Ad tech is consistently evolving, but targeting methods aren’t keeping pace.
Privacy changes, device restrictions, and consumer behavior are blocking traditional ID-based strategies from effectively targeting a majority of U.S. users. If you’re still relying on cookies or device IDs, you’re missing massive swaths of your audience, especially on Safari and iOS.
Let’s break it down.
Who’s Falling Through the Cracks?
The numbers speak for themselves. Up to 60% of the U.S. population is becoming unreachable through conventional targeting:
VPN Users:
- Roughly 130–140 million Americans actively use a VPN.
- That’s nearly 40% of the population shielding their location and identity, according to DemandSage and All About Cookies.
Private Browser Users (Incognito / Private Mode):
- About 67 million people have used or use a private browsing mode like Chrome’s Incognito or Safari Private Browsing according to elie.net.
- These sessions restrict or eliminate cookie-based tracking.
iOS / Safari Users:
- Between 150–195 million Americans use iOS devices, according to BankMyCell.
- That means iOS holds roughly 52-58% of the mobile OS share in the U.S. as of early 2025 according to +DemandSage and Security.org.
- Approximately 79% of young smartphone users in the United States, primarily Gen Z, prefer iPhones over other brands according to Business Insider.
- Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) makes third-party cookies ineffective and hinders deterministic targeting.
Add it all up, and you’re looking at more than half the country blocked from your reach if you’re relying on IDs, cookies, or PII.
What This Means for Media Buyers and Marketers
You’re not just losing scale. You’re losing intent signals, conversions, and performance.
Most attribution models, data providers, and DSPs still rely on IDs to connect the dots, but the dots are disappearing. Especially across iOS apps and Safari, where cookies can’t track behavior and fingerprinting is increasingly unreliable.
If your current strategy can’t even target these users, it definitely can’t convert them.
How to Reach the 60% You’re Missing
IntentKey® by Inuvo solves this by breaking free from the identity trap.
Unlike traditional platforms, IntentKey doesn’t rely on cookies, device IDs, or personally identifiable information.
What does that mean for you?
- Full Safari reach: No cookies needed, no workarounds required.
- iOS compatibility: Targeting works across iOS apps and browsers where others fail.
- VPN-proof: Users masking their identity can still be reached based on what they’re reading and doing in the moment.
IntentKey is a large language model (LLM) that understands what someone is consuming and why—even if you don’t know who they are. That creates entirely new targeting opportunities across previously “untargetable” environments.
Real-World Example: Breaking Through Blind Spots
Let’s say a national healthcare brand needs to reach consumers researching symptoms, treatment plans, or insurance options. Much of that research happens:
- In Safari
- On mobile
- In private browsing or via VPN
- At different stages and times
IntentKey helps brands find and activate those in-market intenders in real time regardless of what browser, device, or privacy setting they use.
IntentKey by Inuvo unlocks incremental reach that other ad tech solutions simply can’t touch.
The Takeaway
If you’re still relying on cookies, device IDs, or PII-based tactics, you’re missing up to 60% of the U.S. population.
Brands that operate by targeting identity are operating with blinders on. That’s both inefficient and expensive.
To stay competitive, you need a strategy that works without identity. One that finds real intent, in real time, anywhere it happens.
IntentKey makes that possible.
Want to see who you’re missing?
Reach out to explore how IntentKey can expand your reach and performance, especially where others fall short.
