The Californian tech giant is making moves to allow publishers on Apple News control their own advertising, following a concern over participants getting little in return, despite the app providing considerable traffic to their content.
As reported by AdAge, this will allow publishers’ placements on the app to “become an extension” of their websites.
Up until now, Apple controlled ads on its news app and, according to AdAge’s sources, publishers complained about not getting much revenue, and while they could set up their own campaigns, it was a laborious and time-consuming process.
In response, Apple will allow publishers to use the ad tech they already have in place on their own sites, such as Google’s DoubleClick for Publishers to deliver ads into the Apple News app. This way, publishers get revenue without the need to set up additional campaigns elsewhere.
Previously, a similar issue was experienced by Facebook and its Instant Articles, where posts load content on the network rather than sending readers to the website – a concept known as a “walled garden” – and although publishers can sell ads, they cannot use their own tech.
An anonymous source told AdAge: “Apple is acknowledging it can’t force its ad technology into the marketplace and it makes more sense to allow standard ad serving.”
Available in the US, UK and Australia, Apple News has approximately 40 million users.