Advanced | Payments

Payment methods

Your Apple Search Ads campaign won’t run until your account includes a valid payment method. You can add your credit card on the Billing page during the campaign setup process.

If a charge to your credit card is declined for any reason, we’ll pause your campaigns and attempt to charge the same credit card again within 48 hours of the declined transaction. If you add a replacement credit card to your account, we’ll charge the replacement credit card within 24 hours from the time the credit card information is updated. Once the transaction is authorised, your ads will become eligible to appear in App Store search results again.

Note that if you plan to run ads on the App Store in multiple countries and regions, you should notify your credit card company to ensure that there won’t be any issues processing foreign transactions. Depending on where your ads run, you may see up to five different charges on your summary from five separate Apple billing entities.

In addition, as of September 2019, European legislation may require your bank to authenticate an online credit card transaction if your credit card is issued by a bank located in the European Economic Area. If so, you’ll be redirected to your bank to authenticate and complete the transaction. By saving your credit card information, you agree that subsequent payments made towards your Apple Search Ads account may be initiated and charged by Apple. Such payments will be initiated and charged in accordance with the Apple Search Ads Terms of Service and the payment methods found here.

Which currencies are supported

You can set the currency for your Apple Search Ads account to any of the following:

Australian dollar (AUD)
British pound (GBP)
Canadian dollar (CAD)
Euro (EUR)
Japanese yen (JPY)
Mexican peso (MXN)
New Zealand dollar (NZD)
US dollar (USD)

All bidding and billing activity will occur in the currency that you select.

Note that you can select only one currency per account, and once it’s set you can’t change it.

Which types of cards are considered valid payment methods

Apple Search Ads accepts Visa, Mastercard (including Apple Card) and American Express.

When you use Apple Card as your payment method for Apple Search Ads, you get 3% Daily Cash back. Apple Card is currently available to qualifying applicants in the United States. Learn more.

PIN-less and PIN-optional Visa and Mastercard debit cards are also accepted. Note that at this time, we cannot accept Maestro, Visa Plus or Visa Electron brands. Your debit card daily spending limit must be able to cover your campaign charges.

Cards from the following countries are not valid forms of payment: Austria, Chile, Cuba, Ghana, Hungary, Iran, Mauritius, North Korea, the Philippines and Singapore.

Other invalid forms of payment include pre-paid cards, gift cards – including those branded Visa, Mastercard and American Express – cash machine cards and digital wallets such as PayPal and Venmo.

Apple Search Ads doesn’t charge fees for credit card transactions, but credit card operators may charge you foreign transaction fees. Please contact your credit card provider regarding when foreign transaction fees apply. Apple Search Ads will not reimburse or issue credits for charged foreign transaction fees.

How to add or change a credit card

To update a payment method:

Click your account name at the top right of the page.
Click Settings.
Go to the Billing page.
Click on "Edit Card".
Enter your new credit card information, and save it.

Note that you may have only one active credit card at a time for your account. You can change your credit card information only three times within a 24-hour period.

How the billing cycle works

Apple Search Ads campaign charges will occur every $500 (US) spent, or every seven days, whichever comes first. When you reach the billing threshold, you’ll receive an email notification at the email address you specified when you set up your credit card. You can also view and download your invoices on the Billing page.

Note that campaigns set up for multiple countries and regions may appear on more than one invoice or as more than one line item on an invoice, depending on the country or region where the ads run and the corresponding Apple billing entity. For example, a campaign that includes France and Japan will appear on invoices from Apple Distribution International and iTunes K.K.

You may want to generate custom reports that break down campaigns by country or region and billing entity to compare with your invoices. When creating custom reports for this purpose, set the time zone to UTC to match your invoice, and use the following:

Dimensions: Campaign ID, Campaign Name, Country or Region, Budget Order Number and Billing Entity
Metrics: Spend and Taps

How paused campaigns affect billing

Pausing campaigns doesn’t delete your account or credit card information. The payment information you added to your account remains secure while your campaigns are paused, and will not be charged until your campaigns are reactivated.

How to review your transaction history

If you pay by credit card, you can sign in to your account and review transaction details anytime. Here’s how:

Click your account name at the top right of the page.
Click Settings.
Go to the Billing page.
Go to the Invoices section of the page.
Click the specific invoice you’d like to see.

A list of transactions will appear, identifying the campaign and campaign ID the transactions occurred under, along with the number of taps received and the amount billed to your account.