Apple to reportedly exit ad business, hand over iAd management to publishers

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2016
Nearly six years after its debut, Apple is reportedly planning to take a much less active role in its in-house iAd advertising platform, as it intends to hand over ad management duties -- and revenue -- to publishers in the near future.




Apple will dissolve the current iAd sales team and reconfigure the platform as an automated service, leaving advertisement creation, sales and management to publishers as part of the strategic shift, reports BuzzFeed News. In exchange, Apple will no longer charge its usual 30 percent fee, meaning publishers that manage their own iAds keep all revenue the content generates.

"It's just not something we're good at," an unnamed source said of the advertisement game.

Details of the impending wind down are sparse, though BuzzFeed believes initial steps might be taken as soon as this week. Apple will buy out sales team contracts, but the fate of firms currently handling programmatic ad buying services is less clear.

"The big publishing groups will just fold programmatic buys into the stuff they're selling across all their properties," one source said.

The news is somewhat in line with recent comments from Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, who said the company is working on a self-service ad-buying tool for publishers serving content through the iOS 9 News app. That service is expected to launch in the next two months.

In spite of a hyped launch in 2010, iAd failed to become the end-all in-app ad platform Apple was looking to build. Early reports saw iAd as abillion dollar opportunity, while others projected iAd revenue to one day account for 8 percent of Apple's stock value. Today's report cited data from EMarketer showing iAd's take of the mobile advertising space was a mere 5.1 percent in 2015, compared to Google's 9.5 percent and Facebook's 37.9 percent.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    Ha, in 2010 Yahoo CEO predicted iAd would fail.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-idUSTRE68E42R20100916

    "That's going to fall apart for them," Bartz said about Apple's iAd service. "Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads."
    anantksundaram1983cnocbui
  • Reply 2 of 22
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    Ha, in 2010 Yahoo CEO predicted iAd would fail.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-idUSTRE68E42R20100916

    "That's going to fall apart for them," Bartz said about Apple's iAd service. "Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads."
    Maybe if Yahoo's CEO's insight on his own company was as good they wouldn't be where they are....

    Like Sog said, the fact that you couldn't micro-target people with IAd made it less interesting to advertisers (and more interesting to phone buyers....).
    So, I think Apple made the right call anyway.
    jbdragonnolamacguy1983dysamoria
  • Reply 3 of 22
    foggyhill said:
    Ha, in 2010 Yahoo CEO predicted iAd would fail.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-idUSTRE68E42R20100916

    "That's going to fall apart for them," Bartz said about Apple's iAd service. "Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads."
    Maybe if Yahoo's CEO's insight on his own company was as good they wouldn't be where they are....

    Like Sog said, the fact that you couldn't micro-target people with IAd made it less interesting to advertisers (and more interesting to phone buyers....).
    So, I think Apple made the right call anyway.
    So what happens now since iAd isn't going away? Are we the product in apps or Apple News publishers that use the iAd platform?
    cornchip
  • Reply 4 of 22
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    sog35 said:
    Ha, in 2010 Yahoo CEO predicted iAd would fail.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-idUSTRE68E42R20100916

    "That's going to fall apart for them," Bartz said about Apple's iAd service. "Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads."
    The only reason why it failed is because Apple was not willing to sacrifice user privacy. To be sucessful at ads you need to be willing to make the customer the product like Google does.
    I still think that 5% of the mobile ad market when market when you only have 9 or 10% of the phone market globally is great. Also considering this is not their primary source of income. 9.5% for Google is a problem. The world is moving to mobile and Facebook is killing them. 
    cornchip
  • Reply 5 of 22
    genovelle said:
    sog35 said:
    The only reason why it failed is because Apple was not willing to sacrifice user privacy. To be sucessful at ads you need to be willing to make the customer the product like Google does.
    I still think that 5% of the mobile ad market when market when you only have 9 or 10% of the phone market globally is great. Also considering this is not their primary source of income. 9.5% for Google is a problem. The world is moving to mobile and Facebook is killing them. 
    That is what I'm thinking, considering that it is an apple only service that makes that portion, it's pretty good.
    1983
  • Reply 6 of 22
    This makes sense since Apple has no interest in running an in-house ad business. Let it succeed or fail by the hands of people who are committed to growing a business apart from Apple's influence. There are other parts of Apple which might benefit from being spun off at this point (Apple Music, I'm looking at you) to act as profit centers. Google had the right idea in splitting up their divisions to avoid scrutiny by the government and to protect the core company. Apple may want to do this at some point also.
    edited January 2016 gatorguy
  • Reply 7 of 22
    Apple was charging way too much money for iAd. And, they only wanted the big, corporate players.

    I'm surprised that Google only has 9% of the mobile market; I thought it would be much higher.
    cornchip
  • Reply 8 of 22
    What about the rumors that Apple is going in-house with its advertising-- firing Chiat-Day? This doesn't sound like a move consistent with that. 
  • Reply 9 of 22
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    How does this benefit Apple?

