“Starting this month, Google is making changes to the way it captures and reports on conversions in AdWords in response to Apple’s coming Safari update,” Ginny Marvin reports for Search Engine Land. “In June, Apple introduced Intelligent Tracking Prevention, an initiative aimed at limiting third-party trackers from capturing cross-site browsing data, in the next version of Safari, coming out this fall. The move has implications for ad performance tracking for Google and others. On Thursday, Google sent an email to AdWords advertisers outlining changes it is making in response to Intelligent Tracking Prevention.”
“In short, with ITP, third-party cookies that are determined to be able to track users across sites can only be used for 24 hours from the time a user visits a website via Safari. After 24 hours, the third-party cookies can only be used for log-in purposes. The cookies are purged entirely after 30 days,” Marvin reports. “This means that unless a user converts within 24 hours of last visiting an advertiser’s site after clicking an AdWords ad, for example, the conversion attribution will be lost. With Safari accounting for nearly 50 percent of mobile web traffic share in North America, ITP has the potential to wreak havoc on mobile ad conversion attribution.”
“Google is addressing ITP with a method in keeping with Apple’s guidance around ad attribution, which states, ‘We recommend server-side storage for attribution of ad impressions on your website. Link decoration [ e.g., padding links with information] can be used to pass on attribution information in navigations,'” Marvin reports. “Namely, Google has developed a new Google Analytics cookie that will be used to capture campaign and conversion data from Safari in a way that conforms with ITP… Advertisers that have linked their AdWords and Google Analytics campaigns will see no change because the new cookie acts as a first-party cookie and can continue recording conversion data from Safari traffic.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We expected as much.
SEE ALSO:
By blocking tracking ads, is Apple destroying the internet’s economic model? – September 18, 2017
Bastards.
“Don’t be evil…”
Oh, never mind. Go ahead.
Brin & Page still believe in “Don’t Be Evil.” Many people at Alphabet/Google still believe it. However, those that believe it no longer really run the show. Schmidt and his ilk have more control than they do. He’s the driving force behind what most people believe as the money chasing aspects of Alphabet/Google. In fact, shortly after Schmidt became chairman (maybe right after he became CEO for a while) he was asked about the “Don’t Be Evil.” slogan. He then publicly stated that it was the dumbest company slogan he had ever heard. Shortly after that the company stopped using it.
It’s not just the theft of the iPhone concept while Schmidt was an Apple board member that makes Schmidt someone you don’t want to work for or with. This is just one more.
How do you know these things? I mean you got some juicy links? I like reading. No such thing as TL;DR to me! Point me in the right direction.
This could be one of these tit for tat wars, Google does this, Apple releases a Safari update breaking it.. Depending on how fast Google can send out updates to keep things going, it would certainly disrupt Google on and off…
What amazes me is the fandroid loyalty and the complete acceptance of google infringing on every aspect of their/our lives. Who in their right minds ever defends an advertising medium like Scrooggle/Big Brother?
What amazes me is that you don’t realize MDN is a huge hypocrite, patronizing Google business while telling you not to
Isn’t this just a way for them to know whom to pay the pennies to?
How do we defeat this? I don’t click on web ads and use DDG rather than google. Is there anything else I can do to protect data and stick it to google?
It would seem that the only way to defeat it is to come up with a way to monetize websites that did not require ads. I once started a reddit discussion on this and no matter what I thought of people shot it down.
Maybe set your browser to not display anything but text? 😛
Use Duck Duck Go for your search engine.
or Startpage which I find better, it feels like Google except in the ways you don’t want it to.
The same Google Analytics that MDN uses?
The aloof MDN take is predictable