Advertising has always run on borrowed infrastructure.
Cookies, mobile ad IDs, hashed emails, and universal IDs all let us recognize a person across content and context, but the tie that binds them is that they all depend on a platform or standard that remains out of the control of the advertiser. Within this ecosystem, if one of these elements weakens, the industry is forced to course correct and build a new bridge to maintain the norm: Safari’s tracking prevention, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency, the long, slow unwinding of Chrome’s third-party cookies.
Much like the physical world around us, each of these bridges works until the owner changes the rules of the road – and that pattern has made a return to the headlines.
Recently, AdExchanger reported on how fragile ID-alternative-dependent advertising can be: a single iOS update (iOS 27) disrupted ad delivery in Safari for a major DSP, with follow-up reporting suggesting hundreds of other ad tech and identity companies could be next.
Although the issue has since been ’somewhat’ resolved, it showed how quickly one “simple” software update can derail an advertiser’s strategy, leaving campaigns, measurement, and targeting exposed. History keeps repeating itself, and the lesson holds: if your advertising depends on any form of alternative ID, or one platform’s goodwill, you’re one update away from a very bad week, month, or even quarter. So, with that stage set, let’s look at what we can do to prevent that.
What advertisers should do now
In the immortal words of Douglas Adams… ‘Don’t Panic’.
You don’t need to rip out your stack. You don’t need to start from scratch. But it is worth asking a few questions of every partner you work with:
- What share of your delivery depends on a single channel, ID or browser behavior?
- What does performance look like on iOS and Safari with identifiers removed?
- Which signals still work if the blocklist grows?
The answers will tell you how exposed you are and help guide your business towards a way of doing business that is designed to protect advertisers from these roadblocks.
Leverage a foundation built for both worlds
At Blis, we have never treated identity as the foundation, rather we treat it as one signal among many. Our approach is built on a simple premise: real-world behavior is a stronger indicator of intent than an identifier, and it doesn’t need a user ID to be effective.
That’s why our audience data is built on real-world signals: mobile and location data, including carrier data, to help brands better understand app usage, app engagement, and real-world movement patterns. When used responsibly and with strong privacy safeguards, carrier data adds a durable foundation that connects online and offline behavior, and it gives us an edge that comes from actual human behavior, not fingerprinting.
Because these signals don’t rely on cookies or IDs, they stay useful as browsers and platforms change their rules. For example, a store visit or a session in a retailer’s app serves as a meaningful signal whether or not an identifier is available. And since the data captured is based on consumer choice and aggregated, advertisers can reach audiences at scale without relying on identifiers.
For advertisers on our platform, that means a cleaner, more efficient process: one foundation for planning, activation, and measurement that doesn’t need rebuilding every time a browser or OS changes the rules. An ID becomes a bonus rather than a dependency. When one is available and permissioned, we use it to add precision, and when it isn’t, the strategy still works – even in channels like audio where identity is a real hurdle. That is the inherent value that comes with operating in both an ID and ID-less world: a strategy that has the ability to adapt to the mercurial nature of the environment to produce the best outcomes.
Where we think this goes next
If recent events prove anything, it’s that the next era of targeting will be defined by resilience. Let’s take a look at a few things we can expect:
- Aggregated intelligence will beat individual tracking. Platforms are signaling, repeatedly, that user-level tracking is on borrowed time. Models that learn from patterns across populations rather than individuals are better aligned with where browsers, operating systems and regulators are heading.
- Planning will get more predictive. Foot traffic and real-world movement data can show where audiences will be, not just where they have been. As AI-driven planning matures, expect media plans built from real-world demand signals, with identity as an optional layer on top.
- Measurement will follow outcomes, not identifiers. If you can’t follow a user across sites, you need measurement that connects media exposure to real-world results at an aggregate level. Footfall, incrementality, and a client’s own data will matter more as deterministic matching shrinks.
- Diversification will become a procurement question. Agencies and brands will start auditing partners for platform dependency the way they audit for brand safety. “What happens if Safari blocks you?” will become a standard RFP question.
Resilience isn’t the reaction, it’s the strategy
Headlines like the ones AdExchanger has reported will come and go, but the underlying shift will not.
Identity has disappeared overnight before, and it will again, which is why Blis’ technology was built for exactly that. Our audiences start with real-world movement and are enriched with hundreds of privacy-protected signals, built in aggregate and reachable at scale. An ID can sharpen the picture when it’s available and permissioned, and nothing breaks when it isn’t.
For advertisers, that means one strategy that holds up across browsers, devices, and whatever current or future platforms decide to do next. You don’t need to rebuild your targeting every time a blocklist changes, and you don’t need to bet on which identifier survives.
The advertisers who thrive will be the ones who stopped asking where the next identifier is coming from and started building on signals that don’t depend on a single identifier.
Want to see how Blis performs on iOS and Safari without relying on IDs? Get in touch with your Blis representative.