Description: This article provides a detailed guide to the InnovidXP Tracker and information on implementing our tags on your website to ensure accurate data results.
For a brief overview, visit the XP Quick Tagging Guide instead.
Note: The TCF is designed to help all parties in the digital advertising chain ensure that they comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy Directive. Our web response tracker is available in a TCF-compliant version. Refer to the IAB TCF support materials for more details.
About the InnovidXP Tracker
This section provides some background information about the InnovidXP Tracker.
Scalability
Typically, InnovidXP sees a peak load of up to 1M web requests per minute. Our elastic infrastructure allows us to scale beyond this as required.
Design
The tags are asynchronous JavaScript that does not impact customer website load time. The asynchronous nature of the code allows other parts of the site to load while waiting for our requests to respond.
Data capture
InnovidXP’s Javascript-based web tag measures total visits to a website. There is only one visit tag needed per website, and it must be implemented on all pages of your website to measure total visits. The web and action tags fire on the page(s) they are placed while obeying the required opt-in/opt-out mechanisms. Any comparison of web volumes and Google Analytics is on a like-for-like basis, as the tag is intended to interact in a consistent way with the consent criteria.
Note: Using action tags varies depending on the partner and the terms of the agreement, so we cannot guarantee you will be able to implement action tags.
We can use web tags to capture downstream customer activity such as sales, registrations, donations, downloads – or any other action performed on a website or in-app. These actions can be tracked cross-session so that the ‘lagged’ impact of the TV campaign on sales volumes can be tracked. We use a single 1st party anonymous cookie that does not record any personal information about the web visitor. Additional parameters can be passed into the tracker however, this is entirely at the customer's discretion.
Learn more about the cookies placed using our web tracker.
Data protection
Innovid takes its obligations under applicable privacy laws seriously and has taken extensive measures to review its security and data protection processes considering the more rigorous requirements under the IAB US Privacy String CCPA Opt Out and European GDPR Transparency & Consent Framework (TCF). This provides our platform users with additional independent assurance that it operates to the highest data protection standards across linear and connected TV measurement.
Innovid has documented its technical and organizational measures in its Privacy Policy to address customers’ primary concerns around data security. We would be happy to put you in touch with our privacy team to answer any specific queries you have regarding our compliance with applicable privacy laws.
Infrastructure
Innovid’s infrastructure is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). With built-in redundancy, including servers and power supplies, network and Internet connections are fully protected in case of failovers.
Security
Your network is completely blocked from both the outside world and other client VLANs.
Setup
The visit tag can also be used to measure visits to specific pages or sections of a website if they have the same parent URL. The web tag code is provided via the InnovidXP platform. It can be pasted directly onto each page or can be implemented using a Tag Management System.
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Note: |
The tags can work with any tag manager.
Find instructions here for Google Tag Manager. |
What the InnovidXP Tracker collects
The Javascript-based InnovidXP Tracker collects the following information:
- IP address
- Unique ID for the visitor (1st party cookie)
- User Agent *
- Timestamp: date and time when session starts
- URLs of the pages visited and any actions
- Referrer URL (if applicable)
- Device ID (if available)
* A user agent is a short piece of text that attempts to describe the software/browser (the "agent") that is making the request to a website. Web browsers include the user agent string in the requests they make to websites. The user agent may include descriptions of the Operating System and device type that the browser/agent is running on.
Learn more about the cookies placed using our web tracker.
Using subdomains with Apple Privacy Relay
Apple and Google have rolled out new privacy features, and these changes impact the counting and attribution of TV-driven web responses, particularly in cases where (hashed) IP addresses are used as an identifier.
Until recently, InnovidXP has relied on IP addresses to identify different users visiting at the same time. However, Apple Private Relay breaks this assumption. By obfuscating the IP addresses of Apple devices as they pass through the Relay, many hits from different visitors are condensed into fewer (Apple-defined) proxy IP addresses.
InnovidXP has an enhanced methodology, known as ‘session stitching’, that handles the obfuscation of the IP addresses as detailed in Measuring in Privacy Environments (including Apple Private Relay & VPNs). If an advertiser’s website uses this methodology and has a subdomain URL structure, this can cause unexpected consequences.
For example, in some cases where a subdomain is used within the website URL, the web tracker views it as a different instance i.e., two sessions are recorded instead of one where a visitor has traversed the website from one subdomain to another in a single session.
