Cookie Consent Banners, which caused a big splash in Europe with GDPR in 2018, are now furrowing brows in the U.S. Eleven states now have privacy legislation, a doubling since last year, which all vary in requirements, making it tricky for advertisers to navigate.
Before we jump into the impact of cookie consent banners on affiliate programs, let’s review the difference between first and third party cookies:
As a refresher, third-party cookies and affiliate programs worked like this:
A shopper clicked on a link from a publisher site to a brand site
Shopper is taken to track.affiliatenetwork.com
A cookie is placed within the shopper’s device for the affiliate network
The shopper is redirected to the brand’s site
The shopper makes a purchase, and on the purchase confirmation page, the tracking code reads the cookie and sends the data to the affiliate network interface
For first-party cookies, the flow is different;
A shopper clicks on a link from a publisher’s site to a brand’s site
Shopper is taken to track.affiliatenetwork.com
The customer is automatically redirected to the brand’s site
The Network sends some form of a Click ID and this is saved as a cookie by the brand site
The shopper makes a purchase, and on the purchase confirmation page the tracking code reads the cookie set up by the brand and sends the data to the affiliate network interface
TLDR; third-party cookies would be saved on a shopper’s device by the affiliate network whereas first-party cookies are saved by the brand’s domain.
Now that we reviewed the basics; what is the impact of cookie consent banners on affiliate programs?
If a brand has implemented a Cookie Management Platform (CMP), then the affiliate tracking cookie will likely only place if the shopper accepts cookies when the brand’s pop-up appears. If the shopper selects decline, the sale will likely not track.
In light of these consent concerns, there are a few follow-up questions for brands can answer to better understand the impact of CMPs on their program:
Is your affiliate network using first-party cookies or “cookieless tracking”?
How do affiliate consent banners impact network reporting?
Do you know where your brand’s tracking triggers?
Are you testing your tracking at least once a month?
Is the brand A/B testing consent banner visuals and wording to frame the acceptance of first-party cookies in a positive light?
The impact of shopper consent on affiliate marketing will continue to grow; your Revel Interactive team will be sure to share more case studies and solutions to brand affiliate questions over this year!
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