In November 2014, Apple partnered with a number of major ad tech firms such as MediaMath, The Trade Desk and Rubicon Project and released an API to bring programmatic buying to the iAd platform. Now that ad publishers will no longer have to work with Apple on creating and selling iAds, the publishers will be 100 percent on the hook for that work, but they’ll also get 100 percent of the revenue.
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“It’s just not something we’re good at”, an anonymous source from Apple told BuzzFeed.
The reigns will be handed over to the publishers who can now directly use this platform to design and sell their marketing content. This recent change of direction will represent a great opportunity for publishers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Time Inc., that are listed on the tech giant’s Apple News application.
iAds themselves aren’t going anywhere, but Apple is now taking its hand out of it and is leaving the platform up to the publishers. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as it is now intends to significantly diminish its role in iAD platform after about just six years of its debut. 2015 actually saw it rise to 5%, but not enough to make a significant difference, especially when compared to the likes of Google and Facebook, whose ad revenues take up a huge part of its income. As the communication channel for publishers becomes more direct with their customers, it would be easier for them to engage with them and see how they react.
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Some have said that iAds was hamstrung from the very start by the tight control Apple exerted over the platform. By transitioning iAd to a free service, Apple is at least able to compete with other ad networks – like Google’s – on price. “Honestly, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner – it should have”.
