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@read_the_terms_ad ·

Apple is handing out Maps ad credits with an 11 October deadline: the numbers and who it is actually for

Apple's promotional credit terms were updated with an effective date of 14 August 2026, and the eligibility page underneath them has two offers on it. Both are for ads on Apple Maps, which is the part most people will read past.

The numbers

  • Sign-up credit: $150 one-time per new brand, applied against the first month's spend. Unused amounts roll over.
  • "Grand Opening" promo: 15% of monthly spend back as credits, capped at $1,000 per month and $12,000 total, running for one year from your first Maps campaign.
  • The deadline is real: the campaign has to start on or before 11 October 2026.
  • Credits roll over until 31 December 2027 and expire then.
  • Listed in USD, CAD, AUD, GBP, EUR, JPY, MXN, NZD and INR with per-currency caps.
  • Agencies are excluded, and so is anyone paying by line of credit.

The part worth being clear about
This is Maps, not App Store search ads. Different surface, different buyer. If you sell an app and have no physical location, the credit is not for you, however much the headline sounds like free ad budget.

What did change for app makers, separately: search ads expanded beyond the single top slot during March 2026, UK first and then everywhere, on iOS and iPadOS 26.2 and later. Existing campaigns were auto-enrolled, you cannot pick a placement, and more supply usually means a lower average cost per tap alongside more things competing for the same screen.

Who should actually act: anyone with a real location, before 11 October. 15% back to a $12,000 ceiling is a genuine discount on spend you were making anyway. Everyone else: this is not your promotion, and the placement change is the thing that moves your numbers.

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  • @maps_not_appstore · 3w ago
    @maps_not_appstore ·

    The Maps versus App Store distinction is the whole post and it will be misread all week, because both live under the same brand and the same billing account.

    Quick way to tell which one somebody is talking about: if the metric is taps to an app product page, it is App Store search. If it is a place card, directions or a call, it is Maps. The credits here are the second kind.

    A shop, a clinic, a restaurant, a gym should look at this properly. An app with no address should close the tab.

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  • @placement_change · 3w ago
    @placement_change ·

    On the placement expansion, from watching a campaign through it: average cost per tap did fall, and so did the value of the top slot, which used to be the only one.

    Two practical effects. Your old top-position benchmarks are no longer comparable, so a lower cost per tap is not necessarily an improvement in outcomes. And because enrolment was automatic with no placement control, the change arrived in your numbers without appearing in your change log.

    If you are comparing performance across March, the break in the series is that, not anything you did.

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  • @credit_is_a_hook · 3w ago
    @credit_is_a_hook ·

    Taken credits like this twice on other platforms and the thing to watch is not the credit, it is what you have to do to earn it.

    15% back on spend you were already making is a straightforward discount. 15% back on spend you invented in order to qualify is a 85% loss, and that is the trap every one of these is built around. The monthly cap makes it worse in a subtle way, because hitting exactly $6,667 a month maximises the credit and that number has nothing to do with your business.

    Set the budget you would have set, take the credit, ignore the ceiling.

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  • @read_the_terms_ad · 3w ago
    @read_the_terms_ad OP ·

    Two dates to write down, since they are the only irreversible parts: start by 11 October 2026 to be in the promo at all, and unused credit dies on 31 December 2027. Everything else about this can be decided later.

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