First-party Data Masterclass

Build a system that connects online + offline signals to boost your ROI from online ads.
Done with server-side Google Tag Manager.

Level: Advanced
Expected duration: 8 hours
Last update: May 25th, 2026

Get the early-bird discount (expires on June 25th)

Your company or a client heard that server-side Google Tag Manager is necessary to avoid ad blockers and increase data accuracy. You created a server and added a custom domain. You’re now officially “Server-side”.

But is your server-side GTM significantly improving revenue?

Most SGTM setups today are basically “Dumb Pipes”. They take “thin” data from the browser and simply forward (proxy) it to Meta or Google. You are paying for server costs just to act as a middleman. If your server only sends what the browser gives it, you are wasting its potential.

To truly take your measurement to the next level, you need to move beyond proxying and start doing Data Enrichment.

Google, Meta, and other ad platforms are evolving. It’s not just about “more data”. It’s about the quality of signals.

Sending revenue data with conversions was enough in 2020. Now, that is just the baseline.

When you feed Ad Platform algorithms rich data (like profit margins, user-provided data, etc.), they start finding more of your best customers for less money.

This data isn’t always available in the Data Layer, but with the right server-side setup and proper data enrichment, it’s no longer a problem.

Naturally, the results vary depending on your industry and current setup, but here are some of the examples that speak for themselves:

• Sending new customer data increased ROAS by 9% on average (source: Google)
• Profit data sent to Google reduced acquisition costs by 58% (source: Demand More)
• Focus on POAS (profit on ad spend) increased net profit by 40% (source: Portivo)

Of course, we must understand that sending richer data is only half the battle. The success also depends on your creative strategy and campaign management. But you cannot deny that strong data is the unfair advantage.

“I’ve had experiences with a lot of different online courses, price ranges from low to high, and AnalyticsMania classes are honestly the best money I’ve spent on myself. I’ve retaken some of their courses in full several times during the past couple of years, and I continue to fall back on their material. Thanks, Julius + team, for continuing to update this while Google has been taking us all on a development ride…”

– Johanna Alm, Senior Digital Analyst at Försäkringskassan

Data enrichment unlocks a whole new level of possibilities with server-side Google Tag Manager. Here are some of the things you will be able to achieve after completing this course:

• Boost conversion attribution: When your data layer lacks user details, you’ll learn to use APIs to fetch missing info (like emails or names) mid-stream. This makes sure Google Ads, Meta, and other vendors get the data they need to attribute sales more accurately.
• Precise new-customer targeting: Stop guessing who your new users are. You’ll learn to query customers’ purchase  history in real-time to automatically add the new_customer parameter for Google Ads, even if your website’s front-end doesn’t support it.
• Optimize for profit, not just revenue: A high price doesn’t always mean a high profit. A $400 product might only make you $40 in profit, while a $100 product makes you $60. You’ll learn how to pull cost data from your database to send actual profit to your ad platforms. This way, your ads focus on the products that actually make your business money, not just the ones with a high price tag.

We will go through these examples in detail, along with other use cases that help you get more value from your first-party data.

In this masterclass, you will learn:

• The RSS Framework: Build a scalable 3-level data process (Retrieve, Store, Sync) to increase your “Data Strength” and improve platform attribution.
• Webhooks & APIs: Sync offline conversions from your CRM or CMS to SGTM so your ad platforms finally see the leads that actually turn into revenue.
• HTTP Lookups: Enrich tracking in real-time with your backend data to move beyond “thin” browser signals.
• First-party Databases: Use the Stape Store to save and access customer data reliably.
• Low-Code Automation with n8n: Connect your data ecosystem and keep data fresh while saving hundreds of dollars on expensive Zapier tasks.
• Optimize for Profit, Not Just Revenue: Configure Google Ads to bid based on actual margin data and new customer parameters rather than total transaction value.
• Google Data Manager API: This is what Google wants you to use to send first-party data (conversions and customer lists).

60+ videos that will show you a step-by-step process to learn first-party data orchestration

You will apply these techniques to your own website and server-side GTM container to see real-world results.

Got questions? You will get the answers. Enroll now, and you will get multiple options on how to get help. You can join the private community for students. Also, there is a comment section under each lesson where we can discuss.

At the end of every module, there is a quick quiz to ensure you have gained the most out of the lessons.

Your purchase includes lifetime access to the materials. Every time the course is updated, you get the new content for free.

If you complete this course and still don’t understand data enrichment with server-side Google Tag Manager, email me for a refund. No questions asked.

This masterclass is designed for technical marketers and analysts who already know the basics of server-side tagging and are ready to move from basic SGTM to data enrichment.

✅ You should enroll if:

• You already have a working SGTM container (ideally on Stape.io)
• You know how to map custom domains and implement custom loaders
• You are already familiar with SGTM features such as clients and transformations.
• You are looking for ways to lower the cost per acquisition and increase conversions by providing better targeting signals
• You want to integrate offline actions (e.g., sales) into your online tracking
• You are ready to use low-code tools like n8n and Stape to gain more independence from IT

❌ This course is NOT for you if:

• You are a total beginner who hasn’t set up server-side Google Tag Manager before
• You do not have your own website and a custom domain to practice on (even a website with no traffic is good enough for the course)
• You are looking for a basic “how-to” on simple tag implementation
• You want to learn how to run campaigns with various ad platforms. This course is about enriching conversion data sent to ad platforms; it’s not about ad management.
• You expect to learn deep JavaScript software development (we focus on high-efficiency, low-code workflows). For JavaScript, I offer another course.

