Amazing Classic
From cookies to data, the marketing of IT tools never ends: Alban Peltier, CEO and co-founder of AntVoice (an online revenue optimization company) underlined this. In 2021, for France, we witnessed a growth of 24%, to €7.7 billion. Globally, 20% better, with $450 billion in sales, ” i.e. 60% of all advertising investments “, he specifies to the Moderator Blog.
This is enough to contextualize the financial issues a little better, and to encourage analysts to carry out some prospective analyses. If you take the four-headed hydra—Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple—they harvest 50% of advertising budgets globally. The Horsemen of the Apocalypse even monopolize 70 to 80% of the digital market. And everyone is looking for solutions to make profitable any form of available space — understand: monopolize the slightest second of available brain time.
Tracked or not?
For a few years now, Amazon has not even hidden its desire to increase advertising revenue – in particular by increasing its prices. In the second quarter of 2021, the segment represented $8 billion, with an 87% jump. Optional service, even optional, of course, but profitable and increasingly necessary for those who wish to exist within the immensity of the Amazon – including the marketplace.
Of course, Apple is not to be outdone, analyzes Mark Gurman for Bloomberg. The journalist specializing in new technologies believes that the Cupertino company is exploring new sources of income. So far, nothing unexpected. At the same time, its rate of acquisition ofstartupsis slowing down. Invest less, harvest more: logic. The current modus operandi (every iOS app user will notice) is based on allowing apps to follow the user. So to improve the relevance of the advertisements broadcast — in this way, the targeting is refined and the advertisement pays more.
Provided, of course, that one agrees to be traced, because in the opposite case, the incomes decrease, for lack of maximum adequacy. Operators like Meta (Facebook, Instagram) or Snap (chat) have already lost billions of dollars as a result of these changes – so what about small developers? The sums lost have nothing to compare, but the conclusion remains: less resources.
Spaces, lots of spaces!
However, Apple wants to earn more. To date, there are therefore advertisements in its applications, in the App Store, and in the Apple TV+ service, thanks to agreements with the baseball league. But we can do better. What enrages some: after having spent some 1000 € in a smartphone, for example, to see it profitable by the intrusion of digital advertising is enough to swell. When Amazon put ads on its Kindles, at least it was possible to remove them.
Granted, ads personalization can be turned off for — 78% of users on iOS 15 have chosen this option. Except that we haven’t left the inn for as much: for a few months, the teams in charge of advertising development have been mobilized. Probably because during the last communication of the results of Apple, the department had not shone.
Tim Cook, the current CEO, has also assured: advertising is the future. From a turnover of around $4 billion a year, Todd Teresi (VP of advertising) wants to increase to a minimum of $10 billion. Ambitious. And to do this, new spaces are needed.
Money, money, money…
So what ? Well… native applications on iPhone and iPad are not legion: Maps, for example, will eventually serve as an advertising medium. Similarly, Apple Books and Podcast will sooner or later find themselves with promotional tools – and TV+ has several levels of marketing, like its co-religionists.
As for Maps, it’s not rocket science: ads for restaurants, businesses, and so on. For Books, publishers seem to be the most immediately targeted: paying to get ahead of peers, at the top of search results, by metadata sets… that seems classic.
But the original idea would turn to an advertising model inside the ebooks that are read from the Books application. Audio books having the wind in their sails, will they see the insertion of promo spots between two chapters? Will an economic model develop with the producers?
Across the Atlantic, the digital book lost 4.7% of turnover between 2020 and 2021 – reaching $ 1.1 billion, however, assessed the Association of American Publishers. Audiobooks posted 13.4% growth, for $766.2 million over the year. A quick calculation allows you to measure which segment to target…
The bets are open. And in this regard, there is no doubt that Apple already has some ideas…
photo credits: lucas Favre/Unsplash
