Apple News ads within the News app are now being sold directly by Apple as the company seeks to expand its ads business presence, according to a new report published by Axios.
With this move, Apple hopes to maximize its revenue from Apple News ads by avoiding the need to rely on third-party vendors. The development will also help publishers increase their revenue when ads are floated on their content. Apple is now said to be promoting Apple News ads within the app’s feed and individual stories.
Apple will also promote “premium sponsorships” of curated content for popular events like the Met Gala starting next year. The company will also pitch banner positions and video ads in up to 17 formats, including carousel ads.
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Apple News ads will be more flexible for advertisers as Apple will allow them to sponsor select feeds for certain topics within the News app rather than a general placement.
The move will significantly raise the publishers’ revenue as Axios claims they will receive a 70 percent cut of ads within articles. Publishers will also receive an unknown cut from ads on Apple News feeds in addition to those who appear inside specific articles. Publishers on Apple News will retain 100% of the revenue from the ads they sell within the app.
For ad spaces that Apple can’t sell, it will rely on third-party providers to promote. One of these is NBCUniversal which Apple has worked with for years. However, that relationship will expire by the end of 2024. To this effect, Apple is contemplating bringing on more third-party ad resellers, but a final decision hasn’t been made.
Apple has slowly been building an ads team in the past few years, including big hire Lauren Fry, who manages the Apple News ads sales team. Other executives include Joseph Cady who previously worked at NBCUniversal, and Renee Appelle.
Apple is significantly expanding its presence in the ads-selling business as a new growth opportunity as its hardware sales continue to plateau. The Services division has been experiencing stellar growth over the past few quarters, and some analysts estimate that advertising now makes up around 10 percent of that division.
Apple’s drive to enter the ads business more aggressively doesn’t seem to be purely to grow its revenue. The report adds that the move could be seen as a message to Apple News publishers that the company is taking the platform seriously, motivating them to invest more in the service by publishing more content.
