Setting Up A Server-Side GTM Container Using Stape.io (RAIN's Preferred Method)

RAIN can complete the majority of this work for you if you’d like! Only Part 2, Step 1 and Part 4 must be completed on your side: setting up your Stape account with billing info, and adding DNS records in your domain management account.

Using Stape.io is a relatively streamlined process.

The setup process is comprised of 4 parts.

Part 1: Establish a New Google Tag Manager Container

You should already have a standard (“Web”) GTM account in use. We’ll need to create a new “Server” GTM account. Here’s how:

1. In a new browser tab than this one, open tagmanager.google.com, making sure you’re logged into the correct Google account for your organization. You should see your existing browser-side GTM account on this page.

2. Create a new account by clicking Create Account.
   

   

   1. In the Account Setup section:

      1. We suggest using the format “Your Company – Server-Side” to name your account

      2. Leave the country as United States

      3. Leave the box for sharing data anonymously unchecked

   2. In the Container Setup section:

      1. We suggest using the URL of your website to name your container. For the purposes of this example, we will be using yourcompanydomain.com.

      2. Select Server in the “Target Platform” list

   3. Click Create. Read through and accept the Google Tag Manager Terms of Service Agreement.

      1. Check the box on the bottom which reads “I also accept the Data Processing Terms as required by GDPR.”

3. Your Server-Side Google Tag Manager (“SSGTM”) container is now created, and you will be sent to the Tag Manager interface. A pop-up will ask you how you’d like to set up a tagging server. “Automatically…” will be selected by default. Instead, select Manually provision tagging server.

4. Leave this tab open when you move on to Part 2 below. We will come back later to copy the Container Config code that Google generated.

Part 2: Configure a Server + Custom Domain on Stape.io

1. In a new browser tab, open this link to sign up for a new Stape account: https://stape.io/sign-up. We recommend using the same email that has admin access to your GTM.

   1. Select “Global” (not EU) and make sure to check the Terms of Service box.

2. Once you’ve received the welcome email and set your password, you’ll need to select a payment plan. We recommend selecting the Free plan, and clicking ‘Upgrade Automatically’.

   1. To get an idea of what you’ll end up paying per month, use Stape’s pricing calculator linked below. You’ll need to know how many GA4 events you get each month, but Stape helps with that too. Just click the “Where to get this number?” link on that page.

      1. https://stape.io/price#calculator (remember to open in a new tab!)

3. You’ll now need to set up your billing account, including adding your credit card information.

4. Once your account is completely set up, find and select the + Create Container button.

a. Add your container name (we recommend using your company’s domain name, the same name we used for your new GTM container in Part 1, Step 2b).

b. Go back to the Tag Manager tab you left open. Copy the Container Config code and paste it in the Container configuration field here.

c. Finally, select the server location that is closest to your geographic location, and click Create Container

d. You will see the status of your container, container config, and plan name. It takes around 5 minutes to deploy a server container. Please reload the page to update the status after that time. If the setup was done correctly, you should see the status “Running.” If you see “Error,” please check that you’ve copied and pasted the correct container config. If the error repeats, contact Stape’s support team.

In order to get the primary and maximum benefit of server-side tagging, it’s essential to set up a custom subdomain for your server using your existing domain rather than the default one Stape uses by default. Here’s how to do that:

5. In the “Domains (Tagging Server URLs)” section, click on Add custom domain.

6. Once clicked, you’ll see an orange section open. In “Domain name”, fill in the full domain name of your choice, including your chosen subdomain. A subdomain is the part before your main domain (for example, university.rainlocal.com). You can use any subdomain name you want. We recommend “gtmss” and have used it in the example below.

7. The table at the bottom contains information you’ll need in Part 4, when we add DNS records in your website’s Domain management service. For now, leave this tab open and move on to Part 3!

