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Apple Maps Ads: A New Revenue Opportunity for Local Media · Leading Local Insights

• 0:34
  Celine Matthiessen: Welcome back to the BIA Advisory Services Podcast.
• 0:37
  Celine Matthiessen: I'm Selene Matisson, VP of Insights and Analysis.
• 0:40
  Celine Matthiessen: And I'm here with my colleague Mike Bolin.
• 0:42
  Celine Matthiessen: Hi, Mike.
• 0:42
  Celine Matthiessen: Today we're looking at today.
• 0:45
  Celine Matthiessen: We're looking at Apple's recent introduction of ad inventory in Apple Maps and Apple's growing role in helping consumers decide where to go and what to do.
• 0:55
  Celine Matthiessen: So again, Mike, welcome.
• 0:57
  Celine Matthiessen: And um what are when people hear maps, Apple Maps, they might picture what?
• 1:04
  Celine Matthiessen: Like banner ads across the screen?
• 1:07
  Celine Matthiessen: Is that the right way to think about it?
• 1:08
  Celine Matthiessen: What is what are they actually offering?
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the way this takes shape, at least out of the gate so far, is there's two formats, right?
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the best way to think about it is before you search and after.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then like you said, just to like back up a second, this is all within maps, Apple Maps, the Apple Maps app on iOS.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's just within the mapping interface.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so so to tackle those two ad formats, the before you search one is part of the suggested places section.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a new section in Apple Maps that was launched, I think, with iOS 26.5, which came out recently.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, in that version of iOS in Apple Maps, you now see this suggested places section.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: So when you open up the app, it's sort of like discovery-based content.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: You might like this, blah, blah, blah.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: That is the first place where some of these sponsored um sort of listings will show up for local businesses.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: The second place is the after you search format, which is sort of your typical sort of map pins that show the map interface, both on the map itself, the graphical map, but then the listings that sit below it.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you'll see the sponsored listings indicated by sort of a blue halo on the map to indicate that it's sponsored.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So probably goes without say, but it's going to be a mix of organic results.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: But then also when they have a sponsored result that makes sense, that hits the target of whatever the parameters are in terms of location and other things, then they will show that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another few things I'll mention is that um the the targeting parameters they're using are one of two things, which is your current location or the searched location.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna go for the search location whenever they can so that it's the relevant to your destination.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: But when they don't have that, like a geo modifier that you specify, like a zip code or something like that, um, they will sometimes use your um your current address.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so for example, that that first format I mentioned, which is the uh suggested places, that's before you even typed in where you're going.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: So that's where you might see things that are based on your current location to sort of discover new spots around you.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I'll also say that they have indicated that they are not using any behavioral targeting.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So your past behavior, um, not just on maps, but across your signed-in Apple ID.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: So your Apple profile is not gonna sort of weigh in in terms of what they show you.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then vice versa, none of your ad impressions or activity is gonna then impact anything to do with your Apple profile.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Apple's very quick to point that out because of course they're the um they they've been trying for years and successfully so to sort of establish themselves as like the privacy first player.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's sort of in a nutshell.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot more we can talk about in the history and where this is going and implications.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But that's sort of to answer your question, what it looks like from like the user perspective.
• 4:06
  Celine Matthiessen: So speaking of direction, why is Apple interested in this now?
