Apple last year started displaying ads in the App Store when a user searches for a particular app as a way to provide developers with a way to improve app discovery via keyword search.
Searching for a term like "to-do" or "calendar" or even something specific like "Tweetbot" surfaces ads that are purchased by developers.
Starting today, Apple is expanding search ads with a new ad product called "Search Ads Basic," while also renaming the existing search ad feature to "Search Ads Advanced," reports TechCrunch.
Search Ads Advanced, like the initial Search Ads option, requires developers to pay whenever an ad is tapped. Search Ads Basic allows developers to pay for actual app installations received from the ad, rather than taps.
With Search Ads Advanced, developers are able to select specific keywords and demographics when delivering ads, while Search Ads Basic simply allows developers to choose a monthly budget and a maximum cost-per-install, with far less customization.
Search Ads Basic includes suggestions on how much a developer should pay based on historical data pulled from the App Store based on the type of app being marketed, and it uses App Store trends to target the ideal audience.
There's a maximum monthly budget of $5,000 for Search Ads Basic, but there are no limitations on which apps or companies can use the feature, so it's available to both independent developers and larger companies.
At launch, Search Ads Basic will be limited to the United States, rolling out to additional markets next year.
Top Rated Comments
99% of the effort? Get over yourself. You didn’t create the App Store, ecosystem, or devices that run the apps.
This is why I stopped developing iOS (and Mac) apps. Apple can go F themselves. All of their expenses add up to virtually nothing per download to maintain the App Store. Developers put in 99.99% of the effort, and Apple takes 30+%.
If this weren't true, then how about Apple remove the walls around their garden and let me distribute outside the store? I'll pay the pennies to throw my apps up on my website, and promote via word of mouth (IE, for free), same as I always have.
I prefer the walled garden of the app store. Weeds out most of the script kiddies.