Campaign setup: Easy and Advanced

AdsBuddy is now campaign-first. For each app you decide how campaigns should run, not whether to read a long internal plan. Open My apps → your app → Campaigns. If the app already has active Apple Ads campaigns, AdsBuddy imports them and shows what is running. If you want to create or restructure campaigns, open Campaign setup and choose one of two modes.

Easy mode

Easy mode creates Apple Search Ads Max Conversions campaigns. This is the simplest path for most users: choose a daily app budget, choose or accept a starter Target CPA, pick countries, then review the exact Apple Ads changes before applying.

• You control — app daily budget, Target CPA, countries, pause/watch decisions and apply approvals.
• Apple controls — auction bidding and delivery inside Max Conversions.
• AdsBuddy watches — spend, CPA, paid ROAS, search terms, negatives, country performance and seasonality.

Advanced mode

Advanced mode is for operators who want manual control. AdsBuddy separates exact intent, broad discovery, Search Match, negatives and bid changes. You see keyword and bid tables because the campaign structure itself is part of the strategy.

• Use Advanced when you want competitor/exact keyword control, manual CPT bids, or a proven structure you already understand.
• AdsBuddy can raise/lower bids, add negatives, promote winning search terms to exact, and keep spend inside the app budget.
• Advanced tabs show manual keyword and bid detail; Easy tabs stay focused on delivery, search terms, negatives, CPA and revenue.

Existing campaigns

If you already run campaigns, do not create a blank setup first. Connect Apple Ads, open the app, and use Refresh from Apple Ads. AdsBuddy reads active campaigns across reachable Apple Ads orgs, classifies the app as Easy or Advanced when it can, and starts tracking. It does not pause, replace or edit campaigns just because you connected them.

Apple Ads API insights

After a refresh, the Campaigns tab can also show read-only diagnostics directly from Apple Ads. These help you understand whether the app is eligible to advertise in the selected countries, whether an ad has a serving issue, and which default or Custom Product Page is producing the strongest install signal.

• Eligibility is checked per active country, so a country-level restriction is visible before you rely on that campaign.
• Ad results show spend, taps, installs, conversion rate and CPA without changing the live account.
• Product-page results group the same data by default page or Custom Product Page so you can compare creatives.
• If an optional Apple endpoint is unavailable, the normal campaign refresh still finishes and the missing diagnostic is labelled clearly.

Changing mode

Switching an active app from Advanced to Easy, or from Easy to Advanced, is a restructuring action. AdsBuddy first shows what would be paused, created or updated. Nothing is written until you approve the Apply review. Easy mode should normally start clean: old manual campaigns are paused before Max Conversions campaigns go live, so Apple is not learning from two conflicting setups at the same time.

What happens after apply