this setup led to growing data gaps and discrepancies. Key interactions were no longer consistently captured, making results harder to interpret and explain.

For Converseon, these gaps had a direct impact on BlueConic. Missing or unreliable events meant fragmented customer journeys, limiting the agency’s ability to visualize multi-touch B2B funnels or generate clear, actionable insights for clients.

Arjen de Groot, COO and Co-founder of Converseon

“If you don’t act on this, you’ll miss out on a lot of data. Without a server-side implementation, you’re missing 20 to 30%, and that alone is worth showing to clients.”
Arjen de Groot, Co-founder @ Converseon

For an agency focused on data-driven advisory rather than surface-level reporting, the data incompleteness was no longer acceptable.

The solution
Affordable server-side setup built for scale

To address growing data gaps, Converseon decided to implement Server-side Tracking as a standard layer across their client setups. While the technical benefits were clear, the deciding factors were cost and scalability.

"Google’s server-side setup was easily eight times more expensive. For an agency rolling this out across many clients, that simply doesn’t scale," says Arjen de Groot.

TAGGRS offered a significantly more cost-efficient alternative, while delivering the same core reliability required for B2B measurement. This allowed Converseon to implement Server-side Tracking broadly, without turning infrastructure costs into a barrier for clients.

TAGGRS: affordability, flexibility, and ownership

Beyond pricing, TAGGRS gave Converseon:

• Flexibility needed to operate at agency scale
• Full first-party data ownership over server-side data processing, EU-based hosting, and a privacy-by-design architecture, preventing unnecessary exposure to platforms like Facebook or Google and complying more easily with GDPR
• Seamless integration with BlueConic, feeding it with clean, consented, enriched data unlocking advanced personalization and automated customer journeys.

The result

more tracked data

With the new setup, Converseon was able to track 10% to 30% more data. But, beyond the sheer volume, its quality has also improved. “One of the main reasons is how the setup connects to our in-house CDP. We work with BlueConic, and with Server-side Tracking we can enrich that data much more effectively,” says Arjan de Groot.

By routing clean, consented data into the CDP, Converseon can now visualize customer journeys more accurately, combine data sources, and support advanced use cases that were not feasible with messy or incomplete client-side data.

AGENCY SPOTLIGHT

Tips & common mistakes in B2B Server-Side Tracking

After implementing 100+ server-side tracking setups, Converseon shares 4 key lessons that agencies can follow to maximize data quality and avoid common pitfalls.

Weak or unreliable consent setups can break your CDP data

One of the most frequent mistakes is relying on makeshift cookie banners or poorly integrated consent tools. “If tags don’t fire correctly, that ruins the whole setup,” shares Arjen de Groot, and undermines all downstream analytics.

Tip: Use a robust Consent Management Platform (CMP), such as Axeptio, that integrates seamlessly with your GTM Server container. This ensures that consent decisions are captured and transmitted reliably to all downstream systems.

Messy GTM configurations create fragile server-side setups

Another common issue occurs when agencies inherit cluttered Google Tag Manager (GTM) accounts. Old or duplicated tags, unclear triggers, and leftover configurations make it difficult to determine what should remain active. These inconsistencies often result in partial data collection or duplicate events, particularly in complex B2B tracking environments.

Tip: Whenever possible, rebuild GTM containers from scratch. Begin by clarifying what the client truly wants to measure, what data is no longer relevant, and how server-side events should be structured. This clean-slate approach ensures that your tracking is both reliable and scalable.

Know your audience and their devices

That’s rule no. 1 in marketing. Audience characteristics (like age, device, and browser usage) affect the value recovered from server-side implementations. For example:

• Older B2B audiences (50–60) typically use fewer ad blockers, so incremental data gains may be smaller.
• Younger audiences (20–30) block more tracking, making server-side data recovery more impactful.
• B2B users use desktops much more often than B2C users, who often use mobile devices
• Mobile users, especially on iOS, face stricter tracking restrictions than desktop users, so server-side setups yield the most benefit on mobile.

Tip: Audit the client’s audience segments and device usage before designing server-side tracking. Tailor event collection and CDP integration to maximize data recovery where it matters most.

Treat Server-side Tracking as infrastructure, not a plug-and-play fix

Server-side Tracking is often mistakenly treated as a quick “install and forget” solution. Without proper planning and integration, even a technically correct setup can fail to deliver actionable insights. The quality of your server-side data depends on both technical accuracy and strategic alignment with the client’s measurement goals.

Tip: Combine technical implementation with strategic planning. Define key events, map them to business outcomes, and ensure that your server-side setup aligns with both analytics and marketing objectives.

About Converseon

Converseon is the strategic partner for online lead generation in the SME+ sector. With a multidisciplinary team of strategists, marketers, creatives, and technical specialists, we achieve sustainable, data-driven growth from the very first strategy session. Our performance marketing through SEA, Social Ads, and SEO is enhanced by conversion-focused content, technical consultancy, and privacy-friendly server-side tagging. This way, we deliver reliable, scalable results and truly unite marketing and sales.

Since 2023, Converseon has been a certified TAGGRS Server-side Tracking Partner and has completed over 100 Server-side Tracking implementations.