Apple is making a stronger stake in mobile advertising by expanding its programmatic network to iTunes Radio and enabling marketers to target Apple consumers with email and phone identifiers, proving that the technology company can compete with Spotify and other streaming services.

Apple is expanding in the sector of programmatic ad buying by rolling out updated targeting functions, such as the use of email addresses and phone numbers to cross-reference with anonymity against advertisers? data. Although the amount of mobile streaming services currently available with advertising capabilities is high, Apple is likely attempting to edge out a slice of the industry next to other bigwigs such as Facebook, Google and Spotify.

?As buying technology for marketers, we are really pleased to see premium channels for mobile advertising expand,? said Jeff Green, CEO of The Trade Desk, Ventura, CA. ?Smartphones have created an environment where you can browse the Web, stream music, and chat with friends from the same device.

?It's an ecosystem ripe to reach consumers with relevant ads in an appropriate way. Apple is clearly doubling down on iAd,? he said.

?We were proud to launch them programmatically in 2014 and are excited to see how this expanded offering can benefit advertisers in the near and long term.?

Ramping up iAd
This move is likely to bolster iAd in the marketing space, as the service accounted for only 2.6 percent of mobile advertising in the United States in 2014. However, since then, the brand has expanded the service into 70 new countries and added video ads to Workbench, which is iAd?s buying tool.

Apple also recently integrated automation into the service, which it is now bringing to audio for better scale and data points.

Apple is offering advertisers for iTunes Radio inventory the opportunity to leverage Customer Match, the brand?s revamped ad-targeting platform that offers marketers custom segmentation of Apple listeners based on mobile identifiers.

?Since Apple's announcement that they'll be working with Rubicon to get iAd?s media into the programatic world, this step with iTunes Radio indicates how much more Apple wants to be involved with programmatic,? said Sigal Bareket, general manager, U.S., and co-founder of Taptica, San Francisco, CA.

?With the world going programmatic, big, premium brands are putting more of their inventory on RTB exchanges. The available tracking technology has advanced enough to allow for the measuring of a consumer's lifetime value (LTV), shifting the focus to getting the right user rather than buying a particular branded media opportunity and hoping to find them there,? she said.

?This is happening on music streaming services as well as other media categories.?

Focus on privacy
Apple is also attempting to gain clients by pushing its dedication to privacy controls. Apple is claiming that both the brand and customer cannot see when someone?s data is matched via the Customer Match platform.

If Apple does manage to lower the price for advertisers, it may snatch some brands away from other streaming services such as Spotify, namely smaller ones. Apple has also acquired a second streaming platform in addition to iTunes, Beats Music.

?It still remains to be seen that Apple has any significant radio share but the game-changer could be the ability to use the Apple's IDFA for cross-device targeting, experiments and insights,? said Lauren Moores, vice president of analytics at Dstillery, New York.

?The basics of advertising tells you to take your message to where people have focused their attention, so given the awesome growth streaming music services have seen in the last few years, these platforms are fertile grounds for marketers,? said Doug Rohrer, chief strategy officer of Kargo, New York. ?I'd expect we see more of these music platforms integrate a suite of ad products into their businesses as they continue to scale.

?Apple has made a few interesting moves in recent months that point to iAd still playing a unique role in their overall strategy. Given the industry's growing acceptance, and even preference, for programmatic buying, this move will likely help Apple get the most out of iAd - even if it's never a part of their business that garners significant internal investment.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York