According to a letter sent to developers on Tuesday inviting them to an online session to persuade them to buy ads, Apple intends to introduce new ad “placements” as soon as the holiday season.
The new advertisements mark a considerable expansion of Apple’s App Store-focused advertising inventory. Apple’s advertising inventory has recently been restricted to one unit on the search results page and one unit on the App Store’s Search tab.
The uploaded statement read, “With new chances coming to Apple Search Ads, you can promote your apps across the App Store to reach even more people this holiday season.”
The notification to developers made no mention of the locations of the new ad placements, but in July Apple revealed plans to expand its menu with an advertisement on the Today tab, which serves as the App Store’s home page, and another sponsored unit on app product pages under the banner “You Might Also Like.”
“Apple Search Ads give developers of all sizes the chance to expand their companies. These new ad placements are designed on the same principles as our current advertising products; they will only feature material from apps’ authorised App Store product pages and will uphold the same strict privacy requirements, an Apple representative told CNBC.
The rise in inventory coincides with growing scrutiny of Apple’s advertising business.
In addition to warranties, search engine licencing, App Store sales, and online subscription revenue, Apple’s advertising revenue is listed as a component of its services business. Apple’s services revenue in 2021 was above $68 billion.
Wamsi Mohan, an analyst at Bank of America, predicted in July that Apple might make $5 billion in advertising revenue in 2022 only from Apple Search Ads.
Apple announced App Tracking Transparency (ATT) in 2021 to provide iPhone consumers the choice of sharing or not sharing a specific ID with app developers. The majority of iPhone users opt not to share, which makes it difficult for internet advertisers to precisely track the effectiveness of their adverts.
Apple claims it changed as a result of its corporate stance on customer privacy. It enables its own customers to stop Apple from utilising data like account information and past purchases to target search advertisements and to disable Apple’s tailored ads on the App Store. 78% of users disable Apple’s personal advertisements, which is comparable to certain estimates of the percentage of users that disable ATT.
Advertising firms, such as Facebook parent company Meta, have criticised ATT for being anticompetitive and self-serving. Apple’s shift, according to Meta, might cost it $10 billion this year.