Apple Adds New 'Search Ads Basic' Ad Option for Developers

[MacRumors]

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.

Article Link: Apple Adds New 'Search Ads Basic' Ad Option for Developers

 

[TheColtr]

When I originally read about search ads in the AppStore I thought it would be terrible, but honestly I’d like 25 percent of the apps I search for, I end up downloading the app in the ad as well. The ads actually really help (me at least) with discoverability.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Apple isn't happy with their 30% cut, so they're going to take an even bigger cut. If you won't let them take a bigger cut, they'll bury you under people who will.

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.

 

[itsmilo]

I still only download Apps by the look of the App Icon first lol

 

[Akagi]

Is there a way to block ads on the App Store?

 

[AphoticD]

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.

Can you simultaneously distribute two versions of a Mac app? One for MAS and one for sale via your own website?

Reading up on Apple's Distributing Your Mac Apps guidelines leaves me with the impression that distributing an app outside of the MAS simply disallows the option of in-app-purchases (and Game Center). Are there other limitations?

The "Search Ads Basic" email I received from Apple today made me balk at the idea, but I guess we'll have to see what kind of difference it makes. I should consider that this is not much different to paying for Google Adwords and it is a directly targeted marketing expense.

I guess it was inevitable, really.

 

[amattholl]

Apple isn't happy with their 30% cut, so they're going to take an even bigger cut. If you won't let them take a bigger cut, they'll bury you under people who will.

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.

So you’re upset because Apple charges 30% of an app’s profits in return for putting the app on one of the largest and most profitable App Stores in existence.

99% of the effort? Get over yourself. You didn’t create the App Store, ecosystem, or devices that run the apps.

 

[960design]

So you’re upset because Apple charges 30% of an app’s profits in return for putting the app on one of the largest and most profitable App Stores in existence.

99% of the effort? Get over yourself. You didn’t create the App Store, ecosystem, or devices that run the apps.

I agree. 30% to hit a potential market of a billion devices. If you have an issue with the 30% charge, you can deploy to the app stores for $0.00 ( free as you've requested ) and live off of ads ( or not ).

I prefer the walled garden of the app store. Weeds out most of the script kiddies.

 

[CarpalMac]

So you’re upset because Apple charges 30% of an app’s profits in return for putting the app on one of the largest and most profitable App Stores in existence.

99% of the effort? Get over yourself. You didn’t create the App Store, ecosystem, or devices that run the apps.

Obviously not, but the App store would have been an empty store, without those developers.

 

[El Tuga]

I’m so sad. Apple has become greedy and lost its focus. With Search Ads, customers will be shown apps based on how much the developer paid Apple, not on its quality. Customer experience is not a priority anymore…oh and indie development days are over.

 

[scottwb]

Giving it a go ... got my first sale of my app (£2.99) for £0.75

 

[plantemichel]

For me the Ads are invasion of privacy

 

[timothytripp]

I'm concerned with this new path Apple is on of farming money from developers directly. Microsoft started doing this with MSDN when they were at their height of success, and it was an easy short-term cash grab for them - it got more and more expensive to renew MSDN - and it changed the way developers FELT about Microsoft. They were no longer fellow developers, providing great tools to make Windows a great ecosystem, they were just one more barrier to software production. Apple created a BETTER market - lower barrier to entry (aside from requiring a Mac, which many developers already had from school though) with a $99/year cost giving access to everything. Developers loved Apple for that. We don't want everything "free" like Google does, but we do want everything very, very affordable, especially for students and new developers. But if Apple keeps raising the cost be be an Apple developer, we'll see an exodus to Android. And not just the script kiddies, a lot of the indie developers that have made the iOS ecosystem successful in the first place.

Apple thinks they can't fall because they are riding so high. But IBM fell. Nokia/Symbian fell. Palm fell. Blackberry fell. Microsoft fell in the desktop/mobile app space and if they hadn't regrouped around Azure SaaS they wouldn't have a future. Apple needs to treat developers like the goose that laid the golden egg. They are the future of Apple, not the phones/computers/services Apple provides. Many already think Android is a juggernaut that will eventually topple and destroy Apple. It's decisions like "let's monetize our developer's need to show up in the app store so they can sell their products" that might give Android the boost it needs to make that happen. I hope not.

 

[amattholl]

Obviously not, but the App store would have been an empty store, without those developers.

Hence why it’s a partnership, not one side doing 99% of the work.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

So you’re upset because Apple charges 30% of an app’s profits in return for putting the app on one of the largest and most profitable App Stores in existence.

99% of the effort? Get over yourself. You didn’t create the App Store, ecosystem, or devices that run the apps.

Apple's total payroll for the App Store is probably fewer than 100 people. Assume an average cost of $70K per person year (probably higher than it really is). They're spending around $7M per year to keep the App Store up and running. Spread that across hundreds of billions of downloads and the amount of money they're spending per download is somewhere around $0.000001, yet they're charging an average of $0.01 for it (after factoring in how much more common free apps are vs paid apps.)

So yeah. Apple's putting in virtually none of the effort into keeping the App Store running. Pretty much all the effort comes from the developers.

Want proof? Go look at competing App Stores (say Microsoft's). They're all just as nice and functional as the Apple App Store. The critical thing they're missing is developers. No developers means no apps. No apps means you may as well not have a store at all.

Also, my post said I want to set up my own App Store (aka, a website where apps can be purchased). I can't because Apple forbids it.