Overview
- Apple says additional paid placements will appear not only at the top of results but also further down the App Store search page.
- Advertisers will not choose specific positions, as Apple will automatically determine placement based on auction ranking and relevance to the query.
- The ad format remains the same product‑page unit with optional deep links, and billing stays on cost per tap or cost per install.
- Existing search campaigns will automatically be eligible for the new positions when they roll out on devices running iOS and iPadOS 26.2 and later.
- Apple cites usage data to justify the expansion, including that nearly 65% of downloads follow a search, over 800 million people visit weekly, and top-of-results ads convert at about 60%.