From Amanda
Apple Ads are on the map
The name change from Apple Search Ads to Apple Ads last year was our first clue that something was brewing in the Apple advertising world. That something is here: Ads are coming to Apple Maps.
Starting this summer, businesses in the U.S. and Canada will be able to create ads on Maps through Apple Business, Apple's new all-in-one platform that consolidates its device management, business email and calendar, brand management, and now advertising tools under one roof. The platform itself launches April 14, with Maps ads following later in the season.
This isn’t a totally new concept. Google has been showing local ads in its Maps for years and still dominates local discovery, capturing ~75% of consumer map usage. Apple has a ways to go to catch up to Google’s business profiles.
Personally, I’ve always preferred Apple Maps, a choice that baffles everyone in my life. I like that it feels native to the iPhone, and as part of the target audience here, I’m not mad about this introduction of ads at all. When I search for “coffee near me,” I’m not browsing, I’m deciding. I want my matcha, I’m already in decision-making mode, and I’m absolutely open to suggestions. A well-placed recommendation doesn’t feel intrusive. It feels helpful.
That’s what makes this interesting for advertisers. It’s a new high-intent surface with lower competition than Google Maps, at least for now.
The most “Apple” thing about this move is how they're handling privacy, and it’s structurally different from how Google runs local ads. Apple doesn’t associate a user's location or the ads they see in Maps with their Apple account. Personal data stays on-device and is not collected, stored, or shared with advertisers or third parties. Targeting relies on contextual signals, and the identifier used for measurement rotates multiple times per hour, so durable user profiles can’t form.
More broadly, this is a continuation of Apple’s services momentum. The division has seen massive growth over the past few years, far outpacing iPhone sales. Maps can now finally contribute to more than just engagement.
If you’re already running Apple Ads, you’re not starting from scratch. You’ll be able to book Maps placements through your existing setup, now with more control over campaigns and keyword targeting. If you’re new and have a physical location, you’ll need to claim your spot on Apple Business first.
Tech Giants
Vibe-coded apps are flooding the App Store
Vibe-coded apps are flooding the App Store faster than it can keep up. In Q1 2026, 235,800 new apps were submitted to the App Store, an 84% jump year-over-year. For context, new app launches had been falling for nearly a decade, down 48% between 2016 and 2024.
Apple still reviews every app store submission, so this new volume is straining the system. Review times that used to take a day or two stretched to weeks in March 2026, and legitimate apps are stuck in a queue that's now full of AI-generated ones.
This isn’t just an operational problem, though. It’s also a trust problem. Users burned by vibe-coded apps that look polished but are full of bugs and flaws will get more conservative about what they download. That flight to quality will hurt newer players trying to build credibility. A gap already visible in the subscription economy, where the top 25% of apps grow significantly year-over-year as the bottom 25% shrink, will only widen in an environment like this.
Spotlight
The case against addictive product design is gaining ground
In March, two juries delivered back-to-back verdicts against Meta and Google/YouTube over harm linked to addictive product design, specifically pointing to features like infinite scroll, autoplay, beauty filters as contributors to compulsive use and worsening mental health. By shifting the focus from content to product design, these cases sidestep Section 230 protections that have long shielded tech companies from liability for user-generated content.
This argument has legs. There are already more than 4,000 pending cases targeting 166 companies for addictive software design across social media, video games, AI chatbots, and sports betting apps. Most decisions will likely be appealed, but culturally, something is shifting.
A lot of people intuitively feel this: Some of these experiences don't feel like choice anymore. They feel engineered.
We’ve already seen this play out in the EU, where regulators have started cracking down on things like infinite scroll. Now that conversation is hitting the U.S. in a much more tangible way.
Behind these cases are real people and real harm. Great product design shouldn’t trap attention, but earn it.
Adam's Take
LLMs at work in the adtech stack
The two most commonly cited use cases for LLMs are coding and advertising.
Vibe coding is all over the news, but concrete applications marketing are harder to find. Here are two that demonstrate how the technology is actually being used today.
The first is Meta’s newly introduced AI system, REA, which autonomously runs experiments to improve its ads ranking models. It generates hypotheses, launches tests, and iterates over time. Think of it as an LLM-powered agent that comes up with and runs ML experiments 2x more accurately and 5x faster than human-powered workflows.
The second comes from a paper Netflix published where it used an LLM “to make personalized artwork recommendations, selecting the most preferred visual representation of a title for each user.” By using your past history, the LLM chooses the best title art for your watch suggestions. And it works: AI drives a 3%-5% performance increase over Netflix’s in-house systems.
One replaces, or augments, the testing and experimentation side of advertising. The other delivers personalization at scale. Both are tried and tested methods for increasing advertising effectiveness, and both promise dramatic results when deployed at scale in the adtech stack.
How is AI search actually changing consumer discovery?
Since the early days of LLMs, industry pundits have been predicting the demise of traditional search when faced with a growing adoption of AI for consumer discovery.
Well, the numbers are in, and the answers are surprising. Branch recently surveyed 300 enterprise leaders on how they’re seeing the market shift and what they’re doing to prepare.
The first surprising bit of data: The share of both SEO and AI-search traffic is increasing. Perhaps even more interesting, only 3% of respondents are seeing negative marketing performance from AI. Rather than a massive disruptor, the data and attitudes of the respondents indicate they see AI search as an additional, additive channel. To their businesses, traditional search and LLM discovery are acting together to increase traffic and discovery mechanisms.
The most dramatic shift, however, is how these executives are betting on the future: 65% of respondents are pouring at least a quarter of their marketing budget into AI search optimization, with 28% allocating over half. We’ve all seen the massive investments tech companies are sinking into AI, but these are the first numbers I’ve seen on spend from marketers. With the global digital ad market around $100 billion, that implies a minimum of $16B flowing toward AI search this year.
So, will AI-search replace traditional SEO? My guess is no. Humans may be quick to understand new ideas, but habits change slowly. What this data suggests is rapid AI adoption layered on top of existing behavior, not a replacement of it. AI search will merge with traditional search methods until the typical consumer can’t, or won’t, differentiate. In hindsight, it will be less like the automobile replacing the horse and more like the smartphone augmenting your personal computer.
Events
The new measurement reality: Navigating signal loss with strategic clarity
Tune in to hear industry experts discuss how leading marketing teams are adapting their measurement foundations to operate effectively. You’ll discover what it means to “get your measurement house in order” by organizing data for usability, aligning paid, owned, and organic signals, and anchoring to durable signals that overcome technology shifts.
Podcast
Building through every ad tech era: AI, attribution, and what’s next with Ionut Ciobotaru
In this episode of How I Grew This, hosts Amanda and Adam reconnect with Ionut Ciobotaru, CEO and co-founder of Hypd.ai, to explore his journey building native mobile advertising, scaling through M&A, and now tackling the next frontier: AI agents for performance marketing.