Apple to expand App Store advertising in 2026 – more ads in search results

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Apple App Store users will see significantly more ads starting in 2026. The iPhone manufacturer is further expanding its advertising platform. As Apple announced on its Ads website, additional advertising spaces will be added, which will no longer appear only at the top but also further down in the result lists. Previously, there was only a single paid ad placement at the very top of the search results.

The new ad placements will be supported on devices with iOS and iPadOS 26.2 or higher. Apple's stated goal is to “provide advertisers with more opportunities to generate downloads from search results.” The company does not provide details on the number of additional slots or the exact launch date within 2026.

Auction system for placement

For developers, the change initially means little effort: Existing Apple Ads campaigns will be automatically enabled for the new positions. However, advertisers cannot bid for specific placements. Instead, an auction system determines where an ad appears based on keyword bid and relevance – sometimes at the top, sometimes further down. The position can vary within the same campaign.

The billing model remains unchanged at Cost-per-Tap (CPT) or Cost-per-Install (CPI), meaning payment per tap or installation. The ad format also does not change: all positions use the standard product page or custom product pages, with optional deep links. Apple emphasizes that only apps relevant to the respective search terms are allowed to participate in the auction – regardless of the bid value, unsuitable ads will be excluded.

800 million users per week

Apple backs up the expansion with numbers: More than 800 million users visit the App Store weekly. Approximately 65 percent of all downloads occur directly after a search. According to Apple, the average conversion rate for ads at the top of search results is around 60 percent.

However, even though the ads offer opportunities to make an unknown app known faster, indie developers are skeptical. App Store Award winner Klemens Strasser (“Art of Fauna”) wrote on X, for example, that the additional search ads were “bad news” for smaller developers. The ads would favor companies that have the most money.

EU review in progress

The expansion of ad placements is happening concurrently with an EU review of Apple Ads. The Commission is currently investigating whether Apple's advertising platform should be classified as a “Core Platform Service” under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which could mean stricter competition rules from mid-2026. Such a classification would entail additional disclosure obligations and interoperability requirements.

Apple only renamed its advertising platform from “Apple Search Ads” to “Apple Ads” in April 2025 – a signal of its growing interest in the multi-billion dollar advertising business. The now-announced expansion of search placements is another step in this strategy but could face regulatory hurdles in the EU.

(mki)