Integrations
      Back to home
      1. N.Rich Knowledge Base
      2. Integrations

      Eloqua First Party Cookies Setup

      BACKGROUND AND BENEFITS
      As default Eloqua uses 3rd party cookies, which means cookies associated with eloqua.com domain as opposed to your own domain. As 3rd party cookie support is the default built-in option, they don't require minimal effort of setup, but include several drawbacks. The main drawbacks include the following issues:
      1. 3rd party cookies are blocked by default by many browser, most notably Safari (53%+ of mobile traffic), so you will not get any data about visits of such users to Eloqua
      2. 3rd party cookies are easier to clear on every browser because clearing them does not affect user experience in any way. 1st party cookies include all your stored login information and user experience related data, so cleaning those is not encouraged.
      3. Most ad blockers block 3rd party cookies and in all browsers there is a switch for blocking them. 1st party cookies can't really be blocked conclusively since they are needed for storing essential user experience data
      4. Without 1st party cookies enabled N.RICH can't integrate properly to Eloqua in order to retarget leads on N.RICH or to use lead scoring integration.

      SUMMARY

      This guideline includes instructions about how to set up 1st party cookies. Categorically the setup steps include the following ones:

      1. Create a Service Request to Oracle in order to enable 1st party tracking for you 
      2. Create an Eloqua specific subdomain through your DNS settings for your main domain, e.g. tracking.example.com (first-party cookie domain)
      3. Add one new line to Eloqua tracking script code on your website including the created Eloqua specific subdomain (see Oracle guidelines):
      _elqQ.push(['elqUseFirstPartyCookie', '<tracking.example.com>']);
      4. If you are using SSL, your tracking domain needs to be configured as a secure microsite in Oracle Eloqua and must have an SSL certificate associated to it (in practice either a "wildcard" certificate of your main domain or a new certificate purchased for the tracking domain).
      5. You need to update the form action on all forms hosted outside Eloqua to use your tracking domain, for example: https://tracking.example.com/e/f2 instead of Eloqua based domain like: https://s123456789.t.eloqua.com/e/f2. Without this, individuals filling the form won't be getting proper 1st party cookie. 

      NOTE: Eloqua tracking script is only necessary for pages not hosted by Eloqua, so there is no need to add it on Eloqua landing pages. According to Oracle supprt: "The Eloqua microsite /landing page is functioning differently, they are tracked automatically by Eloqua without tracking script embedded, and will drop Eloqua GUID and Subdomain GUID automatically. 
      .
      DOCUMENTATION
      Secure site tracking with first-party cookies (PLEASE REVIEW THIS IF YOU USE SSL)
      .
      VERIFYING EVERYTHING WORKS
      You can verify that the first party cookie setup is done properly according to the following steps: 
      A. Basic Tracking
      1. Clear cookies
      2. Go to your website with Eloqua 1st party tracking script
      3. Use your browser's inspect functionality to view cookies (e.g. in Chrome use "Inspect" / "Application" from header tab / "Cookies" from left tab / "Your domain" under "Cookies" on left tab) and search Eloqua (in the below example .oracle.com would represent your own domain)
      Screen Shot 2018-04-16 at 09.44.52
      4. You should see a cookie set to your own primary domain with name ELOQUA as well as a cookie set to eloqua.com domain with name ELOQUA
      .
      B. Form Tracking
      Follow steps 1-4 in previous section
      1. Go to a form not hosted from Eloqua and fill the form with test details
      2. After submission, both 1st party and 3rd party cookies should have the same values.
      3. repeat from step 1, but this time fill a form on a Eloqua hosted landing page. 
      4. Verify that both 1st party and 3rd party cookies have the same values.