    %5 sounds good. If iAd were on android they'd at least have %10. More than Giggle.
    cornchip
  • Reply 10 of 22
    Only because of this it failed...They didn't want to do this so it failed...They dont want to do....Yeah, it failed and now some people want to make excuses. Like it hurts when Apple fails at something.
  • Reply 11 of 22
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    justbobf said:
    Apple was charging way too much money for iAd. And, they only wanted the big, corporate players.

    I'm surprised that Google only has 9% of the mobile market; I thought it would be much higher.
    This article is discussing a subcategory, mobile display ads which means those big banner ads and sometimes irritating video ads you often see on news sites. Google actually has well over 30% of the overall mobile ad market revenues AFAIK. Facebook is second but closing, tho Google noted much more stable mobile results beginning a couple quarters ago IIRC.   Yes some of the stats tossed around can be confusing and even misleading. 
    edited January 2016 SpamSandwich
  • Reply 12 of 22
    misamisa Posts: 827member
    sog35 said:
    Ha, in 2010 Yahoo CEO predicted iAd would fail.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-idUSTRE68E42R20100916

    "That's going to fall apart for them," Bartz said about Apple's iAd service. "Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads."
    The only reason why it failed is because Apple was not willing to sacrifice user privacy. To be sucessful at ads you need to be willing to make the customer the product like Google does.
    Unfortunately, the backlash against ads is starting to snowball.

    Websites that are mostly ads and very little content (eg your average newspaper site) have been diluting the value of advertisements, and it's hitting a point where google-style generic advertisement isn't worth the effort to setup. If I have a site that gets 1 million users per day, I still only make 20$ from Google. I may as well just take the ads off the site, and partner with a few content sites and run their content ads in those spaces for 100X the value.
    cornchipdysamoria
  • Reply 13 of 22
    steviestevie Posts: 956member
    This was a good move.  iAds were a failure from the start.  Apple knows when to cut its losses.
    edited January 2016
  • Reply 14 of 22
    Only because of this it failed...They didn't want to do this so it failed...They dont want to do....Yeah, it failed and now some people want to make excuses. Like it hurts when Apple fails at something.
    Really, thanks for posting twice. I actually had to read it twice to get what you were saying.
    awilliams87stevie
  • Reply 15 of 22
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    "EMarketer showing iAd's take of the mobile advertising space was a mere 5.1 percent in 2015" That's more than I thought...anyway as Queen would say..."Another one bites the dust!"...Apple service that it.
  • Reply 16 of 22
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    foggyhill said:
    Maybe if Yahoo's CEO's insight on his own company was as good they wouldn't be where they are....

    Like Sog said, the fact that you couldn't micro-target people with IAd made it less interesting to advertisers (and more interesting to phone buyers....).
    So, I think Apple made the right call anyway.
    So what happens now since iAd isn't going away? Are we the product in apps or Apple News publishers that use the iAd platform?
    I imagine that the apps will have to ask you if they want access your details and location. 
  • Reply 17 of 22
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Only because of this it failed...They didn't want to do this so it failed...They dont want to do....Yeah, it failed and now some people want to make excuses. Like it hurts when Apple fails at something.
    You'll probably find that the Apple fans here wanted them to fail. When iAd was released, lots of people didn't think that Apple should be involved in something so undignified as selling ads. 

    awilliams87dysamoria
  • Reply 18 of 22
    Rayz2016 said:
    Only because of this it failed...They didn't want to do this so it failed...They dont want to do....Yeah, it failed and now some people want to make excuses. Like it hurts when Apple fails at something.
    You'll probably find that the Apple fans here wanted them to fail. When iAd was released, lots of people didn't think that Apple should be involved in something so undignified as selling ads. 

    Except for all the ones that wanted it to succeed to take away revenue from Google.
    steviecornchip
  • Reply 19 of 22
    My dear rogifan_old, iAd lasted six years, and is not dead yet - just reinventing itself. Carol Bartz only lasted from January 2009 to September 2011 - 2 years and 8 months! She was one of a long and almost forgettable line of Yahoo CEOs. Of course we remember Jerry Yang because he was a founder, but after Carol Bartz it has been Tim Morse (interim), Scott Thompson (the one who laid off 2,000 workers and then got sacked himself a month later - that was memorable!), Ross Levinsohn (interim) and finally Marissa Mayer, the one who believes that micro-managing telecommuting and maternity leave will save the company. A notable crew indeed!
    cornchip
  • Reply 20 of 22
    I think the real reason is because iAds have become nothing more than standard Google ads. When iAds came out there were some amazing ads but now people are just dumping sloppy crap ads on us. I can't think of any time lately that I've been intrigued enough to click on an iAd to see what the publisher has done mostly because all it does it link back to an App Store link. iAd was doomed to failure not because of Apple's involvement but the ad makers themselves being lazy tits.
    cornchip
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