Apple renamed Apple Search Ads to Apple Ads in 2025 and offers a newer Ads Platform API for managing campaigns. That API is real and documented, but full control from Ads and Pixels waits on Apple approving partner access. Until that happens there's no account to connect, no campaign to build, and no report to read, so this page tracks the honest status: scoped, not connected, with no date attached, because Apple controls that timeline, not us.
Ads and Pixels / Apple AdsComing
Apple Ads (formerly Apple Search Ads) is coming — here's what's live now
Apple renamed Apple Search Ads to Apple Ads in 2025 and moved it onto a newer Ads Platform API. Apple hasn't approved partner access yet, so nothing here is connected — we'd rather say that plainly than pretend it is.
One place. Every screen.Explore below
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Why Apple Ads is still coming
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What Apple Ads will look like here
Once Apple approves partner access, the plan is full campaign control for Apple Search Ads — the channel Apple now brands as Apple Ads — using the same Basic/Advanced workflow every other channel here uses: setting keywords and bids for App Store search campaigns, and reading results back into the same Results Map instead of a separate Apple-only dashboard. Apple advertising of this kind lives inside the App Store itself, with search results as its best-known placement, which makes it a narrower tool than Meta or Google Ads by design: putting an iOS app in front of someone already looking for something like it. That focus is also what makes Apple Search Ads efficient once it's connected: the strongest app store ads start from someone already searching, not someone being interrupted mid-scroll.
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Run Apple Ads manually until then
You don't have to wait on Apple's approval to start measuring it. Run Apple Search Ads as a manual channel today: a tracked link and a UTM-tagged landing page for the app, spend entered by campaign, and the same Results Map attributes web visits and signups back to it the way it would for a connected network. Agencies running Apple Search Ads for several client apps at once can log each one the same way, side by side with every live channel already reporting automatically. When the live integration ships, that history carries forward — nothing gets rebuilt from zero.
ComingApple Ads
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What Apple Ads can't tell you yet
Apple Search Ads exists to drive installs, but the install itself happens inside Apple's own ecosystem, not on a web page Ads and Pixels can read. A tracked link and a UTM parameter work here exactly as well as on any other manual channel right up until someone leaves your landing page for the App Store — after that, whether they actually installed the app is invisible to us until the Ads Platform API is connected and reporting real tap-through and install numbers back. Until then, manual Apple Ads tracking measures interest — clicks and landing-page visits — not installs it can't see, and the Results Map credits it only that far. That's a deliberate limit, not an oversight: claiming an install we didn't actually observe would make every other channel's numbers less trustworthy by comparison. That gap closes on its own once partner access is approved; nothing about the manual setup needs to be rebuilt.
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Who's asking for Apple Ads
The businesses asking for this are the ones with an iOS app to grow — subscription apps, marketplaces, local-service apps with a companion app — who already know App Store search reaches someone mid-search, warm and specific, rather than mid-scroll. Agencies planning app-install budgets across a client roster feel the gap differently: Apple Search Ads is usually the one platform sitting outside their normal toolkit, tracked by hand in a spreadsheet next to the live channels the AI media planner already covers automatically. It's a request we expect to keep hearing until the day partner access clears, not before.
A little more clarity
Frequently asked questions
Real answers before you make a decision.
Is Apple Ads available in Ads and Pixels today?
No. It's scoped and depends on Apple approving partner access — not connected yet. The manual-channel option above tracks Apple Ads spend and clicks today without waiting on that approval.
Wait — is this Apple Search Ads or Apple Ads?
Same thing. Apple renamed Apple Search Ads to Apple Ads in 2025 and moved it onto a newer Ads Platform API. This page uses both names because people still search for the old one.
Why is Apple Ads slower to connect than Meta or Google?
Apple's newer Ads Platform API requires approved partner access before an app like Ads and Pixels can build and manage campaigns on a client's behalf — that approval is Apple's process, not something we control the timeline on.
Will my manually tracked Apple Ads data transfer once it's live?
Yes. Tracked links, UTM parameters and logged spend live in the same Audience Vault record either way; going live adds automated campaign build and direct API reporting on top of history that already exists.
Does manual tracking show me actual app installs?
No. A tracked link can only follow someone as far as your app's own web landing page, not into the App Store install itself. Manual Apple Ads tracking measures clicks and landing-page activity, not verified installs — real install attribution needs the live API connection.
What can I run today instead of Apple Ads?
Meta and Google Ads are live, fully connected channels today, and both run their own app-install campaign types on their own platforms. Apple app store advertising itself waits for Apple's partner approval.
Is there a workaround to get Apple Ads live faster?
No, and we won't pretend one exists. Apple's partner-access approval is Apple's own process; the honest move is tracking spend manually now and being clear here about what stage the integration is actually at.
Will you support Apple Ads Basic and Advanced?
Apple Ads Basic is Apple's own simplified, pay-per-install option managed inside Apple's dashboard; the integration here is planned around the Advanced campaign tools the API exposes, such as keywords, bids and app store search ads in results. Which placements you can pick will follow what Apple's API offers when access is approved.
Do I need an Apple Search Ads account already to use the manual channel?
No. The manual channel is just a tracked link, a landing page and logged spend — it works whether or not you've ever run a campaign directly in Apple's own Apple Search Ads Basic or Advanced interface.
Your next move
Start on what's live, add Apple Ads when access is approved
Track Apple Ads manually today, and move it into full campaign control the moment Apple approves partner access.