Client case G. Salerno & Associés: qualified leads tripled

Client case G. Salerno & Associés: qualified leads tripled

Published by Thomas dans la catégorie Practical Cases on 13.01.2026 Last update : 29.09.2026 à 23h09

Table of content

A fiduciary firm sells trust. Its prospects, entrepreneurs and business owners, often refuse to be tracked online, and that is their right. For G. Salerno & Associés, this meant Google Ads campaigns steered on half of reality, with a high cost per lead. Here is how measurement was rebuilt, without ever overriding a refusal.

In short

  • 48.5% refusal of measurement cookies on the homepage, measured at G. Salerno & Associés.

  • Cost per lead down from CHF 68.81 to CHF 33.72 (-51%) between 2021-2023 and 2023-2026.

  • Qualified leads tripled, with the conversion rate rising from 2.77% to 8.66%.

  • The recipe: server-side tracking and Consent Mode v2 in advanced mode, respecting every visitor's choice.

The fiduciary paradox: prospects who do not want to be tracked

For a fiduciary like G. Salerno & Associés, discretion is part of the service. On the website, this shows up as very clear behaviour, recorded in the statistics of their tracking server (Stape):

  • 48.52% of visitors refuse measurement cookies (opt-out) on the homepage.

  • 19.72% of traffic comes through browsers that restrict tracking (Safari, Firefox).

The deadlock: with a standard Google Analytics setup, the firm could not see more than half of its traffic. Optimising Google Ads is impossible when one lead in two is not attributed. The cost per acquisition (CPA) was stuck at CHF 68.81, high even for B2B.

Diagram of the G. Salerno & Associés case: the visitor's choice goes through a collection server on the firm's subdomain, which truncates the IP and filters data before Google Ads, with advanced Consent Mode v2.

A-Track deployed a "privacy-first" architecture: server-side tracking combined with Google Consent Mode v2.

A filtering gateway between the site and Google

Data no longer goes straight from the browser to Google: it first passes through a collection server on one of the firm's subdomains.

  • Anonymisation: IP addresses are truncated before anything is sent.

  • Filtering: sensitive information is removed; Google only receives what attribution needs.

Where should this server be hosted? It depends on your internal policy: see our server-side hosting guide.

Consent Mode modelling in advanced mode

With almost one visitor in two refusing, Consent Mode's advanced mode makes the difference. When a visitor refuses, no tag sets a cookie; Google only receives cookieless signals and models the missing conversions. According to Google (2021), this modelling recovers more than 70% of ad-click-to-conversion journeys lost to cookie refusals.

A-Track tip: we recommend advanced mode to all our clients. It tracks no one against their will, but it gives algorithms the overall picture. Simply mention it in your privacy policy.

The results: cost per lead cut in half

Results of the G. Salerno & Associés case with server-side tracking and Consent Mode v2: cost per lead down 51% (CHF 68.81 to 33.72), qualified leads tripled, conversion rate from 2.77% to 8.66%.

At G. Salerno & Associés, we compared 2023-2026 (server-side) with 2021-2023 (standard tracking) in Google Ads. These are results measured for this client over these periods, not a general promise.

Acquisition cost halved

  • Before: CHF 68.81 per lead.

  • After: CHF 33.72 per lead, or -51%.

  • Fed with more complete data, the algorithm targets better: each franc invested brings in roughly twice as many qualified contacts.

Qualified leads tripled

  • The measured conversion rate rose from 2.77% to 8.66%.

  • In our analysis, much of the gap comes from measurement capability: these conversions existed but were not attributed to campaigns. Now visible, they allow budget to go to the keywords that really perform.

Technical focus: Safari visitors (ITP)

Apple devices are very common among business owners and freelancers. Safari strongly limits cookie lifetime: according to WebKit, cookies created in JavaScript are deleted after 7 days without interaction, and after 24 hours in some cases of tracked links (ITP).

  • Over 90 days, 3,645 visits to G. Salerno & Associés were affected, i.e. 19.72% of traffic.

  • With first-party cookies set by the firm's own server, a quote request can be linked to a visit made three weeks earlier.

Note: WebKit also caps at 7 days cookies set by a server whose IP address is considered third-party. How the subdomain is configured matters as much as the tool.

Conclusion: confidentiality is not the enemy of marketing

The G. Salerno & Associés case shows that an infrastructure which strictly respects refusals can also make campaigns more profitable. Three actions for a confidential B2B business:

  1. Measure your real refusal rate and compare CRM leads with Google Ads conversions.

  2. Route measurement through your own server, with data filtering.

  3. Enable Consent Mode v2 in advanced mode and document it.

For the full method, read our marketing performance measurement guide.

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Questions fréquemment posées

B2B Lead Gen: How to track lead quality?

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You should not only track the form submission. You need to use Server-Side to send an "Offline Event" to Google/Facebook when the lead becomes a "qualified" or "signed" client in your CRM.

Is Server-Side tracking reserved for large companies?

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No. With hosting providers such as Stape, the infrastructure has become accessible to SMEs. It is especially useful as soon as you invest regularly in advertising or sell online: reliable conversion data then matters directly for your campaigns.

An initial audit shows whether the investment is justified for your site.

Does Server-Side tracking improve SEO?

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Indirectly, yes. By moving part of the advertising scripts (Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel, etc.) from the browser to the server, you lighten the page's code. The site can load faster, and loading speed is part of Google's page experience signals (Core Web Vitals).

Why use server-side tracking for LinkedIn Ads?

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Because it makes measurement more robust. Events go through your own subdomain (first-party), then are sent to LinkedIn through its Conversions API. Measurement is less exposed to browser restrictions and ad blockers, and LinkedIn receives more complete conversions to optimise your campaigns.

The server also lets you filter data before it is sent. It always respects the visitor's choice: a refusal is still a refusal.

What is "Server-Side" tracking?

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It is a method where the browser sends data to your intermediary server (proxy), which cleans it and then forwards it to the platforms. You maintain full control of the data before it goes to the GAFAM.

What is the monthly cost of a Server-Side infrastructure?

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It depends on request volume. At Stape, a free plan covers up to 10,000 requests per month, and the Pro plan costs about USD 17 per month billed annually, for up to 500,000 requests (Stape's published pricing, September 2026). On Google Cloud (Cloud Run), Google estimates about USD 45 per month per server and recommends at least two servers in production.

These hosting costs are not included in A-Track's setup and maintenance services: they come on top.

What are the major advantages of Server-Side?

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First-party measurement on your own subdomain, more resilient to browser restrictions and ad blockers, always respecting the visitor's choice.

Cookies set by the server, which can last longer than JavaScript cookies capped at 7 days by Safari (if the server is properly aligned with your domain).

Data control: filtering, hashing or removing sensitive information before it is sent to the platforms.

A potentially lighter page, if pixels are removed from the browser.