Cookies are a key part of digital advertising and marketing, yet many advertisers and marketers need help understanding them and how they work. If that sounds like you, don't worry – we have a blog post that will give you an overview of cookies so that you can utilize them with confidence in your marketing campaigns.
In this blog post, we'll break down the concept of cookieless tracking, explain why it's essential, and provide tips on using it in your next marketing campaign. Take a few moments to put aside everything else you're working on - by discovering tracking without cookies, you may find new insights about your target audiences that will ultimately allow you to make smarter business decisions. Let's dive in!
Сookies make browsing the web a more seamless and unique experience for users.
Here are some reasons why cookies are important and why they exist:
Cookies exist to enhance the user experience on websites and to enable website owners to collect data that can be used to improve their services and marketing efforts. While there are some privacy concerns related to cookies, which we'll describe further, they are an essential part of the modern web.
While cookies can provide many benefits to users and website owners, there are also some potentially negative aspects associated with them:
It is worth noting that many of these concerns can be mitigated through the use of browser settings or third-party tools that block or limit the use of cookies.
In this article, we'll describe how the two most popular platforms, Google Analytics 4 and Facebook, support tracking without cookies.
GA4 is marketed as privacy-focused, and it is meant to function with or without cookies. GA4 can cover data gaps as the world grows less reliant on cookies by utilizing machine learning and statistical modeling. Google Analytics 4 is based on first-party cookies, which ensures compliance with new privacy requirements such as GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
FLoC stands for Federated Learning of Cohorts, and Google simulates user data rather than using third-party cookies with this strategy. FLoC is intended to protect users' privacy while allowing for interest-based ad choices. While a person navigates the web, their browser (particularly Chrome) will utilize the FLoC algorithm to place them in an "interest cohort" with many other users who have a similar history.
And as for the Facebook solution - Facebook conversion API - it can be said that besides cookies, it relies on user data. With the help of user parameters you send together with FB CAPI events, FB will match events to users in their database. As a result, you will have more reliable data.
Server-side tracking is one of the most reliable and privacy-friendly methods of tracking user behavior without relying on cookies.
With server-side tracking, the tracking code is executed on the server rather than on the user's browser. This means that the user's device does not need to store any tracking data, and the tracking is done entirely on the server side.
Server-side tracking can be implemented in several ways, including:
Stape has a full list of platforms that support server-side tracking.
Server-side tracking with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) can be done without relying on cookies. In fact, server-side tracking is one of the recommended methods for implementing cookieless tracking with GA4.
Here are some ways that cookieless tracking works in Google Analytics 4:
Client ID: GA4 uses a unique identifier called "Client ID" to track individual users across different devices and channels.
Events: GA4 allows for the tracking of various events, such as pageviews, clicks, form submissions, and other user interactions. These events can be triggered by server-side code or JavaScript on the client-side and can be sent to GA4 servers using the Measurement Protocol.
User properties: GA4 allows for the collection of user properties such as age, gender, interests, and other demographic data. This data can be collected from various sources and can be used to create audience segments for targeting and personalization.
Consent Management: GA4 provides tools for managing user consent and complying with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA. This includes options for disabling tracking for users who opt out of tracking or who have not given their consent.
Server-side tracking with GA4 provides a privacy-friendly and flexible way to track user behavior without relying on cookies. It can be used to track user behavior across multiple touchpoints and devices, while still respecting users' privacy preferences.
So there it is – an overview of how cookieless tracking works and what it can do for your marketing campaign. We hope this blog post has inspired you to explore tracking without cookies and use that knowledge in your next marketing decision. With Stape's help, you can tap into your audience on a level they never dreamed of before.
If you have any questions or need additional help understanding the concept of cookie-free tracking, please don't hesitate to reach out via our support team - they'll be able to answer all your questions and provide you with more detail. So don't wait - start using cookieless tracking today and watch as your business takes off!
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By the end of 2024, Chrome and Chrome-based browsers will be done with third-party cookies. Safari and Firefox already implemented Intelligent Tracking Algorithms that can block trackers. That leads to the next point: digital advertising methods that rely on third-party cookies to target consumers might become ineffective or even stop working altogether. This change in how advertisers track users will hurt many publishers and ad networks that rely on these third-party companies to display ads and collect data from site visitors to understand their audience. In this blog post, I will explain what a third-party cookie is, why it matters, and how server-side tracking can help businesses transit to the world without third-party cookies.
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