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Apple Introduces Search Ads Basic
- eganist 9y agoAh, damn. There goes Apple's Privacy Favoritism.
- giancarlostoro 9y agoAds do not have to invade your privacy. DuckDuckGo has their own ads too.
- wlesieutre 9y agohttps://searchads.apple.com/privacy/ https://searchads.apple.com/privacy/ > No user tracking - Search Ads does not profile users based on their search queries, and no data from other Apple Apps — including Health, Apple Pay and HomeKit — is used to deliver ads. > No data sharing - No individual user data is exposed to advertisers, only aggregate campaign delivery information is made available.
- stingraycharles 9y agoFor how long, though? If this service will become successful (which it likely will be), there will be a huge monetization opportunity by allowing more targeted ads e.g. based on other app installs.
- ajharrison 9y agoApple is in the hardware business. They don’t want to get into ads.
- i_am_nomad 9y agoThat doesn’t address his/her point, though. If Apple realizes they’re leaving billions of dollars per year on the table, there is very little to stop them from spinning up an analytics division to rake that in.
- macintux 9y agoUnless they feel their public stance on privacy is responsible for a non-trivial portion of their current revenue. They've never seriously compromised their privacy stance that I've seen, with the arguable exception of their unfortunate position in China. This would be a big step off an uncertain cliff, and their CEO has a personal history that lends credence to his argument that privacy matters.
- ajharrison 9y agoSo you think Tim Cook will wake up tomorrow and realize there’s money in advertising? They could’ve done that years ago but they are not in the business of advertising. They sell hardware with complimentary services and ads are an accessory to that mission — not the mission itself.
- richforrester 9y agoWithout meaning to be a tit; > Search Ads Basic Why does this not count as "getting into ads"? Genuinely don't see the difference. And to be fair, the product kinda puzzles me in the first place. Is it really only an ad at the top of app store search pages?
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- ajharrison 9y agoLet me clarify for you: They’re not _seriously_ in the ads business and they never will because it’s full of privacy issues. They’re using ads here to help people find the app they’re looking for - that’s it. It’s contained within the App Store to help people find ads. How much rev has apple made from iAd? Prob not a lot
- function_seven 9y agoThat's literally what they're doing here. Selling advertising. Yes, you can say—and I hope—that they won't compromise their other lines of business to increase ad revenue. But this is a step closer to that precipice.
- pvg 9y agoThey've been 'into ads' for years. They were in a bidding war for AdMob in 2010, lost out to Google. They've bought ad technology companies. They haven't been super-successful in the space (iAd didn't work out) but you don't do those things if you 'don't want to get into ads')
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- soared 9y agoGoogle doesn't allow anything like that in search, why would apple?
- stingraycharles 9y agoGoogle allows all other kind of targeting to happen on their platform. If Apple doesn't want to track users' and their past behaviour, they might use things such as "currently installed apps" as an alternative. Having said that, it was merely to illustrate an example of things they could do -- there are tons of other ways to to increase the value of searches.
- ucaetano 9y ago> Show your ads only to new customers, existing customers, downloaders of your other apps, or to everyone. You can also refine your audience by gender, age, and show your ads only to devices located in specific geographic areas. > By adding just a few lines of code to your app, you can easily understand the value of different customer groups over time and the keywords that drove their conversion. You can use this information to optimize your CPT and CPA targets for different keywords, ad groups and audiences. > Ad groups are a collection of keywords relevant to the app you’re promoting in App Store search results. You can set specific criteria and bid amounts for each ad group. Ad groups are an effective way to define who sees your ad.
- jeffjose 9y agoAdvertisers love segmenting and targeting their audience. With Apple's stance on privacy, how effective will these days be? In other words - I thought it was widely understood that Apple made excellent products and was poor in services that required personalization.
- soared 9y agoI'd imagine it will be the same as google's stance on segmenting audience in search - you can't do it. You can really only target based on search query and very little else (geo, etc).
- IBM 9y agoThis ad product doesn't rely on personal information which is why it's the perfect kind for Apple. Once you've typed something into search they have your intent and can show related apps to it. On other types of ads, a former iAd exec said it did hold them back [1]. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2015/07/14/iad-user-data-privacy-policy/ https://9to5mac.com/2015/07/14/iad-user-data-privacy-policy/
- us0r 9y ago> With Apple's stance on privacy, how effective will these days be? IMO Apple's stance on privacy is a bit smoke and mirrors when they allow tracking services like flurry to exist in apps.
