AppLovin Ads Manager: Every Screen Explained (2026 Walkthrough)

AppLovin Ads Manager is the self-serve dashboard where you run AppLovin Ads: you log in, fund the account on prepay, connect Shopify under Integrations, check your events in Events Manager, build campaigns with a ROAS, CPP or CPL goal, upload Creative Sets, and read reporting. It used to be called Axon Ads Manager. On June 22, 2026, AppLovin renamed the platform AppLovin Ads and kept Axon as the name of the AI underneath it.

This page is the map of the tool: where each thing lives and what it controls. If you want the strategy (which goal to pick, how much to spend, when to scale), that is in how AppLovin works for advertisers. This guide covers the screens.

A note on labels. AppLovin changes its interface often, and it was renamed three months ago. Menu labels below follow AppLovin’s Support Center as of September 2026. If a label on your screen differs, AppLovin has moved it since.

The short version

Area	What it controls	Check this first
Login / sign-up	Access to the account	No referral code is needed since June 22, 2026
Account settings	Billing, security, users	Prepay funded, backup card added, 2FA on, agency invited at the right access level
Integrations	Shopify connection	App installed and the AppLovin App embed enabled
Events Manager	Pixel events and purchase history	Purchase events arriving with value; order history uploaded if you plan Prospecting or Discovery
Campaigns	Goal, audience strategy, day target, geography, budget	Goal set from your margin, not from a number that sounds good
Creative Sets	What the ad actually shows	At least one 9:16 video and one Interactive Page per set
Media Library	Your uploaded videos, images and HTML files	Asset-level clicks and spend, not asset-level ROAS
Reporting	Results against the goal	Which attribution mode is active before you compare periods

Axon Ads Manager or AppLovin Ads Manager? Same tool, new name

If you learned this platform in late 2025 or early 2026, you learned it as Axon Ads Manager. AppLovin launched self-serve in October 2025 on a referral basis under the Axon name. On June 22, 2026, CEO Adam Foroughi announced that the platform was open to every advertiser and would be called AppLovin Ads. In his words, “Axon remains the name of our AI recommendation system” (AppLovin).

So:

• AppLovin Ads is the platform and the dashboard you log in to.
• Axon is the model that decides which impressions to buy for your goal.
• An “Axon Ads Manager” tutorial is describing the same tool. Some menus may have moved since it was recorded.

The full naming history, including AppDiscovery and MAX, is in Is Axon AppLovin?.

AppLovin Ads login and sign-up

When we searched “applovin ads manager” on September 27, 2026 (US, signed out), the first organic result was ads.applovin.com. That is the domain to bookmark. New accounts sign up at ads.applovin.com/auth/signup with an email and password, and existing users log in from ads.applovin.com.

Two things about getting in:

1. You no longer need a referral code. AppLovin’s June 22 announcement says any business can sign up with no relationship and no referral code. If you have seen offers tied to referral links, read do you still need a referral code first. One example: the “$5K credits after $5K spend” offer is advertised by third parties with referral links. We did not find its terms on an AppLovin page, so confirm them inside AppLovin before you count on them.
2. Account creation asks for business information. AppLovin’s Creating an account page covers the steps. Use a company email the business controls, not a freelancer’s personal address. You will be adding other users later, and the owner login should stay with the brand.

AppLovin Ads account settings: billing, security and user access

This is the part people skip. Then an agency cannot get in, or delivery pauses on a Saturday because the balance ran out.

WKND’s onboarding checklist for this step is one line: “New accounts use prepay. Add a backup card and 2FA, then invite WKND with the needed access level.” Here is what each piece means in the UI.

AppLovin Ads billing: how prepay works

New accounts run on prepay: you add funds first and campaigns spend from that balance. Billing sits under your account name in the top-right corner, in Payment & billing (AppLovin billing). AppLovin charges the card at 0:00 UTC for the next day’s budget and returns unused funds to your balance around 03:00 UTC.

• Fund enough for the test you planned. AppLovin says you can launch with a budget as low as $10/day (AppLovin). That is the platform floor, not a test plan. Size the balance to the test you actually intend to run.
• Add a backup card. Do it on day one, not after the first failed charge. AppLovin recommends one or two backup cards so a failed charge doesn’t disrupt campaign delivery.
• Know who gets billing emails. If the balance notice goes to someone who left the company, you find out from the reporting.

AppLovin’s official YouTube channel has a video called “AppLovin Ads Billing”. Watch it alongside your own screen, since billing settings are the part of any ad account most likely to change.

