Book Consultation
Pricing
Cases
Videos
About us
Webinars
Book Consultation
Pricing
Cases
Videos
About us
Webinars
← Back to all videos

Comprehensive Review: Simo Ahavas Server Side Google Tag Manager Course

google-analyticsserver-sidegdprprivacyintermediate
4.5/5This video provides a comprehensive and detailed review of Simo Ahava's Server Side Google Tag Manager course, highlighting its practical structure, real-world applications, and valuable technical content. The reviewer clearly explains the course curriculum, emphasizing its strengths in teaching server-side implementation with specific examples like Facebook server-side tags running on GA4 client templates, while also noting the high but justified price point.
Simo Ahavas Server Side Google Tag Manager Course

This video provides an in-depth review of Simo Ahava's Server Side Google Tag Manager course, a comprehensive program designed for analytics professionals looking to transition from client-side to server-side tracking implementations. Released in March 2021, the course addresses the urgent need for marketing analysts and analytics engineers to adapt to changing web tracking requirements. The reviewer highlights the course's excellent structure, which is divided into five main sections: Introduction, Getting Started, Upgrading the Environment, Customizing Your Endpoint, and Advanced Customizations. Each section contains bite-sized, actionable lessons that guide users through practical implementations with clear instructions and resources. A standout feature of the course is the section on customizing endpoints, which includes creating Facebook server-side tags running on GA4 client templates - a highly valuable skill set for modern analytics professionals. The course also covers essential topics like setting up custom domains, optimizing server costs, and implementing privacy-focused tracking solutions. The reviewer gives the course a near-perfect rating, noting it provides everything needed to go from minimal knowledge of server-side containers to being able to implement them in production environments. The course is praised for its practical approach, with hands-on exercises that reinforce learning and real-world applications. ## Our Perspective at gdpr-server-tracking.eu While Simo's course excellently teaches the technical implementation of server-side tracking, viewers should consider where they'll actually host their server-side containers. At gdpr-server-tracking.eu, we offer an EU-compliant alternative to Google's App Engine solution mentioned in the course. The knowledge gained from this course can be directly applied to containers hosted on our platform, with additional benefits including: - EU-based bare metal servers (located in Finland) - No cloud provider subprocessor risks - Complete EU ownership and compliance - Enhanced privacy features for hashing and filtering sensitive data - Cost-effective pricing compared to cloud solutions For analytics professionals concerned about GDPR compliance while implementing the server-side tracking techniques taught in this course, our platform provides the ideal infrastructure. You can apply all the skills learned from Simo's excellent course while ensuring your data collection remains fully compliant with European privacy regulations. This course combined with our hosting solution creates a powerful, privacy-first tracking implementation that addresses both technical requirements and regulatory concerns.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about "Simo Ahavas Server Side Google Tag Manager Course"

Server-Side Google Tag Manager (sGTM) is a tracking implementation that processes data on a server rather than in the browser. It became crucial in 2021 due to browser privacy changes, cookie restrictions, and tracking prevention measures that limited traditional client-side tracking capabilities.

The course covers five main sections: Introduction, Getting Started (environment setup, creating clients and tags), Upgrading the Environment (custom domains, server optimization), Customizing Your Endpoint (template building), and Advanced Customizations (privacy features, BigQuery integration).

The course provides a practical implementation of a Facebook server-side tag running on a GA4 client template, which is one of the most in-demand setups for businesses transitioning to server-side tracking. This implementation can be used with minor modifications in production environments.

The course teaches implementation using Google's App Engine, which is part of Google Cloud Platform. However, for GDPR compliance concerns, alternative EU-based hosting solutions like gdpr-server-tracking.eu can be used with the same technical implementation knowledge gained from the course.

Server-side tracking can enhance GDPR compliance by giving you more control over what data is collected and shared with third parties. You can implement data anonymization, filtering of sensitive information, and proper consent management before data leaves your server, but the hosting location is equally important for full compliance.

The course covers cost optimization for Google App Engine, but costs vary based on traffic volume and server configuration. EU-based alternatives like gdpr-server-tracking.eu often provide more predictable pricing models without the variable cloud computing costs, making budgeting more straightforward for businesses of all sizes.

Yes, the technical implementation knowledge from the course is fully applicable regardless of where you host your server-side container. Services like gdpr-server-tracking.eu provide EU-based hosting on bare metal servers in Finland with full GDPR compliance, while allowing you to implement all the technical aspects taught in the course.

The Advanced Customizations section covers user privacy techniques like request anonymization and data filtering. These can be further enhanced when using specialized GDPR-compliant hosting solutions that offer additional privacy features such as IP address hashing and sensitive data filtering before information is sent to marketing platforms.