Apple Business setup for Apple Maps ads

You cannot advertise on Apple Maps until your business exists properly inside Apple Business. Nobody looks forward to this step and everybody underestimates it.

It also sets your launch date. So do it first, and do it carefully.

What Apple Business is

The free hub that controls how your brand appears in Apple Maps, Wallet, Siri and Apple's other apps. Your business information, your claimed locations and your advertising permissions all live here.

If you used Apple Business Connect, you already have this. It became Apple Business in April 2026 and accounts moved across. Sign in rather than creating a duplicate.

Step 1: Create or sign in to the account

Supply your company details and accept the terms. The first user to set up the organisation is the one who accepts them, so use a login that belongs to the business, not a personal one that might walk out the door.

Have your legal business name, address, phone number and website ready.

Step 2: Claim every location

Claim more than you think you need. Campaigns can later target all locations, specific ones or rule-based groups, but only claimed and verified locations can advertise at all.

Add locations one at a time inside Apple Business, or in bulk through the Apple Business Partner API if you have many.

Step 3: Verify, and pick the fast method

This is the timeline step.

• Phone verification is instant.
• Every other method can take up to 5 business days.

If the location has a working phone number listed, use it. Instant versus a business week is launching this afternoon versus next Tuesday, and it compounds across locations.

Check each address before you submit. A bounced verification costs another cycle.

Step 4: Build the place card

Apple's guidance is explicit: your photos may be used in your ads. A weak place card makes a weak ad. This is not cosmetic.

At least three photos. Cover:

• The exterior, so people recognise the place when they arrive.
• The interior, so they know what they are walking into.
• The product, whatever you sell.

Also set your logo, a cover photo, the actions you want customers to take, and accurate hours and category. "Open till 7 PM" next to your name does quiet persuasion work every time your listing appears.

Take the photos properly or pay someone. This is the creative for every ad you will run, and you make it once.

Step 5: Decide who runs the ads

You run them. Go to the Apple Ads website, choose Apple Maps, select Get started. Sign in with a Global Admin or Ads Admin from your Apple Business organisation. Link your brands, accept the terms, complete Business Details including tax information, add a payment method.

A partner runs them. In Apple Business, as an Organization or Marketing Administrator: Settings, then Integrations, then Partner Access, then Share Access. Enter the partner's Organization ID, select Ads on Maps, choose which brands they may manage, send the invitation. Access is per brand and you can withdraw it any time.

If you want to be invoiced directly rather than billed through the agency, create your own Apple Ads account and invite the agency in.

A note on payment method

To claim Apple's launch credit, the campaign must be paid by credit card. Invoicing disqualifies you. Decide before you configure billing.

Where this goes wrong

• Duplicate organisations. Someone creates a second account because they could not find the first. Search before you create.
• The admin has left. Recovering an organisation is not a same-day task. Check who holds the roles now.
• Photos that do not exist. Three per location sounds trivial until you have eleven locations and no photographer.
• Unverified locations found late. People verify the flagship, forget the other four, and find out during campaign setup.
• Address mismatches. Small inconsistencies cost you a verification cycle.

Most of what we do for founding clients in week one is this list, done in parallel across every location.

What done looks like

• Every location you may want to advertise is claimed and verified.
• Every place card has a logo, a cover photo and at least three real photos.
• Hours, category and contact details are correct everywhere.
• Someone who still works at the company holds the admin role.
• Billing is set up the way your credit eligibility requires.

From there, campaign creation takes minutes. The whole path, end to end.

Sources

Account setup, location claiming, verification timing, place card guidance, partner delegation and Apple Ads linking come from Apple's published advertiser and agency guidance for ads on Apple Maps, as of August 2026.