mmm... I love how this story and the one about no waiting lines for the new iPhone got burried under a story about a lower BOM for the Verizon iPhone, and a "story" for an LG model.
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Apple's iAd Program Struggling to Fill Slots and Renew Advertisers?
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Out of date
This article is about 3-4 weeks out of date.
Ad revenue was down across the board from ALL advertisers due to low fillrates in January. iAd fillrate was 69% yesterday, 89% today. Higher than ANY individual network for our applications.
It looks like february will be ok.
I really hope Mac Rumor's special "Sources" weren't some fart applications developed by a couple of 12 year olds.
This article is about 3-4 weeks out of date.
Ad revenue was down across the board from ALL advertisers due to low fillrates in January. iAd fillrate was 69% yesterday, 89% today. Higher than ANY individual network for our applications.
It looks like february will be ok.
I really hope Mac Rumor's special "Sources" weren't some fart applications developed by a couple of 12 year olds.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Are you kidding me? Turned on a TV lately (not in Oct-Dec)? See if you can watch any non-premium channel program for more than 8 minutes without seeing some kind of ad pitching something. Radio (does radio even play more than 3 songs in an hour anymore)? Print: what magazine or newspaper can you buy that doesn't hit you with some kind of ad within 2 page turns?
Consumer advertisers don't turn off their budgets for 9 months, then on for three. They advertise heavily for those 9 months and even heavier during those three.
Superbowl advertising just went for north of $2M per 30 second spot. That $2M would buy a lot of iAds if those (many) advertisers were interested in it.
That math is interesting, but you're assuming finite interest from advertisers from a growing base of eyeballs. App growth is driven by a desire to make money from the ever-growing base of iOS users. Companies that advertise want to put more money in places where they can find more eyeballs. And since the exposure of an iAd only occurs when someone is actually looking (at an old or new app), that is much preferable to paying much more for TV or radio where the number of eyes or ears is less predictable, and you have to hope someone is watching (listening) right at the time your ad runs.
iAds aren't wasted on the volume of iAd-capable apps added to the store. Instead, they only run when someone actually downloads and uses the app. 1 million apps added tonight don't affect iAd inventory one bit if no one chooses to download any of them.
This is your closest guess. My variation of it is that the ROI on iAd is turning out to be less than the ROI with other options... probably due to the Apple premium. Good advertising management comes from trying to maximize every ad dollar expensed, which- in this digital venue- is extraordinarily easy to test and, more importantly, objectively quantify. If you spend $1 on iAd and you spend $1 on AdMob (or similar) and you get back a bit more on the non-Apple alternative, you adjust your advertising budget to capitalize on the better ROI.
My guess is that Apple's cut is too much. And the audience seeing the ads is not buying what they are pitching enough to justify paying up to advertise through Apple's system. A good poll would be one in which the Apple fanatics here are asked to quantify the effectiveness of the iAd model based upon how many things they have purchased as a direct result of an iAd for those things. I bet the results would surprise... and not in a positive way.
iAd was just a knee jerk reaction by Jobs for being shown-up by Eric Schmidt when Google bought Admob and when they jumped into the cellphone business.
It doesn't even matter. Maybe you guys do, but I don't really pay much attention to ads on my iPhone. Ads work best when the consumer is partially distracted from what they are trying to do. It is at this point, their eyes wander and begin looking at what's around them. In this case, ads. As for me, I don't get distracted when using my phone. And when I do, it's from something/someone in my environment, not on the phone. If I get distracted on what's on my phone, I usually put it down or go to a different app.
It doesn't even matter. Maybe you guys do, but I don't really pay much attention to ads on my iPhone. Ads work best when the consumer is partially distracted from what they are trying to do. It is at this point, their eyes wander and begin looking at what's around them. In this case, ads. As for me, I don't get distracted when using my phone. And when I do, it's from something/someone in my environment, not on the phone. If I get distracted on what's on my phone, I usually put it down or go to a different app.
Why would Apple advertise? To get customers?
They use billboards, web banners, TV, magazines, and news papers. Why not use their own service to serve ads? If the customer is using an iPhone, then they may be more receptive to Apples adverts.
Apples sells a lot of stuff that users of iOS might be willing to buy; Airport Base Station, Apple Care, One-to-One, Macbook and MacBook Pros, iMac, MacPro, Final Cut, Logic, Nano, iPod Classic, Shuffle, 27 inch Cinema Display, Magic Trackpad, and Time Capsule.....to name a few.
