Partner Piggyback Pixels Overview

impact.com offers 2 ways to receive alerts about conversions you drive for brands: event postbacks and piggyback pixels. We recommend using event postbacks wherever possible, as they're more reliable and provide richer data. Piggyback pixels are an alternative advanced tracking integration, set up with the help and approval of your brands.

How it works

Normally, when a conversion happens, the news moves from your brand's website to impact.com's internal system, and then from there to you. This 2-step transfer can cause a minor delay before the conversions you drive appear in your reporting. Piggyback pixels act as a shortcut to intercept this data directly from the brand's website.

The brand's website already has its own impact.com tracking pixel, and its job is to note whenever a customer makes a conversion, like a purchase. Your pixel simply piggybacks off that one and relays the conversion data to you in real time (if the customer was referred by you).

Limitations

Bear in mind that piggyback pixels relay data instantly, even before impact.com finishes processing the sale. Due to this, a pixel might tell you a conversion happened if your link is part of a customer's journey, but that doesn't guarantee that you won credit for the conversion. Also, if a customer closes their order confirmation page before your pixel has a chance to load, it won't track the conversion.

Important: Piggyback pixels served on a non-secure page will not load (i.e., sites served with http). If you want to use piggyback pixels, you'll need to serve them on a secured page with https. Consider using a postback URL as your conversion tracking pixel over piggyback pixels.

Piggyback pixel FAQs

What's the difference between a piggyback pixel and a postback URL?

Postback URLs can be used on every campaign, and in every account, and are set up using a URL structure that matches your 3rd party tracking system specs. Piggyback pixels can only be used on brand programs that allow them and are set up using a JavaScript pixel that is instructed to fire directly after the impact.com pixel (if present).

The accuracy of piggyback pixels can be affected by browser cookie issues or customers closing checkout pages too quickly. Event postbacks on the other hand use server-to-server tracking and are generally more reliable for long-term reporting.

Should I use a piggyback pixel or a postback URL?

We strongly recommend using a postback URL when possible, as they are less prone to false negatives and false positives and provide far more reliable data.

Does a piggyback pixel or a postback URL have more data points?

Another strong argument for using a postback URL is its ability to handle and pass more data points than a piggyback pixel. The reason for this is because a postback is handled during impact.com action-processing we are able to include referring click data points like SubIds, SharedId, AdId, etc. in your postback URL while a piggyback pixel does not have these data points available because the pixel fires before impact.com action processing.

Can I set up a piggyback pixel independent of the brand?

No. Your piggyback pixel needs to fire directly on the brand’s checkout page, and brands are typically strict about their checkout setup to protect data privacy and page-load speeds. If you require conversion data to be relayed in real-time, you must get approval and assistance from the brand. They'll need to configure the pixel for you in their impact.com settings.

Why don't I see the option for a piggyback pixel on the Tracking Integration page?

The primary reasons you will not see the piggyback pixel option are either: the brand you are working with does not use pixel tracking (therefore there is no pixel to piggyback on), or the brand has disabled the piggyback option in your contract. Some brands will choose not to enable this option for reasons of slower page load times, internal restrictions on website pixel fires, the possibility of false negatives, etc. Reach out to the brand directly if you'd like to discuss enabling this option.