<aside> <img src="/icons/chart-donut_blue.svg" alt="/icons/chart-donut_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Welcome To Bulletproof Tracking

In this video, we’re going to discuss third-party tracking and attribution. I’m going to explain why Meta & Google tracking isn’t effective and what you should be using for tracking instead. Let’s get started.

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Ad Platform Tracking 👣 🕵️‍♀️

Facebook relies on a two key mechanisms to collect data on users and use that data to attribute sales back to specific ads, so that you know which campaigns, adsets and ads are actually driving conversions for your business.

Those two mechanisms are:

  1. Cookies
  2. IDFA

Cookies 🍪

The primary way Facebook tracks user behavior (via the Facebook pixel) is with cookies. Cookies are small pieces of data generated by a server that are installed into a user’s web browser.

Cookies store information and provide it to the owner when they ask for it. When you put the Facebook pixel on your site, and the user lands on your site, a cookie is installed into user’s browser.

This cookie can then send information back to the Facebook ad manager when the user **takes a specific action that represents a conversion.

IDFA 🪪

Identifier For Advertisers (IDFA) is a unique identifier assigned to each iOS device, which allowed advertisers to track user interactions across different apps and websites without directly identifying the individual user.

IDFA is analogous to a cookie, but is for tracking users across non-browser apps which were never compatible with cookies. You can think of IDFA like a cookie for apps.

Here’s a diagram to explain it (also true for YT ads):

The f (22).png

There’s a few major problems here:

  1. If users switch devices, then tracking is lost;
  2. If user clear their cookies, then tracking is lost;
  3. Cookie tracking can be lost across domains;
  4. Cookie data expires after a set period of time;
  5. If people use ad blockers data won’t be captured; and
  6. Browser security settings can prevent data capture.

iOS 14.5 Update 📲

When iOS 14 came along, this problem only became worse. Apple made it mandatory for apps on the app store to ask users if they wanted to opt out of tracking (IDFA/cookies).

It’s estimated that 90% of users opt out **of tracking, making Facebook & YouTube’s tracking systems even less accurate than they were before.

WIRED-AppleTrack2.webp