Apple has officially rebranded “Search Ads” as “Apple Ads” to expand the scope of its advertising business.
The Cupertino-based tech on Monday, April 14 revealed that it offers advertising placements in many more places beyond just the Search tab, so the old name had become a bit anachronistic.
Developers can pay to promote their app in the App Store’s Today tab, Search tab, and at the bottom of other developers’ app product pages, in the section titled “You Might Also Like.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook has long been a proponent of advertising on the App Store, likely because it would help boost the company's revenue from Services.
The easier and more generic Apple Ads brand would more appropriately encompass such an endeavour.
Earlier in 2024, Apple began testing the use of artificial intelligence to automatically decide the best spot to place ads within the App Store.
To note, Apple officially justified the name change, in a message to participating developers:
“When Apple Search Ads launched in 2016, we offered a single ad placement at the top of search results. Now, Advertisers can run ads in multiple placements across the App Store, so we’ve decided to change our name.”
