Understanding mobile tracking techniques is among the top preoccupations of digital marketers and advertisers as they are investing more and more on mobile and tablets platforms.
Mobile cookie had been voluntarily limited by manufacturers for privacy & security reasons. Unlike the desktop environment, mobile cookies cannot always be used to track all behaviours, which it can lead to a massive misunderstanding in the mobile industry.
To clarify the matter, the IAB Mobile Center of Excellence recently published a whitepaper “Cookies on Mobile 101” which helps understand how things work on mobile web browsers and mobile applications. The report also explains what the mobile cookie alternatives are.
You should really take time to read it or at least, the summary.
Main mobile cookies limitation for tracking:
And if there is only one thing to keep in mind, it would be the table below that gives an exhaustive view of cookie usage possibilities in the different OS and contexts.
To put it simple, mobile cookie tracking is reliable when it comes to tracking post-click conversions, and limited to the following cases, as the apps are “sandboxed” and are not given access to other apps files and data: apps1-to-apps1, mobileweb-to-mobileweb.
Tracking mobile campaigns from mobile apps-1 to apps-2, mobile web-to-mobile-apps and from mobile apps to mobile web can’t be safely achieved with cookies.
Tracking based on third-party cookies can’t be achieved in Safari, as Apple doesn’t allow by default third-party cookies.
Mobile cookie tracking can be completed with several alternatives, such as the ID-Based tracking commonly used by the industry, including us at Smart AdServer.
Smart AdServer is a member of the IAB in US, Europe and Brazil. We ensure our products are always in line with advertising standards.
