How does AnyTrack use cookies for tracking

User privacy, iOS update, and cookies are topics in the advertising industry. Nowadays marketers know that using the network's native tracking tag is not enough to track and attribute conversions.

What is cookieless tracking?

It's the ability to track conversions without cookies.

Does cookieless tracking really works?

No. At least not in the current state of tracking.

So what are those "cookieless" tracking solutions?

In a nutshell, the cookieless tracking method implies that the conversion will be tracked "server-side".

The companies selling these solutions simply "forget" to tell you that they still require "cookies" to activate server side tracking.

Yet, in order to track server-side, you still need the ability to set an "identifier" on the visitor's browser.

What it means is that the "identifier" is a cookie, and that it's value will be stored on a server.

When the conversion is sent to the tracking server, it uses the same key / identifier to match the conversion.

You can learn more about Server / client side tracking here.

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Good to know: The cookie that was set on the browser can be erased or have an expiration of 10 seconds. As long as it's been recorded on the tracking server it can be used indefinitely to track the conversion.

How does AnyTrack work with cookies?

AnyTrack leverages the power of first party data to build a unified and anonymous user profile that can then be used to attribute the conversions back to your ad platforms via server side tracking.

AnyTrack processes first party data:

1. Sets a first party cookie on the user's browser

2. When the user engages with your site AnyTrack AutoTags forms and links with a unique Click ID.  

3. These values are automatically stored on the AnyTrack server

FAQ about Cookies and First party data

• How are the Cookie values then used by AnyTrack?

  When Shopify or a CRM sends the conversion data to AnyTrack, the Click ID value is used as a key to attribute the conversion to the visitor's profile (cookies/ first party data).

• Is AnyTrack affected by Cross-site tracking limitations?

  This quote addresses the problem of cross-site tracking- using cookies in order to track users between different domains. Facebook has this problem because its tracking method is based on Cross-site tracking, starting to track from Facebook platform to the advertiser's website.

  As part of Apple’s ITP 2.2 changes, 1st party (1p) cookies in Safari set by Control Tag will expire after 1 day. If you do not revisit a site within 1 day to keep your cookie refreshed, the cookie will expire and you will get a new identifier the next time you visit the site. This will negatively impact our ability to track users.

• AnyTrack is not affected by Cross-site tracking limitation

  Since we store the data on our servers, this ITP restrictions is not affecting our tracking methods. The Facebook cookie ID and Click ID might be deleted on the user’s browser but it exists on our server and on facebook’s servers for future matching.

• So how does AnyTrack attribute the conversions?

  AnyTrack tag is not added on the advertiser’s website so it is not identified as a cross-site tracking pixel, and therefore it does not have the limitations that other cross-site tracking might have and therefore the AnyTrack cookie isn't removed from the user's browser.

  • Anytrack receives the conversion data from the advertiser through server side integration.
  • Anytrack processes the conversion data and sends it to the ad platforms and analytics.