Server-side tracking
Server-side tracking sends events such as page views, carts and orders from the store's server to the analytics and ad platforms, instead of from the shopper's browser. It records what the browser pixel misses when a blocker, a consent choice or a slow page stops the pixel from firing.
What it means
A browser pixel runs on the shopper's device and depends on it: an ad blocker, a privacy setting, a tab closed before the script loads, and the event never leaves. A server event is sent by the store itself the moment the order exists. The two are usually run together: the browser for what only the browser knows, the server for the facts the store already has.
Why it matters for a store
The order is the fact the whole business runs on. Reporting it from the server means the store, the ad platform and the agent agree on the same number, and that the audiences built from purchases are built from all of them, not from the share a pixel caught.
An example
A store sees that its browser pixel reports fewer purchases than its order system. After it sends orders from the server, its Meta account and its own reports match, and the lookalike audiences are built from every buyer, including the ones whose browser blocked the pixel.
How the agent uses it
Releva records orders on the server, counts each one once and sends clean purchase events to Meta, Google and TikTok for ads audiences. The same orders are the proof behind every number on our case studies page.
Related terms
See also Attribution window, Identity resolution, Anonymous visitor.
See which of last week's visitors you missed
Thirty minutes, with your store and ad accounts open. Then 30 days free. A holdout group decides: if the agent doesn't add orders in 30 days, you don't pay.
Book 30 minutes
You'll talk to one of us.