VPN impact on returning visitors count

[KsenijaCe]

Dear community,

I was wondering if usage of VPN impacts share of returning visits and similar loyalty metrics.

Does Adobe measure by IP address or cookies also are taken into account?

[bjoern__koth · Accepted solution]

Hi @KsenijaCe 

Adobe does not (to my knowledge) use the IP to identify individuals.

While the IP will be the same per VPN access point, the cookies will be browser-based per user.

So, the use of a VPN should not affect the user count,

[MandyGeorge]

When it comes to counting unique visitors, Adobe uses cookie IDs to identify individuals. Things that can impact whether a visitor looks like a new customer would be stuff like clearing their cookies, using a private browsing window (like incognito), changing browsers, or changing devices. If someone moves from one network to another, that doesn't impact their cookies, so it won't impact the visitor count. 

This is a link to the documentation that talks about what impacts the unique visitors. IP address is not mentioned as a factor. https://experienceleague.adobe.com/en/docs/analytics/components/metrics/unique-visitors#behavior-tha... 

[KsenijaCe]

Thank you! I also learned that some more sophisticated circumvention tools than VPNs like Psihpon might impact that, but they are not very popular. So if anyone finds this thread later with the same question - check traffic sources.