• 4:10
  Celine Matthiessen: Like you said, their privacy, they haven't really introduced a lot of ads except in the app store and on some.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Totally, that's a good question.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And and like let's take a step back for context, like historical context.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: So Apple's done very little with advertising um over its entire life cycle.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that's because Apple's moat, Apple's Cash Cow, Apple's margins are all based mostly based on hardware, right?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So it doesn't need your data.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's why it's become the privacy first player.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: It decided to lean into this, like we just want to sell you an iPhone, because again, their business is based on that hardware.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't necessarily need your data.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I believe them when they sort of make all these privacy claims.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a credible position as opposed to someone like Google or Meta that that that makes those claims because you know that their business is based on advertising.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So despite all of that, it's a good question.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why are they actually now getting into this?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that it's all about revenue diversification.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if we rewind, I don't know, probably starting about 10 years ago, there was a lot of writing on the wall that like the smartphone market was maturing.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: We were reaching global saturation.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And since then, the replacement cycles have lengthened from like two years to like, you know, four years for the average consumer.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's just less new market growth.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so with that, you know, Apple was really reliant on those that iPhone year-over-year growth, the iPhone margins, all that.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it realized that given that maturation and that core revenue stream, it really needed to diversify.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it's gone in lots of different directions, such as services.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's really killed it with services.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So everything from Apple TV Plus to Apple Music and iCloud and all these other ways to get money out of you.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: They've rarely diversified.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then advertising is yet another sort of piece of that puzzle, that diversification puzzle.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: They've done very little to date.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Most of their ad revenue so far has been in app install ads.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you're on the app store, you're looking for an app, they'll give you an ad for a related app or a competing app.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's mostly been that.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Way back in the day, you remember you might remember they had iAd, which really was sort of an ad network based on all the sort of apps in um in the Apple sort of universe.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that didn't really go very far.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then there's some advertising that that is like sponsored stuff on on Apple TV and and other things, but very little.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so this really joins the mix of of ad revenue, ad monetization for Apple, but there's very little out there.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: But to answer your question, despite the privacy stuff, they're getting sort of overwhelming diversification pressure that sort of um overcomes that need to um stay, stay privacy, or they're gonna stay privacy compliant.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're gonna maintain that, they're gonna roll these things out carefully, and they're doing that uh, as I just mentioned with like the the Apple Maps ads, they're not using your behavioral data and other things.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And there are other things we can get into, but it's really walking a fine balance between the need to diversify and the need to keep that privacy persona.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah.
• 7:17
  Celine Matthiessen: Um, so shifting over to advertisers, when advertisers see this, how is this opportunity different from traditional paid search?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a good question because they're gonna be going up against Google, essentially.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um Google's the 800-pound gorilla in in terms of search and especially local search um that that manifests itself in Google Maps.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think a few things that might differentiate this.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: One, it's a lot simpler.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I just went over those two formats.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um now Google AdWords is meant to be self-serve, meant to be something that local businesses can do, but it is a little bit complex.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I think Apple is doing its signature like elegant UX and simplicity thing here, and just keeping it to like two options.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that may grow, but I think that that's that's one thing simplicity.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Number two is if you look at Apple's sort of unique distribution, it might have a value proposition or a sales message to advertisers that competes with Google.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll roll through a few things here.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: One is just Apple Maps Reach.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it has the on-deck positioning and in more than you know, a billion global iOS devices.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people will, you know, download Google Maps and use that instead.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: But the sort of default out-of-the-box positioning for Apple Maps is really advantageous, and a lot of people will just default to that.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I think just the reach based on that is is compelling.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Apple sort of claims that they have over a billion relevant searches for businesses that take place every month on maps.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they also boast uh a pretty decent conversion rate.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: What they say is one in one in two searches for a business result in a user taking action.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's very ambiguous.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't been able to get out of what exactly they mean by that, but I think it's just some sort of user action.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: You can think clicks and whatnot.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but anyway, they're saying one in two conversion rate, not bad.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then um they are also saying that demographically they're reaching sort of valuable um audience profiles.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they say that Gen Z and Millennials make up 57% of maps users.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So those are some of the things that they're boasting in terms of differentiating and, you know, again, going up against Google Maps.
• 9:37
  Celine Matthiessen: Well, also, too, they I mean, their Apple CarPlay is insert Apple Maps, the app on CarPlays in a lot of cars.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I hadn't even thought of that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 9:48
  Celine Matthiessen: And I'm assuming because it's, you know, I I'll have to watch on my car, um, because I do use my Apple CarPlay, um, how that comes up when I use Apple Maps.
• 9:57
  Celine Matthiessen: Because, you know, I mean, that definitely the screens in the cars are getting bigger too.
• 10:02
  Celine Matthiessen: So, you know, there's more um real estate um in that user interface for for the app, for Apple Maps too.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, not only additional distribution, but think of the intent of when you're in your car and you're out and about, maybe you're on a road trip and you need to stop for gas or coffee.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that I mean, that's a pretty high intent sort of context as opposed to being on your couch at home and scrolling through Apple Maps and thinking about, hey, where do we want to eat dinner this Saturday night?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
• 10:35
  Celine Matthiessen: Well, speaking of that, what advertiser categories do you think are gonna benefit the most from this?
