Pixel Tracking and Troubleshooting

Most online merchants and agencies utilize pixels and cookies as their method of affiliate and conversion tracking. This is the easiest method of tracking to implement although it is certainly not the most accurate. It’s called pixel tracking because a 1×1 image (The size of a pixel) must be loaded on the confirmation page.

To understand pixel tracking, I have created a simple step by step process of what generally occurs.

1. Consumers are redirected to a merchant’s landing page through a tracking URL which writes a cookie containing the campaign, affiliate, date and misc. information.
2. A tracking pixel is placed on the confirmation page by the merchant.
3. Once the consumer reaches the confirmation page, the tracking pixel executes and reads the cookie from the user’s machine.
4. Information read from the cookie is used to create a transaction in the tracking platform for reporting purposes.

Sometimes I come across companies that believe some common pixel myths. Let me set the record straight.

1. Pixels do not capture involuntary sensitive/personal consumer information from the consumers computer.
2. Pixels do not allow companies to force the installation of applications on the consumer’s machine.
3. Pixels do not track every time they execute, so you can place many pixels from many platforms on a single page without worrying about everyone tracking the same sale.

Most online tracking platforms use simple cookies to store critical tracking information and track conversions. However, pixel tracking with cookies alone is insufficient if you require more accurate reporting. To squeeze more out of pixel tracking for our LinkTrust (www.linktrust.com) clients, we utilize a secondary or back-up system to capture and store tracking information in the event that a cookie is not able to be written. We capture several items from the consumer’s browser in an effort to make the transaction more unique so that sales can be tracked by matching a combination of consumer/computer information. This backup record remains active in our platform’s transaction database for no longer then 15 minutes. This gives enough time for most consumers to complete a transaction while still preventing conflicts with the same Internet Service Provider (ISP) sharing an IP across multiple consumers. We have found that by utilizing this backup methodology and a few other creative optimizations, pixel tracking accuracy has increased substantially.

Much of my support team’s time each day is spent troubleshooting pixel tracking problems for clients who don’t know how. I thought it might be helpful to include some basic troubleshooting ideas below. Often with pixel tracking, it’s the obvious and easy things that solve the problem right away.

1. Have you personally and visually verified that the correct tracking pixel is on the merchant’s confirmation page?
2. Did you begin your test by clicking through your tracking link?
3. Is your merchant’s landing page loading completely?
4. If the success page is secured (https), are you also using a secured pixel URL?
5. Do you have duplicate IP or other traffic filtered turned on?
6. Have you completed a test using a tool like Fiddler (www.fiddlertool.com) to verify that all URLs and pixels are loading in the browser?
7. Have you verified that the cookie has been written to your computer by the tracking URL?

Don’t let pixels get the best of you. They can become your enemy or be your ally.