Apple Will Show More In-Apps Advertisement

Apple will show more ads in its apps. (photo: doc. pixabay)

JAKARTA - Apple will eventually bring ads to more apps that come pre-installed on your iPhone and other Apple devices, including Maps, Books, and Podcasts.

According to a report by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple has been internally testing search ads on Maps, which can show recommendations when you search for restaurants, shops, or other nearby businesses.

Apple has implemented a similar advertising model in the App Store, where developers can pay to have their apps promoted on search pages for certain queries, such as "puzzle games" or "photo editors."

As Gurman notes, ads on Maps can work the same way, with businesses paying to appear at the top of search results when users enter certain search terms.

Gurman believes that Apple could introduce ads to its original Podcasts and Books apps as well. This could potentially allow publishers to place ads in areas within each app, or pay to have their content placed higher in search results. Just like Maps, Podcasts, and Books are currently ad-free.

While the App Store already has ads in the Search tab, Gurman expects Apple to expand the ads to the Today tab and app downloads pages, which tracks with previous reports from 9to5Mac, Apple Insider, and MacRumors.

According to 9to5Google, ads on the Today tab will appear as larger cards with the word "Ads" placed under the app name, while ads on individual app pages will appear highlighted in blue in the "You Might Also Like" section.

Gurman mentioned the potential for advertising on Apple TV Plus as well, and said the company could choose to create an ad-supported tier at a lower price, something Netflix and Disney Plus plan to do later this year.

Currently, Apple TV Plus only offers an ad-free subscription plan of $4.99/month (though it has started showing ads during Friday Night Baseball live streams).

Apple first introduced ads in the App Store in 2016, and also featured apps in its Stocks and News apps. Last September, the company started asking users if they wanted to enable Personalized Ads that appear on these apps, in accordance with an App Tracking Transparency (ATT) policy that costs the social platform billions of dollars.

ATT gives users the option to disable the tracking tools advertisers use to show targeted ads. This may have contributed to the overall growth of Apple's advertising sector, as it left businesses scrambling to reconsider their advertising strategies.

According to data obtained by Insider from research firm Omdia, Apple's advertising business grew 238 percent to $3.7 billion in 2021.

Apple's move to open more ad slots in the App Store, and potentially Maps, Podcasts, and Books, could signal that Apple is looking to expand its advertising business even further.

In May, an Insider report revealed that Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services, was reportedly planning to restructure Apple's services business to direct more attention to streaming and advertising.

Apple's services arm, which includes advertising and its various subscriptions, saw a 12 percent increase in revenue in the last quarter.