In this guide
- Blockers cut requests to known tracking addresses and file names. You can measure the loss by comparing your server logs with analytics and your orders.
- A server container on your own subdomain and a Custom Loader recover a large part of the loss on most sites.
- Do not try to defeat a visitor's explicit opt-out. Respect consent and make sure your tracking is honest.
Search for "bypass adblock detection" and you will find two very different topics. One is publishers trying to stop readers from using blockers. The other is advertisers and store owners wondering how many of their visitors never show up in their data because a blocker stopped the tracking. This page is about the second: how to measure that loss and how to reduce it with your own domain, in an honest way. It builds on avoiding Tag Manager and GA4 blocking and first-party data.
How blockers work
- Address lists such as EasyPrivacy name tracking domains (for example Google and Meta endpoints).
- Pattern rules match file names and paths (
/gtm.js,/collect,/pixel). - Behaviour rules in some browsers (Brave, Firefox strict mode) block known trackers by default.
- Network-level tools (DNS filters, privacy routers) block whole domains for every device on a network.
Check your tracking in one pass
This is an example. Run the check on your own site to see where yours stands.
Measure your own loss
There is no single exact number, but you can get a useful estimate with three comparisons:
| Compare | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Requests your server received vs GA4 sessions | How many visits GA4 missed because of blockers or consent |
| Platform purchases vs store orders | The gap from blocked and lost events |
| Share of Brave, Firefox and Safari visitors in your analytics | The share of visitors with strict defaults |
| Events from a test visit with a blocker on | Which of your tags a typical blocker stops |
Run the last test yourself. Open a private window with uBlock Origin or Brave and watch the Network tab on your site. The red lines show what a blocker stops. If your analytics and Meta requests are red but your own tagging subdomain is not, a server container will recover them.
What recovers events
A tagging subdomain
The browser sends events to your own domain. Your server sends them to the vendors. Blockers do not see the second leg.
A custom loader
Open Tracked's Custom Loader (all plans) serves the Tag Manager script from your domain under a renamed path.
File Proxy
Serves a pixel script, font or image from your own address. On every plan.
04Server-side purchases
Orders are sent from your backend or container, not the browser.
3 things to remember
Scroll and the points stack up.
Blockers cut requests to known tracking addresses and file names. You can measure the loss by comparing your server logs with anal
A server container on your own subdomain and a Custom Loader recover a large part of the loss on most sites.
Do not try to defeat a visitor's explicit opt-out. Respect consent and make sure your tracking is honest.
What you should not do
- Do not disguise tracking after a visitor has opted out. Respect consent signals, "Do Not Track"-style preferences where you honour them, and your own banner.
- Do not circumvent publishers' anti-adblock walls on sites you do not own. That is their choice.
- Do not promise 100 percent recovery. Some visitors block every request, and some networks block your subdomain too.
A sensible target
Aim to recover the loss you can fix honestly: events that were blocked only because they went to a famous tracking domain. Many stores find the platform-to-store gap narrows noticeably after moving to first-party tracking. The gap that remains is made up of visitors who decline consent, block everything or buy on another device. Those you should accept, not fight.
A test plan
- Note today's gap between platform purchases and store orders.
- Set up the tagging subdomain and the Custom Loader.
- Send events from the server with a shared event ID. See event deduplication.
- Wait two weeks and compare the gap again.
- Report the change and what you could not recover.
Orders from your store, back to the ad that earned them
Your store sends the order once. Open Tracked passes it on to each ad platform, cleaned and deduplicated.
Frequently asked questions
What is ad-blocker detection?
A technique some sites use to find out whether a visitor blocks ads. This page is about measuring and reducing the effect of blockers on your own tracking.
Can I recover events from visitors with ad blockers?
Many, by sending events through your own subdomain and from your server. Some visitors will still block everything.
Is first-party tracking allowed if the visitor uses a blocker?
Your own domain is not on blocker lists, but you must still respect consent and the visitor's explicit opt-out.
How do I measure the loss?
Compare server requests with analytics sessions, and platform purchases with store orders.
Does Open Tracked help?
Yes. Its Custom Loader, File Proxy and tagging subdomain are on every plan.
Do I need spreadsheets to read my results?
No. Once tracking is live, the Open Tracked analytics shows spend, revenue, ROAS and profit, and you can ask Ari, the built-in AI assistant, questions about your own numbers in plain words. Ari's allowance depends on your analytics plan.
Is Open Tracked different from Open Track or Open Space Track?
No. Open Tracked is the official name of our server-side tracking platform, and the website is opentracked.io. Many people search for it as Open Track, OpenTrack or Open Space Track. All of them lead to the same product: server-side Google Tag Manager hosting, first-party analytics and a CRM pipeline.
Fix your tracking at the source
Open Tracked hosts your server-side Tag Manager, keeps first-party cookies alive and shows what each ad is really worth.
The Open Tracked team
We build Open Tracked: server-side tracking hosting, analytics and the tools around them, for stores that spend on ads. Questions about this guide, or an idea for the next one?
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