• 10:39
  Celine Matthiessen: I mean, because you know, the obvious, of course, would be eating and gas, but what else do you think?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I I agree.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think anything that's a destination, um, because it's map-based, you're going to it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like if you look at things like home services, I think they thrive in Google and a lot of sort of vertical search and places like Yelp.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but a lot of the sort of activity for finding a roofer, right, is going to be through core search, not necessarily on mapping.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, whereas the sort of user modality for mapping is around the categories you mentioned.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it's restaurants, it's it's food, gas, coffee shops, bars, salons, um, all of those sort of things that are a destination.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: But it's interesting, not only does local services maybe sort of have a less less opportunity in this, in this format.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's interesting, Apple has actually banned home services from using Apple Maps, which was a total head scratcher at first.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this was in its terms of service for when it first came out, and and a lot of sort of folks read through it and then they were like, what?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I looked into this a little bit.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, there there are your usual suspects that are that are banned to advertise, like, you know, bail bonds and there's some like crypto stuff.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, we haven't been able to figure out why local or home services is.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there have been theories about like there's a liability, like if you connect buyer and seller and then the job goes bad or the you know, toilet explodes, or something like that.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that's it.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's any precedent for like Google Maps to be like liable for for doing things like that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that there are a few other theories out there, such as the fact that home service is a little bit more complex and Apple is stepping into this slowly, and that may come later.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And by complex, I mean a few different things, such as it's harder to verify a business address for home services, because they they're known for a service area, not necessarily their their address.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's that, there are some other nuances, but I think that might be coming later.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: But while we're talking about verticals and types of businesses, I thought I'd I'd note that interesting little side note nugget that that it's actually against the terms of services.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a big category.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Home services is up there with like legal and some of those other verticals we're always looking at.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so Apple's probably not walking away from that revenue stream, but but maybe stepping into it carefully.
• 13:13
  Celine Matthiessen: Maybe they're looking for partnership because I think you're right.
• 13:16
  Celine Matthiessen: I think the fraud perspective of it is you know, verified verified business that they yeah, they want to protect themselves.
• 13:23
  Celine Matthiessen: But I also think they probably strategically will look at others that have already done that for them, potentially if they go into it.
• 13:32
  Celine Matthiessen: Don't you think?
• 13:33
  Celine Matthiessen: I mean, that's I'm guessing.
• 13:34
  Celine Matthiessen: Um my my assumption would be that that would be a smart move on their part.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think they're go ahead.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, okay.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what I was gonna say just briefly is that I think Apple, we talked about this on a previous episode.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Apple learned the hard way when Apple Maps first launched, that don't bite up more than you can chew from a technical perspective.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and because what we referred back to it as map gate, it just it failed on so many levels right out of the gate.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that they want to just for reasons of just being prudent and realistic, to maybe phase this in um because of those complexities with the category.
• 14:15
  Celine Matthiessen: Well, it could also be too the user behavior, because we think you were saying that Gen Z, um, it could be their consumer segments or not, home services is not one of the top categories for that.
• 14:25
  Celine Matthiessen: Because that would be another way I would believe that they would attack it is look at where they're gonna have the most um success and most um behavioral measures for everyone.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Fish where the fish are.
• 14:37
  Celine Matthiessen: Yeah.
• 14:37
  Celine Matthiessen: Yeah.
• 14:38
  Celine Matthiessen: Yeah.
• 14:38
  Celine Matthiessen: So that's yeah.
• 14:39
  Celine Matthiessen: So that's, I mean, so yeah, we talked a little bit about um local businesses.
• 14:44
  Celine Matthiessen: So it can become meaningful, it can it become meaningful inventory for them.
• 14:48
  Celine Matthiessen: Um, or do you think it's gonna they're gonna just do major brands with major budgets?
• 14:52
  Celine Matthiessen: What do you what's your thoughts on that?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that um there is a bit of a democratization effect here.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: There will be room for smaller businesses.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a couple things are required.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: First, you need an Apple Business Connect account.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'll I'll get into what that is is in a second, because that that's kind of interesting on its own.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: But um, Apple's also offering$150 in ad credits to get started.
