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Trivia: Are you smarter than a cookie?
The following is a screenshot of anonymized visitors to our website as measured by cookies — the most common way analytics tools track website traffic.
Look fast: How many unique visitors do you see?
How Google Analytics would answer:
13
The real answer?
One.
The above list is actually all of cookies that were generated by one unique website visitor over time. Let’s call him Rupert. This is worth knowing, because Google Analytics and similar analytics tools tend to miscount these interactions, resulting in a skewed view of your average unique visitors.
The trouble with cookies:
Cookies are involved in pretty much every form of analytics today, but they can be problematic.
- People don’t buy immediately
- People clear cookies or cookies expire
- People use different browsers and computers
Essentially cookies can lose track of customers after they convert and continue to buy over time, resulting in multiple cookies being created per user as you see above. Goodbye Rupert. Hello to a dozen anonymous cookies.
How Performable deals with the cookie challenge:
Performable bases its analytics on individual user profiles. Each time a customer comes back, we’re able to associate a new cookie to an existing customer profile, so you get a unified view of each of your customer’s interactions over time and a clear understanding of your true customer base. Learn more.
