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Airbridge supports cost integration with Apple Ads. Only the Owner and In-house marketer users can set up the cost integration and access the cost data. To enable cost integration, the Campaign Management API integration must be completed. If you are unable to use Apple’s Campaign Management API, refer to this article to learn about how to manually upload ad spend data to Airbridge.
NoteApple’s Campaign Management API is available only to those using Apple Ads Advanced. If you are using Apple Ads Basic, you can’t use the Campaign Management API.Without the Campaign Management API integration, Airbridge won’t be able to fetch the campaign name, ad group name, keyword, and ad creative name. Moreover, cost integration cannot be enabled without the Campaign Management API integration.Check your Apple Ads solution before proceeding with the integration process.

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Cost Integration Setup

  1. Navigate to [Integration]>[Ad Channel Integration]>[Apple Ads], select the [Cost Integration] tab, and switch on the cost integration toggle.
  2. Click Add an account and log in to your Apple account. The account must be an admin account and have a recent history of campaign operation.
Login error troubleshootingYou may experience a login error when trying to log in to 2 different Apple accounts within a single browser. To avoid this error, clear the cache before logging in to a new Apple account.
  1. After logging in, grant access permission to Airbridge by choosing “Account Read Only” to allow Airbridge access data from all campaign groups of the Apple account.
  2. The integrated campaign groups will appear on the list when the integration is complete.

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Managing Cost Integration

Turn off the toggle to pause the integration. Airbridge stops collecting cost data once the integration is paused.Any data collected before the pause remains available in Airbridge reports.Airbridge retains the credentials of the integrated account, so you can resume the integration at any time by turning the toggle on. However, deleting the integrated account removes these credentials.
Select the account from the integrated account list and click Delete to remove the account. To re-integrate the account after deletion, set up the integration from the beginning.
Click Add a campaign group below the integration list and log in to a new Apple Ads account to connect new campaign groups to Airbridge. The Apple Ads accounts should run campaigns promoting the same app.

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Integration status

You can view the current status of your connections in the status column. Even if you have completed the cost integration, the status will show “Waiting” until the cost data is actually imported to Airbridge.
  • Frequency: Every 4 hours, 6 times a day, starting at 3:00 PM UTC
  • Import times: 3:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 11:00 PM, 3:00 AM, 7:00 AM, 11:00 AM UTC
  • Data range: Current day (D-0) to 6 days ago (D-6)
[Last Updated] shows the last time Airbridge actually received the data.

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Reporting

The cost data imported from Apple Ads via cost integration can be viewed in the Actuals Report and Trend Report at the campaign level or ad group level. The following metrics and GroupBys can be used for report configuration.
Difference between Clicks and Clicks (Channel)Both Clicks and Clicks (Channel) show click count, but the data source differs:
  • Clicks: Collected through Airbridge tracking links
  • Clicks (Channel): Provided by the ad channel
Any metric with (Channel) in its name represents data provided by the integrated ad channel. The same applies to Impressions and Impressions (Channel).
NoteUse the groupBys below to break down cost data in Airbridge reports. Available groupBys vary by ad channel.
Touchpoint
Device
Event Datetime

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Attention

Airbridge pulls the cost data from the past 7 days, every 4 hours, 6 times a day starting at 3:00 PM (UTC). As the updates are not real-time, there may be data discrepancies between Airbridge and the ad channel, depending on the time of reporting.
The data pulled via cost integration is provided by the app time zone and app standard currency set within Airbridge.To minimize data discrepancy, align your app’s currency and time zone settings in your Airbridge dashboard and your ad channel’s dashboard.
The Cost (Channel) metric, which shows your ad spend reported by the ad channel, displays value only when used with specific GroupBys.Below are the GroupBys that can be used in the Actuals Report to view data with the metric:
  • Channel
  • Campaign
  • Ad Group
  • Ad Creative
Depending on the data reported, the metric may not display any value even if you use the GroupBys above.
Once the cost integration is enabled, the following campaign details are advised not to be edited to avoid any error in pulling data into Airbridge.
  • Campaign name
  • Ad group
  • Ad creative name
  • If you do not enter a campaign group name in Apple Ads, the [Campaign Group (Campaign Group ID)] column will be blank.
  • Keywords, or search terms, from Search Match are not provided as Apple Ads does not share them. This applies to Maximize Conversions search results campaigns as well, since they use Search Match by default and Term IDs are not shared. See the Apple Ads documentation for more details.