Report: Apple Is Killing The Cookie And It’s Costing Publishers

As mobile usage soars, the impact of Apple’s actions to block third-party cookies is being felt throughout the online advertising ecosystem. Casale Media’s latest Index Quarterly Cookie Report, finds that in the first half of 2013. Safari served 67 percent of impressions without cookies and more than 60 percent of mobile impressions were not cookie-enabled, driven almost entirely by iPad and iPhone usage.

iPhones and iPads accounted for 66 percent of mobile impressions in the Index report. Safari holds over 60 percent of the mobile browser market share, according to Net Applications.

That’s bad news for publishers. According to the report, advertisers place a premium on impressions tied to rich third-party cookie data.  CPMs are nearly double the Average Winning Bid price of those achieved by impressions with no cookies.

“The data shows how Apple product users on Safari, iPad and iPhone are driving publishers’ RTB revenues down, as they fuel cookie-less impressions that advertisers don’t value as highly,” said Andrew Casale, VP of Strategy for Casale Media. “This is a possible glimpse into what’s to come, as other web browsing platforms mull changes to cookie support and underscore the importance of an industry wide solution to our reliance on 3^rd party cookies in display – similar to the AdId initiative in mobile.”

Overall, mobile devices accounted for 41 percent of all impressions without cookies. Android OS devices served 79 percent of mobile impressions with cookies, while iPad served just 12 percent and iPhone a mere 8 percent with cookies. In contrast, just over 10 percent of impressions from desktop platforms were not cookie enabled.

The fate of third-party cookies appears to be in the balance. Both Google and Microsoft are reportedly working on their own replacements for third-party cookie. The impact is yet to be seen, but things could get much more complicated, as discussed in Kicking Third-Party Cookies To The Curb: The Fallout For The Digital Ad Industry.