Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple to Show More Ads in App Store Starting in March

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster


In an email to developers this week, Apple indicated that it will begin showing additional ads in App Store search results starting Tuesday, March 3.

App-Store-Ad-Slot.jpg

The extra ads will first appear in the App Store in the U.K. and Japan, followed by other markets like the U.S. by the end of March, according to Apple.

Apple first announced that it would be expanding the number of ad slots in the App Store search results last month, but it had not provided an exact date for the change until now. Currently, developers can only pay to have an app appear in a single slot at the top of the search results, but Apple said there will now be multiple slots further down.

Apple shared more details on its website:
Search is the way most people find and download apps on the App Store, with nearly 65 percent of downloads happening directly after a search. To help give advertisers more opportunities to drive downloads from search results, Apple Ads will introduce additional ads across search queries. The additional ads will roll out in phases, appearing across all markets by the end of March. You don't need to change your campaign in order to be eligible for any new positions. Your ad will run in either the existing position — at the top of search results — or further down in search results. If you have a search results campaign running, your ad will be automatically eligible for all available positions, but you can't select or bid for a particular one.
Click to expand...
Additional ads equals additional services revenue for Apple.

The extra ad slots will be visible on iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 26.2 or iPadOS 26.2 and later. Apps with paid placement have an "Ad" label.

Ads are also shown in the App Store's "Today" tab, in a "You Might Also Like" section at the bottom of individual app listings, and in the search tab's "Suggested" section. Apple rebranded its "Search Ads" business as "Apple Ads" last year, as it reportedly prepares to begin showing ads in more places, such as Apple Maps.

Article Link: Apple to Show More Ads in App Store Starting in March
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/23/more-app-store-ads-coming-soon/
Last edited:
  • Angry
  • Haha
Reactions: mwhite, Ben Sparrow, chmania and 12 others
Zenman12 said:
Great. So much for the pristine walled garden experience.
Click to expand...
Apple is adding weeds to the walled garden.

EDIT: In all honesty, Apple had(/had?) three benefits: great hardware, above-average privacy policies, and less advertisements. With the Google search page being the default, and now using their AI models, privacy is questionable at best. Advertisements are encroaching all products, including Apple Wallet, Apple News (and News+!), and now the App Store, even more-so than before. Hardware is becoming competitive again in the form of other ARM notebook solutions and better focus on display & sound. At what point do they still have an advantage if they continue down this path? I'll go ARM notebook with Linux before I deal with hostile OSes like Win11.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: freedomlinux, East India Company, Xade and 42 others
So… they are increasing the number of Ads, so that they can have even more revenue from developers (only from those big enough that can afford paying for it), and I’ll have to scroll down a little further to find the indie apps I usually get.

Fine. Well, I guess that will lower the final price of the device, right? I mean, ad-based tiers of a product usually are cheaper…
 
  • Like
  • Haha
  • Sad
Reactions: G725, amartinez1660, Beepster and 4 others
So Apple continues to morph into Google’s luxury brand.

To recap…Google gives billions in welfare to Apple every year to sling ads in Safari search

Google’s new Apple Intelligence head is the former head of Google’s Gemini AI

Google’s Gemini is now the fundamental LLM for all Apple Intelligence and Siri

And now Apple has become a software renter AND Google-esque ad slinger in the App Store.

Legit question….should Apple be renamed….

Gapple

Goople

Appgoo

Any further suggestions ?
 
  • Like
Reactions: oldwatery, t1meless1nf1n1t, Xade and 13 others
Everything has become so crazy.

No matter where: Google search results, Amazon results, now Apple...

Intrusive dilution of search results, then advertising/sponsored results.

It's no fun anymore.

I've also noticed that Amazon and Apple manipulate the display of reviews and results.

On Amazon, the weighting of reviews has become very strange! The order is definitely not based on the best-rated reviews, but rather on how Amazon wants it.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: artifex, Beepster, AstonSmith and 11 others
Populus said:
So… they are increasing the number of Ads, so that they can have even more revenue from developers (only from those big enough that can afford paying for it), and I’ll have to scroll down a little further to find the indie apps I usually get.

Fine. Well, I guess that will lower the final price of the device, right? I mean, ad-based tiers of a product usually are cheaper…
Click to expand...
One reason Apple has been able to keep device mostly cheaper over time (e.g., $1300 iPhone X versus $1100 iPhone 17 Pro [in 2025 U.S. dollars]) is services are higher margin than hardware margins. In effect, Apple can partially offset hardware costs with services margins. While there are other factors that allow Apple to keep hardware prices down, rising services revenue is one of those factors. In effect, we do have cheaper products because of ads.

I'd rather pay more and not have ads, but this is where things are. However, when I made less money in the past, I would gladly have ads offset prices.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Wow
  • Disagree
Reactions: amartinez1660, haydesigner, Ben Sparrow and 3 others
The App Store is a crap experience for discovering worthwhile software these days anyway. That so many apps, even good ones, rely on IAPs but are not mandated to have full descriptions of each one listed on the store, visible before you download the app, feels engineered to generate stats about download numbers.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: forzagaribaldi, t1meless1nf1n1t, UliBaer and 7 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back