First-party click and conversion tracking on your own domain. Survives Safari ITP, Firefox ETP, iOS Mail Privacy, ad blockers, and Chrome's third-party cookie deprecation. No GTM Server-Side, no Cloud Run, no engineering — just a postback URL and 5 minutes.
$99/month · 9 ad-platform CAPI integrations · No GTM Server-Side fees
Server-side trackingrecords user events on your backend instead of in the browser. When a user clicks a tracked link, your server captures the click. When they convert, your backend fires an HTTP request (a "postback") with the click ID and conversion details. No pixels, no cookies required, no Safari ITP cap, no ad blocker interference. Trcker does this by default — you set a postback URL on your offer and your backend hits it on conversion. Setup takes 5 minutes.
Each of these alone would justify the migration. Together they make server-side tracking the only durable option.
Caps first-party cookies at 24 hours (or 7 days), strips all cross-site tracking. Pixel-based attribution loses 18-35% of iOS conversions.
Strict mode blocks third-party cookies and known tracking domains. Brave and Tor block more aggressively. Pixel-only tracking is invisible to ~15% of desktop users.
Privacy Sandbox migration is ongoing. By the time third-party cookies are fully phased out, pixel-only platforms will have lost their primary attribution signal.
uBlock Origin, AdGuard, and Brave's built-in shield block known affiliate tracking domains. Server-side tracking on your own domain looks like first-party traffic and isn't blocked.
Pre-loads tracking pixels in inbox proxies, breaking email open and click attribution. Server-side click capture on a redirect domain bypasses pixel pre-fetching entirely.
iOS App Tracking Transparency requires explicit user opt-in for IDFA. Server-side postbacks via SKAdNetwork or first-party identifiers continue working without prompts.
Partner shares a link on your custom domain (e.g. tr.yourbrand.com/abc). The browser sees a first-party request — no cross-site cookies, no third-party domain.
Trcker's edge server records the click, sets a first-party cookie, attaches a click ID, and 302-redirects to your destination URL. The whole hop takes <50ms.
When a purchase happens, your backend fires a postback to Trcker with the click ID. No browser involved, no pixel, no cookies — just a server-to-server HTTP call.
Trcker matches the conversion to the click, calculates payout, and forwards the event to Meta CAPI, TikTok Events API, Google Enhanced Conversions, etc. — automatically.
Reference: server-to-server tracking glossary · postback URL spec · setup docs · platforms compared
The differences compound. Even one of these issues breaks pixel-only attribution; the combined effect is conversion data that's wrong by 20-40% on most audiences.
| Metric | Pixel-based | Server-side |
|---|---|---|
| iOS Safari conversion accuracy | 65-82% | >99% |
| Ad blocker bypass | Blocked | Indistinguishable from first-party |
| Mail Privacy pre-fetch | Inflates open/click counts | Unaffected (redirect-based) |
| Cookie window | Capped at 7 days (ITP) | 30/60/90+ days (your choice) |
| Cross-domain attribution | Breaks on subdomain hops | Works across any domain |
| Page-load impact | 10-30 KB JS, render-blocking | Zero — runs on a separate redirect host |
| GDPR / consent gating | Requires consent management | Server-controlled, deterministic |
What server-side tracking unlocks across the affiliate, ad-platform, and attribution stack.
Run an affiliate program with first-party tracking that survives every browser and ad-blocker permutation.
Forward server-side conversions back to Meta CAPI, TikTok Events API, Google Enhanced Conversions, and 6 more platforms.
gclid uploads, Enhanced Conversions for Leads, and offline conversion imports — all wired in by default.
Server-side tracking is a method of recording user actions (clicks, conversions, signups) on your backend server rather than in the user's browser. Instead of a tracking pixel firing JavaScript, your server sends an HTTP request to the tracking platform with the relevant event data. This pattern is also called "server-to-server tracking," "S2S tracking," or "postback tracking."
Three reasons. First, it survives privacy changes: Safari ITP, Firefox ETP, Chrome's cookie deprecation, ad blockers, and iOS Mail Privacy all break browser-based pixels but don't touch server-side requests. Second, it's faster: no client-side JavaScript means zero impact on page load. Third, it's more reliable: pixel fires can be blocked or fail silently, while server-to-server requests have proper error handling and retries.
When a user clicks a partner link, your server (or an edge server like Trcker's) records the click and assigns a unique click ID, then redirects to the destination. When the user converts (buys something, signs up, etc.), your backend fires an HTTP request — a "postback" — to the tracking platform with the click ID and conversion details. The platform matches the conversion back to the original click, calculates commission, and triggers any downstream actions like CAPI events to ad platforms.
Not necessarily. The most reliable server-side setups use a click ID stored in the destination URL (or in your own first-party cookie), not third-party cookies. When the user converts, your backend either reads the click ID from your database (if you stored it on the user record) or pulls it from the URL of the source landing page. No third-party cookies required.
A postback URL is the endpoint your backend hits to report a conversion. Looks like: `https://tr.yourbrand.com/postback?click_id=ABC123&order_id=12345&revenue=99.00`. The tracking platform receives the request, validates the signature, looks up the click, and records the conversion. See the [postback URL glossary entry](/glossary/postback-url) for the full reference.
Yes — via Google's Enhanced Conversions for Leads and gclid uploads. Trcker captures gclid from the click URL and forwards it back to Google Ads when the conversion fires. We also support Meta CAPI, TikTok Events API, LinkedIn CAPI, Reddit CAPI, Pinterest CAPI, Snap CAPI, X CAPI, and Bing UET — 9 platforms total. See [server-side conversion tracking docs](/glossary/server-side-conversion-tracking) for setup details.
Related but different. GTM Server-Side is a server container you run on your own infrastructure to proxy tag requests — it's a way to convert pixel events into server-side events at the edge. True server-side tracking means the conversion event originates on your backend, not in the browser at all. Trcker uses true server-side tracking — your backend or e-commerce platform fires the postback directly, no browser intermediary.
On Trcker, nothing extra — server-side tracking is the default. You define a postback URL on your offer, your backend hits that URL when a conversion fires, done. Most setups take under 5 minutes. Other platforms charge add-ons for server-side tracking ($100-$500/month) or require Google Tag Manager Server-Side ($120/month minimum on Google Cloud Run). Trcker's $99/month plan includes everything.
Server-side by default. 5-minute postback setup. 9 CAPI integrations included. $99/month flat — no GTM Server-Side fees.