May still have more return than alternatives

A new report challenges the notion that iAd can be extremely profitable for some developers. On Thursday, the creator of LED Light for iPhone 4 claimed to have produced over $1,370 in one day through iAds, with an eCPM (effective cost per thousand impressions) value of about $148. This is not an accurate reflection of what developers will experience, says iLaugh developer Kenneth Ballenegger.

Ballenegger explains that he has so far seen less revenue with iAd than his previous choice, Google AdSense; his own iAd eCPM is noted to be between $10 and $15 per day. A more universal problem is that iAd is said to refresh spots every three minutes, rather than at a more common pace of 30 seconds. "Thus, for the time it takes iAd to display one ad, another network gets to show 6," says Ballenegger.

A proposed solution is running ads from multiple networks, with iAd taking first priority and secondary sources filling in when iAd requests fail. The issue may simply be one of too few iAd marketers, however, since the service was only launched on July 1st. Apple has promised to ramp up the network by the end of the year.

by MacNN Staff