Introduction to Raptor Tracking

What Is Raptor Tracking?

Tracking captures what visitors do on your website, such as viewing products, adding to basket and buying. Raptor uses this data for:

This article helps you choose how to send tracking to Raptor, and what to prepare before you start.

Two things Raptor needs

Your recommendations, triggers and personalization depend on two data sources:

Product catalog (feed): what your products are, such as names, prices, categories, variants and stock. See Setting up a Product Catalog for Recommendation Engine.
Tracking events: what visitors actually do, such as what they view, click, add to basket and buy.

Raptor combines the two to show relevant products across channels.

Compare the tracking methods

You can send tracking in five ways. All of them support the same events, so the choice depends on your website setup, your team and your privacy requirements.

Method	How it works	Setup effort	Cookies and Safari/iOS
Client-side (Raptor script)	A script on your pages sends events from the browser	Low	Set by Raptor in the browser. Limited to 7 days in Safari/iOS
Client-side with Google Tag Manager (GTM)	The Raptor templates in GTM send events from the browser	Low, no changes to your website code	Set by the Raptor templates in the browser. Limited to 7 days in Safari/iOS
Server-side (Tracking API)	Your server sends events to Raptor	Higher, needs a developer	You control cookies and session length
Server-side with GTM Server Container	Your GTM server container sends events to Raptor	Medium, needs a GTM server container	⚠️ Set by your server, so not limited to 7 days
Hybrid (client + server)	Some events from the browser, some from your server	Medium to high	⚠️ Depends on which side sets the cookies

Which method should I choose?

Client-side (Raptor script) if you want to get started quickly and your developers can add a script to your website templates. See Client-Side Tracking (Raptor Script).
Client-side with GTM if you already manage tags in GTM, or want to avoid changes to your website code. See Client-Side Tracking with Google Tag Manager (GTM).
Server-side (Tracking API) if you need full control over cookies and sessions, can't run JavaScript, or want to send the same events to several systems. See Server-Side Tracking (Tracking API).
Server-side with GTM if you already use a GTM server container, or want tracking that works with ad blockers and keeps tracking logic out of the browser. See Server-Side Tracking with Google Tag Manager (GTM Server Container).
Hybrid if some events are easiest to capture in the browser (product views, clicks), while your server has the most accurate data (basket, purchase). See Hybrid Tracking (Client + Server).

⚠️ Server-Side Tracking (Tracking API) describes the setup for the Customer Data Platform. For Website and E-mail Recommendations, use the master tracking template from Implementing tracking in the Control Panel.

🔍 Note: With client-side tracking, Safari and iOS limit cookies to 7 days because of Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), so returning visitors may look like new visitors after a week. Setting the Raptor cookie server-side, or using a server-side method, solves this.

A common hybrid split

Client-side	Server-side
Product views, clicks	Basket, purchase, user ID
Content visits	Order confirmation
Clicks on recommendations	Basket updates

Before you implement

Cookie consent: load tracking only after the visitor has given cookie consent.
Content Security Policy: if your website has a Content Security Policy, allow the Raptor domains. See Content Security Policy (CSP) Requirements.
Events: check which events and parameters your Raptor products need. All methods send the same core events: Visit, Basket, Buy, ItemClick and ContentVisit. See Tracking Events & Parameters Reference.
Product IDs: the product IDs you send in tracking must match the IDs in your product catalog. See Product Data: Choosing the Correct IDs for Website- and Email Recommendations, and Triggers.
Known visitors: to recognize logged-in visitors and subscribers across devices and e-mails, send a user ID or an e-mail marketing ID (RuId). See User Tracking: Understanding Soft IDs, Hard IDs & Raptor Identity Matching.

Next step

Follow the guide for your chosen method. When events are flowing, check them with Testing of Tracking Implementation.