I was first qualified in Google Analytics in 2010, having passed the certification multiple times after that.I’ve been round long enough to remember GDPR implementation fees in 2018 and how busy we all were for a couple of years doing privacy and compliance work.
The truth of the matter is that the risk of ICO compliance is very low. However, there is some risk of reputational damage. Even more than that, there is a strong case, if you are running pay-per-click ads, to move to server-side tracking. This will generally result in a very short payback window, sometimes as low as 4 to 8 weeks.
If you need assistance with privacy engineering, perhaps you would like a free audit?
Who I Am
- Extremely experienced privacy engineer offering no-nonsense compliance advice grounded in sound judgement.
- Built on a long corporate career delivering real-world privacy, consent, and tracking solutions across Google Analytics, Tealium , Adobe and Google Tag Manager.
- Focused on solutions that satisfy regulatory requirements and protect data quality, attribution, and performance.
2. Why This Matters Commercially
- If you run Shopify or Magento stores and rely on:
- AWIN affiliates
- For some time now, Affiliate Window has been charging a fixed fee in order to compensate them for the misconversions that they are no longer getting client-side. I recommend the clients work out carefully if they’d be better off paying the fee, as in some cases, that can actually be worthwhile. However, in most cases, moving to server-side tracking is pretty straightforward these days and can save you a large amount in Affiliate Window fees.
- LinkedIn Ads
- Google Ads
- AWIN affiliates
- Browser restrictions, consent loss, and signal degradation are likely suppressing reported conversions.
- Moving to server-side tracking can significantly recover lost conversion signals and improve attribution accuracy.
- Improved measurement typically reduces wasted ad spend and accelerates optimisation decisions.
- In practice, a correctly implemented server-side setup usually pays for itself within one to three months.0
