iAd Policy Change: No more kid-focused apps.
Dex is a utility for browsing Pokémon on your iPhone. It has been a huge success. One of the nice things I’ve been able to do is make the app available as a free download, supporting its continued development primarily by using Apple’s iAd platform. I supplemented this with ads from AdMob (when the iAd system doesn’t have an ad to show1) and also added an in-app purchase for those who want to show support for future development and turn off ads. I’ve documented my setup during the monetization presentation if you want more info. To sum it up, most of the money came from the iAd network.
Having Dex as a free download really helped its exposure. Dex has been downloaded by over 500,000 users. Tons of these users are young kids with iPod Touches who can’t make app purchases on a whim. They have a blast using Dex and I’m happy to see it get the widest possible audience.
Last Thursday I had a particularly awful iAd fill rate of 5%. This isn’t new, I’ve had problems before. Then on Friday a 0% fill rate, then on Saturday another 0% fill rate. I emailed Apple and posted a question to the company’s developer forums. Today I finally got a reply:
Follow-up: XXXXXXXXXXX
Hello Michael,
We periodically review the apps in the iAd Network to ensure that all apps receiving ads are aligned with the needs of our advertisers. Currently, our advertisers prefer that their advertising not appear in applications that are targeted for users that are young children, since their products are not targeted at that audience.
We appreciate your understanding.
Best Regards,
iAd Network Support Apple, Inc. 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, CA 95014
And that’s how an iAd supported version of Dex died. No warning, no notice and inevitably no respect to the developers who have cenetered their app’s revenue model around the iAd platform.
Apple should target their ads better. I would have loved to have seen some ads that were better suited to kids in Dex. It’s a shame they don’t have the inventory to do so. However the manner in which they’ve made this policy change just stinks.
Furthermore there is no documentation of this change. Nothing is on the iAd developer page to alert people that the current fill rate for apps and games targeted at kids is zero.
As for what will come of Dex, in the short term it will remain the same: a free download, showing ads (now only from AdMob network) with an in-app purchase to show support and turn off ads. For the future, Dex will have to move to a normal pay per download model or lock some of the major features behind the in-app pay wall and continue to give out basic functionality for free. I’m leaning toward the latter but won’t make a decision until I’ve finished shipping my new iOS game TwizShow, which until recently was going to show iAds.
Today was another harsh reminder we iPhone developers are making a living at the beck and whim of a powerful platform vender. Be careful putting all your eggs in his basket.
1 Dex’s average fill rate (the precent it got an ad after asking the iAd system for one) was 16.5%. AdMob’s fill rate is much greater but the value of the ads are typically much less than with iAds.
Posted on: May 10, 2011 – 3:25 PM
Hi. My name is Mike Zornek (
8 Comments
Don’t get me wrong: this does suck, especially for you, and it’s not necessarily right or fair. BUT it’s not all that surprising, and in my opinion, it’s not really Apple’s fault. I work for a company that’s part of the online advertising ecosystem, and it’s very rare for advertisers to target children. Just the phrase “targeting children” makes most people cringe, and cringing isn’t the brand message most of the top-shelf advertisers Apple courts want to be associated with.
Effective advertising is all about targeting, and what comes across as counterintuitive to many people is that targeting means reducing your audience. It’s cheap to blast an ad out indiscriminately. In most cases, the ad can’t make people buy your product. The best you can do is try to selectively put that ad in front of people who are more likely to buy your product. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine that BMW has exactly zero interest in being associated with a Pokemon app. And as I said on Twitter, advertisers are lemmings. All it takes is one executive short on in-flight reading material to flip through an editorial in AdAge about how brands are being diluted by poor mobile audience targeting and the next thing you know a bunch of multi-million-dollar clients are on the phone with someone very high up at Apple threatening to pull their campaigns.
Publisher anti-targeting is a fact of life for huge brand-sensitive companies. Plenty of people have the same problem outside of mobile applications. One day you’re going along making a decent living from your ad-supported serious journalistic endeavor, and the next day you end up categorized (by human or robot) as “user-generated content” and your revenue drops to zero as nobody wants to be associated with scary, unpredictable bloggers. I guess what I’m saying, in a very long-winded way, is that you’ve identified a problem, but I don’t consider it an Apple Problem. And from the standpoint of Evian and Geico, the problem was solved sometime on Friday.
This appalls me - genuinely shocked.
Chris: I think you misunderstood me. I’m not against Apple or the advertisers wanting to target their ads. I’m disappointed in how the transition was done (no warnings, no notice), particularly since it has a direct negative impact on developers making a living using Apple’s iAd platform.
I have a child that likes iOS games. I don’t like ads shown to him so I buy the games that are available for sale and discard “free” games that give you no choice to buy them even with an in app purchase. I also do not like that some games, even after purchasing them they always show an intro screen to their other games… not cool as my kid can click on that and buy them (yes, I know how to turn off in app purchases, but hopefully you get my point: Don’t force me to watch your own add if I paid for the game.) I get your point about Apple not notifying you, but I can see their point of view about useless and sometimes pointless advertising for children for things they simply can’t buy!
Thanks for listening.
I am kinds of amazed that how Apple handled this matter. This can easily be solved if kids are shown iAds suitable for them (problem solved). Ads about PBS, Sesame Street, Green living, Barnes and Nobles etc.
Thanks for posting this Michael.
It seems I got bit by the same bug, as I’ve seen iAd fills drop from 30% to 0% in 48 hours. The difference for me is, my app isn’t targeted for kids. ALTHOUGH, it can be easily mistaken as such.
I made iLullaby for FREE, an app that plays lullabies and is primarily geared towards parents to put their young ones to sleep. Apple COULD make a case that the app is for kids, but it’s more of a tool for kids to indirectly benefit from, but not use themselves.
Anyway- just thought I’d share in case anyone else out there is feeling the same frustration.. I’ve emailed Apple and can post their reply if anyone is interested.
Cheers,
Hey Billy, i’m interested in the response from Apple. Hopefully everything worked out.
Thanks Michael. We’re just a few weeks out from publishing an app that could be misconstrued as targeting kids - but is meant for parents who have kids (similar to Billy). We’re evaluating advertising options now, so this is very helpful insight.
Post a Comment | Comment RSS feed