Ride1Up was founded in 2018 out of our love for bikes and a mission to provide consumers with a high quality, innovative electric bike at an extremely competitive price. Our direct to consumer model has helped disrupt the industry and remove price as a barrier to entry. We have one of the leading supply chains, stressing quality control, high-end performance, and affordability. We hope to see more people commuting by bike and living a better life!
The Challenge
Ride1UP faced an issue with their data accuracy, creating confusion and leaving gaps in their understanding of customer journeys. This made it incredibly difficult to identify which marketing channels were driving conversions and which weren’t performing as expected.
The problem extended beyond just tracking—paid media platforms like Google Ads struggled to optimize campaigns based on incomplete and low-quality data. Without a clear view of where their traffic originated, Ride1UP’s paid campaigns couldn’t accurately target high-value customers, leading to suboptimal performance and missed growth opportunities.
The root cause? Increasingly sophisticated ad blockers and privacy measures, particularly Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), which were actively preventing traditional browser-based tracking methods from capturing essential user data. This left Ride1UP blind to important traffic sources, hindering their ability to scale effectively and allocate marketing budgets efficiently.
Their expertise and support have been top-notch, and we finally feel confident in the accuracy of our data. It's been great to have such a solid partnership, and the improvements we’re seeing in our campaigns speak for themselves.
The Solution
To resolve the data accuracy issues, Ride1UP implemented server-side tracking with first-party cookies using Stape.io and Google Tag Manager (GTM). This approach ensured consistent tracking of website activities and traffic sources across the entire customer journey, addressing the signal loss problem.
Unlike client-side tracking, which collects data directly in the user's browser, server-side tracking processes the data on the server. Client-side tags are vulnerable to signal loss caused by intelligent tracking prevention (ITP) methods and widespread use of ad blockers, which can result in up to 30% of data loss. Server-side tracking, however, bypasses these limitations by processing data on the server before sending it to third-party tools like Google Analytics 4.
Advantages of Server-Side Tracking:
- Improved Data Accuracy: Server-side tracking bypasses ad blockers and privacy features, capturing more complete data.
- Greater Control Over Data: Control what data is sent to third-party platforms, improving compliance and consistency.
- Enhanced Website Performance: Reduces browser load, leading to faster page load times and a better user experience.
With server-side tracking in place, Ride1UP regained control of their data, ensuring accurate attribution and optimizing their marketing efforts.
Results Achieved
Methodology
The transformation of Ride1Up’s data attribution followed these key steps:
- Comprehensive Audit: We conducted a full audit of Ride1Up’s analytics setup, confirming dependencies on third-party cookies, identifying signal loss from ad blockers and ITP, and uncovering additional data gaps within their Martech stack.
- Strategy Proposal: We proposed a tailored strategy for server-side tracking and first-party cookies, along with a cost assessment. The goal was to align the solution with Ride1Up’s business objectives while addressing their tracking challenges.
- Implementation and Improvements:
- Server-side tracking was implemented using Stape.io and Google Tag Manager, replacing reliance on third-party cookies with first-party cookies for more consistent tracking. Stape.io was implemented on the site by Ride1Up developer, Chris Hoke, with the support of Stringo.
- Event match quality was enhanced by enriching customer data shared with platforms such as Meta and Google Ads, resulting in more accurate conversion tracking.
- These improvements allowed these platforms to optimize campaigns more effectively and target higher-quality audiences, leading to better campaign results.
- Analysis and Refinement: After implementation, we conducted a thorough analysis of the tracking results, refining any issues to ensure accurate attribution. Ongoing adjustments were made to optimize data accuracy and performance.
Key Takeaways
- Data Accuracy is Critical:
The use of server-side tracking, coupled with first-party cookies, significantly improved the accuracy of Ride1UP’s data by bypassing the limitations of ad blockers and privacy restrictions like ITP. - Optimized Marketing Efforts:
With clearer attribution, Ride1UP was able to identify the most effective marketing channels, leading to better campaign optimizations and improved customer targeting. - Seamless Integration and Flexibility:
The shift from client-side to server-side tracking allowed for greater control over data flow, improved compliance, and ensured compatibility across platforms like Google Ads and Meta, which boosted overall marketing performance. - Improved Business Outcomes:
Accurate data not only allowed Ride1UP to reduce “Unassigned” traffic but also enabled better resource allocation and decision-making, directly impacting revenue growth.
Conclusion
The transition to server-side tracking for Ride1UP marked a turning point in their ability to scale and optimize their marketing efforts. By solving data attribution challenges caused by privacy measures and ad blockers, Ride1UP regained control over their marketing insights and improved campaign performance. This shift not only led to better decision-making but also more efficient use of marketing budgets, ultimately driving business growth.
Stringo Media’s approach, from auditing Ride1UP’s existing setup to implementing a more robust tracking solution, empowered the company to overcome significant challenges and achieve greater success in a highly competitive market.
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280 N Old Woodward Ave Suite 100 Birmingham, MI 48009
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