The ad-blockolypse hit hard around ten years ago online, and there’s still an ongoing war between ad platforms and the many programs that stop them from functioning.

More recently, ad blockers have expanded to focus on user privacy, blocking analytic scripts from measuring user behaviour and ensuring that users are not tracked from site to site.

Browsers such as Firefox, Brave and Safari also got into the same boat, blocking Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for users who turn on specific privacy settings.

Are ad blockers an issue for digital marketers?

As you can imagine, it’s hard to measure the number of users using software to bypass being tracked (AKA measured) in the first place. The rough percentage of users who block tracking scripts goes from between 10% of users to 25%, depending on the type of users who enter the website, and where they are from.

If you look at any CRM, you’ll always notice more sales/leads shown on that platform than what’s recorded in analytics, and ad blockers are partly to blame. Another big barrier to tracking is cookie compliance, as you can never track 100% of users,100% of the time.

This lack of clarity can affect big decisions about how marketers should invest their time and effort online, as well as smaller decisions such as the bidding limit on paid media.

How server-side tracking can help bypass ad blockers 

If you haven’t heard of server-side tracking then it’s a process that eliminates tracking scripts from being run on a user’s computer and instead, user data is passed over to an external server which handles all the tracking itself.

This diagram is taken from Stape.io’s page on the server-side tracking explanation page.

If ad blockers disable tracking scripts such as Google Analytics, then the server-side tracking method can ensure that hits are still processed, but just through an external source.

Some browsers are now going one step further and are blocking Google Tag Manager (GTM), which typically serves multiple tracking scripts.

Using a custom GTM loader stops most ad blockers as it renames the names of GTM scripts in a non-standard fashion:

  • Original GTM Script = googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id=GTM-ABCDEF
  • Re-named GTM Script = ss.example.com/ZYX.js?id=ABCDEF

Notice how hard it is now to automatically detect the GTM domain, script, and ID from the code, as all mentions of Google and GTM have been erased.

As this script could be any functional script for the website, the ad blocker cannot confidently block its actions as it may make the website cease to function.

This is currently the best method to bypass ad blockers and ensure that as much tracking as possible is implemented on your website.

As a bonus, Hallam’s server-side tracking implementation can speed up a website’s loading time by approximately half a second per page view.  This is a noticeable difference in terms of user-experience (UX) which leads to a higher conversion rate and less frustration of potential customers.

Work with us and get the most from your data

At Hallam, we have a dedicated team of data experts and enthusiasts. Get in touch to see how we can help you.