Your first campaign, set up calmly

Before you touch the dashboard#

Four prerequisites decide whether setup day goes smoothly. First, an Apple Account tied to your App Store Connect organisation with a role that permits promotion. Second, the app itself live on the App Store in the markets you plan to buy. Third, a view on spend: a daily budget for Advanced or a monthly budget plus max CPI for Basic. Fourth, a valid payment method, or the discipline to build everything paused until one is added. Our App Store Connect linking guide covers the first item in depth.

Gather these before clicking Create Campaign and the whole flow takes minutes. Apple own campaign creation help lists the same preparation steps, so treat this entry as the calm companion to that page. Skim the Apple Ads hub for context on where campaigns sit in the family.

Link accounts and confirm the app#

Sign up for Apple Ads with the Apple Account associated with your App Store Connect account, then link the two so your apps appear as promotable. If the app is missing from the picker, the cause is almost always permissions, a pending store listing, or a different organisation holding the listing. Resolve access first; campaigns built against the wrong account only create cleanup later. Invite only the users who need access, with the narrowest role that lets them work.

Confirm the listing is complete in each target market: localised screenshots and descriptions where required, correct age rating, pricing and availability. Brazil, for one, requires local language assets before campaigns can run there. A store listing audit now prevents paused ads later.

Choose markets and budgets#

Choose one or more countries or regions where the campaign will run, grouping similar markets for manageable reporting. New advertisers often start with home markets plus one English language proving ground, then widen once tap and install rates are known. Read the 91 markets guide for coverage detail and the mainland China exception.

Set a daily budget as the average you will spend per day across the month; monthly spend will not exceed the daily figure times 30.4. Start modestly, since bids can rise later in minutes while overspend takes weeks to forgive. Advanced planners should also read account structure before multiplying campaigns across regions.

Build the campaign and ad group#

Create the campaign, name it for its theme such as Brand or Discovery, pick the placement, and set scheduling. Then create the ad group: name it for its keyword theme, choose keywords for Manage Bids search results campaigns, and decide on Search Match. Apple own structure best practices recommend separating brand, category, competitor and discovery themes from the start.

Preview the ad before saving: default product page creative for search results, or a custom product page variation where the theme deserves it. Check audience defaults rather than narrowing on day one; restrictions can wait until baseline data exists. Narrow audiences limit impressions, and a first campaign needs volume to learn from.

Launch safely and read week one#

If payment is already added, the campaign can start on save, so set status to paused during creation unless launch day is truly today. If payment is added later, anything left running will start automatically, which is the classic surprise bill. Schedule explicit start and end dates where the plan calls for them, and verify time zones before approving.

In week one watch impressions, taps, TTR and spend before judging installs; early data diagnoses visibility, not efficiency. Resist structural edits for the first days unless spend runs away. When questions arise, talk to our team before rebuilding; most first campaign faults are settings, not strategy.

Frequently asked questions#