It’s an exciting, new day in our digital world—at least for marketers and advertisers.
By now, everyone has heard about Apple’s newest announcement—ad expansion is on its way.
Apple is adding two more ad slots in the Apple store. The new slots will bring advertisements to the App Store ‘Today’ homepage and individual app pages. Currently, the App Store has only two ad slots: one on the main ‘Search’ tab and one in the Search results.
The Apple Search Ads program will soon test new ad placements, with ads showing up in multiple places across the App Store—and not just during searches. Display ads can already be seen inside the News and Stocks apps, and Apple has started internal tests within Maps. Such ambitious tasks have some industry professionals believing that the company will escape the App Store and potentially expand search ads to digital storefronts like Books and Podcasts and to a tiered Apple TV+—where users can opt to pay less but see ads, or pay more to view Ted Lasso and Severence without ads.
So how can publishers, advertisers, and developers get a slice of the ads market with Apple’s growing footprint?
What This Means For Advertisers
Mobile ads, as we currently see them, are tiny banners at the top or bottom of your screen—similar to their larger desktop counterparts that we see on some of our favorite websites. Even with pushback against its decision to increase advertising efforts, Apple’s nascent into the paid ads world opens up new opportunities for brands interested in paying to have their business listings sponsored, as many do on Yelp and other search platforms.
According to Apple, 70% of its App Store visitors use search to find their next app. For search ads in the App Store, developers can pay to have their apps featured in the results when users search related terms. Publishers can also pay to have their work appear higher in search results in Apple’s Books and Podcasts apps, and these apps will be able to include display ads.
And with Apple’s advances in the advertising industry, it plans to offer an additional demand-side platform, similar to the iAds launch in 2010. Apple’s new platform will help advertisers closely match their intended audience demographics without targeting individuals or small groups, but only segments made up of at least 5,000 users. They will be able to try out multiple variants of an ad campaign with dynamic A/B tests and ultimately optimize and increase spending around the best-performing digital campaigns.
Related reading: Understanding the Basics of Paid Advertising Online
This new venture could open up a lot more advertising opportunities for brands—and at a lower price point. In time, advertisers may transfer over to Apple’s personalized ads, especially if they notice the value of their ad dollars spent on third-party apps are garnering less powerful results. While tracking will most likely be limited, vanity metrics, including engagement and video views, will be accessible.
Related reading: The Death of Third-Party Cookies: What It Means for B2B Brands, And What to Do About It
Depending on how you slice it, Apple’s initiatives could be an exciting possibility for developers, advertisers, and brands to reach out to their audiences directly and grow their businesses. Early adopters could have a significant advantage in gaining relevant insights and improving advertising strategies for result-driven data. The company even provided a comprehensive certification course on their website for developers and advertisers to better understand how to utilize Apple Search Ads.
If you haven’t thought about investing in Apple ads, this is a sign that maybe you should. If you don’t know where to start, let us help.