Two-factor authentication

Turn on 2FA for the owner login before you invite anyone else. Click your user profile in the top right (your email initials) and select Two-factor authentication (2FA); you can use SMS or an authenticator app (AppLovin 2FA). An ad account holding a prepaid balance and a live pixel is worth protecting like a bank login.

User access: inviting an agency or teammate

Invite people as users. Do not share the owner’s password. Open the account menu (your account name) and select Manage members, then Invite new user. You add someone by email with an access level and an access expiration date, and you can change both later (AppLovin: Adding users).

A practical rule: give the agency the access it needs to build campaigns, upload creative and read reporting. Keep ownership and billing control with the brand unless you have agreed otherwise in writing.

Account settings checklist

• ☐ Owner login on a company email
• ☐ Prepay balance funded for the planned test
• ☐ Backup card added
• ☐ 2FA on for the owner
• ☐ Agency or teammates invited as users at the right access level
• ☐ Billing notifications going to someone who reads them

Integrations: connecting Shopify from inside the dashboard

AppLovin documents two ways to connect a Shopify store (AppLovin Support):

1. From Shopify: install the AppLovin app from the Shopify App Store → Connect existing account → Connect → Enable Theme Extension → confirm the AppLovin App embed is enabled → Save.
2. From AppLovin Ads Manager: click your account name → Integrations → Connect Shopify → Go to Shopify App Store, then finish the same steps in Shopify.

Headless Shopify stores may not have the theme extension available. AppLovin’s flow offers “Continue without theme extension” for that case, and the implementation then needs more care. Non-Shopify sites install the AppLovin Pixel through Google Tag Manager.

The Integrations area is also where third-party measurement tools connect. AppLovin lists partners including Northbeam, Triple Whale, Measured and others (AppLovin Support). Connect yours before launch so the UTMs are in place from the first click.

The step-by-step implementation, pixel validation and catalog setup are in the AppLovin Shopify integration checklist. This section only tells you where the button is.

Events Manager: prove the data before you spend

Events Manager is where you see what the pixel is actually sending. AppLovin’s launch checklist uses it as the pre-launch check: confirm that all required events display in Events Manager. Two jobs happen here.

1. Confirm events are arriving. AppLovin’s setup guidance tells advertisers to use the Pixel Helper and Events Manager to verify events before launch. WKND’s list of what to validate: “required ecommerce events, purchase value, item data, transaction IDs, AppLovin click parameters, and server-event deduplication.” A tag that exists is not a tag that works. Place a test order and look for it.

2. Upload purchase history. The Prospecting and Discovery audience strategies need enough historical purchase data for the engine to tell new customers from returning ones. You supply it either through the Shopify integration or by uploading order history in Events Manager. The upload is a CSV (up to 200 MB per file, uploaded directly or by SFTP) with exact headers: country_code, currency, email, event_name, event_timestamp, transaction_id, user_id and value (order history data). If you skip this, you may find those audience options unavailable or underpowered when you build the campaign.

Campaigns: the fields you set and what each one changes

AppLovin’s web setup guidance says most advertisers start with one campaign (AppLovin). The builder asks for a name, landing page URL, tracking, optimization type, audience strategy, day target, geography, budget and Creative Sets. Field labels below follow AppLovin’s web setup guide.

Field	Options	What it changes
Optimization type (goal)	ROAS · Cost per purchase (CPP) · Cost per lead (CPL)	What the engine is trying to hit. ROAS is entered as a percentage, so a 2x target is 200%
Audience strategy	Universal · Prospecting · Discovery	Which buyers count. Universal values all purchases; Prospecting, net-new customers; Discovery, people who have never visited your site
Day target	Day 0 · Day 7	The conversion window the model optimizes toward. Day 0 is the first 24 hours; Day 7 suits longer consideration cycles
Geography	Countries you can serve	Where delivery can happen. AppLovin recommends going broad across markets you ship to
Budget	Daily amount	The spend ceiling. The goal still caps delivery at the price the engine can hit
Creative Sets	One or more sets	What people see (next section)

Two interface habits save a lot of confusion:

• Name campaigns so the goal and audience are readable in the list, for example US_ROAS200_Prospecting_D0. You will be reading this table in reporting every day.
• Budget changes reset at 12:00 AM UTC. AppLovin recommends making larger budget changes then. For a Pacific-time team, that is late afternoon.

What this table does not tell you is which goal, audience or day target to choose for your business. That is a strategy decision, covered step by step in how AppLovin works for advertisers. WKND’s short version: “Set the target from contribution margin and CAC”.

