Advertise in
mainland China

Take the right steps to
run campaigns

To advertise an app on the App Store in mainland China, your business and app must be approved. Additional requirements also apply, and may vary depending on the ad placement.

See the Apple Advertising Policies for more details

As part of the approval process, you may need to upload business licenses and other relevant documents. Documents can be uploaded, and updated anytime from the Documents page in your Account Settings. If you create a campaign to run in mainland China before your app and business are approved, you may be prompted to submit them for review after the campaign creation process. Campaigns won’t run until both your app and business have been approved.

Note that document upload and management must be done by the person who’s assigned the Account Admin or Account Finance role for your account. If you make changes to the legal entity name, address, or tax ID listed in your account, you may be prompted to submit your business for review and approval again.

Read the guidelines to learn more (PDF)

If you have questions about our policies, contact us.

Submit creative authorization documentation for ads that require it

The App Store default product page you use for search results ads and the custom product pages you use for Today tab ads and search results ad variations may require creative authorization documentation approval before your ads can run on the App Store in mainland China. Without the proper documentation, certain ads can’t run.

If you hold the Account Admin role and you create a new Today tab ad or ad variation in mainland China, a window will appear on the Ads dashboard, asking you if you’d like to upload any documentation for review and approval.

To submit documentation after you’ve created an ad, or after you’ve received a rejection notification, follow the instructions in the section below. Remember that the required documents must be sent by someone who holds the Account Admin or Account Finance role in your Apple Search Ads account. For ads based on custom product pages, creative authorization documentation approval status will appear as pending until an ad is created based on the relevant custom page.

Understand the Documents page

The Documents page exists within your Account Settings. On the Documents page, you can access the Files tab which contains all of your uploaded documents, and the Requests tab which displays the approval status of each app or business you’ve submitted.

Add new documents on the Files tab

  1. Make sure you’ve linked your Apple Search Ads account to your App Store Connect account before you begin.

  2. Click the Add Files button.

  3. Drag and drop or upload your documents from your computer. You can upload PDF, PNG, or JPEG files of up to 10 MB.

  4. When a document finishes uploading, you’ll see a thumbnail of it, along with fields to complete:

    • Enter a name for the document.
    • Choose the document type from the menu. If this document pertains to your business or self, choose Entity. If it pertains to one or more of your apps, or to your default product page on the App Store, choose Industry Qualification. If it pertains to a custom product page being used for a Today tab ad or search results ad variation, choose Creative Authorization. If you choose to upload an Entity document, you’ll skip the next step.
    • Select one or more associated apps from the menu. Note that apps will not appear as options if the App Store Connect account associated with them isn’t linked to your Apple Ads account. If you choose Creative Authorization as your document type, you’ll only see apps that also have approved custom product pages associated with them.
    • If you’re uploading creative authorization documentation for a Today tab ad or search results ad variation, choose a custom product page from the menu.
    • Select an expiration date for the document or check the No Expiration Date box.
    • Add any additional information that might help with the review of the document.

  5. If you make a mistake and upload a document you didn’t intend to, you can delete it by clicking the trash can icon in the upper right of its information card. You won’t be able to delete documents after you click the Save button.

  6. Click Save. The document you added will appear within the Files tab.

If you upload a document for an app, business, or default or custom product page that already has a pending approval request, you’ll receive a prompt asking if the new document should be added to the request. New documents associated with apps, businesses, or default or custom product pages that are already approved will not change the status of the approval. If one of the documents associated with an app, business, or default or custom product page review is expiring, you can upload a new document to be included with that review.

Edit a document’s related information

  1. Click the checkbox next to the document with the information you want to edit.
  2. Choose Edit Document Information from the Actions menu.
  3. Make any necessary edits to the document name, type, associated apps, custom product page, expiration date, or comments.
  4. Click Save.

Note that if you edit a document for an approved app or business, it may prompt a new review.

Request approval from the Files tab

  1. Click the checkboxes next to one or more documents you want to include with your app, business, or default or custom product page documentation approval request.
  2. From the Actions menu, choose Request Approval.
  3. Confirm the entities and/or apps associated with the documents you want to approve.
  4. Click the Request Approval button.

The documents you submitted for approval will appear on the Requests page according to their associated app, business, or custom product page.

View pending approvals on the Requests tab

The Requests tab on the Documents page shows you all of the following, organized by business, app, or custom product page name:

  • The approval status of each documentation approval related to your business, app, or custom product page (Pending, Approved, Rejected, or Expired).

  • The date that the approval request for each business, app, or custom product page was last modified.

  • All documents associated with each app, business or custom product page.

  • Notes for reviewers.

By hovering over each approval status, you can see the reason for the status. Rejection reasons include: Documents Missing, Documents Unreadable, Documents Expired, App Content Rejected, Business Profile Mismatch, and Document(s) Rejected.

Request approval from the Requests tab

  1. Click the Request Approval button.
  2. Select whether you want to approve a business or app, or a custom product page, then click Next. If requesting approval of a default product page, select Business or App.
  3. Select the business entities, apps, or custom product pages you’d like to submit for approval, then click Next.
  4. Select the documents you want to include in your approval request, then click Next. If you don’t want to include documents, simply click Next.
  5. Verify your information, then click the Request Approval button.

The apps, business entities, or custom product pages you submitted for approval will appear on the Requests page.

Campaign hold reasons related to
document approval

In the Campaigns dashboard of your account, you can check the status of each of your campaigns. If you have campaigns set to run in mainland China, you may see the following hold reasons upon hovering over a campaign status:

  • Approval Pending: The app or business you submitted for approval is under review. You can continually check your approval status on the Documents page of your Account Settings.

  • Approval Needed: You haven’t requested approval for your app or business. Approval is needed for both before your campaigns can run on the App Store in mainland China.

  • Document Expired: One of the documents related to your app or business has expired. You’ll need to upload a new document to process your approval request.

  • Approval Rejected: Your app or business was reviewed and rejected.

  • App Pending Review: Your app is currently under review, or you’ve updated information associated with one of the documents for your app and it is being reviewed.

You may also see a Pending Approval warning icon appear in the Country or Region column on the Campaigns dashboard if you’ve set your campaign to run in multiple countries or regions and one of them is mainland China. Your campaign will run in the other countries and regions and will start in mainland China as soon as your app and business have been approved.

Ad hold reasons related to
document approval

The custom product pages used for certain Today tab ads and search results ad variations may require creative authorization documentation to run in mainland China. Because of this, if you hover over a rejected ad’s status on the Ads dashboard, you may see “Document issues” noted with a link to to Learn More or Go to Documents.