- arielm 9y agoI don’t think we can hold Apple responsible for 3rd parties like Flurry. Those companies will always find a way to do what they do because there is incredible value in having access to such data (as a developer).
- bluetwo 9y agoI hate to whine but I hope ads are clearly labeled as ads, and also that this doesn't replace their efforts to make the app store and app discovery more friendly.
- Operyl 9y agoThey’re very clearly labeled as ads, and as far as I can tell there’s only like one at the top usually, not taking up all the screen space, and has a different background color even.
- varenc 9y agoApple's help docs show how the ads appear: https://searchads.apple.com/v/help-basic/a/images/overview/how-ads-look_large_2x.jpg https://searchads.apple.com/v/help-basic/a/images/overview/h... They seem quite clearly marked as ads.
- noncoml 9y agoYet my elderly parents(50+ and 60+) and quite a few non-techie friends tap on the first result that comes up when I ask them to install an App. It’s a reason to not buy them a premium Apple device next time.
- sosborn 9y agoIs the Play store better about this?
- aerotwelve 9y agoNo, but Apple is supposed to be better than Google about this. What a shame.
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- thisisit 9y agoHow long before we see a post that people are being fooled into installing some copycat apps which are nearly identical to original apps but are getting promoted by Search Ad Basics?
- artursapek 9y agoI've made this mistake already. The search ads show apps that are very similar-looking to what I am obviously trying to find.
- nodesocket 9y agoIsn't Apple's detailed vetting the difference between the App Store and Google Play? Apple should be able to catch these scammer apps.
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- desertrider12 9y agoMaybe 5 years ago, but I don't think they have any quality bar now. For every decent quality game on the app store there are dozens of terrible clones: https://youtu.be/yU6WC4dpaHM?t=12s https://youtu.be/yU6WC4dpaHM?t=12s
- prawn 9y agoYou'd think, but they still let some absolute trash through: http://bylr.net/3/2017/11/99month-is-a-steal-for-cloudapp-for-imobile/ http://bylr.net/3/2017/11/99month-is-a-steal-for-cloudapp-fo... It's incredible that on one hand, they can pull up competent and dedicated developers for a minor transgression, but then allow something as ugly and misleading as the above example.
- FriedPickles 9y agoWow, I just set this up for an app and it took less than 60 seconds. That's surprisingly fast. Good job Apple.
- arielm 9y agoIts definitely fast, but... is it actually going to be effective for the cost? Probably not in the long term. Having used this “one click” setup on Twitter and Facebook before I know these campaigns are increasingly ineffective. That said, the App Store is a different kind of ecosystem so things could go differently.
- ktta 9y agoIt's pay-per-user-install so I think it is very easy to determine if it is worth it for you/
- mmacvicarprett 9y agoThis will canibalize part of your organic traffic thus even if the cost per install is lower than your users lifetime value this is not obvious.
- ikeboy 9y agoRelated: I think many companies can run their ads as pay for performance. eBay's ads are a fixed cost of the product sale - the higher you set it, the more often your ad shows but you only pay if it leads to a sale. Platforms simply have so much data and scale they can do a much better job of targeting than their customers can. It's not efficient for lots of marketers to test out lots of ads, carefully track conversions, and decide what to spend on. Just let the platform maximize ads given a certain amount per sale, and the platform will naturally target based on what converts best (and since this is Amazon scale or Facebook scale, they can do these tests automatically for every campaign and get statistically significant results very quickly). I wish Amazon would roll out eBay style ads. They have all the data and could do a much better job than sellers, and could capture a significant portion of the added value it would provide.
- noncoml 9y agoThe App Store ads are a disgrace. 100% of my older relatives get fooled and install the first app that comes up in App Store when searching for something. The only thing that gives Apple an edge over Google/Amazon is that they are not an ads company or retail shop. Such a pity seeing them to want to move into that space.
- Cookingboy 9y agoThere are even ads now in the News app. I mean, I paid $1k for the iPhone X and iOS, why the hell do the native apps come with ads? What's next? Ads in Calendar and Mail?
- paulryanrogers 9y agoSounds similar to Windows 10.
- adventured 9y agoI've never seen an ad in Windows 10. Not once. Serious question: where are these ads supposed to be showing?
- chrisper 9y agoJust open the start menu after a fresh install. Candy crush, Facebook etc. will welcome you.
