{"id":2073,"date":"2020-11-17T19:30:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T18:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exafutures.com\/?p=2073"},"modified":"2021-09-07T15:34:58","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T14:34:58","slug":"digital-advertising-tracking-cookies-tags-pixels-utms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exafutures.com\/en\/digital-advertising-tracking-cookies-tags-pixels-utms","title":{"rendered":"Digital advertising and tracking, including cookies, tags, pixels and UTMs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Back at the times of the first advertising agencies<\/strong>, tracking down how many people had been \u201chit\u201d by a specific ad campaign was almost impossible. There was no tool reliable and precise enough to determine<\/strong> how many women had seen the ad of the latest shoe model or how many men had bought the season ticket of their favorite team thanks to the related advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot has changed ever since and today advertisers, especially with the beginning of the digital era and the evolution of MarTech<\/a>,<\/strong> have access to a great deal of monitoring data for each ad campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since digital advertising has grown enormously<\/strong> in the last years, the amount of collected data through digital interactions is constantly increasing too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The introduction of tracking<\/strong>, in fact, allowed marketers to more accurately (and, as a consequence, in a more focused way) measure and test the effectiveness of online advertisements<\/strong> and ad campaigns based on users’ behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article we will go<\/strong> through the following topics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. What is Tracking<\/strong><\/li>
  2. What are Cookies<\/strong><\/li>
  3. What are UTMs<\/strong> and How They Work<\/li>
  4. What are tracking pixels<\/strong><\/li>
  5. Google<\/strong>, Facebook<\/strong>, Instagram<\/strong> and LinkedIn<\/strong> Trackings<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    What is Ad Tracking?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Ad tracking is the process of collecting data regarding<\/strong> online ad campaigns’ performances, useful for further deepening users’ behaviour<\/strong> and for improving their online experience<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ad performance<\/strong> is a type of tracking that does not depend exclusively on cookies, tags or pixels (which we will tackle on later): in fact, it is measured by different analytics platforms (Google Ads, Business Manager and Google Analytics \u2013 even if in a broader way -, above all) and it includes a series of useful metrics such as Views, Clicks, Impressions, Cost per Click, Cost per Result, Cost per Thousand Impressions, Cost per Acquisition, Conversions, and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to link analytics and advertising<\/strong>, we can take advantage of some methods that integrate the two platforms and allow them to interact, as well as exchange information and data. Such pieces of information<\/strong> are collected<\/strong> through the use of cookies<\/strong>, monitoring URL<\/strong> and monitoring tags<\/strong>\/pixels<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Precisely because metrics and data to be tracked are potentially infinite, and there are a lot of tracking methods, it is a good practice to determine at an early stage what will be worth tracking for an advertisement or ad campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"tracciamento-tracking-digital-advertising\"
    Photo by Carlos Muza<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Cookies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    A cookie is a small piece of data stored on the user’s computer<\/strong> by the browser while surfing on a website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Cookies, designed to be a mechanism as reliable as possible for websites, were created to remember  status information (such as items added to cart in online shops) or to register the user’s browsing activity (including clicks on specific buttons, accessing or registering pages visited in the past). They can also be used to remember pieces of information that the user has previously filled a form with, such as names, addresses, passwords and credit card numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Especially with the introduction of the new privacy regulation<\/strong> (the obligation for websites to request permission to users to use cookies was set in May, 2011), you have surely noticed (if you reside in the EU) that any website you visit is requesting the permission to use cookies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In fact, they can help marketers analyzing and understanding users’ behaviour on a website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In order to use them, to track users’ activity and improve their experience with customization, it is necessary to obtain users’ explicit consent to use cookies (what you see anytime you enter a website for the first time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When it comes to ad tracking, cookies<\/strong> play the most important role in retargeting campaigns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They can be used to build a user profile based on the activity and habits of the user itself: once such information is obtained, advertisers will be able to use such profile to create ads as suitable as possible to the user’s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There are mainly two types of cookies<\/strong>: first party<\/strong> and third party<\/strong> cookies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Let us try to understand the difference between the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The distinction between first and third party cookies lies on a subjective criterion<\/strong>: basically, it depends on who will actually manage the collected data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    First party cookies<\/strong>, as the name suggests, are placed on your device by the website you are visiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While third party cookies<\/strong> are placed on your device not by the website you are visiting, but by a third party such as advertisers or analytics systems (source: https:\/\/gdpr.eu\/cookies\/<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ultimately<\/strong>, it is useful to take into consideration the different subject that places cookies on the user’s device, whether it is the one managing the website that the user is visiting or a third party website that places cookies thanks to the first one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, in order to better understand how cookies work, here are some examples<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. As a user or consumer<\/strong>, when you are browsing The New York Times website, you agree to the use of placed cookies, which are first party, since they are owned by the NYT (through them it can monitor the content performance);<\/li>
    2. As a publisher or marketer<\/strong>, if you are using Google Analytics or Business Manager, you are placing third party cookies on the websites that will host your advertisements;<\/li>
    3. As a publisher or marketer<\/strong>, if you are using an proprietary software, placed on the server that you directly control, you are placing first party cookies to the sites loaded by the user.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \"tracciamento-tracking\"

      Source:       http:\/\/www.bugdaddy.com\/geekybug\/first-party-cookie-confusion\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      URL Tracking with UTM parameters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      The acronym UTM stands for Urchin Traffic Monitor and it indicates the data analysis tool bought by Google to create Analytics (source: https:\/\/support.google.com\/urchin\/answer\/28710?hl=en)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      UTM code is a piece of simple code that can be added at the end of a URL <\/strong>(website address). Metrics tracked by UTM codes will appear in your analytics reports and will be very useful to get more precise insights of marketing performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      UTMs are parameters that help tracking every URL performance<\/strong>, identifying where traffic comes from or conversions\u2019 results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Just as an example<\/strong>, suppose that you want to track the traffic coming from your Instagram Stories: you can do that by reading the analytics of UTMs included in each link you post in each Story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Here’s an URL of the landing page and the same URL containing UTM parameters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n