Apple is increasing the total ad spots in its App Store from two to four. With the change, the iPhone maker expects to triple its advertising revenue to at least $10 billion every year in the near future. So far, the company has been showing ads in the search results and the Suggested tab. Now, Apple will put ads in the Today tab and the "You Might Also Like" section, which will be displayed at the bottom of the app listings. The ads will be live starting October 25, 2022, i.e., Tuesday, in all the countries worldwide except for China.
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The company announced its intention to expand the ad placements in July 2022. Users can distinguish between an ad and an organic listing with the help of the Ad icon shown towards the bottom left corner of the tile. Here is what Apple has to say about the Today tab used to showcase recommendations – "With a Today tab ad, your (advertiser's) app can appear prominently on the front page of the App Store – making it some of the first content users see when they begin their App Store visit."
The company also says that the prominence of this ad placement makes it a good place for developers to drive awareness of their app, especially for new content launches, events, and seasonal promotions. As far as the app product pages are concerned, Apple will also showcase advertisements there. The company says that "while browsing ads let you promote your app to interested users when they're browsing pages across the App Store.
Ads will appear at the top of the ‘You Might Also Like’ list to users actively researching apps and deciding whether they wish to download an app or not. Now, this could be a good move for the company, but developers are raising concerns about the rising effective tax rate. Developers who have an app that is free or low-priced might have to rethink the cost of their app, as purchasing ad slots might be an expensive deal for them.
Since Apple will run the ads in the "You Might Also Like" section, developers might have to buy the ad slots on their app pages which would otherwise advertise someone else's app, increasing the competition. Legal expert Florian Mueller highlights the same via his tweet, saying that the new ad placement might force developers to buy ads on their app pages "to avoid that others steer customers away from there."
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