Google's first official move to phase out third-party cookies from their Chrome web browser started on January 4, 2024, when they began testing their Tracking Protection feature for 1% of Chrome users globally.
Google cites this as a key milestone in their Privacy Sandbox initiative and this signals Google's commitment to their timeline to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2024. Chrome's deprecation of third-party cookies follows Safari, Firefox, and other major browsers that have made this same change over the last five years.
The good news is that our industry is prepared for this change, and we've had time to test and understand the impact of losing third-party cookies. CJ's in-market tracking solutions were built to adapt to the ongoing loss of third-party cookies and access to traditional identifiers that we've experienced, starting with the rollout of Safari's ITP in 2018. Our article, Apple iOS 17, Safari 16.4, & the Tale of the Disappearing Link Tracking, published immediately after Apple's 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference, covers in detail some of the technical decisions we’ve made to future-proof tracking for our clients.
Upgrade Your CJ Integration to Make Sure You’re Covered
If you haven't yet upgraded your integration to our most up-to-date tracking solutions, now is the time to do it! While most of the revenue we track through our network is protected by first-party data integrations, we do see revenue tracked in Chrome solely through third-party cookies. We want to protect this revenue with first-party data integrations, and upgrading to our most updated tracking method is the way to do that.
- CJ’s Ideal Advertiser Integration: Universal Tag with Reverse Proxy - If you’re a CJ advertiser and haven't already upgraded to CJ's Universal Tag, review the Universal Tag Integration Overview with your development team and secure the dedicated resources to complete this update. Once you’ve successfully nailed down the team to start the work, file a support ticket through CJ’s Support Center to receive the necessary IDs specific to your program.
- Publishers Can Safeguard Tracking with CJ’s Publisher Tag - For publishers, CJ’s Publisher Tag currently supports publishers that place links directly on their website such as content sites, as well as publishers that serve links via JavaScript, i.e. those that serve links via an interstitial page. Additional integration methods will be coming soon! To learn more about CJ’s Publisher Tag integration, visit our Developer Portal. For questions, integration inquiries, or to speak to a Client Integration Engineer, file a support ticket using the following information: Case Reason > Publisher Tracking; Sub Reason > Tracking Review.
Create an Ongoing Plan to Maintain Your Tracking Health
This is also a great time to put together a plan for maintaining the health of your tracking, and regularly checking in on it. This includes making sure you’re tracking all properties where consumers can shop, like your mobile app. Performance marketing relies on accurate data and measurement to prove its value, and your tracking setup is the means for capturing that data. While our goal at CJ is to provide future-proof tracking solutions that can adapt to industry and privacy changes without reintegration, there are so many factors that can impact your tracking. Start learning how you're integrated with your marketing partners, and what factors can impact that integration (like tag managers, attribution platforms, consent management platforms, etc.), and make it a goal to regularly check on the health of your tracking.
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Tracking integrity is a central pillar of a healthy affiliate program and healthy relationships between advertisers and publishers. Our tracking solutions are constantly evolving as web browsers continue to roll out changes like these, and we’re focused on providing resilient solutions to our publishers and advertisers. We encourage you to make sure you’re using our best-in-class tracking solutions like CJ's Universal Tag and Publisher Tag.
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