The impact of third-party cookie deprecation on affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is an excellent opportunity for businesses to boost their revenue. Similarly, it's an effective strategy for affiliates to earn income through their websites.

However, challenges have arisen in tracking affiliate conversions due to increasing tracking limitations, the prevalence of ad blockers, and third-party cookie deprecation. Affiliates risk losing their sales due to the unreliability of client-side tracking. 

In light of these challenges, it's becoming increasingly important to consider the adoption of server-side affiliate tracking. That’s why we decided to cover the specific details relevant to the overarching theme of how the deprecation of 3rd party cookies is reshaping affiliate marketing.

Third-party cookies are small text files created by websites that are not the website the user is currently visiting. Unlike first-party cookies, which are generated by the site a user interacts with, 3rd party cookies are crucial for tracking user actions and attributing them to the correct affiliate. This ensures affiliates get credit for the traffic or sales they generate.

⚠️UPDATE: Google announced that it will no longer pursue its plans to phase out third-party cookies. Instead, the company will introduce a new solution: a one-time prompt that allows users to set their preferences, which will apply across all Google browsing experiences.

The primary function of third-party cookies is to collect data about users' online behaviors. This data includes information about browsing habits, preferences, and even personal details in some cases. Advertisers and marketing companies use this information to create detailed user profiles leveraged for targeted advertising. These cookies enable advertisers to present relevant ads to users across different websites, enhancing the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns.

However, the extensive use of third-party cookies has also raised concerns about privacy and data security. In response to these concerns, there has been a shift in the digital world, with increasing emphasis on user privacy and the gradual phasing out of third-party cookies. 

A third-party cookie is placed on a user's browser when they click on an affiliate link. This cookie stores information about which affiliate referred the user. If the user purchases on the advertiser's site, the cookie ensures that the affiliate gets credit for the sale.

Affiliate marketing has traditionally relied on third-party cookies for attributing conversions to affiliates. However, Safari and Firefox already block third-party cookies by default through their Intelligent Tracking Prevention mechanisms, and users increasingly rely on ad blockers and privacy settings that interfere with cookie-based tracking. This means affiliate networks and vendors relying solely on third-party cookies are already losing attribution for a meaningful share of conversions.

Affiliate marketers need to adopt more privacy-friendly practices, ensuring transparency and user consent in their tracking methods. As reliance on third-party cookies becomes less viable, there's a growing emphasis on first-party data — information collected directly from a company's audience — as the more durable foundation for attribution.

Using server-side tracking is the easiest way to deal with the depreciation of third-party cookies. With s2s tracking and server Google Tag Manager, you can set long-lived first-party cookies instead of third-party ones.

Setting up first-party cookies with sGTM used to be easy. But now, new rules from Safari make it harder because it blocks even first-party cookies if they're set from an IP address different from your website's. So, the question is, how can you still set up long-lasting affiliate cookies using sGTM? There are a few ways: 

1. Configure server Google Tag Manager container. 

2. Set a custom domain. It can be either the same origin domain or a subdomain. 

2.1 If you implement the same origin custom domain, no additional setup is needed to prolong the cookie lifetime. 

2.2 If you choose to use a custom domain, then you will need to implement one of the following: 

• Set up Own CDN.
• Use Cookie Keeper to store/restore user cookies.

Once the sGTM container and custom domain are configured, you must implement server-side tracking for your affiliate network. At Stape, we have created such articles and affiliate tags for a straightforward setup: 

• Awin server-side Tag
• Affiliate Conversion Tag
• Refersion Tag
• Rakuten Tag
• Impact Tag

The end of third-party cookies is a big challenge for affiliate marketing. This shift necessitates affiliate platforms and vendors to change how they attribute sales to affiliates. The most obvious and straightforward way is using server-side tracking, focusing on first-party cookies. 

The future of affiliate marketing is leaning heavily toward server-side tracking solutions. It’s a robust, privacy-compliant alternative to traditional reliance on third-party cookies. It offers enhanced data accuracy and reliability, crucial for precisely attributing sales and commissions in affiliate marketing. 

However, it's essential to acknowledge that transitioning to server-side tracking may involve technical complexity and resource investment. Despite these challenges, the long-term benefits and sustainability of server-side tracking in a cookieless digital world make it a strategic choice for the future.

That’s why we’re here to help! Don’t hesitate to leave a ticket or ask for a free quote.