There is a lot of information out there about Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0 (ITP 2.0) and ITP in general, but a lot of it is buried in page after page of text. Identifying what you need to look at can be complicated and confusing.
With this in mind, we have put together a flowchart not just to get you covered for the ITP 2.0 roll-out, but to put you on the road to best practice for the months ahead.
First, let’s recap on what ITP 2.0 actually is and why understanding it is so important.
What is ITP and how is ITP 2.0 different?
In September 2017, Apple rolled out Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) which was a fundamental change to their Safari browser. ITP meant that any cookies “intelligently” determined as having tracking and marketing as their sole purpose might have their function limited by the browser. In practice, the target of the technology is mainly third-party cookies. With ITP, target cookies that don’t support user authentication and login were removed after 24 hours; while all third-party cookies (regardless of their role in login) would also be cleansed from the Safari browser after 30 days.
The impact of this technology is significant, because the removal of marketing cookies can degrade conversion tracking and therefore attribution.
Apple have since started to roll out phase two of this scheme, known as ITP 2.0, which goes a step further than ITP 1.0 in removing the aforementioned 24-hour window – during which conversions could still be tracked. Now, instead, access to these cookies is limited to restricted scenarios, via a complex API system.
Something of note: other browsers are starting to roll out equivalent features, with Mozilla Firefox confirming their intent to follow Apple’s example.
How to respond to ITP & ITP 2.0
The methodology on how to respond to ITP / ITP 2.0 hasn’t really changed. For Google advertisers, it’s the same two core options as recommended last year:
- Install the Global Site Tag (gtag.js) on your entire site
- Use Google Tag Manager and the Conversion Linker Tag
Listing it like this is far too simplistic though, as each option has settings and factors to consider. So, to make it as clear and easy as possible to diagnose which options you should look into, we’ve put this into a handy flowchart:
Click to view larger version
There is a lot to consider on this chart so please get in touch if you need further help in making sure you take exactly the steps required to prevent the data loss that ITP will otherwise cause, if left unchecked.
