Comments on: iOS Cookie Tracking is the Wrong Way to Do Mobile App Tracking

By: Gregory Smith

Gregory Smith — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 12:18:11 +0000

I love your blog

I have read this article and enjoyed it

By: BillPosters

BillPosters — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:28:00 +0000

In reply to Jake Ludington. So.. you want a medal for that or what?

By: Prescott Paulin

Prescott Paulin — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 05:43:00 +0000

So… how do we do app install tracking? Is the solution with Has Offers? I’m confused… I have some developers and I have a user base of instructors that I want to pay recurring monthly commissions to for referring new users to us. But I need this to integrate with a beta platform that we are creating… basically we roll out in new cities based on priority of user base (potential subscribers) and amount they are willing to spend to bring us there. So when that happens, we need to message all the users in queue who have entered referral codes given to them by the instructors, and then we need to pay those instructors a recurring amount every month once we get our subscribers.

By: Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:33:00 +0000

In reply to Ilya Kazansky. You are correct. Webview and Safari are separate and cannot share cookie information.

By: Ilya Kazansky

Ilya Kazansky — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:33:00 +0000

Hi, I have a question on cookie tracking. As a mobile inventory supplier, we see more and more publishers utilising WebView to render pages which follow a clicks, as opposed to transferring focus out of an application to the devices default browser such as Safari. (Publishers do not wish to lose attention of their apps users)

In such a scenario an attempt to set a cookie will be carried out within the applications WebView, then following a download the cookie tracking solution will attempt to read the cookie from the default browser.

As far as I am aware, the cookie store between a WebView and a default browser is separate. In such a case how is it possible to attribute an install to the originating click?

By: Andrew Crookston

Andrew Crookston — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:51:00 +0000

In reply to Peter Hamilton. That's interesting, can you share more info on how the fingerprinting works between web and in-app?

By: Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 05:54:00 +0000

In reply to Andrew Crookston. No worries Andrew. Thanks for posting. Most advertisers and networks doing app to app promotion use alternate identifiers that are available to iOS developers, the most recent being Apple's ID. In this scenario, the device fingerprint acts as a fall back when other identifiers are not present. Most of our clients utilize device fingerprint on web to app promotion with a standard lookback period of 24 hours to assume high statistical probability, and this relevance has proven to be very accurate for the purpose of their campaigns. Cookie tracking is also an option for tracking web to app, but not usually an option our clients choose due to the poor user experience. It just isn't worth the sacrifice.

By: Andrew Crookston

Andrew Crookston — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 01:23:00 +0000

In reply to Peter Hamilton. @PeterRyanHamilton:disqus I'm just curious and want to make sure I understood you correct; you're saying that device fingerprinting works between apps but not mobile-web and app? As I understand from the video, the hotels.com app basically links a mobile-web session/cookie with an app install. So far I haven't seen anybody be able to do that. And sorry for re-opening an old thread but I was searching around for ways to link app and mobile-web sessions and this was very interesting to read/see.

By: Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 17:01:00 +0000

In reply to Julien MENARD. That is correct Julien. We're working on accuracy testing for device fingerprint from the mobile web using cookies and other technologies from some of our partners. We certainly have many customers relying on a device fingerprint for web to app tracking currently.

By: Julien MENARD

Julien MENARD — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 13:32:00 +0000

In reply to Peter Hamilton.

You wrote “Actually, the 94% is measured against traffic that also carried UDID or MAC Address, allowing us to measure the accuracy of the matching of one user’s click to the same user’s install.”

You mean between two apps and not between a mobile website within a browser and an app then ?

By: djMaxM

djMaxM — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:15:00 +0000

I wish there was a way around the switch that was as reliable and as simple to implement… Like there is on Android. Until there is, I feel like the best we can do is give a reason for the switch. Like an intro video or an element in the flow that “makes sense” rather than just an epileptic app parade.

By: djMaxM

djMaxM — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 17:14:00 +0000

In reply to Yeayea. No, cookie spaces are disconnected