How do Different Tracking Methods Interact?
A publisher client of Moonpull asked for advice on how different tracking methods interact. Specifically, they wanted to know about or whether an advertiser might be able to have multiple tracking implementations coexisting.
Moonpull explained that it’s common for advertisers to currently have both third party and first party tracking present. This is because the third-party tracking is set on the network redirect (so any cookie is third party in context of the advertiser domain) whilst the first-party one is set once the user has been redirected to the advertiser’s domain.
The two cookies are usually utilised by different methods at the checkout and it is possible that the network ‘hears’ any transaction twice. The network will dedupe to ensure only one transaction appears in the data.
As they can coexist, and because third party cookie setting is very reliable, Moonpull refers to it as ‘fallback’ third party tracking. One of the concerns with deprecation is that by removing the fallback method it will be shining a light on the quality of first party implementations.
Moonpull provides detailed Audit Reports to enable a publisher to identify where third-party tracking is still active - and where the compromised first-party tracking is being masked by the ‘fallback’. Sharing the report helps to have a more informed conversation with the advertiser or their program manager to effect a resolution.
Follow Moonpull to get more insights to help with tracking effectiveness
Read more on the Moonpull blog:
This is a matter that is often not appreciated by publishers and advertisers. As part of the journey of really understanding tracking, appreciating that different tracking methods can coexist and work differently is important.