Apple Ads Basic vs Advanced: Which Should You Use?

Name: Intent+
Rating: 4.8 (32 reviews)

By Intent+ Team · July 5, 2026 · 8 min read · Playbook

Apple sells two ways to advertise on the App Store, and the names undersell how different they are. Basic hands the wheel to Apple. Advanced hands it to you. Choosing wrong means either drowning in controls you don't need, or capping the growth you could have had.

Two Products, One Auction

Both products bid into the same App Store auction and both charge per tap. What changes is how much you decide versus how much Apple decides. Basic is automatic; Advanced is manual with full control over keywords, bids, and negatives.

What Apple Ads Basic Gives You

Basic is built for speed and simplicity. You choose the app, set a monthly budget and a target cost per install, and Apple handles the rest. There are no keywords to manage and no bids to tune. The trade-off: no visibility into which keywords are working and a budget cap around $10,000/month.

What Advanced Unlocks

Advanced is the professional tool. You pick exact keywords, set a bid on each one, add negative keywords, build separate campaigns for brand, category, competitor and discovery, and run Custom Product Pages as ad variations. Every lever that moves ROAS lives here.

When to Graduate to Advanced

The signal is almost always the same: you start caring which keywords convert, you bump into the budget cap, or your cost per install plateaus with no lever to pull. That is the moment Basic stops serving you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Apple Ads Basic free? What is the budget limit? Can I run both? Does Basic let me choose keywords? Which is better for a solo developer?