Quantcast Adds First-Party Cookie Tracking To Capture Cross-Platform And Mobile Traffic

In a significant step to capture more mobile and cross-platform traffic, Quantcast announced today that they are using both first-party and third-party cookies to track online traffic from desktop and mobile devices.

Previously the media measurement service that tracks audience behavior for publishers used only third-party cookies for traffic measurement. Many browsers, including Safari on iOS devices (iPhones and iPads) which has 60 percent mobile market share, block third-party cookies. Meaning Quantcast couldn’t capture the traffic coming from those sources.

Quantcast says most publishers will see an increase in traffic in their reports, particularly from mobile traffic.

The data is being applied retroactively to all historical data. Publishers with analytics packages that use first-party cookies (like Google Analytics and Omniture), will likely see more consistency between their Quantcast and analytics reporting.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin was formerly Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day-to-day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.