Combining Geolocation and Server-Side GTM to Build Smarter Customer Journeys

If the hype surrounding personalized marketing has you surfing the internet, brace yourself. It’s no fuss, neither is it an option; it is an indispensable tactic that now forms the framework of every marketing campaign. In fact, 71% of customers get frustrated when their shopping experience is not personalized.

Despite its revolutionary potential, personalization efforts depend heavily on third-party cookies and customer data, making them prone to risks of cyberattacks. While it’s not impossible, data management can be a hard nut to crack with hackers always lurking behind the scenes.

However, there is more than one way to provide personalized experiences without compromising performance or user privacy. Curious? Then read on as we delve into the untapped potential of combining Geolocation data and server-side Google Tag Manager to build smarter customer journeys.

Enhancing personalization through Geolocation and server-side GTM

Cookies are effective, but the stakes are too high. Geolocation gives you access to users’ location details down to their cities and zip codes. At the same time, server-side GTM lets you manage data on a centralized server instead of the user's browser, ensuring that data is handled more securely, efficiently, and in compliance with privacy policies.

This fusion allows you to deliver localized, dynamic, and privacy-conscious user experiences without hinging on cookies. The key is to equip your arsenal with the right set of technologies. Here’s how it works;

How Geolocation works in personalization

Customers' IP addresses are automatically detected when they access your app or website. However, tools with lower rate limits and slow response times become less effective with high traffic as they can only process a certain amount of requests per second, minute, or day.

As such, you must consider sophisticated tools with scalable IP geolocation solutions for developers that can analyze large volumes of customer IP addresses to get detailed information on their geographical location. These IPs can then be polished with more context, say—local currency, language, timezone, or even mobile carrier.

While there is a limited number of geolocation tools with such capabilities, this functionality is typical in IPinfo, which is built to fit directly into your existing personalized marketing strategy.

How server-side GTM works in personalization

Unlike client-side GTM, where activities are executed on the user’s browser, modern platforms such as Usercentrics offer GTM server side functionalities that allow you to run tracking scripts on your server environment, give you more control over data governance, enhance site speed, and limit ad-blocker interference.

Moreover, server-side tagging keeps your personalized marketing in check, especially if you operate within or have business prospects in the European Union, where GDPR policies are enforced.

The fusion between Geolocation and server-side GTM

Here’s where it gets interesting: when developers merge geolocation APIs with server-side GTM, it becomes easier for organizations to automate and streamline the process of personalizing customer journeys, from product listings and pricing to language and prompt support.

Marketers can use the insights developed from geolocation data to enrich user activity before it is sent to marketing platforms like Google Analytics. Since these activities occur on a secure and centralized server, you can easily maintain accurate and consistent track records no matter which device the customer uses. That’s personalization made easy, don’t you think it is?

Benefits of combining Geolocation data with server-side GTM in personalized marketing

One of the core aspects of marketing is staying unique. It’s what separates you from rival organizations and how customers identify your brand.

So, integrating geolocation data and server-side tagging into personalization gives you a competitive edge; after all, cookie users must contend with the issues of user consent and cross-device tracking repeatedly. Let’s explore the benefits of these new trends.

Hyper-customized content delivery

Everyone is going into personalization, but not everyone gets the gist of it. For your content to be really personalized, it must resonate naturally with an individual or group.

While cookies allow you to develop insights from users’ browsing history, geolocation data gives you accurate information on the norms and trends in an exact location. This information includes the local dialect, region-based promotions, or product suggestions based on local preferences.

With geolocation data within reach, server-side GTM allows you to manage user data efficiently, ensuring that location-based content—say, (nearby store info or regional offers) is displayed instantly without slow page loading times.

For instance, a gadget retailer could promote portable chargers to users in regions with an inadequate power supply, increasing relevance and conversion rates.

This personalized marketing experience grabs customers' attention, gives them a sense of belonging, and makes them feel like the product satisfies their unique needs. That’s the whole point of personalization.

Increased data accuracy and security

Client-side data collection has a major limitation: All information comes directly from the user’s device. This implies that the data you collect is susceptible to blockers such as privacy settings and ad blockers. The effect? It can distort customer location data and give inaccurate information.

For instance, if the customer activates a VPN or turns off location sharing, you might get the wrong information about their location or no results at all.

Server-side GTM eradicates these risks since activities are conducted on a secure and centralized server. More so, it collects data using the IP address, which is a more accurate way to obtain your customers' true location. No browser restrictions, no internet issues, just a free flow of data.

From a security standpoint, server-side GTM offers a privacy-first data management approach. It allows you to safeguard the integrity of sensitive customer data and process it in compliance with privacy regulations such as the EU GDPR before it reaches third-party platforms like Google Ads and Facebook.

The bottom line is that these tools offer more accurate and secure geolocation data, directly enhancing decision-making and leading to better personalized user experiences.

Smart audience segmentation

If you’ve ever used third-party cookies, you’ll attest how difficult it can be to segment customers to achieve location-based personalized marketing. In such cases, most marketers resort to generic campaigns that only satisfy a portion of their total audience. It’s about time you upped your game.

Geolocation data and server-side GTM can enhance personalization strategies, allowing you to reach deeper into specific granular segments based on user location. This lets you launch city-specific events, region-based advertisements, and local discounts targeting smaller fractions like cities, communities, and even neighborhoods.

When combined with server-side GTM, you can further enrich your data using customer browsing patterns and purchase history. This gives a clearer picture of who your customer is and what they really want.

Ultimately, you can split your target audience into region-based segments and send each party an offer that resonates with their local context, making your content strategies more effective and user experiences more personalized.

Consistent and unified experience across devices

Personalization isn’t a one-off practice. It requires consistency to keep customers glued to your brand. As such, every hindrance must be eradicated to maintain an all-around personalized marketing experience, including the issues that come with users switching between devices. It’s unavoidable; however, it isn’t impossible to manage.

Here’s the gist: marketers with inappropriate setups may be misled into treating cross-device usage as two different customers, resulting in confusing and repeated experiences. What if there were a way to identify users systematically anytime they access your platform via new devices? That’s precisely what we’re hitting at.

The fusion of Geolocation data and server-side GTM allows you to set up first-party identifiers to create unified profiles that persist across devices.

For instance, if a customer uses a phone to add products to their wishlist in Texas, and then continues shopping on their PC in Los Angeles, the system will still remember their location, preferences, and actions without initiating a new user conversation. That’s what it means to stay consistent.

In short, personalized experiences like this increase customer engagement, reduce cart abandonments, and increase conversion rates.

Delivering smart personalized user experience through secure and accurate location data

If you want to succeed as a marketer, you must be creative enough to do something differently. Personalization is the latest trend, and everyone is eagerly joining the bandwagon. What must you do to stay unique in your personalized marketing?

This piece explores the limitations of cookies, which most marketers rely on for targeted campaigns, and unlocks a better strategy to build smarter customer journeys by combining Geolocation and server-side GTM. It’s up to you to harness this innovative idea for better marketing results.