• 15:15
  Celine Matthiessen: Oh, wow.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then also the ads are 100% performance based.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it has that sort of small business friendly positioning of it it sort of de-risks it um in terms of upfront risk.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you pay only when you get a click, that kind of thing.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um now Apple Business Connect, quick, quick sidebar on that is interesting.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: So this is sort of the equivalent of Google Business Profiles, um, formerly known as Google My Business, which is Google's portal where you can go on and as any business and claim your listing and then start to upload things, upload pictures, add your hours of operation, all that good stuff.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Apple, about two, three years ago, I think, launched that.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And when it did, I thought to myself, this could mean there's an ad program coming because they want to sort of see that behavior onboard all of these businesses who are incentivized to do so for all the reasons I mentioned earlier, which is that just the iPhones reach iOS, you want to be on Apple Maps in addition to being on Google Maps.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure your listing is correct, make sure your hours of operations are correct, upload your images, all that stuff that's like sort of good for SEO.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: But um, in Apple's case, the fact that they now have that and they sort of got the ball rolling a few years ago means that the businesses that already have an ABC, Apple Business Connect account with all their stuff there, it makes it so much easier for them to launch a campaign.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: So that lowers the friction a little bit more for those businesses that you're referring to.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And by that I mean that your images are already uploaded.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the sort of AI-based auto campaign auto creation tools they have help you come up with your keywords and some taglines and some images.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're just pulling right from Apple Business Connect because that's where they have all that um profile information from each business already.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I guess the main point is that um it's eligible for any business.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: All you got to do is go and get Apple Business Connect account, and then you're off to the races, and again,$150 and ad credits to get started.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I think they're trying to make it very small business friendly and and to back to your question to sort of level the playing field.
• 17:27
  Celine Matthiessen: So yeah, small business friendly on the buy side.
• 17:30
  Celine Matthiessen: What about on the measurement side?
• 17:31
  Celine Matthiessen: What is that?
• 17:32
  Celine Matthiessen: What what would meaningful measurement look like?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so here they're also trying to walk a fine balance because I think they want to keep it simple.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's that it's that signature Apple sort of way, keeping things simple.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: And especially we're talking about small businesses here.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: It wants to just be known as just really user-friendly.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it needs to balance that against staying competitive with Google Maps and Google AdWords, which offers a lot of different forms of like analytics and attribution and measurement.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so right now it appears that it's just clicks, but I think this is gonna grow because they're gonna want to be more competitive in terms of some of that lower funnel calls to action sort of attribution things, such as like, did that click end up with someone actually going in the store, foot traffic?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and again, they got to bounce the privacy stuff too.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the way they might do that is leaning into their already owned first party assets and user touch points.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, think about Apple Pay, right?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you are on Apple Maps, you see an ad, you want to transact, they might be able to sort of push, nudge you towards Apple Pay to pre-pay for something and get a discount.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then for the advertiser, they have the closed loop, right?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's Apple Pay, they have maps, they have these other ways that I think they can lean into their first party assets to sort of accomplish some of that attribution stuff while keeping it trusted because you're you're staying within the Apple ecosystem.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: There isn't any sort of third-party stuff going on.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think that there's a way for them to do that, to offer more robust analytics to remain competitive, but without sort of degrading the privacy stuff and and also that other priority, which is to keep it simple.
• 19:21
  Celine Matthiessen: So what you're saying is you don't feel that the privacy is going to limit what they can offer advertisers for measurement.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: It will to a degree.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:30
  Celine Matthiessen: I mean, I think you can offer like advertiser categories or product, like if you think about like form fills or whatever, you know, other things that Google and others have really leaned into.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: I think like you can't escape the fact that the privacy and the targeting, deeper analytics, all that stuff are at odds, right?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: So at a certain point is going to have they're gonna have to make decisions that we pull back on having this the types of analytics and targeting that are competitive with Google in order to preserve this other thing that's so valuable for us.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I think you know that could put them at a competitive disadvantage with with Google.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um but um yeah, I think it it comes back to like leaning into some of those privacy compliant first-party things.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think Apple pays that that's gonna be the linchpin.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: If they can incorporate that in some way, that's really gonna give advertisers something to latch on to in terms of like a closed loop, you know, not just a click, but this resulted in a transaction.
• 20:32
  Celine Matthiessen: Yeah, especially on the purchase side.
• 20:33
  Celine Matthiessen: I can tell you, there's been many times I've used Apple Maps to get to a location like the Lake Crusade outlet, and then use my Apple Pay to buy a lot of cookware that I thought I needed, you know.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then I think they might integrate other things that are very Google-like, such as, you know, not just pay for this, pre-pay for this with Apple Pay, but appointment bookings.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Stuff that like doesn't necessarily rub up against the privacy stuff, but it is a good user utility.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: And for the advertiser, it gets them like something tangible, which is like a booked appointment.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like they don't have that now, it's just clicks.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: But I think adding in appointment bookings might be another thing we see coming.
• 21:17
  Celine Matthiessen: Well, all sorts of appointments because like I know that I've used my Apple Pay for pet service for pet services at the house.
