What is First Party Tracking and how to Configure it

First-party tracking is a way to make Instant’s tracking more reliable by sending events through your own domain instead of a shared third-party one.

This helps ensure that important shopper activity, like product views, sign-ups and checkout events, are less likely to be blocked by ad blockers or browser privacy tools.

How tracking normally works (without first-party tracking)

When a shopper interacts with your site:

1. The Instant Pixel detects the event

2. The event is sent to a shared Instant domain

3. Instant processes the event and triggers flows or reporting

Some browsers and ad blockers treat shared tracking domains as third-party traffic, which can result in events being blocked or dropped.

How first-party tracking works

With first-party tracking enabled:

1. The Instant Pixel detects the event

2. The event is sent to a subdomain on your site (e.g. track.yourstore.com)

3. That subdomain securely forwards the event to Instant

From the browser’s perspective, tracking stays within your site — making it first-party by default.

Why this matters

First-party tracking helps ensure fewer blocked events, higher shopper identification, higher overall event volume, more reliable long-term tracking. This results in more accurate data and more consistent behaviour across browsers.

Is first-party tracking required?

First-party tracking is optional, but strongly recommended for all merchants. Instant will continue to work without it, however some events may never reach Instant and identification rates may be lower.

You’ll benefit most if:

• You rely on sign-up and behavioural flows

• Your audience uses ad blockers or privacy-focused browsers

• You want future-proof tracking as privacy rules evolve

In practice, this applies to most merchants.

Is this safe and best practice?

Yes. This is considered modern best practice for web tracking.Platforms like Meta, Google and Shopify all use first-party tracking approaches because third-party tracking is becoming increasingly unreliable. First-party tracking does not collect additional data or bypass privacy rules.

What can you expect after enabling it?

Once enabled, you may see, more shoppers entering your flows and higher total event counts. There’s no ongoing maintenance or changes after initial set up.