The same Keynote address that introduced the iPhone 4 also introduced some other new concepts that were to be introduced by Apple, one of them being an advertising platform dubbed “iAds.” However, the iPhone 4 quickly took most of the attention away from all of the other, more minor technologies that were introduced. There has been some recent buzz around Apple’s iAds, so in today’s post, we will review how the iAds platform is developing.
iAds is essentially a relatively new advertising platform that Apple introduced a bit over a year ago. iAds, of course, is a targeted advertising platform that will allow publishers to advertise and promote their businesses to Apple product owners, mainly through iOS devices such as the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone.
The idea behind iAds, is somewhat “Apple innovative” in that iAds are supposed to be much more interactive than traditional advertisements and banners that other advertising platforms offer. iAds are also deployed within apps, in an attempt to keep iDevice users in the app and spend more time using the app. Even so, other advertising companies such as Google’s AdSense program now offer mobile ad solutions, which have been much more popular than Apple’s iAds campaign. Here is a chart that describes Apple’s slice of the pie:
Google is dominant, but Apple is still managing to hold its own, despite the iAds program not taking off the way Apple probably would have liked. Recently, Apple has made some changes to iAds in an attempt to spark more advertisers and publishers.
The most significant change to iAds is in the pricing structure. Apple is lowering prices on advertising, hoping to attract more customers and gain momentum. There are no exact numbers, but one source reported to the Wall Street Journal that Apple is lowering the entry price to $400,000. $400,000 seems like a lot of money, but it should be considered to be a more aggressive and significant price drop, considering that prices were $100,000,000 when iAds initially launched, and $500,000 in February.
Apple is also rumored to be changing its per-tap advertising limits. Previously, per-tap limits were unlimited, but the $2.00 per-tap fee ($10 per 1000 page views) was depleting advertising budgets a bit too quickly. Apple is expected to release more information regarding the changes to the iAds program in the near distant future.
Overall, Apple’s iAds program is just doing okay. With some more aggressive pricing, however, Apple may be able to attract more publishers and advertisers and develop iAds to be a great platform for iOS. Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. If anyone has any experience with advertising or publishing iAds, feel free to leave a comment if there is anything we missed.