In an email sent to developers this week, Apple announced that from Tuesday 25 October, app-related ads will start appearing in the main ‘Today’ tab of the App Store and in the ‘You might also like section at the bottom of individual app listings in all countries except China. all ads in the App Store have a blue background and an ‘ads’ icon.
A page on Apple’s website about App Store ad placement says: “With Today tab ads, your app can appear prominently on the App Store home page – making it some of the first content users see when they start visiting the App Store.”
This marks the first time that developers will be able to place ads on the Today tab, which until now has only shown content handpicked by the App Store editorial team, without any paid ads. Through the “You might also like” section, developers will now be able to promote their apps on the pages of other apps.
In a tweet, legal expert Florian Mueller argued that the “You Might Also Like” ads are “another means of increasing the effective “app tax” rate, forcing developers to buy ads on their own app pages to prevent others from steering customers away from them.”
Ads in the App Store were previously limited to keyword-based search results and the “suggestions” section of search tags. With ads in the ‘Today’ tab and the ‘You might also like’ section, the App Store will now offer a total of four ad options. Apple first announced plans to expand its App Store ad placements in July.
In August, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that Apple wanted to nearly triple its current advertising revenue in the future to at least $10 billion a year. In addition to the App Store, Gurman said Apple plans to launch search results ads in Apple Maps next year, while traditional banner ads are already displayed in Apple’s News and Stocks apps.
