Adblockers wreck your conversions, our tracking does not notice them
A third of Dutch internet users run an adblocker. Anyone still leaning on JavaScript pixels misses conversions, pays the wrong commissions and frustrates publishers. How Klatsa solves this with server-to-server postbacks.
By Jeroen Jaspers
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4 min read
An invisible pixel firing on the thank-you page. For decades that was the holy grail of affiliate tracking: the advertiser sticks a 1×1 image or a JavaScript snippet on the "thank you" page, and the network knows a conversion happened. Simple, fast and, but for one detail, perfect.
That detail: it works less and less often.
Adblocker numbers you do not want to ignore
Recent research (GlobalWebIndex, eMarketer, DPG figures for the Dutch market) points to:
- 30 to 45% of Dutch internet users run some form of adblocker or tracking blocker.
- On desktop that share is highest (approaching 50%), on mobile it is around 20 to 30%.
- Among technically savvy audiences (developers, IT, young men) it runs towards 70%.
- Browsers are taking over: Safari (ITP), Brave and the privacy setting in Firefox block third-party tracking out of the box.
What all those blockers have in common: they block scripts and pixel requests to known tracking hosts, including those of affiliate networks.
What that means for pixel-based tracking
If you measure affiliate conversions through a JavaScript pixel or a tracking image from the network:
- Conversions disappear. The purchase happened in the webshop, but the network does not know. The publisher gets no commission.
- Your figures become worthless. Your dashboard shows 1,000 conversions where in reality there were 1,400. Which campaign is performing? No idea.
- Publishers get frustrated. They can clearly see that their traffic converts (their own analytics, feedback from the advertiser), but they are not paid for it. Eventually they move to a network that does measure.
- Advertisers lose money. Not the missed commission, which was an expense anyway, but the insight into which partners actually work.
On top of that, this gap grows every year. Browsers keep taking privacy more seriously.
How Klatsa solves it: server-to-server postbacks
Klatsa is built around server-to-server (S2S) postbacks as its primary tracking method, not pixels. It works like this:
- A visitor clicks an affiliate link and is redirected to the advertiser by our tracker (
to.klatsa.nl). Our tracker passes a uniqueclick_idin the URL. - The advertiser remembers that
click_id(in their own system or in a first-party cookie). - At the moment of a conversion the advertiser's server sends an HTTP request to
to.klatsa.nl/postbackwith thatclick_id, the amount and an HMAC signature. - We validate the signature, link the conversion to the right click, and with that to the right publisher.
The important part: step 3 involves no browser. No JavaScript. No pixel. No request an adblocker can see, let alone block. The webshop's server talks directly to our server, regardless of what the visitor is running in their browser.
Adblockers, ITP, the removal of third-party cookies: our measurement simply keeps working, because it happens outside the browser.
"But does that work with a Shopify shop?"
Yes. We have a direct Shopify integration that sets up the S2S connection automatically. For every order that follows from a Klatsa click, the conversion is sent to our tracker, including refunds and cancellations. No pixels, no scripts in your theme, no adblocker trouble.
For custom or API-driven webshops we provide a short technical integration guide. Call one endpoint after a successful order and you are done.
And what about cookies?
We do use cookies, but only as a backup for reconciliation, not as the primary source of truth. That means:
- The advertiser does not want to store a
click_id? Then we fall back to a first-party cookie set through the tracker. - But the main route is always server to server, with an HMAC signature, independent of browser behaviour.
The result: your publishers get what they have earned, you get reporting you can actually use, and you are ready for the cookieless era that is coming whether we like it or not.
In summary
| Pixel tracking (classic) | S2S postbacks (Klatsa) | |
|---|---|---|
| Works with adblockers? | No | Yes |
| Works with Safari ITP? | Partly | Yes |
| Cookieless future? | No | Yes |
| Can browser extensions see it? | Yes | No |
| Requires a client-side script? | Yes | No |
Want to know whether your shop can implement S2S tracking? Email us or register as an advertiser right away, and we will walk you through the integration in a short conversation.
