Third-party cookies have long come under scrutiny for violating GDPR and CCPA regulations. In 2019, Google first acknowledged the need for a more user-centric approach to online tracking, and now plans to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Q1 2024.
The deadline is steadily nearing and it’s high time for preparations – if you haven’t launched them yet. Is your Magento-driven e-commerce business ready? How can you get ready? What analytics tools Amasty offers to support you? That’s what we’re here to talk about.
How Third-Party Cookies’ Demise Will Affect E-commerce
With its plan to do away with third-party cookies, Google prompts every business to find a balance between their goals and users’ interests. This new incentive from the IT giant brings in substantial and far-reaching implications for e-commerce. Here are the three key challenges to brace yourself for:
Loss of user data tracking
The phase-out will diminish the ability to gather information about users' browsing habits and preferences. With insights into user journeys turning more fragmented, e-commerce businesses will find it harder to optimize user experience and can face lower engagement rates.
Reduced personalization
Without third-party cookies, e-commerce personalization algorithms will offer less customized content and negatively impact the conversion rate. Delivery of relevant ads to the right audiences will become a challenge that can put the efficiency of retargeting at risk of low ROAS.
Inaccurate attribution
The lack of third-party cookies will make it nearly impossible to track the full customer journey and attribute conversions to specific marketing channels. E-commerce businesses will struggle to measure the ROI, determine which marketing efforts are driving sales, and optimize strategies.
Keep Your Decision Making Data-Driven with Pixels and GA4
Despite the impending changes, your e-commerce business can still rely on the well-tested analytics combination that consists of Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and pixels – snippets of code that track user interactions and tell you a bigger story behind the conversions.
While both pixels and third-party cookies play a similar role in online tracking, Amasty is convinced that pixels are better positioned to adapt to the cookieless era because they primarily collect first-party data within a specific website or platform. Here’s the list of benefits you can expect from leveraging pixels and GA4 together:
Integrated Data on Conversions
Helping you track conversions, pixels share conversion data with the respective analytics platforms (Microsoft Advertising, Facebook Business, etc.). Amasty takes this functionality further and lets pixels automatically communicate the data over to Google Analytics 4, which allows you to have a complete picture of the conversions on your website.
Advanced Reporting and Multi-Channel Analytics
When GA4 and pixels are integrated, you can build even more detailed reports for easier decision-making and effective optimization. You can also analyze the contribution of different channels to your revenue and adjust your marketing strategies for increased ROI.
Effective Automated Marketing
Together, Google Analytics 4 and social media pixels can provide enough data for audience segmentation. Having multiple specific segments empowers you to run effective automated marketing campaigns (such as retargeting and personalized offers) that boost sales.
Amasty Has Your Back: Pixel and GA4 Extensions
If you’re running a Magento-driven e-commerce business, pixels, and GA4 have just become much easier for you to use. Amasty lets you easily leverage both of these technologies via its user-friendly plugins.
Google Analytics with Google Tag Manager Support Extension
Amasty’s recent bestseller, GA4 with GTM Support extension, lets you add a GTM code to all the pages on your Magento store in a single click. It also helps you easily generate a JSON file with all the triggers and variables for automatic e-commerce tracking events – and send it over to your GA4 account. Besides this, the plugin allows you to:
- Track ad impressions & clicks.
- Monitor customer account actions.
- Observe conversion events.
- Discover the performance of promotions.
- Track performance by brands.
Check out more details about the features of our GA4 with GTM Support extension.
Facebook (Meta) Pixel Extension
To the e-commerce businesses with Magento-driven stores and Facebook Business Accounts, Amasty presents its Facebook Pixel – an extension that helps effortlessly integrate Magento and Facebook into a single cohesive user journey.
After the extension adds a pixel to a Magento-based store, it starts gathering data and analytics about the customers. It also constantly and safely communicates this data back to your Facebook Business Account, letting you achieve:
- Effective Facebook ad retargeting.
- Precise segmentation of your Facebook audience.
- Automated product and offering personalization.
- Accurate conversion attribution.
- Realistic predictions and budget planning.
Find out more about Facebook Pixel by Amasty.
Microsoft Ads (Bing) Pixel Extension
As Facebook has introduced paid accounts that can opt out of advertising (in other words, disable pixels), relying solely on Facebook pixels isn't enough. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of your audience's journeys, you need multiple tracking solutions.
Amasty helps you leverage data from Microsoft Advertising, also known as Bing Ads, which provides advertisers with the chance to showcase their ads across various online properties, including the Bing search engine and affiliated websites. By using our Microsoft Ads extension for Magento 2, you can unlock comprehensive insights into user actions following ad clicks.
The module allows you to easily Integrate the Universal Event Tracking (UET) tag into your store without any coding skills or code modifications. From then on, you can:
- Activate 10+ built-in events for tracking.
- Establish event-based conversion goals.
- Formulate precise remarketing lists.
- Create similar audiences.
- Gain access to extended analytics.
Learn more about Bing Pixel by Amasty
Coming Soon: X (Twitter) Pixel and TikTok Pixel!
Naturally, Facebook and Google aren’t the only sources of your leads and customers. That’s why Amasty is soon rolling out three brand-new products: X (Twitter) Pixel and TikTok Pixel. These plugins will integrate your store with the popular platforms and support conversion tracking, audience building, and raise the efficiency of dynamic ads.
Wrapping Up
Social media pixels and GA4 offer significant advantages for e-commerce analytics, providing you with powerful tools to enhance your understanding of customer behavior and drive success. By relying on Amasty and effectively leveraging these tools, you can gain deeper insights into user interactions, optimize your marketing efforts, and ultimately boost your e-commerce performance.
