Server to server postback url tracking

ShaneODub

Hi folks,

I wonder could somebody help me get my head around 'cookie-less tracking'. I'm nearly there but I'm not 100% clear on it.

These are the steps as I understand them:

- A consumer clicks on an ad or affiliate link.

- The consumer is sent to a tracking server that generates a link with a click_ID and forwards the consumer to the merchant.

- The merchant, on conversion, fires off a postback url to the tracking server that contains the click_ID.

- The tracking server uses the click_ID to attribute the conversion to the original click, so that the affiliate or the ad or whatever gets the credit.

If the consumer lands on the landing page and completes the conversion within the same session, I can see how the above would work. The merchant could pass the click_id as url parameters while the consumer navigates through the conversion funnel. If the consumer doesn't complete the purchase within the same session, though, I'm not clear on what happens. When the consumer returns, how will the merchant know that it's the same consumer as last time, so that they can send the click_ID back to the tracking sever?

There's something I'm missing or some wrong assumption I'm making, I think.

Thanks.

Edit: Just remembered, I've seen mention of device fingerprinting being used, e.g. browser attributes, screen resolutions etc., which makes sense, but I'm not sure who or what in the process is doing the device fingerprinting.

jmcc

Perhaps you are not considering the IP address of the user? IP addresses tend to be relatively static depending on the ISP lease time (some leases can last for days).

Regards...jmcc