In what seems like a stark contrast to Apple’s
backing away from its longstanding mobile ad
marketplace, iAd, the company will instead be
getting back to the ad business, allowing app
developers to pay for ads to appear on top of
search results in the lucrative Apple App Store.
backing away from its longstanding mobile ad
marketplace, iAd, the company will instead be
getting back to the ad business, allowing app
developers to pay for ads to appear on top of
search results in the lucrative Apple App Store.
Taking note from both Google and Facebook, Apple
is making many moves to make its ad offering
more open and accessible than ever.
In the meantime, it is filling holes in its previous
iterations of iAd, starting with a self-serve, second
price auction-based platform with no initial
minimum spends.
Apple’s plan to open up APIs for campaign
creation, management, and reporting shows how the
tech giant is serious about giving advertisers the
tools to make a more automated and simple
manual process.
Another smart move to create efficiency is Apple’s
Search Match feature, which is similar to Google
AdWords Universal App Campaigns in allowing an
advertiser who is either more novice or strapped for
time to set up a basic campaign in fewer steps.
Basic features such as age, gender, location and OS
targeting are available, but they will still be much
more limited than Google, Facebook and even
Twitter’s capabilities.
Apple’s offering also include two areas that seem
more limited than others: creative use and data
measurement.
It seems like Apple will initially limit creative use to
the assets that are already approved within the App
Store. This will handcuff advertisers who are used
to developing, testing and driving optimizations
through custom designed creative ad iterations.
Apple’s stance to keep tight controls over its user
data, however, is not surprising.
Although the company is allowing advertisers to
track “clusters of users” by implementing “a few
lines of code,” it is unclear if Apple will be
partnering with standard third-party app attribution
companies, such as TUNE, AppsFlyer and Adjust
that would offer more sophisticated ad tracking to
an individual user level.
Nevertheless, App marketers will now be able to
fully capture search intent in both major app stores
and promote their apps across both iOS and
Android systems.
Though Apple Search ads will not officially launch
until the fall, brands and marketers should
immediately opt-in for the beta from Apple’s
developer portal given participation is free and free
downloads can be garnered now.
Along with Google’s announcements of updates to
Google Adwords’ new features a few weeks ago,
advertisers should also actively assign their agency
partners to develop a smart App Store search
strategy that takes advantage of all that both
Google and Apple has to offer.
Tim Villanueva is the Head of Media Partnerships
at Fetch and a contributor to Search Engine Watch.
at Fetch and a contributor to Search Engine Watch.
