TechTalk by Jack Cook Pixel Tracking Add Value to Emails, Documents If you’ve experienced a Facebook advertisement that felt like a mind-reader had discerned your thoughts and answered it with a needed product or service, it’s likely pixel tracking software was used to tail you as you surfed the web. Pixel tracking is established and proven software technology that is deployable today with plug-and-play ease. It is used to track what communications a user engages with. The information obtained is not merely name, rank and serial number of the user; rather, the information gives the pixel tracker operator insight into the user. For accountants, the immediate value add of pixel tracker software is emails. Email pixel trackers will relay data on how users are interacting with your emails: amount of times a user opened an email, where they opened it, what operating system was used, and if it was mobile or desktop. This information can reflect on how interested the user is in the subject. More sophisticated pixel tracker software can track a user’s activity over the internet, relay info on how long they were on a website, or even track how a user spent time on a document. An accountant can determine if a client reviewed pages 1-13 of an important financial document only twice, but reviewed page 17 many times. It can be assumed, then, that the party had interest in data page 17 and may need a follow up. Pixel tracking software can be embedded into emails, websites and word documents. Pixel trackers are legal and are in common use by technology and marketing firms. Marketing firms use pixel tracking to analyze search patterns, record clickthroughs and ultimately target users for promotions. Pixel tracking software uses microdots that are invisible to the naked eye that are embedded into electronic media. The microdot is attached to a remote server. When a user opens content the microdot pings the remote server. From that ping the server will relay information about who opened the content to the pixel tracker operator. This information includes the time the user opened the object, how many times they opened it, their location, and what operating system they opened it with (mobile or desktop). The pixel tracking operator can simply gather data and store Pixels tracker software also can be incorporated into a website. To do so requires more technical skill to install than an email pixel tracker. However, a website pixel tracker will allow you to discriminate leads, and trigger actions based on a user’s interaction with the website. When a pixel tracker discriminates a lead, it determines whether the lead came from a Google search, social media or from direct marketing—all important information to understand which marketing actually develops responses. A trigger action can be tailored based on a user action. Pixel tracking software also can be embedded into a word documents. With a pixel tracker in a word document you can ascertain if a user has opened your document, Pixel trackers are easy to use, affordable and provide a remarkable amount of data about the actions of a user. They’re completely legal and used by most of the larger tech firms in the country. it for future use, or the operator can use the data to activate some action, such as triggering a pop-up ad or a subtler push. The easiest pixel tracking software to implement is in emails. The software is plug and play. The leading email pixel tracker software providers are Sales Handy, Hubspot and Yesware. With any of these you discern most basic data: when, where, what time and what operating systems. Email pixel tracking software can be defeated. If a user sets up their email program to block all images, then a pixel tracker will not work. If an email is opened over a virtual private network, the pixel tracker’s information will be degraded; it cannot relay the user’s location, nor what operating system they’re using. However, it can still discern when and the number of times the user opened the email. and if you use multiple pixel trackers, you can make a strong estimate at what pages they looked at, and for how long. Many companies that are technologically current will try blocking tracking pixels within word documents. Large companies with sophisticated technology departments use a message transfer agent to intercept and defeat a word document that has pixel tracking. For the most part, pixel trackers are easy to use and provide a remarkable amount of data about the actions of a user. They’re completely legal and used by most of the larger tech firms in the country. But this technology is not reserved for just the big companies; it’s available and affordable. www.calcpa.org OCTOBER2020 CALIFORNIA CPA 19
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