The performance marketing boost to stop losing signals & start gaining ROAS
Budgets are tighter, signals are weaker – yet still only 37% of marketers claim to be using one of the most effective privacy-led tools for driving performance. Here, we break down five reasons server-side tracking helps reclaim lost data and unlock incremental ROAS.
Shrinking attention spans. Shrinking budgets. Shrinking trust. Shrinking signals.
Marketers have always worked hard for meaningful data, but today it’s slipping through the cracks faster than ever – blocked, filtered or lost before it reaches the platforms that power campaign performance. And when signals shrink, so does return on ad spend (ROAS).
Every marketer knows the feeling: the numbers don’t add up. Your analytics say one thing, your ad platforms say another, and somewhere between the browser and the backend, the signals you rely on have vanished. Ad blockers, privacy-focused browsers and tracking prevention protocols have created a widening ‘signal gap’ between the data marketers expect to collect and the data that actually makes it through.
And they see it. Missing conversions in ad platforms. Reduced volumes of data feeding into reporting and optimization. Campaigns stuck below threshold for automated targeting due to low signal volume. Even though the effects are visible, the root cause is often less clear – and the performance cost even less so. Industry benchmarks suggest that 50-80% of marketing signals can disappear before they ever make it to the platforms that need them. That’s a commercial blind spot; every missing purchase leads to a lost opportunity for optimization and ultimately ROAS.
Yet despite the scale of the problem, only 37% of marketers claim to use server-side tracking, according to ‘The Ninth P of Marketing: Privacy as a Growth Lever’ research from The Drum and Usercentrics. But that’s changing. The rise of Privacy-Led Marketing – and new, easier-to-use tools built specifically for it – is shifting that dynamic fast, making server-side tracking easier, safer and more effective than ever.
What is server-side tracking?
Put simply, server-side tracking changes where marketing data is collected. Instead of relying on a user’s browser – where ad blockers, tracking prevention and privacy tools often interfere – data is routed through a secure server before being sent to analytics and advertising platforms.
Why it matters:
- Fewer signals are blocked or lost
- Platforms receive cleaner, consented data
- Campaigns have more signals to optimize against
- Performance improves without compromising user privacy
Here are five reasons server-side tracking is becoming one of the most powerful performance levers modern marketers are missing.
01
It helps recover the signals marketers are already losing
Digital signals vanish for reasons every marketer is now painfully familiar with:
When measurement relies solely on browser-side tracking, these barriers reduce the amount of conversion and behavioral data that ever makes it back into platforms.
Server-side tracking changes the collection point – moving it from the vulnerable browser environment into a secure server – meaning fewer signals are blocked or stripped out, and more of the data marketers should be getting actually arrives.
The result? Clearer reporting, stronger attribution and the foundation for better optimization.
02
Better signals drive better ROAS – and unlock lower CPA
When signals drop out, performance drops with them – even if marketers can’t always diagnose why. Paid channel algorithms need a certain volume of conversions to be able to enable automated target and bidding (a more efficient campaign type) yet fewer conversions being sent back to platforms mean:
- Campaigns may not meet the minimum volume requirements needed to unlock automated bidding and targeting
- Algorithms struggle to optimize against incomplete data
- Spend is allocated less efficiently, pushing cost per acquisition (CPA) higher
- Attribution models skew reality, hindering budget allocation
On the flip side, restored signals unlock stronger optimization. With more reliable data flowing into Meta, Google and other paid platforms, algorithms stabilize faster, targeting gets sharper and budgets work harder – ultimately, improving outcomes.
03
Leaders understand the value – teams need a clearer path to adoption
If only 37% of marketers use server-side tracking today, it isn’t because they don’t see the opportunity. Most understand that data quality underpins performance but many lack the confidence or resources to migrate without disruption.
The Drum and Usercentrics’ research suggests that CMOs show the strongest understanding and intent to adopt privacy-first solutions like server-side tracking – but digital and performance teams can often feel held back by perceived technical complexity, limited engineering resources, fear of breaking tracking during migration and pressure to protect revenue-critical channels.
This intent-to-action gap points to an opportunity: marketers know they need better signals; they simply need tools that make adoption straightforward and handle privacy reliably. By moving data processing to the server, brands gain more control over what data flows downstream: respecting user consent choices, redacting or removing sensitive signals, like browser data or IP addresses, and deciding exactly what platforms receive and what they don’t.
Encouragingly, 37% of marketers say they would adopt more privacy-friendly tracking if easier-to-use alternatives existed, and 39% say new tech tools would accelerate adoption of privacy-led strategies. That’s where next-generation server-side tracking tools are stepping in.
04
Server-side tracking is easier (and more marketer-friendly) than it sounds
Many marketers still think of server-side tracking as a complex engineering project. But modern solutions are designed to remove friction and make the benefits accessible without heavy dev involvement. At its core, server-side tracking simply means:
- Moving tracking logic from the browser to the server, where it’s less exposed to blockers
- Sending cleaner, consent-compliant signals to ad and analytics platforms
- Improving data quality without compromising user privacy.
Think of it like moving your tracking backstage. Instead of relying on a browser – where ad blockers and privacy tools interfere – server-side tracking routes signals through a secure server, filtering out noise and keeping only the clean, consented data. It provides more control over data processing before it reaches vendors, eliminating any compliance risks, while increasing customer trust.
Tools like Usercentrics Server Side Tagging, a server-side Google Tag Manager (sGTM) hosting service, and Usercentrics’ Meta Signals Gateway make this shift far more accessible and easy to activate, helping to recover lost tracking signals, reduce customer acquisition costs by up to 33% and improve marketing ROI with a simple, no-code setup and no need for technical expertise or developer support.
They streamline configuration, maintain compliance and help marketers get back accurate events, conversions and attribution data – often with lower CPA to show for it.
05
Proof it works: marketers are already recovering lost value
As performance pressure intensifies across categories, interest in Privacy-Led Marketing approaches is rising fast. Marketers in banking and finance (51%), education (45%), automotive (44%) and retail and e-commerce (39%) already say server-side tracking is one of the most effective privacy-first tactics in their stack.
Across industries, server-side tracking is helping teams:
- Recover lost conversion signals
- Improve funnel visibility
- Strengthen attribution models
- Feed more accurate events into Google, Meta and other algorithms
- Lower CPA and increase ROAS through smarter optimization
And because high-quality signals compound over time, the earlier a brand begins the transition, the greater the cumulative performance gain.
Success rates from server-side tracking
When brands move tracking to the server, they unlock measurable performance gains across speed, efficiency and attribution confidence:
+30% more conversions captured
57% reduction in CPA
+46% more conversions accurately tracked
5.6 seconds faster page-load times
Source: Industry and Usercentrics benchmarks. Individual results may vary.
What’s your potential ROAS uplift?
As Privacy-Led Marketing becomes the new performance standard, server-side tracking is a valuable lever that marketers can pull to recover revenue, future-proof their data and grow with confidence. To take the guesswork out of what better signals could mean for performance, Usercentrics’ ROAS Calculator, enables marketers to estimate their projected ROAS, uplifted conversions and revenue gains based on known industry benchmarks.
Try the ROAS Calculator here: