Apple aims to deploy new ad “placements” as soon as the holiday season, according to a letter sent to developers on Tuesday inviting them to an online session to urge them to buy ads.
The new ads signify a significant expansion of Apple’s App Store-specific advertising inventory. Recent restrictions have limited Apple’s advertising inventory to one unit on the search results page and one unit on the App Store’s Search tab.
The invitation read: “With new opportunities coming to Apple Search Ads, you can promote your apps across the App Store to engage even more people this holiday season,” as confirmed to CNBC by a developer who received it and by Mobile Dev Memo founder Eric Seufert.

The notification to developers made no mention of the locations of the new ad placements, but in July Apple revealed plans to expand its menu with an advertisement on the Today tab, which serves as the App Store’s home page, and another sponsored unit on app product pages under the banner “You Might Also Like.”
“Apple Search Ads give developers of all sizes the chance to expand their companies. These new ad placements are designed on the same principles as our current advertising products; they will only feature material from apps’ authorised App Store product pages and will uphold the same strict privacy requirements, an Apple representative told CNBC.

Inventory is rising just as Apple’s advertising business is coming under more and more scrutiny.
Apple’s advertising revenue is described as one of its services business’s components, along with warranties, search engine licencing, App Store sales, and online subscription revenue. Apple’s services generated about $68 billion in revenue in 2021.
An analyst at Bank of America named Wamsi Mohan forecasted in July that Apple might only generate $5 billion in advertising revenue from Apple Search Ads in 2022.
In order to give iPhone users the option of sharing or not sharing a personal ID with app developers, Apple unveiled App Tracking Transparency (ATT) in 2021. The majority of iPhone users choose not to share, making it challenging for online marketers to exactly measure the impact of their advertisements.

Apple claims it changed as a result of its corporate stance on customer privacy. It enables its own customers to stop Apple from utilising data like account information and past purchases to target search advertisements and to disable Apple’s tailored ads on the App Store. 78% of users disable Apple’s personal advertisements, which is comparable to certain estimates of the percentage of users that disable ATT.
Advertising firms, such as Facebook parent company Meta, have criticised ATT for being anticompetitive and self-serving. Apple’s change, according to Meta, could cost it $10 billion this year.