This course is on-demand. You can learn at your own pace and apply new knowledge to your server-side GTM container. Access 24/7.

Julius Fedorovicius is the founder of Analytics Mania and GTM/GA4 communities on Facebook. Also, he is one of the top Google Tag Manager / Google Analytics 4 practitioners in the world.

Julius has been actively publishing articles on analyticsmania.com, a blog that helps thousands of thousands of marketers/analysts every month and that has been featured on widely known websites like moz.com, neilpatel.com, the official Google Analytics social media accounts, etc.

“Before Analytics Mania’s courses, I mostly used the basics of GTM. I knew there were more advanced options to improve the setup, but I mostly relied on developers to improve tracking. Now I have many more possibilities to track without having to disturb my developer colleagues. And for the cases where I do actually need their help, I have a much better understanding of what I need them for, which makes our communication more efficient. Using our combined skills we can take our tracking setup for our clients to the next level!”

– Sander Kroon, Business Analyst at BTTR.

Here is the list of topics that you will learn in this course. Lessons are practical, and you will practice some lessons on a sandbox website (which the course provides).

Have a question? Feel free to ask!

Get a clear roadmap for your tracking setup. This module introduces the 3-step RSS framework you’ll use to fetch, save, and sync your first-party data across all your systems.

Learn how to catch and process data from your CMS, ecommerce platform, etc. This module shows you how to bridge the gap between offline events and your tracking server. Topics covered:

• What are webhooks
• Configuring webhooks to send data to your SGTM
• An alternative way to retrieve data from websites
• Catching webhook data with SGTM
• Sending offline conversions to Google Ads via Google Data Manager API
• Managing Customer Match Lists in Google Ads via SGTM

Retrieve data in real-time from your backend or third-party platforms. This enables you to enrich events dynamically before they are sent to marketing vendors. Topics covered:

• Working with APIs
• HTTP lookup variable
• Different types of authentication
• Doing HTTP lookups to your website’s backend
• Doing HTTP lookups to other systems

Build a reliable first-party database to store user data, product data, etc. Learn how to maintain your own storage to power enrichment workflows. Topics covered:

• What is a NoSQL database, and why use it?
• Storing data in Stape Store
• Reading data from the Stape Store to enrich events
• Optimizing the number of requests (to reduce server costs)

Build an automation to act as the “glue” for your data ecosystem. This module teaches you how to connect systems without very high monthly fees.

Topics covered:

• What is n8n and how to use it?
• Overview of the n8n interface
• Main n8n features that you’ll need and how to use them

If your company is not using n8n (maybe they prefer Zapier or Make.com), it’s still ok. The idea of this module is to show you the principles of low-code (or no-code) tools to connect your backend and Stape store.

new_customer parameter lets you inform Google Ads whether the customer is new or not. It can be used to run more precise Customer Acquisition campaigns in Google Ads and focus on real new customers (rather than retargeting the existing customer base). This module is useful if your website does not include the new_customer parameter in the dataLayer. Topics explained:

• Load historical customer data to Stape Store with n8n
• Processing new orders and storing them in Stape Store with n8n
• Creating a variable that returns the correct new_customer value
• Sending new_customer to Google Ads

The ultimate performance metric. Learn how to send actual profit margins to your reports (instead of revenue) to find the traffic that truly drives your business’s bottom line. Topics explained:

• Loading the profit margins to Stape Store
• Calculating and sending profit data to Google Ads
• Things to configure in Google Ads once you switch to profit tracking (POAS)

Server-side GTM is not a workaround for consent and privacy. You still need to respect it and adjust your tracking accordingly. Moving your data pipelines to the server requires more, not less, control over privacy. This module shows you how to normalize and hash sensitive data, verify your outputs, and use consent parameters. Topics explained:

• What is hashing, why is it important, and how to do it
• Hashing in various stages of your SGTM pipeline
• Sending hashed data to Google and non-Google vendors
• Managing and using consent parameters

Additional lessons about First-party data and enrichment. This module is expected to grow over time. Currently, it contains an example of how to send conversions (enriched with user data) to non-Google vendors (e.g., Meta/Facebook).

“Analytics Mania helped make my work significantly more efficient. Although I consider myself good at staying up to date with the documentation, Analytics Mania provided detailed, step-by-step instructions on setting up and managing Google Tag Manager, making it easy to follow along, even with more complex tracking setups.

Content on server-side tagging is particularly useful. These insights allowed me to streamline tracking across all platforms, improving the accuracy of both data collection and reporting.

Overall, Analytics Mania has been a valuable asset in optimizing my workflow and enhancing my GTM capabilities. With that said, I highly recommend Julius to anyone looking to sharpen their skills in this essential tool for web analytics!”

– Milan Stevanovic, Web/Marketing Analyst at GrowMojo Co.

If you complete this course and still don’t understand data enrichment with server-side Google Tag Manager, email me for a refund. No questions asked. Learn more about our refund policy.