• 21:23
  Celine Matthiessen: I've used it for piano lessons for my child, you know, where I mean that's there's so I think when we go back, if we circle back to small businesses, the very, very small businesses are probably going to really benefit from this in some ways.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think they'll partner to get there.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Apple Maps is famous for partnering.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like they've partnered with Yelp and a lot of vertical players in the past.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that, you know, if you think about Yelp, let's use them as an example.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: They have a lot of functionality in their embedded positioning with restaurants.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's their diversification play, not just advertising, but like almost like an open table approach.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they have a lot of reservation systems that are embedded in restaurants.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: You could see Yelp partnering with Apple Maps to bring their reservation systems in and allow customers to sort of book a table right through Apple Maps.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Whether or not they pay for it there with Apple Pay, like that that'd be a great bonus.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: But even if they can just demonstrate that the reservation was made, that that's powerful for the advertiser.
• 22:18
  Celine Matthiessen: Oh, definitely.
• 22:19
  Celine Matthiessen: So yeah, we've we've been emphasizing we know that Apple's very you know focused on quality and protecting privacy.
• 22:27
  Celine Matthiessen: What happens if a sponsored business appears above options and those options are objective.
• 22:34
  Celine Matthiessen: Closer than the sponsored business.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I guess that's the sort of UX dilemma of any mapping provider that is getting into advertising.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's that's a challenge Google deals with too.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: So it wouldn't be unique to Apple.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that in a lot of cases, if you're talking about the, I mean, I mentioned the two types of ads.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: There's the list-based sponsored places or the uh suggested places, excuse me, and then the the that which shows up on the actual graphical map.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: The graphical map has enough inventory, I think, that it's less of an issue.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that's there's enough space there to show a few sponsored spots, but also like the the one you're going to and some other organic suggested ones.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: With the list-based things, I think there's probably three or four slots.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, that sponsored one might be the first one when there's when there's a match, when there's an opportunity.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that may be closer to your point than like the first organic result.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's just the nature of the beast.
• 23:32
  Celine Matthiessen: That's true.
• 23:33
  Celine Matthiessen: So um just to close up, for the media sellers and agency people that are listening to our podcast, what what's in it for them?
• 23:41
  Celine Matthiessen: Do they need to worry about this now?
• 23:42
  Celine Matthiessen: Like, is it going to start competing directly with their local budgets, with their local advertising clients?
• 23:48
  Celine Matthiessen: What do you think?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe, but they should be jumping on this for a few reasons.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And one is yes, like there will be a certain amount of direct, just like with Google, there's a certain amount of like small businesses directly self-serve um with the ad program.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually built for that.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there's also a large opportunity out there for the businesses that need that sort of agency help um or um or or sort of a an ad tech dashboard.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um and Apple actually offers, they they they essentially offer three tiers.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: One is direct, you know.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is agency services, where they'll sort of work with you and package it together for an agency to sort of resell it and help manage it and all.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then the third one is an API, which if you are a larger sort of ad tech platform, you can integrate this right in your API.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: So it's an option on your dashboard.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say that for local media entities that um are interested in jumping on this opportunity, I think they they should do so.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: They should be integrating either the agency or the API sort of tiers because what they can do there is sort of lean into the fact that the messaging that that they've always sort of leaned on, which is that let us do it for you.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of media fragmentation out there, there's a lot of confusion, there's a lot of options, you know, we'll we'll eliminate all those headaches and hold your hand.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think the addition of an additional player, in this case Apple, actually strengthens that message because it's more options, it's more fragmentation.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, let us be the one-stop shop because now you have yet another option out there that just popped up.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I think if they lean into that messaging, integrate this, um, they can sort of compete for market share and hopefully in ways that are incremental to what they had done before.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or I guess I should say non-overlapping because of some of those stats I mentioned earlier, you know, unique targeting to Gen Z and Millennials and iOS devices and all of that.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like they they could do that and probably offer more reach than they're currently offering their local advertisers that are currently on, you know, Google and whatever other sort of media mix that they resell.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so this they should see this as a good thing.
• 25:57
  Celine Matthiessen: Great.
• 25:57
  Celine Matthiessen: Well, Mike, thanks for helping us make sense of this.
• 26:00
  Celine Matthiessen: And for everyone out there listening, thank you for joining us as well.
• 26:04
  Celine Matthiessen: We hope you enjoyed our podcast.
• 26:06
  Celine Matthiessen: If you've if you have any topics or any questions or want to come on as a guest, reach out to us at podcast at BIA.com.
• 26:14
  Celine Matthiessen: We look forward to bringing you more insightful conversations on local media throughout the rest of 2026 and 2027.