"It became a situation where brands or agencies who had expectations of eternal growth could consistently get it from Facebook," Sonne said, and that their funders now expected the same. But it also made them dependent on a platform that was either increasingly unreliable or downright unusable, depending on which advertiser was asked. Some small businesses reported having their ads improperly flagged by Facebook's automated ad-review process, while other marketers expressed frustration at how buggy the back-end systems were.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Meta, meanwhile, noted that "small-business owners around the world tell us our products helped them create and grow their businesses."

"It's why we are consistently committed to developing and providing new programs, tools, training and personalized advertiser support for them," the spokesperson went on.

The company doesn't disclose how many of the 10 million--plus advertisers pouring money into a given Meta property each year qualify as a "small business." The last time Facebook shared that data itself was in a 2019 earnings call when then--Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said the top 100 advertisers represented "less than 20%" of the company's total ad revenue. An analysis from the marketing analytics firm Pathmatics found that percentage closer to 6%, at $4.2 billion in spending altogether. The company raked in nearly $70 billion in ad revenue that year alone.

Since upending the online advertising ecosystem, third-party analysts have seen a surge of advertiser activity -- and ad dollars -- head Apple's way.

Last year, for example, one of these reports found that Apple's Search Ads -- which appear at the top of your iPhone screen when you're looking for a new app to buy in the company's App Store -- were the source of roughly 58% of all iPhone app downloads. A year prior, these same ads were only responsible for 17%. And earlier this summer, one Evercore analyst projected that Apple's App Store ads could net the company $7.1 billion in revenue by 2025.

"I think the revenue piece [of the ad market] is less important to Apple than just breaking up Facebook's total ownership of distribution on mobile," Seufert said. He pointed out that, for a long time, Facebook dominated the market in driving app installs. One report earlier this year found that about three-quarters of those marketing a mobile app rely on Meta's ad-tech tools to do so.

"Ads are a revenue opportunity, but, more importantly, they're a discovery mechanic," Seufert went on. "And suddenly Facebook was determining which apps got downloaded, not Apple. My sense with all this is thatthey care about the revenue, but I don't think that was the primary driver. I think it was about the power."

As far as power plays go, there's really no better move than homing in on small businesses that have become disgruntled with Meta's platforms. And as Goldner pointed out, with the economic crush that came with the ongoing pandemic, more advertisers -- big and small -- are shirking display-based advertising like Meta's for more search-based advertising like Apple's.

"As we're hitting a potential recession, people are moving more towards bottom-of-the-funnel ads to squeeze the margins," Goldner said. "Whenever a potential economic downturn exists, companies want to focus on maximizing their sales. They care less about goodwill and more about just keeping their businesses afloat."

Apple's impending small-business push could also explain the rumblings that the company plans to add search ads to Apple Maps in the near future. After all, one of the best ways your local hardware store or diner can advertise their wares today is via search ads in Google Maps, which have been there since 2016. As Seufert put it, "How could [Apple] justify not doing it?"

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