iAd Dials Back Its Rules To Get More Advertisers

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While it’s not much of a surprise that Apple’s iAds program is doing well by most practical standards, there’s still a lot of competition out there for advertising revenue. And as such, Apple is reportedly looking to relax its standards in terms of what kind of advertising can buy a space in the iAds rotation, and for what kind of buy-in, to reach the wide array of iOS device users out there.

Basically, Apple’s finding Google’s AdMob line of mobile advertising to be tough competition, and so they’re making things easier for advertisers to get in on the action. You’ll remember that, back in July, Apple slashed its prices from $1 million to half that to get buyers in, and now they’re down to fully $400 thousand, an additional 20 percent cut. Plus, Apple is reportedly looking to allow for caps on price-per-tap, something they hadn’t allowed previously, as well as a series of training programs geared toward getting advertisers interested and clearing up any questions they might have had about getting involved with iAd.

This is being done in response to a series of negative comments from advertisers, who mostly were upset about the high buy-in levels and the lack of caps and the like, so it’s clear that Apple wants to not only hold the ground it currently occupies–about 20 percent of the mobile ad market in the United States (Google’s AdMob, meanwhile, holds about 24 percent at last report)–but also try and pull some of the other markets into their fold as well.

And indeed, Apple has one point to its credit: improved engagement. Reports have emerged saying that Apple users spend a lot of time with iAds; Unilever, one of iAds’ first takers, has mentioned that iAds viewers spend an average of 68 seconds each viewing the advertisements, which is downright impressive no matter how you slice it.

So Apple’s move to make their advertising programs more advertiser-friendly will likely help it out, but sufficiently to alter the numbers in any substantial quantity? That much we’ll have to wait to see how the whole thing comes out, but I would look for Apple to do well with this new approach. But what do you guys think? Figure Apple’s new rules will give them a hand up? Or will it only help them keep their current numbers in a down economy? No matter what you think, head on down to the comments section below and tell us what you think!