What Firefox’s Blocking of Third-Party Cookies Means for Affiliate Marketing
There’s a new version of Firefox coming out this summer that will have a feature that might be a headache for affiliate marketers. Version 22 of the browser is expected to automatically block third-party cookies by default. This means users of that version of Firefox won’t see targeted advertising unless they make the effort to change their settings to accept third-party cookies.
While this isn’t a new idea (Safari has had this default setting for a while), it does bring to light some implications for affiliate marketers.
“Reliable affiliate marketing solutions don’t set or rely on third-party data to find users. Instead, the cookie isn’t set until after the user clicks on the ad,” writes Scott Allan, vice president of marketing for LinkShare, for Marketing Land. “Then it becomes a first-party cookie.”
But advertisers should check with their affiliate marketing network, service provider or tag-container solutions to get a better understanding of how they set cookies to avoid a hiccup when the new version of Firefox is unveiled.
According to StatCounter, Firefox claimed 21.3 percent of the global browser market and 16.3 percent of the U.S. browser market in February.
