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However, most clients (advertising and media agencies) don't realize that with this method, they are only collecting less than 50% of the data. A shame, right? Because measuring is knowing.

In this article, I explain why we no longer recommend this way of measuring and how we at Ratsibambam do it differently.

What exactly are we measuring?

Whether it's for a marketing, recruitment, or sales campaign, adding a game almost always aims to gain insights and improve conversion. Our years of expertise ensure that we design the flow of each game in such a way that a campaign performs, on average, 30% better than without the addition of a game or gamification principles. Such conversion optimization is only possible if you have complete data.

To support our expertise, we measure everything through the metrics and analysis tools in our own admin:

• number of visitors
• time spent
• number of participants
• data from all participants, such as email address and name
• number of unique newsletter signups
• pages visited in the game
• unique events
• inbound link (UTM code) metrics
• external link metrics

How does it work? And what's the difference compared to, for example, Google Analytics?

Analytics and ad tracking tools collect data via a piece of JavaScript or a pixel that you need to place on the website. From the website, data about the user is collected and sent to external databases of Meta or Google. This is called 'client-side' analytics because all participant data is collected from the client (the participant's browser).

We measure the data from our games at the source: the game server. This is called 'server-side' analytics. Every game we deliver gets a unique server with its own database. This way, we keep the data of each game (and brand) strictly separate. Moreover, this data never ends up on an external server of Google, TikTok, or Meta.

And not unimportantly: due to the GDPR, every participant in our games must give opt-in consent through the action and privacy terms for the processing of personal data. We (and the client) determine the scope of the data collected for each campaign, not Google or Meta.

With client-side analysis tools, you certainly miss more than 50% of the data you would get with server-side analytics.

Here are the three main reasons:

• In Europe, under the GDPR, you need consent from the visitor to measure via Google Analytics, Meta pixels (or any other analytics or trackers).
• More and more browsers are blocking client-side trackers and analytics, such as Brave, Firefox, and Safari (ITP), even after consent via a popup.
• Browser extensions, such as ad-blockers, are increasingly used to ensure privacy while browsing. These extensions remove parts of the website where the analytics or tracker codes are placed before the website is rendered.

Can I still use server-side analytics?

Yes, but only for 'rough' data, such as the percentage of 'desktop vs mobile' or average session time. For this you only need volume and no exact figures.

For precise figures, client-side analytics are no longer useful. Our experience is that by 2024, the difference between our metrics and those of Google Analytics has grown to more than 50%. For example, while our tool shows 10,000 unique visitors, Google shows 4,500.

How can I add server-side analytics?

You can certainly start on your own and dive into server-side tagging or set up your own (open source) analytics server. But... all our games come with an admin panel that includes all the metrics and analysis tools for free. You won't have to worry about anything, and you'll get all the data in a GDPR-compliant way with the consent of all participants, directly in your admin panel.