At impact.com, we understand that precise and effective tracking is the cornerstone of a successful marketing strategy. This document is designed to help you optimize your tracking setup, ensuring that every user interaction is accurately captured and attributed.
The following tracking configurations are all relevant to you regardless of factors like your geographical brand presence or whether you have a branded mobile app.
Server-Side Conversion Integration Method
Server-Side Page Event Tracking
Custom Tracking Domain
Persistent First-Party Identifier
Comprehensive Conversion Tracking
Cross-Device Tracking
Impact: High
Importance: Using a robust conversion integration ensures a comprehensive capture of all conversions, which is critical for accurate crediting, calculating ROI, and optimizing marketing strategies.
Recommendation: Transition to near real-time server-side tracking to mitigate tracking loss due to ad blockers and user navigation away from the page.
Learn more: Conversions API.
Impact: High
Importance: Using server-side tracking to capture page events offers enhanced data security, reliability, and accuracy by minimizing data loss from browser restrictions like cookie limits or ad blocker interference.
Recommendation: Use PageLoad API to track page events server-side and pass a reliable 1st-party identifier to connect the user journey.
Learn more: PageLoad API.
Impact: Medium
Importance:
Enhances trust and recognition by aligning the tracking URL with your brand.
Reduces the risk of being blocked by ad blockers, which often target common 3rd-party tracking domains.
You can improve cookie reliability for Safari by aligning the tracking domain with their IP range when selecting Custom Proxy Configuration.
Recommendation: Implement a 1st-party tracking domain like goto.brand.com to improve tracking reliability and brand consistency. (This option is only available to certain editions. Contact us to upgrade your account and get access!)
Learn more: Set Up a Custom Tracking Domain.
Impact: Medium
Importance:
Ensures improved tracking stability as browsers phase out 3rd-party cookies to track beyond the 7-day limit in Safari.
It also helps maintain consistent tracking across sessions directly controlled by the domain owner.
Recommendation: Use the CustomProfileId to pass an anonymous 1st-party identifier. This identifier should be stored on the site’s domain and set as httpOnly and secure.
Learn more: The conversion object.
Impact: Medium
Importance:
Reporting a superset of conversions allows for more robust attribution to potential referrers that may have been missed using traditional tracking methods.
Attribute conversions to cross-device referrers based on authenticated user identifiers.
Recommendation: Report all potential referrer-based conversions, including cross-device activities.
Learn more: Submit Conversion Data via FTP or Email.
The following tracking configurations are relevant to specific brands only, and you need to consider them only if you meet the Applicability criteria.
Tracking Efficacy Benchmark
Mobile App Tracking
Cross-Domain and Cross-Program Tracking
Mobile App Deep Linking for In-App Browsers
Consent Management
Impact: High
Applicability: Brands using our UTT or PageLoad API for page event tracking.
Importance: It serves as a metric to assess the effectiveness of your implemented tracking setup. Achieving a high benchmark indicates that a high percentage of user clicks become attributable to conversions.
Recommendation: Aim for a tracking efficacy rate of over 70%.
Learn more: Tracking Efficacy Report.
Impact: High
Applicability: Mobile app exists
Importance:
When a mobile app is installed, you can redirect users directly to the app. When a mobile app is configured to track through impact.com, partners get credit for re-engaging users who have the app installed.
You can see a more complete view of your program.
Recommendation: Implement mobile app event tracking. Configure redirects using Universal Links and App Links.
Impact: High
Applicability: More than one program or web domain
Importance:
Understand user behavior across multiple properties, ensuring every interaction is correctly attributed.
Offer credit to partners if the user navigates across different domains, e.g., brand.co.uk and brand.com.
Recommendation:
Ensure the user identity is linked as the user navigates across different domains. This can be accomplished using the UTT’s cross-domain feature or a custom configuration.
Ensure cross-program tracking is configured when there are multiple related programs. One common scenario is different programs per region.
Impact: High
Applicability: Mobile app exists and social media promotion
Importance:
Improve user experience by directing users to your mobile app from social media websites.
Preserve tracking identifiers and improve conversion rates by directing users to your app.
Increase conversion rates 2-3X for social media interactions.
Recommendation: Configure a Mobile Deep Linking action to use URI Schemes to launch the app from social media in-app browsers.
Learn more: Configure Deep Linking Logic with URI Schemes.
Impact: High
Applicability: You have a brand presence in the European Economic Area, UK, or Switzerland
Importance:
Proper consent management setup ensures that user interactions track correctly when consent is required in certain jurisdictions.
Loyalty and rewards partners use legitimate interest as the legal basis for tracking instead of consent.
Recommendation:
Implement Consent Mode if your brand has a presence in the European Economic Area, UK, or Switzerland.
Preserve attribution parameters past the initial navigation (built into the UTT’s Consent Mode).
Track loyalty and rewards clicks (as designated by the
im_rewards=1 flag) as strictly necessary for delivering a service to users (built into the UTT’s Consent Mode).