Since Apple’s announcement about ITP2 in June this year and our own article addressing the issue, we have been working hard to understand the impact on our network, our advertisers and you, our publishers.
Our Advertiser MasterTag, when integrated correctly, mitigates the effects of ITP2 and will ensure that Safari traffic continues to track after the update. It does so by using first-party cookies rather than the third-party cookies ITP2 is designed to block. A significant number of advertisers already use this latest tracking method and, for those that are not, we have been working to support them with the upgrade process.
Given an estimated release date of September to October, we began a global initiative this summer to prioritize tracking upgrades on advertisers that would have the biggest impact on your earnings. This initiative is still ongoing and will continue until we have individually addressed each advertiser on the network. With the ITP2 release now imminent, we are unlikely to get all advertisers upgraded in time.
As a network, it is our duty to keep you informed of the current state of advertiser tracking and which advertisers are prepared for ITP2. Therefore, we have added some extra columns to the Advertiser Metadata file, which is found in the UI under the Advanced tab. These will tell you if the advertiser is using the MasterTag and if they are tracking conditionally or unconditionally. We have also created the following wiki page to help you interpret this data. The Advertiser Metadata file will continue to be updated as we carry on with our individual advertiser testing.
This will give you visibility on where you may see downturns in performance post ITP2 and help you determine how best to manage your promotional activity and traffic. We will work together with publishers to encourage all advertisers to upgrade. All new advertisers to the network and migrations between Awin Group platforms will be done in an ITP2-compliant manner.
We also welcome you to share any discrepancies you may notice in advertiser performance once ITP2 goes live. Please email itpquery@awin.com and we will be happy to investigate.
