How can AA identify returning visits from 90 days ago if Adobe's first part cookies are limited to 7-day expiry | Community
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August 15, 2023
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How can AA identify returning visits from 90 days ago if Adobe's first part cookies are limited to 7-day expiry

  • August 15, 2023
  • 2 replies
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In a recent analysis around new vs repeat visits my team was doing for our e-commerce site, we noticed that we could tie an order from today to a visitor who had previous visits up to 90 days ago. This is without any on-site authentication data, this is strictly visitors who have not made an account on our site, but placed an order as a guest today, and had previous visits 90 days ago. 

 

According to this documentationAdobe’s first-party cookies are limited to a 7-day expiry or, for click-throughs that Apple determines are coming from trackers, a 24-hour expiry. With a 7-day expiry, if a user visits your site and returns within seven days, then the cookie’s expiration date is extended by another seven days. However, if a user visits your site and returns in eight days, then they are treated as a new user on the second visit.

 

I have also read here that on Chrome browser for example, cookies can last up to 400 days before expiring, and wondering if this is the reason. Although this would contradict the Adobe cookie limitations mentioned above.

 

For context, the metric used to pull this data is the default out-of-box revenue metric, with the "use non-default attribution model" setting on, and a 90 day lookback window selected.

 

Any insights around this would be appreciated!

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Best answer by Jennifer_Dungan

The 7-Day limitation is part of Safari's ITP, not Adobe's policy. Other browsers will maintain the cookies longer. 

 

I assume you are talking about this line:

Adobe’s first-party cookies are limited to a 7-day expiry or, for click-throughs that Apple determines are coming from trackers, a 24-hour expiry.

But this is in the section talking about Cookie limitations, specifically in this case around Safari ITP.

 

So the attribution you are seeing is likely from Chrome and other browsers that don't have Safari's severe limitations.

 

In the future, server-side cookies should be more reliable again (using Web SDK).. but for now, you will still have user data that is maintained longer than 7 days by most browsers.

2 replies

Jennifer_Dungan
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
Jennifer_DunganCommunity Advisor and Adobe ChampionAccepted solution
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
August 15, 2023

The 7-Day limitation is part of Safari's ITP, not Adobe's policy. Other browsers will maintain the cookies longer. 

 

I assume you are talking about this line:

Adobe’s first-party cookies are limited to a 7-day expiry or, for click-throughs that Apple determines are coming from trackers, a 24-hour expiry.

But this is in the section talking about Cookie limitations, specifically in this case around Safari ITP.

 

So the attribution you are seeing is likely from Chrome and other browsers that don't have Safari's severe limitations.

 

In the future, server-side cookies should be more reliable again (using Web SDK).. but for now, you will still have user data that is maintained longer than 7 days by most browsers.

August 17, 2023

I think it's a browser problem