Solving Cross-Domain Analytics Tracking with AdFixus First-Party Durable ID: Why Google and Adobe Fall Short

In today’s digital landscape, businesses operate across multiple domains. Understanding user behaviour across these domains is critical for delivering personalised experiences, optimising marketing efforts, and driving growth. However, one of the biggest challenges in analytics is cross-domain tracking. Traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, while powerful, struggle to solve this problem effectively. Enter AdFixus First-Party Durable ID—a game-changing solution that bridges the gap and provides a seamless way to track users across domains.

In this blog post, we’ll explore why cross-domain tracking is so challenging, why dominant players like Google and Adobe fall short, and how AdFixus’s innovative approach with first-party durable IDs can solve this widespread use case.

The Cross-Domain Tracking Challenge

Cross-domain tracking refers to the ability to track a user’s journey as they move between multiple domains owned by the same organisation. For example, an e-commerce company might have separate domains for its main store, blog, and support site. Without proper cross-domain tracking, a user’s journey appears fragmented, leading to inaccurate data and missed opportunities for insights.

Why Is It So Hard?

1. Cookie Limitations: Third-party cookies, traditionally used for tracking, are restricted by browsers due to privacy concerns. Most first-party cookies are domain-specific, meaning they don’t carry over to other domains.
2. Fragmented User Identifiers: Each domain generates its own unique identifier for a user, making it difficult to stitch together a cohesive view of their journey.
3. Privacy Regulations: GDPR, CCPA, and other privacy laws impose strict limitations on how user data can be collected and shared across domains.

 Why Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics Fall Short

‍Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics are the dominant players in the analytics space, but they have significant limitations when it comes to cross-domain tracking.

‍Google Analytics

• Reliance on Cookies: Google Analytics primarily relies on cookies for tracking, which are domain specific. While it suggests cross-domain tracking features, these require complex configuration and still depend on cookies, which are increasingly being blocked or deleted.
• Fragmented Data: Without a persistent identifier, user journeys are often split into multiple sessions, leading to inaccurate attribution and reporting.
• Privacy Concerns: Google’s reliance on third-party cookies and its data collection practices have raised privacy concerns, leading to stricter browser restrictions.

Adobe Analytics

• Complex Implementation: Adobe Analytics requires extensive configuration for cross-domain tracking, often involving manual coding and server-side adjustments.
• Limited Persistence: Like Google, Adobe relies on third-party cookies and lacks a truly durable identifier that persists across domains and devices.
• Cost and Complexity: Adobe’s solution is often expensive and requires significant technical expertise to implement and maintain.
• Read our specific post Navigating Adobe ECID Limitations and Embracing AdFixus ID for Enhanced Identity Persistence in FPID

Both tools struggle to provide a unified, privacy-compliant, and durable solution for cross-domain tracking, leaving businesses within complete and fragmented data. 

‍AdFixus First-Party Durable ID: The Solution

‍AdFixus addresses the limitations of traditional analytics tools with its First-Party Durable ID—a persistent, privacy-compliant identifier that works seamlessly across domains. Here’s how it solves the cross-domain tracking challenge:

‍1. Persistent Identifier

• AdFixus generates a unique, first-party durable ID for each browser, which persists across domains and sessions. This ID is stored as a first-party cookie or in local storage, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations.
• Unlike traditional cookies, the durable ID remains consistent even as users move between domains of an enterprise, providing a unified view of their journey.

2. Cross-Domain Tracking Made Simple

• AdFixus automatically generates the same and common ID when a user moves from one domain to another and associates their activity with the same ecosystem.
• The deployment methodology is the key to generate the ID as a true first-party ID.

3. Privacy-Compliant

• AdFixus is designed with privacy in mind. The first-party durable ID is owned and controlled by the business, not a third party, ensuring compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other regulations.
• Users can opt out of tracking, and their data is handled transparently and securely.

4. Seamless Integration

• AdFixus integrates easily with existing analytics tools, CRMs, and marketing platforms, allowing businesses to enhance their current setup without replacing it entirely.
• It works alongside Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics, filling the gaps where these tools fall short.

5. Enhanced Insights

• With a unified view of user behaviour across domains, businesses can gain deeper insights into customer journeys, improve attribution modelling, and deliver more personalized experiences.

Real-World Use Cases

E-Commerce‍

An online retailer with separate domains for its store, blog, and support site can use AdFixus to track a customer’s journey from reading a blog post to making a purchase. This enables better attribution and more targeted marketing.

‍Media and Publishing

‍A publisher with multiple domains for different content categories can use AdFixus to understand how readers move between sites, improving content recommendations, audience profiling and ad targeting.

‍SaaS Platforms

‍A SaaS company with separate domains for marketing, documentation, and the app itself can use AdFixus to track how users move through the funnel, from learning about the product to signing up and using it. 

‍Why AdFixus is the Future of Cross-Domain Tracking

‍While Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics have been the go-to solutions for years, their limitations in cross-domain tracking are becoming increasingly apparent. AdFixus’s first-party durable ID offers a modern, privacy-compliant, and scalable solution that addresses these challenges head-on. By providing a persistent identifier that works across domains and devices, AdFixus empowers businesses to:

• Gain a unified view of customer journeys.
• Improve attribution and ROI measurement.
• Deliver personalised experiences at scale.
• Stay compliant with evolving privacy regulations.

 AdFixus doesn’t replace Google or Adobe Analytics but increases it use cases, and the durable first-party identity provides new abilities and reclaims visibility to historical reports like new vs returning users 

‍Conclusion

‍Cross-domain tracking is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity for businesses operating in a multi-domain world. While traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics have their strengths, they fall short when it comes to solving this critical use case. AdFixus’s first-party durable ID offers a powerful, privacy-compliant, and easy-to-implement solution that bridges the gap. By adopting AdFixus, businesses can unlock the full potential of their data, gain deeper insights into customer behaviour, and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive digital landscape. Ready to solve your cross-domain tracking challenges?

Explore AdFixus today and take the first step toward a more connected and insightful future.