Field notes on server-side tracking.
Tech deep-dives, no pitch deck. Adblock paths, OAuth politics, hybrid-mode dedup, platform-by-platform setups. Written for performance-marketing folks who want the architecture, not the marketing copy.
SureCart conversion tracking, the full cart funnel
SureCart fires its cart events in JavaScript with no native PHP submit. A browser-bridge captures all of them, plus purchase and refund, with a stable per-order event_id for deduplication.
CommerceEasy Digital Downloads conversion tracking
The EDD funnel end to end: view_item_list on archives, view_cart and begin_checkout at checkout, purchase and refund, with line items and hashed PII. The one difference from WooCommerce is no search event.
AnalyticsFind exactly which field kills your lead form
Per-form drop-off analytics: starts, leads, abandons, conversion rate and the top drop-off fields. GA4-only, never leaked to ad channels, and PII-safe because it stores field names and counts, never values.
EngineeringFire conversions on any button with one CSS class
Five CSS-class slots turn any tagged button into a server-side conversion, no JavaScript required. Per-button data attributes override value, currency and content-id. When to reach for it instead of form or commerce hooks.
ArchitectureWhy refunds go to GA4 only
GA4 has a native refund event that nets revenue against the purchase. No ad platform has a real refund event, so Beaconry sends refunds to GA4 exclusively and keeps ad-channel conversion counts honest.
PerformanceHow Beaconry survives LiteSpeed, WP Rocket and Cloudflare
Two features that keep tracking alive under aggressive caching: automatic JS-optimizer opt-out so nl-data is never delayed or combined away, and a client-side nonce-refresh so hours-open tabs and cached HTML keep posting valid events.
ArchitectureWhich of the ten channels gets which event
A matrix of commerce and funnel events against the ten channels. Beaconry sends each platform exactly the events it can actually use, instead of spraying everything everywhere.
AnalyticsOne reporting currency from many shop currencies
Normalize value and item prices into a single reporting currency before fan-out, using European Central Bank daily rates with a durable fallback. The original currency is kept on the event for auditability.
AnalyticsA live conversion dashboard inside WP-Admin
The last-50-event buffer, a 0-10 per-channel health score and an anomaly mailer that flags a 50 percent drop (broken pixel) or a 4x spike (bot wave). Hear about a broken pixel from Beaconry, not from Meta two days later.
EngineeringLifting CAPI match quality from the server
A first-party encrypted PII vault that persists match keys across events, server-side enrichment and canonicalization before hashing, and the per-channel hashed-field set. For advertisers chasing a higher Event Match Quality score.
ArchitectureMicrosoft Ads conversions without the developer-token wait
The Google Ads broker pattern, applied to Microsoft Advertising (Bing): msclkid attribution, the developer token living in the broker, an HMAC site-bearer in the plugin, and eight conversion-goal slots.
ArchitectureWhy "server-side tracking" still loses 25 % of conversions to adblockers
Most "server-side" setups still bootstrap from a third-party domain in the browser. Filter lists catch up within weeks. The fix is not faster fallback, it's same-origin from the very first byte.
Google AdsGoogle Ads developer-token approval: the 6-week wait, and how to skip it
Server-side conversion uploads via the Google Ads API need a developer-token that takes 4 to 6 weeks to approve. A central broker abstracts the token without ever seeing your conversion data, here's the architecture.
ComparisonBeaconry vs Stape vs GTM Server-Side: same outcome, very different mechanics
All three claim "server-side tracking", all three end up with different adblock-resistance, different DNS setup, different monthly bills. Side-by-side teardown of the dispatch path on each.
EngineeringHybrid mode: when to put the browser pixel back in
Server-side alone covers 100 % of consenting visitors. Hybrid mode adds first-party fbp / _ttp / li_fat_id cookies for better match-rate. Stable event_id dedup is what keeps it from double-counting. Walkthrough.
TikTokTikTok Events API on WordPress: what's required, what isn't
TikTok asks for AAM, first-party cookies, enhanced postback by default during onboarding. None of those are required, all of them are GDPR risk. The actual minimum config in two screens.
ArchitectureClick-IDs explained: gclid, fbclid, ttclid, li_fat_id side by side
One URL parameter per ad platform tells the platform which click drove the conversion. How they're captured, persisted, and sent server-side.
MetaMeta CAPI Match Quality: why "Poor" and how to get to "Good"
Match Quality is Meta's diagnostic for how well your CAPI events are tied to actual people. Four-stage walkthrough with the actions that move the needle.
EngineeringWooCommerce conversion tracking: the 6 events that actually count
WooCommerce fires 30+ hooks. Six matter for ad-platform optimisation. What each event represents, where it fires, which platforms care.
Counter-pieceWhen server-side tracking doesn't help (and what to do instead)
An honest counter-piece. Four scenarios where Beaconry, Stape and GTM together are not the answer, plus the actual upstream fixes.
Service · GA4Google Analytics 4 with Beaconry: Measurement Protocol over the WordPress REST endpoint
Setup in 90 seconds, six events out of the box, no gtag.js bytes shipped to the visitor. Same property, same data, none of the adblock loss.
Service · MetaMeta Pixel + Conversions API with Beaconry: Pixel ID and access token in one screen
Server-side CAPI dispatch with hashed PII out of the box, optional hybrid mode for fbp/fbc cookies, dedup via stable event_id.
Service · TikTokTikTok Events API with Beaconry: ttclid in, fourteen events out
TikTok Events API 2.0 over the WordPress REST endpoint. ttclid auto-captured, all 14 standard events, GDPR-safe defaults.
Service · LinkedInLinkedIn Conversions API with Beaconry: OAuth in 30 seconds, 5 conversion-rule slots
OAuth handshake, five conversion-rule slots, 60-day token renewal, B2B funnel attribution. The most B2B-relevant of the channels.
Service · Google AdsGoogle Ads with Beaconry: OAuth in 2 minutes, no developer-token approval
OAuth broker abstracts the developer-token, customer connects via OAuth, conversion-actions map cleanly. Live the same day.
Service · Microsoft AdsMicrosoft Advertising with Beaconry: the sixth active channel
Same OAuth broker pattern as Google Ads, msclkid attribution, B2B-heavy Bing audience. Active now alongside the other five.
PerformanceBeaconry performance vs Site Kit, GTM and Stape: 5 KB to your visitor, 30 to 150 KB on the others
Same WordPress install, four tracking stacks. Lighthouse scores, JS bytes, LCP impact, cookies set. Beaconry's 5 KB browser footprint vs Site Kit's 150 KB.