To support sites where a subdomain is used within the website URL, a subdomain-friendly web tracker can be used. This tracker allows the grouping of all visits to multiple subdomains in the same user session to that specific user.
Web tracking options
InnovidXP currently offers two options for web tracking: standard web tracking and the option to use a specific subdomain-friendly web tracker. Our web response tracker must be placed on every page of your website in both standard and subdomain tracking options, and in all cases, URL accuracy is crucial.
Our standard web tracking option is used as a minimum for tracking to take place. Most websites require standard website tracking only e.g., yourwebsite.com/orders.
However, if your website uses subdomains, e.g., orders.yourwebsite.com, you will need the subdomain-friendly web tracker.
Contact Support at support-xp@innovid.com for help with this.
What if my website is changed to use subdomains?
If you are using our standard web tracker and your website has changed to include subdomains, contact Support at support-xp@innovid.com so that we can help you use our subdomain-friendly web tracker.
Implementing the website visit tag
Our Javascript-based website tag measures total visits to a website. There is only one visit tag needed per website, and it must be implemented on all pages of your website to measure total visits.
Web tags should be placed on the client's website by the web manager. We recommend installing tags two weeks before your campaign goes live to allow time for data QA. You can also implement tags using our container tag.
Visit tag code
The following code string must be placed on every web page you want to measure visits for. The code can be pasted directly onto each page or placed on each page via a tag management system (TMS).
Note: <COLLECTOR_ ID> and <SITE_ ID> placeholders are automatically populated when the tag supplied by the InnovidXP platform is used. To access the visit tag code and get your Collector and Site IDs, navigate to Data > TVS Tracker Instructions > Step 1.
Verifying the visit tag
Innovid will automatically validate the tags once they have been installed and be in touch if there are any issues.
Implementing action/KPI tags
Note: Using action tags varies depending on the partner and the terms of the agreement, so we cannot guarantee you will be able to implement action tags.
You can track smart actions (recommended) or use advanced actions. We recommend tracking a maximum of two or three actions per campaign to ensure clear and concise data results.
Smart and advanced actions
- Smart actions capture data every time a visitor accesses a page. These are preferable as they are quicker to implement, edit and less likely to produce errors during setup. However, they do not capture detailed information, for example, revenue from a sale.
- Innovid can add advanced actions by switching on parameters to capture more detailed information. Depending on what you want to track, advanced actions are sometimes required.
We recommend smart actions
There are two common smart actions set up, these are optional:
- Sign-up Form Completion: measure all customers who submit the “Sign-up” form.
- Purchase Completion: measure all customers who complete a purchase and are forwarded to the “Thank you” page.
If you want to track a different action, we can add a new one. We recommend you track no more than three actions per campaign.
Summary
The table below provides a quick summary of smart and advanced actions:
How to implement action / KPI tags
Follow the guidelines on how to implement action/KPI tags:
- Identify the web actions or KPIs you want to analyze on the portal. Commonly tracked actions include Sale, Registration, or Donation.
- If you have a strict sales funnel, (for example, Add to Basket > Checkout > Conversion), deploy separate tags for each action / KPI and contact the Innovid Support team to set up the funnel.
- For each action / KPI, copy the code below and replace the <ACTIONNAME> placeholder with a string containing its name, for example:
- Add extra value to your analysis by adding variables to the action / KPI tag parameters as appropriate.
- Each parameter is indicated by a <PLACEHOLDER>, listed in the table below:
- If you do not require a parameter, replace the parameter <PLACEHOLDER> with an empty string, for example:
- Place the completed code only on the page where the action / KPI occurs. For example, for an action 'sale', the tag should be placed on the sales confirmation page.
Action / KPI tag code
Note: <COLLECTOR_ ID> and <SITE_ ID> placeholders are automatically populated when the tag supplied by the InnovidXP platform is used. To access your action/KPI tag code and get your Collector and Site IDs, navigate to Data > TVS Tracker Instructions > Step 2.
Verifying action / KPI tags
- Once deployed, navigate to Data > Responses > Recent Collector Visits with Actions to see the latest action data.
- When the action / KPI tag has been live for a few days, navigate to Data > Responses > Raw Response Breakdown to confirm the traffic volumes with the Innovid team.
- InnovidXP can track actions / KPIs that happen days and weeks after the initial response to a TV airing. This is called the lag period and is typically set to 14 days. Contact the Innovid Support team for further details.
- Traffic classifications can be modified using the Referrer Rules section of the Response Breakdown page.
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