Apple released the Apple Ads Platform API. What does it mean?
3 min read
TL;DR:
- Apple released the Apple Ads Platform API — a new API, not a version bump.
- Search Popularity is now available: App Store search terms ranked by volume for any category and country, scored 1 to 100 by Apple.
- Change History shows who changed what in your campaigns, and whether it was a human or an API client.
- Ads now run on Apple Maps — but an ad account works with one surface only, App Store or Maps.
- The old Campaign Management API v5 shuts down on January 26, 2027. Six months to migrate.
Apple has released the Apple Platform API, built to make running Apple Ads campaigns easier. What changed, how, and why — explained in 14 cards.
What happened
| 01 · What actually happened? |
| Apple provides an API for running Apple Ads — either through your own developers or through products like Adapty. Roughly once a year they ship an API update that expands what it can do. |
| 02 · And a new update just came out? |
| Yes. On August 14 they released a new version of the API. |
| 03 · Why does it matter? |
| This one is bigger than usual. First, it completely changes the structure of the API. Second, it adds a new advertising channel — Apple Maps. Third, it opens up functionality people have been asking for for years: Search Popularity, Change History, and more. |
Ads on the map
| 04 · So there will be ads on Apple Maps? |
| Yes. Business owners can promote their restaurants, their stores, their neighborhood taco joints right on the map. Someone searches for "motorcycle repair" — and the first result is an ad for a motorcycle shop. |
| 05 · So I can run my app and my taco joint from the same account? |
| No. An ad account is provisioned for one surface: either the App Store or Apple Maps. You can't repurpose it afterwards. If you need both, create two separate ad accounts. |
New data
| 06 · What is Search Popularity? |
| Apple scores the popularity of every keyword from 1 to 100. The more people search for it, the higher the score. It gives you a sense of how much traffic an ad on that keyword could actually bring. |
| 07 · Why does this matter right now? |
| Numbers like these used to mean paying for a third-party ASO tool that calculated them its own way. Now the score comes from Apple itself. You can see which queries are growing, which are fading, and which words are worth going after in a specific country. |
⚠️08 · Can I check any keyword I want? Yes. The popularity report itself is organized by category and country, so a very niche term may not show up in the rankings. But there's a separate lookup for that: phrase suggestions have a SEARCH mode that returns the popularity of a specific phrase, or matches on a partial string.
| 09 · And what is Change History? |
| A log of every change to your campaigns: who changed what, and when. It also shows whether a human did it by hand in the UI or automation did it through the API. |
| 10 · Where does that come in handy? |
| A metric drops on Tuesday. You open the log and see that on Monday someone cut a bid by 40%. The best part is overlaying those events onto your report charts, so the spikes explain themselves. |
What else changed
| 11 · What else is new? |
| Bulk operations on keywords and negative keywords — hundreds in a single request. Suggestions from Apple: keywords, phrases, categories, and a recommended Target CPA bid. Plus ad accounts can now be created and configured programmatically, which mostly matters if you're an agency. |
| 12 · Was anything removed? |
Lifetime Budget is gone. And cpaCap at the ad group level: technically it still works, but Apple explicitly tells you not to use it. |
ℹ️13 · Does the old API still work? For now, but not for long: on January 26, 2027 Campaign Management API v5 gets shut down. After that date requests return an error — no campaign management, no reporting through it. You have six months to migrate.
| 14 · Will Adapty support this? |
| Of course. Search Popularity is already live, and you can use it right now → Open Search Popularity. Everything else is coming very soon. |
Sources: Apple Ads Platform API — Developer Documentation · Insights Endpoints · Suggestions Endpoints
FAQ
It is Apple's new API for managing Apple Ads campaigns, released in August 2026. It replaces the Campaign Management API with a new base URL, a new request structure and a new account model, and it adds Apple Maps as an advertising surface.
Campaign Management API v5 shuts down on January 26, 2027. After that date its endpoints return an error, so you can no longer manage campaigns or pull reports through it.
Apple scores the popularity of each keyword from 1 to 100 based on how often people search for it in the App Store. It helps you estimate how much traffic an ad on that keyword could bring.
Yes. The popularity report is organized by category and country, so a very niche term may not appear in the rankings. For a specific phrase, use the SEARCH mode of the phrase suggestions endpoint, which returns popularity for a known phrase or matches on a partial string.
A log of every change made to your campaigns — who changed what and when. It also distinguishes changes made by a human in the interface from changes made by an API client.
No. An ad account is provisioned for a single surface and cannot be repurposed. If you need both, create two separate ad accounts.
Lifetime Budget is gone, and ad group cpaCap is deprecated — it still works at launch, but Apple advises against using it.
