Almost every time when you visit any website for the first time, you get a little notification asking you about collecting your cookie files. But what are these, how do they work and what are they used for? Every curious person and everyone preoccupied with their online safety rightly asks this question. Cookies are text files with data that websites store on the user’s device. This means that these files carry information about previous visits to the website: user login, page display settings, browser language, etc.

And what are cookies used for, according to official sources? They’re meant to make browsing the internet more comfortable. Due to the work of these cookies, when you re-enter a website you’ve already been on, you will not need to enter your login/email, and password again – they will be carefully stored on your device. Also, cookies increase the speed of opening pages and reduce the load on the server.

To get into specifics, here are some examples of how exactly cookies come in handy:

Automated login

Once again, you are relieved of the annoying need to enter your login/email and password every time you visit those websites you’ve already logged in to. Cookies remember the data you entered to enter the site and transmit them to the server. So, thanks to cookies, you can visit certain websites as an already authorized user.

Individualized settings for search engines and social media platforms

Thanks to cookies, your location of residence, language, and other important individual details are stored in your browser settings. Such information storage saves you from the obligation to edit all these settings every time you open the browser.

Selling and buying online

Each online store uses cookies for its shopping carts: even if the customer accidentally closes the store’s website, the products they have chosen will be saved. There is another important point as to why online stores need cookies: without them, it would be impossible to compare and buy any products.

Ads are shown only for your interests

Cookies also mean that there are no advertisements inappropriate for you. When a user visits a page, the browser sends their cookies back to the server so that they can receive personalized content.

The formats of cookie files

• Temporary cookies exist only at the moment when the user visits the site and disappear when the user closes the browser.

• Persistent cookies are stored on the device and after closing the browser, they are used to remember the user’s personal interests and recognize them on the site with each new visit.

• Cookies from third-party websites remain on the user’s device not via the site directly visited, but via another website associated with it. This type of cookies is also used to monitor the user’s activity on several websites at the same time.

• Secure cookies are encrypted cookies that prevent illegal access to the data they contain.

• HttpOnly cookies can only be accessed via the HTTP or HTTPS protocol, which reduces the risk of data theft from your device.

• Zombie cookies are small pieces of code that persist even after the original cookies are destroyed. It was for their indestructibility that they received such a fun name.

Most popular cookie formats

The two most popular formats today are Netscape and JSON.

• Netscape was developed exclusively for the Netscape Navigator web browser. In 2023, Netscape is supported by the vast majority of browsers.

• JSON was brought up in 2014. Its advantage for developers is that it allows you to store the most complex data. For example, Facebook uses it to store cookies, and so, it is most common among affiliates working on Facebook. JSON makes it possible to collect cookies from Facebook accounts (and not only Facebook) in order to run more effective advertising.

Affiliates have to deal with different cookie formats at the same time. If you only have the Netscape format or just the JSON format in your hands, and the situation requires you to have different formats, they have cookie converters for this purpose.

How to enable cookies and how to disable them when necessary

For some, the questions of how to enable cookies and how to disable cookies are very much relevant. In the deep sea of affiliate marketing, from time to time, we get obstacles that later are revealed to have unexpected solutions.

Since affiliates use anti-detect browsers in 99% of cases, we will talk about those, or rather, the two largest anti-detect browsers.

Octo Browser

In order to disable or (enable, if they were disabled) cookies in the Octo browser, you need to go to the profile editing mode, then to Storage and select the desired position of the slider opposite the Cookies feature (i.e., turn then on or off).

If you need to upload your cookie file, you can do it here.

Dolphin

The Dolphin browser doesn’t have an identical feature for enabling/disabling cookies. You can import/export your file with the data by clicking on the three dots near the profile, after which you’ll see this drop-down menu, where you can import and export cookies:

And now, let’s see what cookies are intended for in affiliate marketing and why they need to be farmed.

What cookies are used for in affiliate marketing

For example, cookie farming is the work of creating a large number of cookies for their further exploitation for marketing purposes. Affiliates farm cookies to extract valuable information about the behavior of their potential buyers online. This is the primary use of cookies in affiliate marketing.

What do advertiser cookies do? Help them determine which websites and pages are generating the highest conversions or ultimately sales, and then help them use that data to optimize their advertising campaigns. Also, cookie farming works well for creating a target audience that will be more willing to respond to offers.

But farming cookies has another extremely important function. This process is very necessary to increase the trust of social network algorithms (primarily Facebook) and websites to any newly registered accounts. The principle of such detection is simple: if your cookies are empty, then the website will most likely suspect the user of having and exploiting several accounts and block them.

We asked some high-profile affiliates for their comments on the topic:

1) Vladimir Arbitrazh, affiliate, owner of the “Vladimir Arbitzh” Telegram channel

To add to what was said above, I can only add that cookie farming, especially before entering the Facebook profile itself in modern realities, is more of a necessity than an option. If you buy a well-farmed account as an example, then you will notice that cookies already come with it, and the longer it was farmed, the more they will weigh. Of course, an undoubted advantage, even before entering the Facebook account, will not even be the presence of cookies in the account, but really feeding additional, fresh cookies on websites that have the pixel installed. Its presence can be easily checked with the extension https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebook-pixel-helper/fdgfkebogiimcoedlicjlajpkdmockpc?hl=ru

Therefore, if you bought a well-d=farmed account and want to work with it for a long time, then, in addition to cookies from the seller, I would advise you to visit a couple of dozen websites that have a pixel on your own too, add something to the cart, create the appearance of a real buyer. Believe me, Facebook knows more about you even before you enter your profile.

This tool will help you open multiple tabs at once:

https://www.websiteplanet.com/webtools/multiple-url/

And here’s where you can take a list of sites that have a pixel installed:

https://publicwww.com/websites/fbevents.js/

https://trends.builtwith.com/analytics/Facebook-Pixel

2) Evgeny Toporkov, founder of the ZeonAds agency, affiliate marketing specialist since 2016, owner of the “Arbitrazh iz topora” Telegram channel

Cookies are some of the most important parameters by which Facebook determines whether you are a real person or not. Therefore, it is considered very important to work up cookies not only on Facebook itself, but also on external resources that have Facebook’s pixels.

And if you suddenly want to farm your accounts yourself or plan to build a farming department under your supervision, then do not forget to farm cookies too.

3) Timur Sharipov, owner of the Avalon affiliate marketing team, owner of the “Teamlead komandy” Telegram channel

Cookies are very important for account farming. If you start signing up accounts without cookies, then Facebook may suspect that you are in fact not a real person, but a robot, and such accounts often get banned pretty quickly. Before signing up new accounts, I advise you to go through a number of sites with an installed Facebook pixel, get some cookies, and only then proceed to create a Facebook profile. After creating an account, I say that you continue getting cookies both outside Facebook and in your account – this will help you gain trust to your account.

Conclusion

So, we’ve discussed what cookies are and why they were created, as well as how to enable/disable, export, and import cookies in two top anti-detect browsers and what cookie farming gives to affiliates. And probably everyone knows how to clear cookies in your regular Google Chrome browser, the algorithm is simple: 3 dots in the upper right corner – Settings – Privacy and security – Clear history.

So, appreciate your cookies, work them well, and you will have your endless profit!