Impact

Overview

Impact (impact.com) is a partnership automation platform used by brands to manage affiliate, influencer, and publisher partnerships at scale. It provides tracking infrastructure for performance marketing programs where brands pay partners (bloggers, coupon sites, loyalty platforms, influencers) commissions for driving conversions. Impact competes with CJ Affiliate, Rakuten Advertising, and ShareASale, and is used by major brands including Uber, Lenovo, Levi's, and Adidas for their affiliate programs.

What This Script Does

The Impact tracking tag is a JavaScript snippet typically deployed via tag manager or hardcoded on advertiser websites. It operates in two modes: a universal tag on all pages to capture referral clicks, and a conversion tag on confirmation pages to record completed transactions.

Cookies set:

• irclickid — first-party or third-party cookie (depending on deployment), persists for 30 days by default, stores the Impact click identifier from the referring partner's link to attribute the eventual conversion
• Session-scoped cookies for click parameter capture on landing pages
• Attribution window cookies that persist the partner referral across the customer journey until conversion or expiry

Script behavior on referral landing pages:

• Reads irclickid parameter from the URL (appended by Impact-tracked partner links)
• Stores the click identifier in a cookie for the attribution window (typically 30 days)
• May fire a pixel to Impact's servers to record the click event

Script behavior on conversion pages (checkout confirmation, signup completion):

• Reads the stored irclickid cookie to identify the attributing partner
• Fires a conversion event to Impact's servers (https://t.impact.com/) with: order ID, order value, product SKUs, customer type (new vs. returning), and any custom event parameters
• Transmits data used to calculate and pay the partner's commission

IAB TCF purposes: Consent signal required for Purpose 1 (Store and/or access information on a device) and Purpose 7 (Measure advertising performance) under IAB TCF v2.2.

Consent & Compliance

Impact sets persistent attribution cookies and shares conversion data with third-party publisher partners. Under the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive, these activities require prior opt-in consent: the irclickid cookie is a non-essential third-party tracking cookie, and sharing conversion data (including purchase value and customer type) with Impact and its publisher network constitutes personal data processing for marketing purposes.

Under CCPA/CPRA, conversion data shared with Impact and onward to partner publishers may constitute a "sale" or "sharing" of personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising purposes. An opt-out mechanism is required. Impact participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF) for EU-to-US data transfers.

Should You Block This Without Consent?

Yes. Impact scripts set persistent cookies for affiliate attribution and share conversion data with third-party publishers and partners. This is a marketing activity that requires prior consent. Without the script, affiliate commissions will not be tracked, but site functionality is unaffected.