Apple's advertising ambitions grow; begins selling Apple News ads directly

Apple has taken a significant step in its advertising strategy by beginning to sell its own ad inventory for Apple News, marking a crucial shift in the company's advertising approach, Axios reported. Sources familiar with the initiative confirmed to the US-based news media platform that the tech giant is now pitching new ad units designed to maximize revenue for itself and its publishing partners. The report also stated that Apple has been quietly building a sizable ad sales team in the US for months.

Apple has already been selling its own advertising space within its search and App Store platforms. Until now, the company had relied on third-party vendors to sell ads on Apple News, which limited the revenue potential for both Apple and the publishers whose content appears on the free version of the app. Now, Apple aims to capture a larger share of the advertising dollars flowing through its news platform, the report stated.

The Axios report states, starting in 2024, Apple will introduce a range of new ad units within the Apple News feed and individual articles. The company will also offer premium sponsorships tied to high-profile events in the US. Additionally, advertisers will have the option to place banner ads or video ads across 17 different formats, including carousel ads. A new sponsorship unit will also be available as a banner ad at the top of the Apple News feed.

Publishers will receive a 70% share of the revenue generated from the ads Apple sells within their articles, as well as a percentage of the ad revenue from the News feed based on how engaged readers are with their content. However, publishers will retain 100% of the revenue from ads they sell directly within the app.