Creative Sets and the Media Library

Creative Sets: the minimum

A Creative Set is the bundle the ad is built from. WKND’s rule: “Each Creative Set needs at least one 9:16 video and one Interactive Page.” AppLovin’s documentation sets the floor at one video plus one interactive or image asset per set.

AppLovin’s web specs (AppLovin Support):

Asset	Spec
Video	Full-screen vertical 9:16 · MP4, MOV or M4V · max 1 GB · min 270×480 · max 60 s
Interactive Page (AIP)	The interactive screen after the video. Built from a portrait image (GIF, JPEG or PNG, max 10 MB, GIF up to 60 s, min 270×480) or an HTML file made in AppLovin’s Creative Studio

The video is unskippable for 5 seconds in interstitial placements and up to 60 seconds in rewarded placements (AppLovin). AppLovin encourages a mix of lengths, “ideally with a good selection of longer videos (30 seconds or more)”, plus captions for sound-off viewing.

Media Library: Images, HTMLs and Creative Studio

The Media Library holds every asset you upload. It separates assets into an Images tab and an HTMLs tab. HTML Interactive Pages are built in Creative Studio, AppLovin’s in-platform builder. You open it by clicking Create in the HTMLs tab of the Media library (ad specs).

The reporting catch: Media Library metrics are asset-level: impressions, clicks, CTR and spend. Revenue, ROAS and CPP are reported at the Creative Set level. So one asset that looks weak on clicks may still be doing work inside a set that converts. Do not pause assets off the Media Library view alone.

What makes the video and the Interactive Page work is its own topic: see AppLovin creative best practices.

Reporting in the AppLovin Ads Manager: which numbers to read

AppLovin’s guidance puts the numbers in two tiers (AppLovin).

Read first: is the campaign meeting its goal? ROAS against the ROAS target, CPP against the CPP target, CPL against the CPL goal.

Read second, as diagnostics: spend, impressions, clicks, CTR, CPM, new-customer data and the longer windows. AppLovin warns against treating CPM or CTR as success metrics on their own. A high-CPM day can be profitable. A high-CTR asset can be attention that never buys.

The windows. D0 covers the first 24 hours after the ad interaction. D7 covers a 192-hour window. D14 and D28 can appear for longer-term reads. AppLovin reports that “80% of web conversions happen within 24 hours of click”. That is AppLovin’s number, and it is why Day 0 is a common starting target.

The attribution caveat. AppLovin’s own documentation conflicts. One resource says attribution is click-based with no view-through. The Support Center’s Measurement and attribution page describes two reporting modes, Clicks and Clicks and views, and says switching changes reporting, not optimization, targeting or billing. Before you compare any two periods:

1. Check which mode your reporting uses: Clicks or Clicks and views (the latter adds conversions within one day of an ad view).
2. Write it down next to the date range.
3. Keep it the same for every comparison.
4. Reconcile against Shopify revenue and your third-party tool.

Platform ROAS is the engine’s scorecard, not your P&L. WKND’s rule is that “no channel earns scaled budget on its own reporting, Axon included”. How to test whether the spend is incremental is in AppLovin attribution and incrementality.

The AppLovin Preview app: see the ad on a phone first

AppLovin’s Preview app (iOS only) shows your creative on a device before it runs. The dashboard preview is a desktop approximation of a full-screen mobile ad. The Preview app is how you catch a caption hidden behind a button, an Interactive Page that loads slowly, or an end frame that crops badly. In the app, select your campaign and Creative Set, then Play Ad.

Use it on every new Creative Set, not just the first one.

The order to click through on day one

This is interface order, not strategy. It keeps you from building a campaign on an account that cannot deliver or measure.

1. Log in at ads.applovin.com and turn on 2FA.
2. Fund prepay and add a backup card.
3. Invite your team or agency as users.
4. Connect Shopify under Integrations, or install the Pixel via Google Tag Manager.
5. Place a test order and confirm it in Events Manager.
6. Upload purchase history if you plan Prospecting or Discovery.
7. Upload video and Interactive Page assets to the Media Library.
8. Preview on a phone with the Preview app.
9. Build the campaign and attach Creative Sets.
10. Note the attribution mode before reading your first report.

AppLovin’s consumer-brands page says you can “Go live in under an hour”, and its launch guide is a one-hour tutorial. That is achievable for the clicks. Validating the events and producing creative that fits the placement usually takes longer.

How WKND handles this

We run the account setup above as a service: Axon Ads Manager Setup & Onboarding. That means account and billing setup, Shopify or GTM tracking, event validation in Events Manager, purchase-history and catalog work, the first campaign’s goal set from your margin, and Creative Sets built to spec.

