A recent job listing on the Apple website indicates that Apple is looking to build their own Demand Side Platform (DSP). This move highlights that Apple is looking to take the challenge directly to Google, Meta, and Amazon in the advertising space.
After being somewhat subservient to these companies in the past, by releasing their technology and audiences to be targetable by competitor buying platforms. However, by looking to build their own DSP, Apple is aiming to bring more advertising dollars directly back to themselves, rather than their competitors.
To some, this is not an overly surprising move by Apple. The ad-tech space, while incredibly competitive and dominated by Google and Meta, is highly profitable if a company can succeed. Many companies have sought to challenge these companies in the past, and while some have managed to build a market for themselves, they have yet to truly challenge and take market share.
Apple, however, is uniquely positioned to threaten the status quo. Given their market share and the loyalist nature of their consumers, Apple can build a scalable and uniquely targeted audience. Apple has been unapologetic in recent years about their push to ensure consumer privacy sits at the heart of all their technology. The subsequent releases of Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) in 2017, and App Tracking Transparency (ATT) last year made it far more difficult for external companies, such as Google and Meta, to leverage programmatic technology across Apple platforms, including Safari.
One example of the impact of this removal of tracking functionality is the reduced targeting and measurement capabilities across digital advertising. Audience based targeting has been a key component of programmatic buying for a number of years. However, in order to build out audience profiles, ad-tech companies track online behaviours to help shape and inform user profiles, thus making it possible for programmatic platforms to deliver customised messaging at scale.
Apple sees this type of tracking that Google and Meta use as an unnecessary facet of the advertising business, resulting in a large portion of unnecessary consumer data being tracked by companies. Recognising a potential shift in consumer mindset, as consumers begin to push back on this level of online tracking, Apple released a somewhat confronting advertising campaign to highlight how Apple will protect user privacy.
While not entirely accurate, it did capture an emerging consumer ethos and illustrated a unique selling point for staying, or moving to, Apple devices. Apple may face one key challenge in the coming years with this move, however, around how they are able to balance targeting opportunities with user privacy. This is something that Google is still struggling with as they look to move away from cookie-based targeting. How much data Apple will leverage to develop their solution, and the targeting opportunities they would look to make available, will take before it can be revealed.
From a marketing perspective, the possibilities across Apple’s ecosystem does make for an intriguing proposition once this becomes available. With the existing capabilities around Apple TV+, Podcasts, Maps, and even Books, there are a lot of new opportunities to reach consumers in a fresh way through Apple’s DSP. If done right, Apple is in position to truly challenge the oligarchy of advertising in a way no one else has before.