Apple on Friday announced it was expanding ad placement in the App Store, bringing app advertisements to two new sections of the platform, according to statements provided to MacRumors, and 9to5Mac and AppleInsider.
Interesting: Apple announced expanded ad placement in the App Store. But only via the three relevant Apple-only news sites, at a random embargo time on a Friday (11:11 AM), the day after saying ad sales are dipping due to the economy. pic.twitter.com/wL6p9hwxoS
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) July 29, 2022
According to Apple’s announcement, the App Store will get new, dedicated advertising placements for apps on the ‘Today’ homepage and individual app pages.
Up until now, the App Store only displayed ads in the Search tab and Search results. Apple introduced App Store Search ads back in 2016, and there have been many reports of the tech giant looking to grow its advertising business.
The new advertising slot on the App Store’s ‘Today’ page is going to be the second spot on the homepage. Apple is also bringing one row of advertisements to the ‘You Might Also Like’ section on product pages for apps.
Apple will not let developers target the product page of a specific app with ads for their own. This will prevent developers from deliberately advertising their apps on competitors’ app pages.
As has always been the case, the App Store will serve ads by relevancy using Apple’s own algorithms. These algorithms, however, might end up serving ads for rival apps anyway.
“Apple Search Ads provides opportunities for developers of all sizes to grow their business,” Apple said in a statement on the decision.
“Like our other advertising offerings, these new ad placements are built upon the same foundation—they will only contain content from apps’ approved App Store product pages, and will adhere to the same rigorous privacy standards.”
Ads placed anywhere across the App Store will be clearly marked as such using the same blue banner/background as Search ads.
Apple is expected to start testing the new App Store ad placements soon, but the company didn’t offer up an exact timeline for the expansion.