Part 3: Configure + Share your GTM Container

It’s time to go back to Google Tag Manager and add the custom subdomain URL you just added to your Stape server, so they match. Here’s how:

1. Go back to the Tag Manager tab you still have open. Navigate to your Container Settings. You can find that in the Admin tab once you close out of the pop-up you had opened.

a. If you had navigated away, re-open tagmanager.google.com in its own tab and ensure you are still logged into the correct Google account. Click on the ⚙️ Gear Icon in your “Server” GTM account.

2. Click Add URL, enter the same custom domain you just set up in Part 2, Step 6

   1. Note: The field to paste in the URL will not be visible until you click the Add URL button.

   2. You’ll need to include “https://” at the beginning, and ensure there is no “/” at the end.

3. Click Save at the top-right of the screen.
   (Do NOT click “Set up your tagging server” again – we’ve already done that.)

Finally, it’s time to share your new Server Side GTM Container with RAIN so we can begin using it.

4. Get back to your Admin view and Click on User Management on the right side of your Admin view (the “Container” section)

5. Click on the icon on the top-right of your screen, then select the Add Users option.

6. Enter support@rainlocal.com, check the box for Publish access (which will automatically select all the checkboxes). Finally, click Invite.

You may now close this tab. We’re done with Tag Manager!

Part 4: Configure and Verify a Custom Domain

The final thing to do is manage your website’s domain settings to create your subdomain, then start the verification process in Stape. Let’s do that now.

Note: This is typically the most critical portion to not mess up as DNS settings dictate core functionalities of your website. Done right, there should be no impact on your website at all other than adding server-side GTM tagging capabilities, but many of our clients prefer that we do this part together with a member of their IT team who is knowledgable and comfortable in DNS settings management.

1. In a new tab, log into your domain name registrar or DNS hosting service.

   1. You’ll also need to keep your Stape tab open as we’ll be referencing some information there.

2. Navigate to your website domain’s management or control panel section. This might be under Products / Domains, DNS Settings, Name Server Management, or something similar.

3. Find a link to manage DNS records.

   1. In the GoDaddy platform, the clicks from the Home section are: All Products → Domains → (Find the correct domain) → “…” Menu → “Edit DNS”

   2. Once you’re in the right place, you should see your existing DNS records in a list/table. These might include “A”, “CNAME”, “MX”, “TXT”, and/or other DNS record types.

Before you add any records, you’ll want to back up your current records. This protects you in case you do something wrong. Make sure you understand how to do that and to back up from a backup file, if needed.

Here are the steps to add the correct new DNS records to create your subdomain:

4. In your DNS records management section, click the button to Add a DNS record

   1. It looks like this in GoDaddy:

5. Fill out the information for the new DNS record using the information generated in Stape.

   1. Copy/paste as much as possible to ensure you do not enter anything incorrectly. Make sure to also remove any errant spaces or extra characters.
      
      Type: should be a drop-down. “A” and “AAAA” are standard types. Select the right one.
      Name or Host: “Name” is the same as “Host” as seen in Stape Important: Unless your platform specifically asks for the full URL, only add the part you see bolded in Stape (e.g. “gtmss” — our new custom subdomain)
      Value (or “IPv4 Address” or “Points To”): Enter exactly as it is in Stape.
      TTL: Leave at default setting (e.g. 1/2 Hour), or select Auto.
      Proxy Status: Disable If you don’t see Proxy status as an editable field, don’t worry. It will be disabled by default.
      

6. Click Save to finalize the records.

7. Review and Confirm: It's always good practice to review the newly entered DNS records to ensure they’re correctly configured, matching the information in Stape exactly.

8. Back in your open Stape tab, finally click Verify.

It usually takes a few hours (potentially up to 72) for DNS records to come into effect. Once you click Verify, it’s time to wait. Soon, you should receive an email such as the one below.

At this time, when you log back into Stape, you’ll see the previously orange section turn green and read “Ready,” as in the screenshot below.

Congrats — you’re all done!

Please let us know when you’ve completed these steps, so we can verify everything looks good on our end and continue the tag setup process. We’ll be in touch!