Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing, Part 4: How Mobile Web Tracking Works

For digital marketers, understanding the intricacies of mobile web tracking is no longer a choice. Today, it’s a necessity to stay superiority of the lines in this fast-paced industry. That’s why we’re diving into mobile web tracking in Part 4 of our blog series, based on TUNE’s Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing.

In Part 1, we introduced the guide and how mobile user vanquishment and unite marketing programs overlap. Part 2 compared mobile measurement partners to partner marketing platforms. In Part 3, we explored why mobile apps are hair-trigger to a program’s success.

In this latest installment, we’re tackling the process overdue tracking conversions on mobile web. After all, if you want to manage a successful partner marketing program, you have to be worldly-wise to measure it first. So let’s get started!

How to Track Conversions in a Mobile Web Environment

For years, third-party cookies served as the go-to method for tracking conversions on the web. However, recent browser developments have rendered third-party cookies ineffective, pushing marketers to prefer cookieless tracking methods. This shift brings desktop and mobile web measurement closer to campaigns in the mobile app ecosystem, where cookieless tracking is a requirement.

For mobile web, there are two primary methodologies for cookieless tracking: server-side postbacks and JavaScript SDK. We’ll go into the nuts of how these both work below.

Server-Side Postback Tracking

The server postback tracking method is the most reliable for tracking campaigns on mobile web. It has been TUNE’s recommended tideway for years and is a native full-length of the platform.

Let’s seem the implementation process has been completed, so all the required lawmaking and settings are ready. Here is how postback tracking works:

1. When a user clicks on a tracking link, TUNE generates a unique alphanumeric ID (Transaction ID).
2. TUNE passes the Transaction ID to the brand’s landing page, where it is stored and associated with the user.
   • Brands can segregate from several methods for storing the Transaction ID, including storing it in a database, using first-party cookies, or passing it via page URLs. Most developers should be familiar with this process and worldly-wise to implement a solution.
3. Upon the user’s conversion (e.g., purchase, lead capture), the trademark fires the Transaction ID when to TUNE in a postback URL.
4. TUNE leverages the stored information well-nigh the click to symbol the conversion virtuously to the partner responsible for driving the conversion.

The first question well-nigh this process that many marketers ask is how to store the Transaction ID, which is answered in #2. The second question is how to pass the ID when to TUNE for Step #3. To do this, the trademark makes an HTTP request to the postback URL via cURL (on the server side), which logs the conversion in TUNE.

JavaScript SDK Tracking

The JavaScript SDK method uses a web browser’s LocalStorage to get virtually the inaccuracies that come with third-party cookies. This method writes conversions when to TUNE, similar to postback tracking.

Here’s how JavaScript SDK tracking works:

1. TUNE passes the Transaction ID into the browser’s LocalStorage upon the user’s click. This works with both redirect links and uncontrived links.
   • When implementing the JavaScript SDK, you add a snippet of lawmaking to the throne of the website, an identify lawmaking line to the landing page, and a convert lawmaking line to the conversion page. This allows TUNE to store the Transaction ID on click in the web browser, and then send the ID when to the TUNE platform when the user ends up on a designated page.
2. When the user reaches a conversion point (e.g., post-purchase Thank You page), TUNE accesses the Transaction ID stored in the browser and sends it when to the TUNE platform.

While this tracking methodology is set up using postback protocols, it is still considered client-side tracking, as the browser (not the brand) stores the Transaction ID.

The JavaScript SDK method is best for tracking in-session conversion points and removes the requirement for the trademark to store the Transaction ID. It moreover integrates well with existing technologies, such as Google Analytics and Shopify, and can track and symbol organic traffic.

For increasingly detailed explanations including spritz charts and diagrams, download the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing.

Mobile Web Tracking and Privacy

Cookieless tracking methods like the ones whilom are designed to provide well-judged attribution without compromising privacy. It’s a big reason TUNE has unchangingly advocated for server-side tracking solutions and first-party cookies versus third-party cookies. However, simply using these methodologies isn’t enough. It’s still crucial to maintain data security and privacy weightier practices in every speciality of your partner program, and to follow all workable rules and regulations virtually data handling.

As tracking technologies advance, remember to unchangingly put consumer privacy first. A few simple steps that every marketer should follow include:

• Obtain user consent for tracking and data collection.
• Implement transparent privacy policies that unmistakably communicate tracking practices.
• Provide users with opt-out mechanisms for personalized tracking.

TUNE In to Learn More

Understanding how mobile web tracking works is essential for marketers seeking reliable conversion tracking methods in 2023. Using cookieless tracking enables today’s program managers to powerfully track and symbol conversions in the mobile web environment.

However, it is equally important to prioritize user privacy and pinion to upstanding tracking practices. At TUNE, we believe that by striking a wastefulness between constructive tracking and privacy considerations, marketers can unzip their program goals while towers trust with partners and consumers. (Our customers are proof of that.)

Check when soon for Part 5, where we’ll delve into mobile app attribution and how MMPs operate. Can’t wait? Download the full e-book and get all your questions answered! You can moreover start a chat to ask one of our experts in person.

Happy reading!