Sector: Childcare — complex site, multiple subdomains and a secure login area
Problem: Client-side GA4 was under-reporting by over 90%. Google Ads showed a 0.93% conversion rate, making paid search look unaffordable.
What we did: Moved tracking server-side with Stape.io, first-party cookies, extended cookie lifetimes and a bespoke GTM container to hold attribution together across subdomains.
Result: Tracking that matched real sales. Google Ads’ true conversion rate was 15.89%, not 0.93%, and the business had nearly cut a channel that was working.
A business in the childcare sector approached Conversion Uplift to improve their website analytics because of concerns about under-reporting and poor attribution. The company had a complex website structure as it operates across multiple sub-domains and has a secure login environment.
Their existing client-side GA4 setup was significantly underreporting performance, particularly:
· Conversions not being tracked reliably
· Revenue massively understated
· Paid media channels (Google Ads, Bing, Meta) appearing to underperform
· Heavy reliance on incomplete, third-party cookie-based tracking
This created a misleading view of marketing effectiveness, making optimisation impossible. For example, their existing tracking in GA4 indicated Google Ads to have a conversion rate of less than 1% and so this made advertising on Google prohibitively expensive.
The approach
We audited their existing set up and found that their website was set up to clear query parameters once a user navigated away from the landing page. To allow for this, we configured GTM to retain UTM parameters in the URL, but this created additional problems for the website which we were unable to resolve. It also had very limited impact and the Platform team were not able to help with the process of allowing query parameters to persist throughout the user journey. Instead, we recommended that we implemented a server-side Google Tag Manager (sGTM) solution using Stape, alongside setting first-party cookies on landing pages and we used the server-side GTM container to extend the life time of cookies.
Key actions included:
· Migration from client-side to server-side GA4 tracking
· Implementation of first-party tracking via a custom domain
· Improved click ID and UTM persistence using a first-party cookie GTM set up
· Alignment of tracking across multiple subdomains and login areas
· Creation of a comparison framework to validate client-side vs server-side data
The results (7-day comparison)
Measured over the same seven days, server-side tracking captured what client-side had been missing:
| Metric | Client-Side | Server-Side |
|---|---|---|
| Users | 13,769 | 26,660 |
| Purchases | 389 | 5,547 |
| Revenue | £20,173 | £248,444 |
When validated against actual business data:
- Server-side tracking closely matched real sales performance
- Client-side tracking was underreporting by over 90%
Attribution improvements
Server-side tracking dramatically improved channel visibility:
· Google PPC: +1,225% increase in users
· Google Organic: +1,318%
· Bing PPC: +1,967%
· Direct traffic: +635%
This confirmed that large volumes of traffic and conversions were previously being lost or misattributed.
Conversion rate impact
With more complete data we saw dramatic improvement in conversion rates for some marketing channels:
· Google PPC conversion rate increased from 0.93% to 15.89%
· Direct traffic increased from 1.26% to 19.54%
This isn’t inflation, it reflects accurate tracking of real user behaviour.
Why this happened
The client-side setup failed due to:
· Landing pages automatically cleared campaign parameters when users navigated away from the page and there were multiple subdomains in the journey.
· Secure login areas breaking sessions
· Consent and browser restrictions blocking tracking
· Loss of click IDs (gclid, fbclid, etc.) because of the design and structure of the website
Server-side tracking resolved these issues by:
· Using first-party data collection
· Reducing reliance on browser-based tracking
· Ensuring consistent user and session identification
· Bespoke GTM container set up created by Conversion Uplift consultants.
The outcome
The business now has:
· Accurate revenue and conversion tracking
· Reliable attribution across all channels
· A strong foundation for paid media optimisation
· Confidence in the accuracy of their data for decision making
Next steps
Following the success of the migration, we recommended:
· Full transition to server-side GA4 tracking
· Migration of Google Ads, Bing and Meta tracking to server-side
· Use of improved data to optimise campaigns and reduce acquisition costs
Key takeaway
Most businesses aren’t underperforming, they’re under-measuring. Client-side tracking is no longer fit for purpose because of a number of factors. This includes the complexity of modern websites, Apple’s development of Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) for Safari, many modern browsers have privacy settings, and the popularity of browser extensions that promise greater privacy from advertising trackers.
By moving to server-side tracking, this organisation uncovered the true impact of their marketing and created significant optimisation opportunities. This has already saved them thousands of pounds in better use of their advertising budgets, and reduced acquisition costs due to higher conversion rates recorded by their new tracking implementation.
If your paid channels look like they’re underperforming, the problem might be your tracking, not your campaigns. Book your free audit
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