Search popularity
Search popularity is the only volume signal Apple gives advertisers for App Store queries. It tells you roughly how big a term is, not how many people search it or whether they will pay.
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When you plan Apple Ads keywords, the first question is whether anyone actually searches for a term. Apple does not publish search counts. Instead, it shows a popularity score for search terms, and Adapty Ads Manager reports it as Search popularity (current) in its Insights metrics.
How the 1–5 scale works
Search popularity (current) is the popularity of search terms based on country or region. The ranking is 1–5, with 5 being the highest search volume. A few points follow from that definition.
- It is relative, not absolute. A 5 means a term is among the most searched in that storefront, not that it has a specific number of searches.
- It is per country or region. The same term can score 5 in one storefront and 2 in another, so check it in every market you plan to run.
- It is current. Popularity moves with seasons, news and trends, so a score from last quarter may not describe today.
- It is coarse. Five buckets cover everything from niche queries to category head terms, so two terms with the same score can differ a lot in real volume.
Using search popularity in keyword research
Popularity works best as a filter and a sorting key, combined with relevance and your own performance data.
- Build a candidate list from your brand, your category, competitor names and search terms that already brought taps through broad match or Search Match.
- Check popularity for each term in each target country. Very low scores are unlikely to deliver enough impressions for exact-match bidding to matter.
- Weigh popularity against relevance. A popular term that does not describe what your app does will get impressions and taps from people who never subscribe.
- Start high-popularity generic terms with a controlled bid. They usually attract the most competition, so the price of a tap is higher.
- Keep low-popularity, high-intent terms. Long, specific queries often convert to trials better than head terms, and together they can add up to meaningful volume.
Reading popularity alongside other metrics
Popularity tells you the size of a term. Impression share tells you how much of its paid visibility you already get, and rank tells you where you stand against other apps. Together they answer whether a term is worth pursuing and whether you have room to grow on it. A high-popularity term with low impression share is an opportunity only if the traffic converts.
From popularity to payback
For a subscription app, keyword research does not end at volume. Once a term runs, judge it on cost per trial, cost per subscription and cohort ROAS. Popularity helps you choose what to test. Your own revenue data decides what to keep.
Related terms: impression share, share of voice, Search Match and discovery campaign.