Incipia blog

AppTweak Assimilates Apple’s Search Ad Search Popularity Score

Gabe Kwakyi | October 3, 2023

September and October are shaping up to be a couple of the biggest months of updates for iOS app marketers yet. In addition to making search ads available for advertisers to set up campaigns on 9/28 (ads won't go live until Wednesday, 10/5), Apple has also bestowed an immensely valuable data point for app marketers: a 1-100 index score indicative of a keyword's search volume termed "search popularity."

The downside to only receiving a 1-100 index score vs an actual search number is that it prevents forecasting potential changes in searches/installs by swapping keywords around, and there will be cases of ties in search popularity, such as "daily calendar" and "task" below.

It's worth noting that Apple vis-a-vis AppTweak records "tasks" as volume 33, vs "task" as volume 37 (tasks not pictured below). We'll do a more in-depth comparison of search differences between similar keyword variants (e.g. spacing vs non-spacing, plurals vs singulars, root vs extended words) and auto-fill vs related searches soon.



Previously, ASO tools such as AppTweak provided their own flavor of estimation for helping app marketers to figure out . AppTweak's documentation of its previous search volume score indicates search volume factors included:

  • "Keywords density in app titles, descriptions and reviews from all apps.
  • The level of popularity and usage of the keyword in the language.
  • The exact mobile web search volume.
  • Hints provided by Apple and Google.
  • The amount of keywords combined in key phrases.
  • Keyword’s length."
Also new(er) in AppTweak's repertoire of improved ASO features is the ability to see not just auto-fill results, but also the related searches for a popular keyword.



Nice job, AppTweak team on being first to market with this big update!

The Bottom Line: Apple's continued commitment to improving the app store experience continues by beating Google to market with a 1st party indicator of app store keyword search volume; AppTweak beats other ASO tools to market in surfacing this data for marketers.

Original Source: Laurie Galazzo of AppTweak

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Incipia is a mobile app development and marketing agency that builds and markets apps for companies, with a specialty in high-quality code architecture and keyword-based marketing optimizations. For blog/video or speaking requests, business or press inquiries please contact us or send an inquiry to hello@incipia.co.