Your pixel is lying to you. For those not familiar with online tracking, essentially every ad platform (Facebook, Google, etc.) requires retailers to paste a "pixel" into their online shopping cart pages. This then tracks subsequent behavior on the retailer's website (i.e. conversion tracking).
However, as blockers become increasingly prevalent as well as the fact that Safari cookies now only last 7 days (regardless of what you set in your tracking tags), a significant percentage of online sales are not being recorded in ad platforms.
Server-side tracking This software closes the gap at the source, in that events leave your server and thus there is nothing for the ad blockers to intercept.
What actually breaks in the browser
Browser tracking is usually done by first loading a piece of JavaScript on a shopper's site. This code then reads the relevant cookies from the shopper's browser. In recent years, however, browser tracking has become less reliable.
For instance, iOS recently capped the lifetime of cookies. Safari's ITP feature even permanently removes cross-site storing of identifiers, such as cookies, local storage or other tracking codes, within days on an individual device basis.
Additionally, a significant portion of online shoppers use some form of ad blocker. This means that even though the shopper completes their purchase in full, the event will not be registered by the shopper's browser and, as a result, cannot be taken into account when deciding which audience to display your ads to.
In this sense, the absence of tracking data can have serious consequences for your return on ad spend.
How server-side tracking works
Browser tracking (online behavior tracking) relies on JavaScript being enabled and on Cookies being stored on the browser. As stated earlier iOS now has a default max life for Cookies and Safari's ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) cross site storing of identifiers is routinely removed after a short period.
A large proportion of users are also using ad blockers which means that even when a conversion does take place, it will not be registered by your ad platforms.
Setting it up on your store
Shopify and WooCommerce stores can be set up in 5 minutes. The store is connected, the channels that are being advertised on are selected and that's it. The conversion tracking starts immediately.
channels you advertise on, and the rest will function in the background to track all your events being tracked correctly in a matter of minutes.
This can happen to browser tags from time to time. However, server-side tracking will continue to collect, analyze and provide all the necessary data to make correct decisions for you and your business.