mbuzz — Server-Side GTM Tag Template

Multi-touch marketing attribution for any website using server-side Google Tag Manager. No backend code needed.

Client-side tracking loses 30–40% of marketing data to ad blockers and 7-day cookie caps. This tag template runs inside your sGTM container, where requests flow through your own domain as first-party cookies with a 2-year expiry — so you see the full customer journey.

Full setup guide with screenshots →

Covers sGTM infrastructure, client-side GTM installation, CMS-specific instructions (Webflow, WordPress, Squarespace), and end-to-end testing.

Prerequisites

This template is one piece of a 3-part setup. You need:

1. Client-side GTM — the standard JS snippet on your site, configured to send data to your sGTM server
2. An sGTM server — Stape.io (~$10/mo), Addingwell, or Google Cloud
3. This tag template — installed in your sGTM container (instructions below)

If you don't have parts 1 and 2 yet, start with the full integration guide.

Link your web container to the server container

Before installing tags, you need to route your web container's GA4 data stream through your sGTM server. Without this step, no data reaches server-side GTM.

1. Open your web GTM container (not the server container)
2. Find the Google Tag (GA4 Configuration tag)
3. Under Configuration settings, click Add Row
4. Set the parameter name to server_container_url
5. Set the value to your sGTM URL (e.g. https://sgtm.yourdomain.com)
6. Save the tag and publish the web container

How it works

1. Visitor ID — Reads or creates a _mbuzz_vid cookie (first-party, 2-year expiry, HttpOnly)
2. Device fingerprint — Computes SHA256(ip|user_agent) for cross-session resolution
3. Channel classification — Automatically categorizes traffic (organic search, paid social, email, direct, etc.)
4. API calls — Sends data to mbuzz's REST API (same endpoints the server-side SDKs use)
5. Consent — Respects CMP consent settings automatically

Installation

From the GTM Community Template Gallery

1. Open your server-side GTM container
2. Go to Templates → Tag Templates → Search Gallery
3. Search for "mbuzz"
4. Click Add to workspace → Add

Manual import

1. Download template.tpl from this repository
2. In your sGTM container: Templates → New → Import
3. Select the template.tpl file

Tag configuration

Create one tag per call type. mbuzz uses a 4-call model:

1. Session tag (required)

Fires on every page view. Creates visitors and sessions with UTM/referrer/channel attribution.

Field	Value
API Key	sk_live_your_key_here
Call Type	Session
Trigger	All Pages (Page View)

2. Event tag (optional)

Tracks mid-funnel actions like form submissions, button clicks, video plays.

Field	Value
API Key	sk_live_your_key_here
Call Type	Event
Event Type	form_submit (your event name)
Trigger	Your custom event trigger

3. Conversion tag (required for attribution)

Tracks conversions and triggers multi-touch attribution calculation.

Field	Value
API Key	sk_live_your_key_here
Call Type	Conversion
Conversion Type	purchase (your conversion name)
Revenue	{{Revenue}} (optional, use GTM variable)
Currency	USD (default)
Trigger	Your conversion event trigger

4. Identify tag (optional)

Links an anonymous visitor to a known user from your CRM or auth system.

Field	Value
API Key	sk_live_your_key_here
Call Type	Identify
User ID	{{User ID}} (GTM variable)
Trigger	Login or signup event

How the Session tag and visitor ID work

The Session tag must fire on every page view using an All Pages trigger. It creates the _mbuzz_vid cookie that identifies the visitor.

Event, Conversion, and Identify tags read the same _mbuzz_vid cookie automatically. As long as the visitor has loaded at least one page (which sets the cookie), subsequent tags will have the visitor ID they need. For events that fire on the same page as the initial page view (e.g. form submissions), the cookie is already set from the page view, so no special ordering is required.

Advanced settings

Setting	Default	Description
API URL	https://api.mbuzz.co/api/v1	Override for testing or self-hosted
Cookie Domain	(auto-detect)	Override cookie domain
Cookie Path	/	Cookie path
Debug	Off	Log requests/responses to sGTM console

Testing

1. Use a sk_test_* API key during testing (test data is separate from production)
2. In your sGTM container, click Preview → enter your website URL
3. Visit your site, browse pages, trigger events
4. Check the GTM preview panel for green checkmarks on mbuzz tags
5. Check your mbuzz dashboard for incoming data
6. When ready, switch to sk_live_* and click Submit to publish

API endpoints

The tag calls these mbuzz API endpoints (same as the server-side SDKs):

Call Type	Endpoint	Payload
Session	POST /api/v1/sessions	{session: {visitor_id, url, referrer, device_fingerprint}}
Event	POST /api/v1/events	{events: [{event_type, visitor_id, ip, user_agent, properties}]}
Conversion	POST /api/v1/conversions	{conversion: {visitor_id, conversion_type, revenue, currency, ip, user_agent, properties}}
Identify	POST /api/v1/identify	{user_id, visitor_id, traits}

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Tags fire but no data in dashboard	Verify you're using the sGTM container, not client-side GTM
Events/conversions rejected	Ensure the Session tag has an All Pages trigger so it fires on every page view and sets the _mbuzz_vid cookie
Cookie not being set	Confirm your sGTM domain matches your website's root domain over HTTPS
Unsure about response codes	Enable Debug mode in Advanced Settings to log requests to the sGTM console

See the full guide for more details.

License

MIT — see LICENSE