Microsoft will display ads in the Microsoft Store

Long part of the landscape for visitors to the Google Play Store, ads will soon appear on the Microsoft Store as well, with the Windows developer offering this “tool” for app developers looking to gain more visibility.

According to the official release, Microsoft is helping software developers promote their Windows apps directly in the official app store. This means that the featured apps catalog will include a new section with promoted apps. The same will happen with app searches, where certain apps will be given priority in the results list if their developers have paid for keyword-based promotion.

According to the post shared on Microsoft’s blog, more than 900 million unique users visited the Microsoft Store last year, with the company seeing this as a huge opportunity for advertisers looking to get their apps in front of interested customers:

With Microsoft Store Ads, developers now have new opportunities for app discovery on Windows. Microsoft Store Ads accounts for all desktop traffic, with users having a high intent to download a particular desktop app. The opportunity is vast; 2022 was a record year, with over 900 million unique users worldwide using the Microsoft Store and a 122% year-over-year increase in submissions by developers of new apps and games.

Microsoft claims that any developer can advertise their app . According to the company, ads will run to Windows 11 and Windows 10 users as long as they search for their apps in the official Windows app store and not the “traditional” method of simply searching the internet.