Apple Adds Ability To Track Consumer Behavior Inside Retail Apps To Serve Targeted Ads

According to Digiday, Apple will be adding the ability to track what users do inside applications in order to display targeted in-app ads across iOS devices.

Apple has been pitching the new capability to ad agencies since last month.

Apple isn’t just worried about their revenue; they’re also concerned about developers. When launching new applications, a major reason why developers will usually prioritize iOS over Android is because iOS is more profitable. Apple wants to ensure that this remains factual by making iAd work.

While the service may bring about some privacy concerns, it’s important to note that the “new” capability does nothing more than allow mobile advertisers do what they can already do via a desktop environment by utilizing cookies.

Targeting ads via smartphones is major challenge for ad industries. Simple fact is that utilizing cookies via mobile just doesn’t work the same as they do on a desktop. It’s extremely challenging to serve advertisements to people based on their browsing behaviors.

When iAd launched in 2010, it flopped. Steve Jobs had an ambitious goal and set the bar high by saying iAd would capture 50% of the mobile advertisement market. In reality, last year, iAd only captured 2.5% of the market, while Google ran with 37.7% and Facebook with 17.9%.

Apple is now pitching a new solution, cross-device retargeting.

Fact is, Apple isn’t the only operator in the cross-device mobile retargeting ecosystem. Both Google and Facebook and Amazon are players in the space. Apple does however have a major advantage over it’s competitors, Apple users spend 87% of the time on connected devices within apps, providing an insane amount of opportunity for servicing ads.

iAd is primarily geared towards retailers with iOS applications, who can utilize shopping carts, wishlists and purchase history to provide relevant ads in other apps.

iAds was reintroduced back in August and is now available in 25 countries.

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