When someone visits a website where the magnews code is installed, the platform can identify them as either an anonymous visitor or a recognized visitor.
This distinction determines which Web Tracking data is associated with the visitor, how it can be used, and how long it is retained.
Anonymous visitors
An anonymous visitor is someone who browses your website but whom magnews cannot yet associate with a contact in one of your databases.
Even if the visitor has not yet been recognized, magnews can still collect the activities allowed by your web property's configuration, such as visited pages or browsing behavior. If the visitor is later recognized, this information can be associated with the contact.
An anonymous visitor becomes a recognized visitor when the platform is able to associate them with an existing contact. This can happen, for example, when the visitor:
- Clicks a link contained in an email or SMS communication sent through magnews
- Submits a form connected to the platform, such as a service page, an on site message or a signup form
Once the visitor is recognized, the browsing activities already collected can be associated with the contact and used by Web Tracking.
Recognized visitors
A recognized visitor is a visitor whom magnews has successfully associated with a contact in the platform.
From that moment on, the visitor's browsing activities are linked to the contact profile and become available in Web Tracking and in all the features that use behavioral data, such as segmentations, journeys, and conversion goals.
Visitors data retention
Visitors data is retained for a configurable period, calculated from the last recorded activity.
You can configure these values independently in the classic version of the platform under
Management > Web tracking > Settings
using the following settings:
- Anonymous visitors data retention
The default value is 7 days.
After this period has passed since the visitor's last activity, magnews automatically deletes the data of visitors who are not associated with a contact, along with their related web tags. - Recognized visitors data retention
The default value is 90 days.
After this period has passed since the visitor's last activity, magnews automatically deletes the data of visitors associated with a contact, along with their related web tags.
If your website is connected to magnews through a web property that recognizes visitors and tracks their browsing activity, we recommend configuring a retention period that is at least equal to, and preferably longer than, the "Remember the visitor for N days" setting.
This prevents Web Tracking data from being deleted while the visitor's cookie is still valid.
Choosing a retention period
There is no single value that works for every situation. The right retention period depends on how you use Web Tracking, your privacy policy, and how long you need to retain visitor browsing data.
As a general rule, we recommend setting the retention period to at least the same duration as the visitor cookie, and preferably longer. This prevents visitor data from being deleted while the visitor's cookie is still valid.
The values below are intended as starting points, not fixed rules. Adjust them according to your business needs, how frequently visitors return to your website, the length of your sales cycle, and your organization's data retention policies.
- Short-term marketing activities
- Anonymous visitors: 30 days
- Recognized visitors: 90 days
- Long-term visitor behavior analysis
- Anonymous visitors: 90 days
- Recognized visitors: 180 days
- Long sales cycles (B2B, real estate, automotive...)
- Anonymous visitors: 180 days
- Recognized visitors: 365 days
In most cases, it makes sense to retain data for recognized visitors longer than for anonymous visitors. Once a visitor has been associated with a contact, their browsing history can be valuable for analyzing behavior over time, building segments, and triggering journeys.
Anonymous visitor data, on the other hand, tends to lose its value more quickly if the visitor is never recognized.
How visitor cookies and data retention work together
The "Remember the visitor for N days" setting determines how long magnews can identify subsequent visits as belonging to the same visitor, while visitors data retention determines how long magnews keeps that visitor's Web Tracking data after their last recorded activity.
Although they are related, these settings control different aspects of visitor tracking.
To achieve the expected behavior, we recommend configuring a retention period that is at least equal to, and preferably longer than, the "Remember the visitor for N days" value configured for the web property.
If the retention period is shorter than the cookie duration, the visitor's data may be deleted while the cookie is still valid. The next time the visitor returns, magnews creates a new visitor and starts collecting a new browsing history.
For example, imagine the following configuration:
- Remember the visitor: 30 days
- Anonymous visitors retention: 15 days
- Recognized visitors retention: 180 days
Scenario 1: the visitor remains anonymous
- Day 1 – The visitor arrives on the website for the first time
magnews creates a new visitor and a cookie that remains valid for 30 days. - Day 10 – The same visitor returns to the website
The cookie is still valid, so magnews identifies them as the same visitor and updates their browsing history. - Day 26 – The visitor returns again
The cookie is still valid, but more than 15 days have passed since the last activity recorded for that anonymous visitor. Their data has therefore been deleted. magnews creates a new visitor and starts collecting a new browsing history.
Scenario 2: the visitor becomes recognized
- Day 1 – The visitor arrives on the website for the first time
magnews creates a new visitor and a cookie that remains valid for 30 days. - Day 10 – The same visitor returns to the website
The cookie is still valid, so magnews identifies them as the same visitor and updates their browsing history. - Day 12 – The visitor submits a signup form and is associated with a contact
From this point on, the recognized visitor retention period applies and their data is retained for up to 180 days after their last recorded activity.
Technical details about visitor recognition
When a recognized contact reaches a page on your website by clicking a link in a communication sent through magnews, the platform adds specific parameters to the URL. These parameters allow magnews to associate the browsing session with the contact and collect Web Tracking data correctly.
- mnuid: identifies the contact within the platform
- mnref: identifies the source of the visit, such as a communication or a transactional message
These parameters allow magnews to associate the browsing session with the contact and collect the Web Tracking data enabled in the web property setup.