1. Big Bear is the new conversion attribution system based on 1st party cookies

The 2Performant platform now offers, in addition to classic tracking and in-app tracking, a new conversion attribution system based exclusively on 1st party cookies, Big Bear.

What is a cookie?

As you know, a cookie is a small piece of text saved in the browser by a website visited by the user. 1st party and 3rd party cookies are similar in that they both contain information about the visit. The difference between the 2 types of cookies is how they are saved, which domains they are accessible to and in which browsers they are available.

Save. A 1st party cookie is saved in your browser by the domain of the site you are visiting. A 3rd party cookie is saved by a third party domain, different from the one you access in your browser. 

Incidentally, the word “party” refers to indicating the domain specified in the cookie.

Accessibility. 1st party cookies are accessible to the domain that created them. A 3rd party cookie is accessible to any website that loads the code of the third party domain.

Browser. 1st party cookies are available in all browsers and can be deleted or blocked by users. 3rd party cookies are also available/supported in browsers, but are blocked by default by some browsers such as Safari. 

With nearly 70% market share, Chrome is by far the most popular browser worldwide, both on desktop and mobile. Chrome allows 3rd party cookies by default, but plans to remove them in 2023.

How Big Bear works and what role 1st party cookies play

The user arrives on a website through an affiliate link. This URL contains a set of parameters representing the affiliate that generated this traffic. These parameters are added when the redirect to the 2Performant server occurs. If the affiliate is eligible to send traffic to that site, then that site asynchronously (without the risk of blocking the site) places a 1st party cookie in the user’s browser. 

When the order is completed, a script on the advertiser’s website sends 2Performant the order data along with the affiliate information from the 1st party cookie.

Big Bear Flow

To verify the placement of a 1st party cookie for advertisers with Big Bear active in Chrome, click on the “View site information” icon in the address bar, then click Cookies and, next to the domain you have accessed, identify the _twoAttr cookie.

2. How does an Advertiser set up Big Bear on their site

In implementing Big Bear, one of our goals was to make it easy for stores to set tracking codes. In addition, we wanted to be able to make updates to tracking codes quickly and without impact to stores.

For the Big Bear setting, advertisers need 2 tracking codes as follows:

  1. The advertiser adds a cookie to all pages of its website. It is this code that verifies affiliate eligibility and places the 1st party cookie in the user’s browser.
  2. The advertiser installs a new attribution code on the order completion page (in addition to the existing one). This code sends affiliate (from cookie) and conversion data (order value, unique order ID, description) to 2Performant.

3. Google Ads Linker, your best friend for Google Ads campaigns (search, display, CSS etc.)

Parallel tracking was launched in Google Ads in October 2018 with the aim of loading landing pages from Google Ads campaigns much faster. With parallel tracking, users land directly on the landing page, while click-related processing takes place in the background.

In order to promote advertisers with Big Bear active and supporting Google Ads, it is absolutely essential to fill in the Final URL Suffix for proper conversion attribution. This is because users who access affiliate links from Google Ads campaigns are no longer redirected to event.2Performant.com, which should add the Big Bear parameters to the URL.

These parameters are provided by GoogleAds Linker and can be added with a simple copy and paste to your Google Ads campaigns in the Final URL Suffix field. This way, the Big Bear conversion attribution will be processed correctly in the background by Google Ads.    

You can read detailed information about Google Ads Linker here.

3 steps to increase your conversions with Big Bear:

  • Go to Advertiser Ranking and identify the Big Bear label. Big Bear is now active for 13 stores on the 2Performant platform: Otter, BestValue, Esteto, iHunt, Elefant, Vivre, DYFashion, Neakaisa, Cartepedia, Edenboutique, BaByliss, Cărturești and BabyNeeds. Follow Advertiser Ranking and our social platforms to find new advertisers activating their Big Bear.
  • Update your Google Ads campaigns now with the new fields generated with the Google Ads Linker tool. It is necessary to have the Final URL Suffix field updated for proper Big Bear conversion attribution for advertisers with active Big Bear.
  • If you’ve limited ads on Safari so far, at least run a few ads on Safari for Big Bear enabled advertisers as a test. Watch for changes in conversions across the platform. From our tests, the percentage increase in conversions in Safari with BigBear is between 50%-400%, depending on the advertiser.

For more information about Big Bear, as well as any other issues related to the platform, we welcome your messages on support@2performant.com.

We wish you good luck with your conversions!

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