Marketers who want iAds on Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad may pay about $1 million, compared with up to $200,000 for typical mobile ads. But unlike typical ads, Apple’s iAd keeps the ad viewer in a mobile app rather than having to navigate back. For $1 million, Apple plans high-quality interesting ads that may qualify as entertainment.

Apple is looking to charge advertisers about $1 million to put their marketing messages on iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads — and maybe more to be first in line to leverage the unprecedented opportunity.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple is getting ready to promote its mobile-advertising play. The paper said Apple could charge as much as $10 million to be one of the few marketers that get to push ads over the devices at the launch of iAd, Apple’s in-app advertising platform. The typical cost is between $100,000 and $200,000, making the iAd platform the premium advertising product for mobile devices.

“This is an audacious and risky move for Apple,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. “Still, some advertisers will line up to be a part of the initial wave of iAd advertisers.”

High-Quality Advertising

Apple introduced iAd earlier this month. Apple said its new mobile advertising platform combines the emotion of TV ads with the interactivity of web ads. When users click on mobile ads now, they are almost always taken out of their app to a web browser, which loads the advertiser’s web page. Users must then navigate back to their app, and it can be difficult to return to exactly where they left.

Apple said iAd solves this problem by displaying full-screen video Relevant Products/Services and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app, and letting users return to their app anytime they choose. iAd works with iPhone OS 4.0, which lets developers embed mobile advertising within their apps. The ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive 60 percent of iAd revenue.

Forrester Analyst Julie Ask says Apple remains supportive of the developer community with the revenue splits. Beyond developers, she added, Apple is continuing its focus on the consumer experience.

“They are looking to protect the quality of the user experience by controlling the ad experience,” Ask wrote in her blog. “Steve [Jobs] has raised the bar on quality of mobile ads by keeping consumers within their existing application or experience. He anticipates that the ads will be engaging enough to be considered entertainment.”

Pennies Add Up

Advertisers will pay a penny each time a consumer views a banner ad, according to the Journal. It will cost advertisers more — $2 an impression — if a user taps on the banner and causes the ad to pop up.

The price is high, but the possibilities to reach a targeted audience of technology enthusiasts may be worth the price for some advertisers, as Sterling noted. Apple has sold 85 million iPhone and iPod touches, and ad-targeting technology will allow brand marketers to put their messages in front of people who are most likely to be interested in their products. The ads will be served based on a user’s iTunes preferences, according to the Journal.

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