Criteo: Apple's tracking change to cost $20 million in Q4

With 24% of its global revenue coming from the APAC region, Criteo has had a positive third quarter according to the latest quarterly earnings report. But for the fourth quarter the company expects to see a negative impact from Apple's September, update that devalued DSPs.

Apple's iOS 11 updated Safari with default settings that limits the ability of ad networks, advertising technology, and marketing technology firms from tracking users.

The technology behind this is known as Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP), which expunges cookies set by a publisher after 30 days pass and averts companies that track users using first-party data.

While the update cost Criteo $1 million in the third quarter of 2017, which ended on September 30, the company anticipates that it will cost at least $20 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. With revenue for the fourth quarter projected between $260 million and $263 million, the ITP has a projected net negative impact of 8 percent of revenues.

To counter this, Criteo has announced that it will begin rolling out a pilot solution to mitigate at least half the impact of the ITP. Criteo also shared that it would retire Predictive Search, its product around search marketing, which struggled to demonstrate uplift for its commerce and brand clients.

The latest products, Criteo Customer Acquisition and Criteo Audience Match would continue to be expanded with new capabilities, such as lookalikes and app installs.