A recent LinkedIn post indicates that Apple has hired a new Global Head of Ad Platform Partnerships.

A new post by professional Sashi Ramani announced their hiring for the position. This comes at a time when many are speculating that Apple is going to venture into providing its own services for advertising on its devices and platforms, an appealing proposition for many considering Apple’s global reach. With Apple having such a large share of the mobile market, and being one of it's pioneers which, utilising Apple's services to get eyeballs on ads is a no-brainer.

What does this mean for Advertisers?

It’s possible Apple would achieve this by launching its own DSP (Demand Side Platform) – essentially an automated advertising bidding service. Advertisers can see metrics and bid based on aspects such as clicks, user behaviour after viewing advertisements and more. By placing their adverts and setting bidding procedures, the entire process is automated for them. In the digital world, this makes mass marketing campaigns targeted to specific users feasible and indeed, preferable.

Given Apple’s market-share, as previously stated, it would make sense financially for them to capitalise on the appeal of using their devices to promote goods and services. Installing a Global Head of Ad Platform Partnerships certainly indicates there are plans in the works to manage their advertising policies more effectively and take a stronger role in more steps of the advertising process.

It wouldn’t be the first time Apple has tinkered with how apps are served on their devices. In April of 2021, Apple added an opt-out feature for their IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers) and other aspects of data tracking. IDFA and its accompanying trackers allowed businesses like Meta to track user data and usage across multiple apps. An Arstechnica article indicated that by May, 96% of users had utilised this opt-out feature.

Whether this was a prelude to Apple taking control of advertising on its platform, it certainly seems there may be more changes on the horizon. If you’re interested in reading more about mobile advertising, check out our article on service provider Gadsme branching out into providing audio ads or our piece on the value of Apple Search ads.