Ads move into Maps and Chat

Apple and OpenAI are pushing ads into places people use to find things, not just places they scroll. Apple is adding ads to Maps, and OpenAI is building ad tools for ChatGPT. (ads.apple.com) (openai.com) Apple said on March 24 that ads in Apple Maps will launch in the United States and Canada later this summer. The ads will appear in search results and at the top of a new “Suggested Places” section, and Apple says they will be labeled as ads. (techcrunch.com) (macrumors.com) Apple folded those ads into a broader Apple Business rollout that began April 14 in more than 200 countries and regions. The new bundle combines older tools such as Apple Business Connect, Apple Business Essentials and Apple Business Manager under one Apple Business name. (marketingdive.com) (techcrunch.com) For advertisers, Maps is a local search product: a restaurant, gas station or retailer can pay to show up when someone nearby searches for that category. Apple said businesses will need an Apple Maps listing first, and campaigns use an auction system in which advertisers pay when they get an outcome such as a view or tap. (techcrunch.com) Apple is pitching the product as privacy-preserving. Its ad site says it uses “minimal user data,” and Apple says a user’s location and ad interactions in Maps are not associated with that user’s Apple Account. (ads.apple.com) (macrumors.com) OpenAI is making a parallel move inside chat. On February 9, it said it had begun testing ads in ChatGPT for logged-in adult users on the Free and Go tiers in the United States, while Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education tiers would remain ad-free. (openai.com) On March 26, OpenAI said it would expand that ads pilot beyond the United States to Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the coming weeks. The company said ads do not influence answers and that conversations stay private from advertisers. (openai.com) The next step is giving marketers software to buy those placements directly. Digiday reported on April 10 that OpenAI had started testing an ads manager, and PPC Land reported that the tool lets a subset of advertisers track impressions and clicks while lowering the pilot’s minimum spend to $50,000 from as high as $250,000. (ppc.land) Early versions of that tool look more like search advertising than social advertising. PPC Land reported that campaigns are organized into campaigns, ad groups and ads, use country targeting and “context hints,” and list clicks and conversions as campaign objectives even though only reach pricing is active now. (ppc.land) That puts both companies in the same part of the ad market: moments when a user is looking for a place, a product or an answer. Business Insider reported that Apple still gets most of its ad revenue from App Store app-install ads, while OpenAI is building a system around sponsored responses and self-serve buying tools inside ChatGPT. (africa.businessinsider.com) (openai.com) The common thread is that ads are moving into utility products that already sit close to intent. In Maps, that intent is where to go next; in ChatGPT, it is what to do next. (techcrunch.com) (openai.com)