Edible Apple

“It’s good to sleep next to the King.” Okay, I’ll be honest. I think I made that quote up, but it’s just as well.

Not too long ago, Apple was interested in purchasing AdMob, only to helplessly watch Google snatch up the mobile ad company with a near billion dollar purchase. Dejected, but not defeated, Apple purchased another mobile ad agency named Quattro instead – and according to Steve Jobs, they’ve been teaching Apple as much as they can about mobile advertising as fast as they can.

A few weeks ago, Apple showcased its upcoming iAd platform for mobile ads. In typical Apple fashion, Apple’s ad platform will house more elegant and engaging advertisements – and as you might expect, Apple is charging a premium for what it deems to be higher quality ads.

Now, word comes out via Techcrunch that advertisers who use Apple’s upcoming iAd service will have a competitive edge over rivals to the extent that iAds will be exclusively integrated with iTunes so that advertisers can more accurately track conversion rates.

The new initiative is called VIP (Verification of iTunes Purchase), and TC describes it thusly:

The VIP program is aimed at app developers who use iPhone ads to drive downloads and purchases of their own apps. It will tie the ad directly into purchasing data from iTunes, letting app developers measure the conversion rate of ad impressions to downloads. As the slide indicates, this tracking is made possible with a “proprietary direct link from the ad to App Store” and once a “user downloads your app, they won’t ever see your ad again.”

Companies like AdMob, meanwhile, must employ more layered and less accurate methods of measuring conversion rates. Giving iAd customers access to proprietary iTunes information is undoubtedly a win for advertisers, and Apple makes a point to note about the new service:

No SDK or server-side integration—this cannot be duplicated by any of our competitors.

Like we said, it sure is good to sleep next to the King. See, it makes some sort of sense.