Tracking and Cookies Overview

  • Updated

Act-On uses cookies and tracking pixels to recognize visitors, connect their behaviors to contact records, and help you see how people engage with your marketing content. This article explains how visitors become tracked (“cookied”) and the difference between known and anonymous visitors.

Quick Reference (Advanced Users) – Click to Expand
  • Known visitor: Clicked an Act-On email link or submitted an Act-On form.
  • Anonymous visitor: Visited your website or landing page without being identified.
  • Cookied visitor: Browser contains a unique Act-On tracking cookie (wp[account number]).
  • Beacon Tracker: JavaScript code that places the cookie on visitors’ browsers.
  • Tracking pixel: 1px invisible image embedded in emails to record opens.
Try it like this: Send yourself an Act-On email with a tracked link to your website. Click it, then open your browser’s developer tools to check for your wp[account number] cookie. You’ll now appear as a known visitor in Act-On.

How Visitors Get Cookied

A visitor becomes cookied when they interact with your Act-On content through one of these paths:

Once cookied, Act-On associates their web activity with their contact record. If the same person later completes an Act-On form, their historical and future behaviors are automatically linked to their profile in the Audience Center.

Known vs. Anonymous Visitors

  • Known visitors are individuals who have either clicked a link from an Act-On email or submitted an Act-On form. Their behaviors are connected to their contact record, allowing you to segment, score, and automate communications based on their engagement.
  • Anonymous visitors are people who have visited your website or landing pages but have not yet been identified through an email click or form submission. Their behaviors are tracked anonymously until they take a tracked identifying action.

Act-On automatically updates a visitor’s status from anonymous to known when they perform an identifying action, ensuring accurate tracking and reporting across sessions.

Cookies

The Beacon Tracker places a cookie on a visitor’s browser to record behaviors taken on your website, landing pages, or forms - anywhere your tracking beacon code is installed.

  • The tracking beacon shares cookie data with the Act-On platform, which aggregates and displays it in your account.
  • If a user clears their cookies, they may temporarily appear as anonymous. However, once they perform an identifying action (such as submitting a form), Act-On reconnects their new cookie with their existing contact profile.
  • The Act-On beacon code is considered a first-party cookie if installed with a CNAME record on a marketing domain that includes Act-On. This is typically the case when DNS and email settings are correctly configured (see Editing Your DNS to Implement DKIM and Email From Setup). 
    If your marketing domain is not configured, the beacon acts as a third-party cookie.
  • The cookie name begins with wp followed by your Act-On account number. For example, if your account number is 12345, your cookie name will be wp12345.

Tracking Pixels

When Act-On sends an email, it adds an invisible 1-pixel image to the message. This image, or tracking pixel, records open activity for each recipient.

  • The tracking pixel is unique to each recipient, so when it loads, Act-On can record open behavior and engagement metrics.
  • Pixel data can include the recipient’s IP address and approximate geolocation information, which is used for reporting and segmentation.

Together, cookies and tracking pixels enable Act-On to provide accurate behavioral data - helping you understand engagement across emails, forms, and web visits.

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