Cross-domain tracking issue

[david_bressler]

We just rolled out a new site, in which the tracking was set up via Launch. We identified that we now have a cross-domain problem.

The site we just implemented is hollywood.universalstudioshollywood.com and all tracking is lost when you click the "TICKETS" link to a new server, hhntickets.universalstudioshollywood.com/PurchaseTickets.aspx.

We're seeing that a couple of the Cookie IDs we set up are the same between the two servers, but there's definitely something wrong since we're seeing all of the traffic enter through the booking engine with no referrer/channel.

Can someone debug and offer some advice? Thanks in advance!

David

[Waqas_Rafiq]

Hi David

I can't access the domain: hollywood.universalstudioshollywood.com.
But it could be several things.

1. Do you have the marketing cloud visitor ID enabled on both domains?

2.Is the the cookiedomain period set to the same. (should be 2 in your case)

3. The namespace for the tracking is the same on both domains?4. Are the trackingservers set to be the same across both domains?

If you are okay with it, you could share (or send in a PM) a screenshot of each network request (one for the hollywood. subdomain and one for the hhntickets.subdomain) That way it's easier to see the difference.

[Stewart_Schilling · Accepted solution]

I don't see these exact domains, but I do see a similar situation when going from www.universalstudioshollywood.com to store.universalstudioshollywood.com.

When I click from the Buy Tickets and Passes drop down, I see that there is an interstitial page before I land on the ticketing app.

When I look at document.referrer in the javascript console on store.universalstudioshollywood.com I see that the referrer is not on www.universalstudioshollywood.com

I would expect that the only cookies that can be seen on both are those set on the top level domain, .universalstudioshollywood.com

SO... where does this leave you? 

1) If you set your cookies on the top level domain (TLD), they will be transferable across both subdomains. 

2) If you stash the domain in a TLD cookie before clicking through to the store, you can pick it back up once you get there.  You can then manually override s.referrer so you can report on the referring traffic to the store.  Note: that you'd need to do this same thing for every site that drives to the store.  Note also that it will only work if both sites are on the same TLD (and if you have the ability to hook into the click event before navigation takes place).

I hope that this is helpful. LMK if you need more detail.

-Stew

[david_bressler]

I’m sorry it’s hollywood.halloweenhorrornights.com.

[Stewart_Schilling]

Yep.  Since hollywood.halloweenhorrornights.com and hhntickets.universalstudioshollywood.com are on different top-level domains, you cannot set a cookie client-side on one and pick it up on the other.

Since you go through a redirect (interstitial page), you lose the referrer.  You might be able to pass query string arguments into the redirect and have them preserved on the destination page, but that could be an uphill battle.

Is the missing referrer (and subsequent marketing channel) the only issue that you are facing, or are there other things wrong?

-Stew

[jharrington7897]

Piggy-backing off of the answer from stewarts16448458

I've seen someone pass values in a cookie as well for things like search terms that are redirected - might be something you could look into.

[david_bressler]

Looking into all of these resolutions now. Thank you very much! I'll let you know how it goes.