Ads Now Appearing in App Store Search Results for U.S. Users

As expected, Apple has begun showing developer ads in the iOS App Store today for U.S. users, reports The Verge. Now, searching for popular terms like "taxi", "calendar", or "to do list" returns a banner ad for promoted apps above the search results.

appstoresearchads

Apple announced plans for the ads back in June and developers have participated in a beta testing program since that time. The App Store Search Ads system finally went live on September 28, inviting developers to purchase ad spots through the program. Those ads are now viewable by the public as of this morning.

With Search Ads, developers are able to bid to have their app listed as the top result when certain keywords are used, in order to improve app discoverability. Ads are available through an auction system, with one ad displayed to customers per search result page.

Ads are clearly marked as such and the content they show is the same as that on the App Store app description pages, since they use App Store metadata and imagery.

According to Apple's Phil Schiller, Apple "thought about how to carefully" do search ads in a way that "customers will be happy with." Apple also believes the ad auction system is fair to developers, including indie developers.

As of last week, developers who signed up to offer Search Ads have been given a free $100 credit to get started with the program.

Tag: Ads

Top Rated Comments

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Dissonance

28 months ago

This feels wrong.

I pay the Apple tax so that I DON'T have to see ads everywhere.

Rating: 25 Votes

deathnite

28 months ago

This is one "feature" I don't mind being US only.

Rating: 15 Votes

MH01

28 months ago

Phil you are so wrong.

There is no right way to do advertising , it's something born of greed and something no user wants.

Greed greed greed :(

Please innovate products and not ways to push products .

Rating: 14 Votes

Nr123*123

28 months ago

Courage. They just couldn't resist more $$$

Also, not meaning to be one of those guys, but do you honestly think Steve Jobs would allow adverts in the app store?

It makes it look cheap.

Rating: 9 Votes

c0ppo

28 months ago

Ads will help Indie developers? Sure they will. But only if you consider King, EA, Sega, etc. to be indie developers.

Greed greed greed. Instead of making search algorithms better, why bother? Just put ads in, that will do the trick. And improve apple wallet. Nice one Tim, nice one...

Rating: 9 Votes

jclardy

28 months ago

This feels wrong.

I pay the Apple tax so that I DON'T have to see ads everywhere.

The problem here is that now they are now double dipping with developers. Pay apple to get your app on the store ($99/year), give apple 30% of your revenue, and pay apple to bump your listing up and to make sure your competitors don't steal your top search result position.

Rating: 6 Votes

69Mustang

28 months ago

This is very wrong and depressing. I don't want Google the App the Store giving me adverts first.

Mabye, in the end, Google like advertising on search results and end user data harvesting is where Apple is going to go anyways - cause its profitable (and people get promoted and bonuses for that). Look at all the people complaining about having to pay for iCloud storage instead of free like data harvesting providers Google / Microsoft etc..

Why is it depressing? Apple has always harvested data. Copious amounts of data. They even told us what types of data they harvest ('http://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/'). Apple's issue was they failed at monetizing the data because the vastly over estimated the price advertisers were willing to pay (iAds). They lowered and lowered and lowered the price but by that time no one was interested.

This latest effort is embarrassing. If they're going to do it, they need to do it better. If I search for Pokemon Go, the first ad I see shouldn't be a fake version of Pokemon Go. https://9to5mac.com/2016/10/06/ios-app-store-search-ads/

I think where people get confused is when Apple says "we don't sell your personal data". No they don't. Neither does anyone else. But the implication is others do and based on some of the quotes on MR, the implication is believed by a lot of people. We should never confuse we don't sell with we don't collect.

Rating: 5 Votes

GonMacNvrGoBack

28 months ago

A blatant, greedy money-grab from Apple - do they really need to generate a revenue stream through corrupting searches in the App Store?
They are the last company in the world where you'd think "If only they made more money"...

Rating: 4 Votes

Max Portakabin

28 months ago

The trouble with Sculley is he tried to monetize everything...

History repeats.

Rating: 4 Votes

2457248

28 months ago

aren't "Featured, Top Charts, Explore" ads already?

Rating: 3 Votes

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