After making life difficult for ad publishers, Apple will add more. On the homepage of the App Store, there will soon be Sponsored Suggestions.
In a Friday night surprise, Apple announced on July 29, 2022, through three ultra-specialty media outlets ( 9to5mac , MacRumors and AppleInsider ), that it planned to add new places dedicated to advertising on the App Store. A surprising announcement, in the sense that the advertisements on the App Store have never been unanimous (first because it does not look like Apple, then because the recommendations are often bad) and that Apple, in recent months has instead declared war on the advertising market . We imagine that by choosing three sites that are historically favorable to it, Apple deliberately tried to avoid criticism.
New ads on the App Store, where exactly?
In 2016 in the United States, then in 2018 in France, Apple timidly added advertising banners to the App Store. Only accessible from the “Search” tab, these locations suggest sponsored content to iPhone and iPad users.
Looking for “Twitter”? It is possible that software that allows you to access the social network has paid to appear first (or vice versa, Twitter has often passed in front of small applications in this way). This practice has often surprised users, without however detracting from the experience. Economically, we imagine that the developers find themselves there as much as Apple.
In the near future, these sponsored apps will land in two new places:
- On the App Store home page, in the “Today” tab, the second card will offer a sponsored application (with a blue background). If you have opted for, Apple will offer you an app that you may like among those who have paid for it.
- When you go to an application’s page, there will be an advertisement at the bottom of the screen for another application that you might like. Apple nevertheless warns that a Facebook will not be able to publicly target the TikTok file. The selection is finer.
Apple’s advertising doublespeak
There’s something ironic about this addition of App Store ads, in that Meta, Snap, and Twitter are all complaining about the damage Apple has done to their bottom lines by preventing their apps from getting information about their users. As a reminder, since April 2021, Apple has been encouraging iPhone and iPad owners to opt out of ad tracking. This option has lost billions of dollars to some of the company’s rivals, who depend on targeted ads.
Of course, it’s important to remember that adding ads on the App Store has little to do with this story. Apple, by default, opts out of seeing targeted ads for App Store users (and will continue to do so). App Store ads might annoy you if you hate sponsored content, but they don’t violate Apple’s policies.
