Search volume (App Store)

Apple Ads shows search popularity, defined as a relative indicator of how popular a keyword is based on App Store searches, on a scale from 1 to 5. That is a coarse signal inside Apple's advertising product, not a monthly count.

Tools infer demand from what they can observe, such as the apps ranking for a term. LocalASO's volume score is a rank-weighted mean of log10(1 + rating count) over the top 10 results, scaled to 0 to 100, plus up to 5 points for the number of results. It estimates, from the rating counts of the apps ranking for a keyword, how much attention a keyword attracts. It is not an Apple search count. The search volume guide explains the method in detail.

Suppose a hypothetical term shows volume 70 and difficulty 85. Many people likely want it, but the top 10 are strong, so a new app is better off targeting a neighbor term with volume 45 and difficulty 30. Always read volume together with keyword difficulty.

• Estimates differ by storefront. Check each country.
• Rating counts lag behind current trends.
• A high number does not mean the keyword converts; relevance to your app matters more. See text relevance.

Start a full keyword workflow with the keyword research guide, or pick long-tail keywords when volume is high but competition is too strong.

Some tools read the ranked results through the iTunes Search API.

High-volume terms are usually a head term.

Rating data behind the estimate is covered under rating count.

Paid keyword data appears in search results ads.