Some proof from our live AppLovin Axon ads management page:

• Speed: “Dude we were live in 5 days. That has to be a record lol” (Anand Dixit, Groomie).
• Volume: 5,000+ Creative Sets deployed, $5M+ Axon ad spend managed and 50+ Axon accounts since the platform opened.
• Approval: “Ok so we actually got approved?? After getting rejected twice on our own. I was not expecting that” (Amanda Zukerman, Dormify). Open rejections are one of the first things we check in a stuck account.
• Creative inside the set: “Those new end cards are sick!! CTR literally doubled” (Jenny Trinh, Daniel Patrick).
• Reading the reporting honestly: our case results are reported as NC D28 ROAS, the AppLovin Ads new-customer cohort metric at 28 days. For example, a footwear brand posted 3.52x NC D28 ROAS on $4,062.79 spend over an 18-day validation (August 14 to 31, 2026). That is an efficient validation result, not a scale case. Reporting is anonymized. Platform attribution can differ from blended or incrementality measurement, and results vary by account.

Who this fits: WKND is built for ecommerce brands prepared to invest at least $500 per day. That is WKND’s qualification threshold, not an AppLovin platform minimum or a performance guarantee.

If you would rather have the account built for you, see our AppLovin Ads setup service.

AppLovin Ads Manager FAQ

Is Axon Ads Manager the same as AppLovin Ads Manager?

Yes. It is the same self-serve platform. AppLovin launched it under the Axon name in October 2025 and renamed it AppLovin Ads on June 22, 2026. Axon is still the name of the AI recommendation system that powers it.

Where is the AppLovin Ads login?

Google’s top organic result for “applovin ads manager” on September 27, 2026 was ads.applovin.com. Log in there with the account’s user email. If you are an agency or teammate, ask the account owner to invite you as a user rather than sharing a password.

How do I create an AppLovin Ads account?

Sign up through AppLovin with your business information. Since June 22, 2026 you do not need a referral code or an existing AppLovin relationship. After the account exists, set up billing, 2FA and users, then connect tracking before you build a campaign.

How does AppLovin Ads billing work?

New accounts use prepay: you fund a balance and campaigns spend from it. Add a backup card and make sure billing notices reach someone who acts on them. AppLovin says you can launch with as little as $10/day, but that is the platform floor, not a test budget.

Where do I connect Shopify in AppLovin Ads Manager?

Click your account name, then Integrations, then Connect Shopify, which sends you to the Shopify App Store. You can also start from the AppLovin app in Shopify. Either way, confirm the AppLovin App embed is enabled in your theme.

What do I need in a Creative Set?

At least one 9:16 vertical video and one Interactive Page. Videos can be MP4, MOV or M4V, up to 60 seconds and 1 GB. The Interactive Page can be a portrait image or an HTML file built in AppLovin’s Creative Studio.

Which numbers should I read in AppLovin reporting?

Start with whether the campaign hits its goal (ROAS, CPP or CPL). Treat CPM, CTR and clicks as diagnostics. Check whether reporting is set to Clicks or Clicks and views before comparing periods, and reconcile against Shopify and your third-party tool.

Can I preview AppLovin ads on my phone?

Yes. AppLovin’s Preview app, which is iOS only, shows creatives on a device before they run. Use it for every new Creative Set to catch cropping, hidden captions and slow Interactive Pages.

Get the account set up right the first time

If your AppLovin Ads account is already live and something looks off (spend stuck, events you do not trust, rejections you cannot explain), start with a review.

GET AN AXON ACCOUNT REVIEW → GOAL HISTORY · FEED AND EVENT HEALTH · CREATIVE FATIGUE · INCREMENTALITY READINESS. WRITTEN FINDINGS INSIDE FIVE BUSINESS DAYS.

Opening a new account instead? Our setup and onboarding service handles billing, tracking, events and the first Creative Sets.

Sources

Checked September 27, 2026. Platform details change; re-verify before relying on them.

1. AppLovin Ads is now open to all advertisers, AppLovin, June 22, 2026.
2. Creating an account, AppLovin Support.
3. Shopify integration, AppLovin Support.
4. Ad specs and requirements (web), AppLovin Support.
5. AppLovin Ads for consumer brands, AppLovin.
6. Launch guide, AppLovin.
7. Setting up a campaign (Web), AppLovin.
8. Third-party integrations, AppLovin Support.
9. Introducing Discovery Campaigns, AppLovin, February 25, 2026.
10. Optimizing your campaign, AppLovin.
11. Analyzing campaign performance, AppLovin.
12. Measurement and attribution, AppLovin Support.
13. AppLovin Axon Ads Manager Agency, WKND.