ITP 2.0 for Safari: What You Need to Know

What is Happening?

Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.0 for Safari was announced in June, and when it launches, legacy conversion tracking tags in Google Ads will be unable to measure conversions on Safari.

As we know Safari is largely used on iPhones and accounts for roughly 56% of all mobile traffic.

Why is This Happening?

Apple launched ITP in Safari last year with the aim to eliminate cross-device, personally identifiable tracking. The initiative was to eliminate 3rd party tracking (cookies) after a 24 hour period, so we could continue to track conversions given they occured within a 24 hour time domain of their users entering the site. Now, Apple is completely eliminating tracking through the use of cookies altogether (eliminating “3rd Party” cookies in favor of only tracking using 1st party methods).

What Can I Do?

Google’s sitewide tags, such as gtag.js and Google Tag Manager measures conversions in a way that is consistent with the prior public recommendations for ad attribution. If you’re using the legacy Adwords tracking pixels, you will need to update to the new UI’s conversion tag.

Issues outside Google Ads?

To continue measuring conversions on all browsers, It’s important to ask your ad vendor (DoubleClick, TradeDesk etc.) if tracking will be affected by this new update. It’s important to remember that the new way Safari will be tracking is tag-based, not cookie-based; so this fundamentally affects a lot of tracking methods out there.

If you have any questions regarding ITP 2.0 or what to know how to specifically navigate this change, please send us a line!