Cross-domain tracking
NOTE: Opentracker has automated cross-domain tracking. Tracking users across domains is a service we provide. The purpose of this page is to explain what cross domain tracking is, how it works, and why you might be interested. Please get in touch with us if you require this service or want to talk about it.
Question: Do you need to count a user who clicks across 2 or more domains as a single person, and track their behavior for conversion and attribution?
Click here to read about Multi-channel campaign traffic reporting.
Definition: cross-domain tracking is the ability to follow a user across completely different domains.
For example, if you have two websites; one selling hotel bookings, and a second renting cars. Cross-domain tracking is the ability to follow the same user across both domains, and/or through a check-out shopping cart. Another example would be if you sent a visitor from your site to another site via a banner.
Who is interested in this? In your company, it’s probably Marketing who want to know about people signing up, who may originate from different internal sources.
Technically, this is the ability to identify and keep visitor information across sessions AND domains, through to shopping carts – which are often hosted on 3rd-party domains. In jargon, this is known as session attribution data, meaning you can attribute the purchase or conversion to the original source. The goal is to be able to track a single user across two or more domains and count this person as one user / visitor / conversion/ lead, while being able to track their behavior over time.
Benefits of cross-domain tracking:
- track conversion when visitors are referred from site A to site B, using a link or banner.
- serve visitor (user)-specific content based on the user history; built from behavior across different website domains.
- ease of installation: achieve tracking across all domains with a single tracking script
Why is this so special?
Type “cross domain tracking” into Google and you will quickly get a sense of the complexity involved.
And if you have ever tried to implement cross-domain tracking, you will be aware of how challenging it is, until now. We (Opentracker) now put cross-domain tracking in easy technical reach. Google cross-domain tracking solution is complex; and extremely so with 4 or more domains, and changing or updating the system requires engineering skills.
A definition of cross-domain tracking
A domain is defined by it’s name: www.opentracker.net is an example of a top-level domain (tld).
An example of a subdomain is: analytics.opentracker.net
Cross-domain (or sub-domain) tracking is the ability to follow a person (visitor, user) as they click from Domain A to Domain B and be able to identify that person as being the same person who has clicked on both domains.
Additional feature information
Cross-domain tracking connects a visitor's activity across two or more separate domains. Instead of counting the same person as a new visitor on every site, Opentracker can preserve their journey as they move between websites, landing pages, and externally hosted checkout flows.
What Is Cross-Domain Tracking?
Cross-domain tracking is the ability to identify the same visitor as they move from Domain A to Domain B. This creates one connected journey across domains and sessions, helping you understand the person's behaviour over time.
For example, a business may use one website for hotel bookings and another for car rentals. A visitor who uses both sites can be recognised as one person rather than two unrelated visitors.
Preserve Conversion Attribution
Visitor journeys often continue through a separate campaign site, booking engine, payment provider, or shopping cart. Cross-domain tracking keeps the original campaign and referral context connected to the final enquiry, sign-up, lead, or purchase.
- Connect conversions on one domain to referrals from another
- Count one person consistently across multiple websites
- Follow behaviour through externally hosted checkout flows
- Attribute conversions to the original traffic source or campaign
- Build a complete visitor history across related digital properties
Common Cross-Domain Journeys
- A marketing site sending visitors to a separate online store
- A product site linking to a third-party booking or payment system
- Several brand or regional websites sharing the same customer journey
- A banner or partner site referring visitors to another domain
- A main website and one or more campaign microsites
Benefits of Cross-Domain Tracking
A connected view reduces duplicate visitor counts and gives marketing teams more reliable conversion and attribution reporting. It can also support visitor-specific experiences based on activity collected across participating domains.
Automated Tracking Across Domains
Opentracker provides cross-domain tracking as a managed service. A shared tracking setup across participating domains keeps visitor and attribution information connected without requiring teams to build and maintain a separate identity system for every site.
Domains and Subdomains
A domain is a website address such as opentracker.net, while analytics.opentracker.net is a subdomain. Cross-domain and subdomain tracking both aim to recognise a visitor consistently as they move between the properties that make up a complete customer journey.