- adventured 9y agoAre those dependent on the OEM? My start menu never had any of that from the first setup. Neither of those are on my system anywhere. The only really super annoying thing on my system has been cortana, being unable to fully remove it.
- chrisper 9y ago
- bitmapbrother 9y agoThe ads are very insidious. I've never seen such deceptive ads on the Google Play store, but here we are on the App Store.
- tim-- 9y ago> Available in U.S. storefront only. Wait, what? Why is it only in U.S. storefronts? Does this mean I have to walk into an Apple store to get the Ads?
- jacoblambda 9y agono it means that ads are only being rolled out to the US app store at the moment
- emersonrsantos 9y agoI don't want to buy installs, I want more engagement that I can't buy but need to deliver.
- shostack 9y agoThis is about risk. You want less risk and so does Apple. Since app quality is a crap shoot, they won't and don't need to offer that kind of model. Likewise, you should build into your model how much you can afford to spend knowing some subset of installs will be lower quality.
- bob_theslob646 9y agoThe better question is what is the purpose? Don't apps sell themselves? This seems incredibly similar to pay per click. Just because someone downloads and an app doesn't mean that they're going to use it. If only there was some sort of retention statistic on how often an app is downloaded and deleted. I just hope that quality does not suffer. I'm genuinely curious to see if this will drive user engagement/retention
- IBM 9y agoSearch Ads aren't a new product. Apple says they have 50% conversion on average.
- arielm 9y agoDo apps really sell themselves? Not really. Plus, with so many apps, the real challenge is getting visibility. In that sense, I think search ads could offer a ton of potential, but don’t think it’s running correctly now/yet.
- jclardy 9y agoApps haven't sold themselves for a while now, unless you have a specific reason people should share you (see HQ Trivia's growth.) If you build the world's best todo app it will have zero traction without a massive marketing budget because the competition is already settled. And if you build something new, but niche, you have the same problem - you need to get to the top of search results, but you can't do that without download quantity. You do get retention stats from Apple, I think it also breaks it down via source (organic vs search ad). Also I'm not sure why people are just realizing this now, these ads have existed for the past 6 months or so. This is just a way to set it up faster for people that don't want to configure their targeting.
- jlgaddis 9y agoSince others in the thread are discussing a lack of "targeting" and such, see also "Search Ads Advanced" [0], which allows you to "refine your audience" -- "by gender, age, and show your ads only to devices located in specific geographic areas." [0]: https://searchads.apple.com/advanced/ https://searchads.apple.com/advanced/
- IBM 9y agoThat's not very targeted. Real targeting would be using the contents of your email, iMessages, browsing history, etc.
- yoz-y 9y agoI will assume that you do not actually want this. However I do feel that there could be a bit of more targeting options without being creepy. For example Apple could infer categories of users according to their Appstore profile and permit you to target people by their trade.
- IBM 9y agoI'm just a user of Apple products so I wouldn't, but I could see how developers want better targeting.
- giancarlostoro 9y agoAlso if DuckDuckGo can target you based on what you're searching there and then, is that not targeting? It's not stalk based targeted advertising, but you're still an ideal target since they're showing you something you're searching for, in some cases it might not be fully relevant to what you wanted, but close enough to be shown (not sure how highly relevant DuckDuckGo ads become relative to search terms).
- LaGrange 9y agoIt's already too much, though. As far as I'm concerned, only location and "is this an adult?" should be allowed.
- amluto 9y ago> No expertise needed. > > Setting up your account is easy. Simply tell us your app > and monthly budget. Our intelligent automation creates your > ad and matches it to interested users. Wow -- you don't have to have any marketing competence whatsoever. Just pay Apple per install and they'll magic it up.
- gbugniot 9y ago[off-topic] Is the MacBook Pro 15 available in gold now? https://searchads.apple.com/v/basic/a/images/overview/hero_medium_2x.jpg https://searchads.apple.com/v/basic/a/images/overview/hero_m...
- almostdigital 9y agoAnd here we go, slipperiest of slopes
- yoz-y 9y agoApple store had search ads for a while now, does this mean that they are out of beta?
- verytrivial 9y agoI can't see how this is different from payola. (Saying that Google does it too is not an argument, btw.)
- cameron67 9y agoTo me this looks like an indirect way for Apple to extract more money from developers. Since it's so easy to set up a campaign that does not lose money (it's pay per install), imagine _every_ developer setting up a campaign with their app's price as maximum bid (ignoring revenue shares to simplify). Lots of installs, but zero revenue for developers.