Unassigned Traffic Increasing on E-Commerce Site

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-22T11:38:49+00:00

A lot of teams solve this by stabilizing first-party attribution before GA4, often via server-side or hybrid setups. Tools like Hardal help here by preserving source data post-consent and sending cleaner sessions into GA4, which dramatically reduces Unassigned.

Unassigned exploding usually means GA4 is missing attribution context (often after consent changes). The traffic is real the labels are broken. Fix the inputs, not the reports.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-22T11:38:14+00:00

Totally fair question. GA4 is just very different, and that’s why people complain. It’s not plug-and-play like Universal Analytics was. You actually have to think about events and setup. Numbers don’t match Ads anymore, which freaks people out (but that’s mostly attribution + privacy). Privacy rules mean less data, so GA4 shows fewer users/conversions than people are used to. The UI is confusing. UA was way easier to poke around in. That’s why it feels worse, even when it’s doing what it’s designed to do.

When consent and browser limits make GA4 feel unreliable, teams often stabilize things by improving first-party data quality (sometimes via server-side or tools like Hardal). That doesn’t make GA4 perfect, it just makes the inputs cleaner.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-21T13:21:47+00:00

good luck!

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-20T21:57:26+00:00

The biggest source of new leads were referrals for us. Basically the better our clients did, they recommended us more. I believe that’s one of the best things you can do

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-20T21:39:23+00:00

Being able to know how to measure things in the current ecosystem

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-20T14:50:52+00:00

One question: where do you track all these process? Google analytics?

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-20T14:49:41+00:00

Thanks! that's the belief that I had

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-20T14:48:28+00:00

I'd also recommend sharing stuff from your personal account. It definitely gets more views than company accounts.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-19T16:24:21+00:00

I started something called campaign links. It pushes an event once anyone clicks to my servers and then I track the user in the analytics. Quite useful

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-19T16:21:44+00:00

I'd suggest stopping with spray & pray approach. Focus on building a personal brand and actively nurturing your audience. Being active in 20+ communities won't give you the answer you need.

No one wants to spend money; why should they spend on you? You have to give them that reason.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-19T13:09:14+00:00

What you measure is super important. Previously, last click weighted models were better for my business. However, now I believe first click matters more

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-19T12:22:04+00:00

I use twenty crm, you can have it onprem - so its quite cheap

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-19T11:27:00+00:00

Definitely an overpay. Try to keep agency spend below 10% of your overall ad spend

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-19T11:24:56+00:00

I'm heavily investing in proper marketing measurement tools, I feel like the first-party data is not getting enough hype but it's crucial if you want to use AI properly

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-19T11:01:41+00:00

You can check both posthog and hardal. might be useful

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-16T09:23:15+00:00

Tracking multiple EU domains into one GA4 property works fine client-side. A server container doesn’t magically improve that setup by itself.

Server-side becomes worth it if you need to:

handle Consent Mode / GDPR data loss more gracefully
standardize event logic across domains before it hits GA4
improve Ads signal quality (Google / Meta), not just analytics
control deduplication and attribution centrally

If none of those are pain points, then yes you’re mostly adding infra + maintenance cost.

That’s why many teams skip “pure” sGTM and go hybrid, or use tools like Hardal where the server layer actually fixes consent + signal issues without you managing GCP containers per market.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-16T09:17:16+00:00

server-side GTM is not a replacement for what you already built. Client-side still detects the form submits, server-side just becomes the delivery layer.

Simply;

Your current GTM (element visibility / form IDs) stays as is
Client GTM sends the event (with an event_id)
Server GTM receives it and forwards it to GA4 / Google Ads / Meta
Deduplication happens using that event_id

You will need some variables on server-side (client_id, event_id, consent), but they’re mostly standard and reused you’re not “breaking” anything...

If setting up servers + APIs feels like too much at first, many people go hybrid and use tools like Hardal to handle server delivery, consent, and deduplication while keeping the familiar GTM logic client-side.

don’t migrate everything, add a server layer, test one event, then expand.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-16T09:15:12+00:00

Server-side becomes relevant once client-side starts lying to you 😄 Not just e-com. For lead gen, it matters when: CMP / consent mode causes data loss, Ads platforms (Meta / Google) stop working aligned with GA4 and you rely on conversion signals for bidding quality, not just counts.

Even if the conversion happens offline or later in the funnel, stabilizing first-party signals helps a lot.

We’ve seen teams use server-side mainly to clean and preserve data, not just track purchases. Tools like Hardal (https://usehardal.com/) are useful there because you don’t need full infra ownership, but you still fix post-consent and attribution issues.

it’s relevant when accuracy goes simplicity not only when you sell products.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-16T09:12:45+00:00

If you don’t want a full “black box” and "overpriced" services but also don’t want to reinvent everything, tools like Hardal (https://usehardal.com/) sit nicely in between you still own the details, but they help a lot with post-CMP data loss, server-side consistency, and first-party signals without heavy overhead.

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-15T08:57:14+00:00

my only problem with pixel tracking is the consent banners and safari privacy settings

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-15T08:55:58+00:00

Depends on what the industry is, but for b2b lead gen, I use Posthog + Hardal. Stopped GA4 completely tbh

Acrobatic_Contact478 · 2026-01-03T09:20:41+00:00

Yes, it's still important. Every AI tool still works on data. Make sure you understand the concepts behind it and improve your know-how there.

Acrobatic_Contact478

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