How China approval shapes your plan

Approvals before anything else#

To advertise an app on the App Store in mainland China, your business and your app must each be approved, with additional requirements that vary by ad placement. Start this process long before launch day: reviews take time, questions come back, and resubmissions reset clocks. Apple own campaign creation help flags the mainland approval requirement at the placement choice step. Read it early, then read the markets guide for how China differs from the other 90.

Assign one owner to the approval track with a written checklist: business documentation submitted, app eligibility confirmed, placement rules acknowledged, dates logged. Approvals are project work, not paperwork; chase them weekly until each shows confirmed. Never promise clients a mainland launch date until approvals land in writing.

Placement rules on the mainland#

Product pages ads are currently unavailable on the App Store in mainland China, so plans built around browsing inventory need rethinking there. Today tab, Search tab and search results remain the working surfaces, each with its own applicable requirements. Design the mainland media plan around search led demand capture plus Today tab reach, and set expectations accordingly. Confirm current availability in the live account at planning time, since placement notes evolve.

Creative must respect local review standards alongside the usual product page contracts: Today tab still needs a custom product page, Search tab still needs its page choice, and every asset should clear local expectations before submission. Build mainland creative as a separate track with its own review buffer. Rushed assets meet slow reviews, and slow reviews meet missed quarters.

Separate structure, separate budgets#

Mainland campaigns deserve their own campaigns, budgets and schedules rather than sharing a global setup. Approval states, tap costs, conversion behaviour and creative rules all differ enough that blended reporting would mislead everyone. Mirror the proven theme split, brand, category, competitor and discovery, inside a mainland only structure with localised keywords. Account structure shows the theme pattern to copy across.

Fund the mainland separately with its own daily budgets and its own learning patience. Costs and conversion rates will not match home markets, and shared budgets let the familiar region starve the newcomer. Judge mainland performance against its own baseline after a full learning window, never against global averages in week one.

Sequencing the mainland launch#

Sequence approvals first, localisation second, structure third, launch fourth. Localise the listing, screenshots and keywords with native speaker review, since first impressions in a new market are disproportionately durable. Build campaigns paused, verify every setting against the approval letters, then open spend deliberately. Our first campaign walkthrough gives the general launch order; this entry adds the mainland gates around it.

Allow contingency measured in weeks, not days, between approval and revenue. Reviews, resubmissions and asset adjustments consume calendars invisibly. A plan with slack looks pessimistic on paper and brilliant in practice. See campaign groups for keeping the mainland portfolio legible once it grows.

Operating cadence afterwards#

Once live, run the mainland as its own market rhythm: separate weekly reads, separate harvest lists, separate creative refreshes. Keep approval documents current, since renewals and listing updates can disturb eligibility without warning. Log every mainland change with its date and author; dispersed teams otherwise lose track of which rules were verified when. Apple help centre remains the reference of record, starting from its help index.

Review the mainland plan quarterly against its own targets and against the effort it consumes. If the complexity outweighs the return at current scale, pausing deliberately beats decaying accidentally. When the path is unclear, ask our team to assess mainland readiness with you.

Frequently asked questions#