One would think they would be all over the platform. However, since they know the internals, I think they can see its just not working and its a better use of resources to sell this pig to companies that want to 'be cool' and use the profit to buy ads that actually work. That is the only plausible explanation that I can think of.
iAd was extended from the US to Europe in January. That must have doubled the available ad slots overnight.
This.
Fill rates have been GREAT since the Super Bowl. I've been seeing around 90% today as well.
I hope iAds fail and apple drops it completely. I'll never buy google hardware because they are an advertising company. I don't want apple to o down that road. 
I hope iAds fail and apple drops it completely. I'll never buy google hardware because they are an advertising company. I don't want apple to o down that road.
You beat me to it
I couldn't agree more....hope this dies a quick death.
Sometimes Apple really piss me off and this is one of those times.
Like we don't have enough of that crap in our lives.
But hey Apple have all those stockholders to please so let's make a buck any way we can eh!
One day Steve's greed is gonna bite him........
Good to hear. I hope to have one or two of my own apps coming out in the next few months and would love to have iAds as a viable option. Using AdMob as a fallback when fill rate is low is smart though.
Heh, thats another argument for another day in another thread.
Thats certainly not true either. Have you looked at actual sales of Apple products? iPod sales didn't truly take off until it hit that magic $199 price point. It did sell a couple of million over years before that, but once it hit the $199 price point, sales sky rocketed. And as the price went down, they sold even more.
Same with the iPhone. Sure, the original iPhone sold well even though it was a huge ripoff still requiring a contract while being sold unsubsidized. But sales finally took off when the $199 iPhone 3G was released.
Even Mac sales, the Macs that sell well are the cheap ones.
The iPad is the only exception to the rule so far, but thats only because there is still nothing like it yet.
But the point remains that Apple's high selling products are those that are priced more in line with other similar products.
Look around outside of forums like this too. I can't tell you how many adults I know with an iPod touch that bought the cheapest model, because they wanted the iPhone experience without the monthly bill or contract and that was the cheapest model.
Plenty of people still buying the iPhone 3GS too.
When I was getting my iPhone 4 on launch day, for every 1 32GB iPhone sold, countless 16GB models were sold.
I'm definitely in Apple's target market with regards to "disposable income". But I do have even more common sense than money. So I'm not about to throw it away on things.
You beat me to it
I couldn't agree more....hope this dies a quick death.
Sometimes Apple really piss me off and this is one of those times.
Like we don't have enough of that crap in our lives.
But hey Apple have all those stockholders to please so let's make a buck any way we can eh!
One day Steve's greed is gonna bite him........
I like how people rip on ads... on a free website.
iAd is one of the main reasons the iPhone doesn't have Flash (to keep the competition out).
I hope it dies quietly.
(to those who want ads off: if there is no ads, the free internet as we know it will die.)
I hope it dies quietly.
(to those who want ads off: if there is no ads, the free internet as we know it will die.)
????? Apple doesn't need to put in iAds. The device you are seeing them on is a much better ad all by itself
No it is not. That Jobs feels that Flash sucks on all but the highest powered Macs and quadruple sucks on something as low powered as an iPhone/iPad is why Flash isn't there.
How did they not expect this? $10 CPMs on a mobile platform where response rates are low is insanity. This is one market the "Apple premium" can't and won't exist in.
I hope iAds fail and apple drops it completely. I'll never buy google hardware because they are an advertising company. I don't want apple to o down that road.
Then why do you come and post here, on an ad supported site? Large free sites (especially communities) would largely be nonexistent if it weren't for ad revenue paying the bills.
You beat me to it
I couldn't agree more....hope this dies a quick death.
Sometimes Apple really piss me off and this is one of those times.
Like we don't have enough of that crap in our lives.
But hey Apple have all those stockholders to please so let's make a buck any way we can eh!
One day Steve's greed is gonna bite him........
I'll say it again - if you don't like ad supported content, why do you come here? Why do you watch TV? Do you not support developers making money on their apps while making it so you don't have to personally shell out any money for it?
Would you call these same developers greedy if they moved to a pay model?
The concept if "IDE the consumer wants to watch " if fundamentally flawed , most consumers try as hard as they can to avoid ads of any kind but apple believes that iAds are special .... Lol good luck