Coming this summer to the US and Canada, Apple is officially bringing ads to Apple Maps. As part of the broader rollout of the new Apple Business platform, the company announced today that businesses in the US and Canada will be able to place local ads within the Maps app while gaining new tools to measure analytics and manage their brand presence across the Apple ecosystem.
How the ads will work and how Apple ensures privacy
The ads aim to help local businesses reach customers at key moments in search and discovery on Apple Maps. When a user searches for a term like “coffee shop” or “hardware store,” a sponsored result can appear at the top of the results, based on relevance.
Additionally, ads will appear at the top of a new Suggested Places experience coming to Maps. This new section will display recommendations based on what is trending nearby, recent searches, and other context. Apple noted in its announcement that all ads will be clearly marked to ensure transparency for Maps users.
Privacy is a major focus of the advertising rollout. The new Maps ads build on Apple’s existing privacy-first approach to advertising. A user’s location and the ads they see and interact with in Maps are not associated with their Apple Account. Personal data stays on the user’s device, is not collected or stored by Apple, and is not shared with advertisers or other third parties.
