Third-party
ad tracking

  • The Apple News and Stocks advertising platform supports secure image-based third-party impression and click tracking (for example, 1x1 tracking pixels). Other types of tracking tags including JavaScript, iFrame, or cookie-based trackers aren’t supported.
  • Your client partner can use secure trackers from third-party vendors to track impressions and clicks generated by lines, ads, or both. Note that campaign-level tracking isn’t supported — only impressions can be tracked. Additionally, macros embedded within ad or VAST tags aren’t supported.

Additional considerations

  • Only secure trackers are supported.

  • Third-party attribution tracking isn’t supported.

  • Third-party tracking results aren’t certified by Apple. It’s up to the user to validate results.

  • Apple isn’t responsible for any third-party ad serving fees.

  • Click redirects from affiliate or referral links are permitted.

  • View-through conversion tracking or any other cookie-based counting or tracking methods aren’t supported.

  • To help preserve user privacy, Apple uses proxy servers to route all ad data. This means services attempting to determine users’ geographic location based on IP addresses may not be accurate. We recommend not using third-party reports to verify location.

  • Differences in reporting times and other factors can also create discrepancies between metrics reported by third-party vendors and those reported by Apple.

  • Apple reserves the right to prevent the use of any trackers that violate our policies.

  • Apple doesn’t allow tags that exhibit malicious behavior. In addition, attempts to do any of the following will be blocked:

    • - Setting cookies

    - Collecting any data other than impression or click counts

    - Fourth-party tracking

    - Third-party attribution

Cache busting

Apple News and Stocks don’t require cache busting because our proxy doesn’t enable caching. Apple supports the use of a special macro, [RND], to generate a timestamp-based string. If your third-party tracking vendor requires each call to to be unique, replace the values timestamp or cachebuster in your tags to utilize this macro. Speak to your tracking vendor if you’re unsure about the need to use the [RND] macro.