{"id":65851,"date":"2025-02-03T10:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T10:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/analytics\/gtmtips-google-ads-remarketing-in-gtm-server-containers\/"},"modified":"2025-02-03T10:00:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T10:00:47","slug":"gtmtips-google-ads-remarketing-in-gtm-server-containers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=65851","title":{"rendered":"#GTMTips: Google Ads Remarketing In GTM Server Containers"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Google has released the Google Ads Remarketing<\/strong> tag for server-side tagging in Google Tag Manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Functionally, it\u2019s remarkably similar to the Conversion Tracking tag<\/a> they released previously. In fact, you should go ahead and read that article first, so that you have an understanding of how Google Ads tracking works through Server containers!<\/p>\n

Follow this link<\/a> to read the official documentation.<\/p>\n

In this article, I\u2019ll walk you through how to set things up, and I\u2019ll also provide an overview of how it works<\/strong>.<\/p>\n


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\"Google<\/p>\n

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Similar to the Google Ads Conversion Tracking<\/strong> server-side tag, it\u2019s not actually<\/em> 100% server-side. Instead, it\u2019s a hybrid<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    A Google Analytics 4<\/strong> data stream, such as one generated by GA4 tags in a web container, sends data to the Server container.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The Server container intercepts this data with the GA4 Client<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    A virtual container is then run, where the Google Ads Remarketing<\/strong> tag fires with the data pulled from the Google Analytics 4 data stream.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n

    The Google Ads Remarketing tag initiates a signal back to the browser<\/strong>, with details about the request to the vendor servers the browser<\/strong> needs to perform.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n

    The browser sends the request to the Google servers.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So why the roundtrip back to the browser? Why does the browser need to do all the work, when it should be a server-side<\/strong> setup?<\/p>\n

    The answer: third-party cookies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    For remarketing to work, the user\u2019s browser needs to ping doubleclick.net<\/code>, as that\u2019s where all the juicy cookies are that Google needs to build your cross-site profile.<\/p>\n

    If you observe the network logs of your browser, you can see the request to Google servers shortly after the event has been sent to the Server container:<\/p>\n

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    <\/p>\n

    \"Doubleclick<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    So this is an important caveat to consider when working with Google Ads Remarketing. The user\u2019s browser must<\/em> support third-party cookies, and the doubleclick.net<\/code> domain(s) need to be allow-listed in the Content Security Policy of the site (if one exists).<\/p>\n

    How to set it up<\/h3>\n

    To set up Google Ads Remarketing, you need three things in place:<\/p>\n

    First<\/strong>, you need an incoming Google Analytics 4 data stream from the browser, configured with the Send to server container<\/strong> setting instead of the legacy transport_url<\/code> field.<\/p>\n

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    <\/p>\n

    \"Send<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Second<\/strong>, you need a Conversion Linker<\/strong> tag running in the Server container. Set it to fire on the All Pages<\/strong> trigger. This is necessary to persist ad click information from the landing page to your conversion pages.<\/p>\n

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    <\/p>\n

    \"Conversion<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Third<\/strong>, you need a Google Ads Remarketing<\/strong> tag running in the Server container. We\u2019ll get to its configuration in the next chapter.<\/p>\n

    Essentially, you configure it exactly as you would configure a regular, web-based remarketing tag.<\/p>\n

    Conversion ID<\/strong> and Conversion Label<\/strong> (optional) can be retrieved from your Google Ads account<\/a> following these instructions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    If you check Send dynamic remarketing event data<\/strong>, the tag will by default pull in the event_name<\/code> and value<\/code> parameters from the GA4 data stream. If you want to customize how these are retrieved, you can set Custom configuration<\/strong> as the Data Source instead.<\/p>\n

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    \"Custom<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    If you want to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act<\/a>, you can enable Restricted data processing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    If you want to Provide custom parameters<\/strong>, you can check the respective box and then choose the Data Source. If you use the default data source of Event Data<\/strong>, then any event parameters sent with the GA4 request will be added as custom parameters to the remarketing ping. Again, you can also configure the key-value pairs with a custom configuration, like so:<\/p>\n

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    <\/p>\n

    \"custom<\/p>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    Finally, if you check Provide User ID<\/strong>, then by default the tag will try to pull it from the user_id<\/code> parameter generated from the GA4 data stream. Again, you can pass the User ID with custom variables if you don\u2019t want to use what\u2019s in user_id<\/code>.<\/p>\n

    When you\u2019re done configuring the tag, set it to fire with whatever trigger is necessary to build your remarketing audiences. Typically this would be the All Pages<\/strong> trigger, but you can of course use conversion events as well, such as add_to_cart<\/code> or begin_checkout<\/code>.<\/p>\n