James Shepherd, EMEA Commercial Director spoke to Mobile Marketing Magazine about the impact of iAD shutting down and speculated on the future of mobile marketing with Apple.
This Thursday sees the final shutdown of Apple’s iAd network, its in-app advertising platform that existed to help app developers and publishers monetise their work.
Apple initially shut down the sales team for iAd at the beginning of the year, turning it into an automated platform where publishers created and sold ads themselves, a move which eliminated ad tech firms from the equation.
Then, in April, Apple began to warn developers that the iAd App Network and its related ad services would be shut down, forcing them to move to third-party ad publishing networks and direct ad sales.
iAd never truly took off, accounting for only 5.4 per cent of US mobile ad display revenues in 2015 and generating only a fraction of Apple’s overall revenues. With the shutdown, Apple seems to be sending a signal that it wants little to do with the advertising market directly, and is instead happy to let third-party firms do the work.
We asked a group of industry experts what the iAd shutdown means for Apple’s future, and for mobile marketing as a whole.
M&C SAATCHI MOBILE – Portraits
James Shepherd, EMEA Commercial Director, M&C Saatchi Mobile
“Apple is a hardware company first and foremost. Their users and developers are their top priority; keep the developers working on IOS apps and keep the privacy of their users safe and secure. In-app advertising was never a high priority nor was it a cash cow for Apple. In other words, it won’t be missed.
“Apple’s new search ads are built around search query and based on relevancy of that search. The idea is to give ALL developers an opportunity to showcase their app as well as provide users with the best possible option for their search.
“If anything, this shift actually feels more natural and in line with Apple’s core business – hardware and apps that support the use of the hardware. I do not see it being a major disrupter; after all, Google play did this back in 2015. In true Apple fashion, they didn’t attempt to be first to market but rather sat back, evaluated, and then made a move. As far as a revenue stream, this initiative will be dwarfed by the other, more profitable, line of business: the hardware.
“As far as where Apple will head in the future, nothing is certain, but I feel secure in saying that the iAd experiment won’t be repeated and search ads are here to stay. They will always have user privacy and security held in the highest regard and they will also always take care of the developers. At the end of the day, who can blame them for trying something new with iAd, and ultimately having it reaffirm where their strengths are and where they are not.”
Original article can be found here.
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