Apple Search Ads
Apple Search Ads is Apple's paid advertising platform for the App Store, allowing developers to bid on keywords to display their app at the top of search results.
Apple Search Ads (ASA) serves ads at the top of App Store search results pages. When a user searches a keyword, the winning bid for that term gets a sponsored placement above the organic results. Developers set bids per keyword, and Apple runs a second-price auction — the winner pays just above what the second-highest bidder offered.
For ASO purposes, the most valuable thing Apple Search Ads produces is the popularity signal. Apple exposes a 0–100 demand score for each keyword, calibrated to the volume of searches that keyword receives in a given storefront. This is the same signal ASOGrade surfaces — the ASA popularity score is the clearest demand indicator available without reverse-engineering download estimates.
Running ASA and organic ASO together creates a compounding effect: paid placements generate installs and engagement signals that can improve organic ranking, and strong organic positions reduce the cost of paid placement for the same keyword. The two are complementary, not interchangeable.
ASA campaigns require an Apple developer account and a published app. Keyword research tools like ASOGrade use the ASA demand signal for keyword scoring without requiring you to set up or run a campaign — you can use the signal for pre-launch research before any app exists in the store.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to run Apple Search Ads to use keyword popularity scores?
- No. ASOGrade uses the Apple Search Ads popularity signal to score keywords, but you do not need to set up or run an ASA campaign. The research is separate from the advertising — you can look up demand for any keyword without spending on ads.
- How is ASA different from ASO?
- ASO (App Store Optimization) is about improving organic search rankings through metadata and relevance signals. ASA (Apple Search Ads) is paid placement — you pay to appear at the top of results for a keyword. ASO results are free once earned; ASA results last only as long as your budget does.
- What does the Apple Search Ads popularity score actually measure?
- It measures relative search demand for a keyword in a specific App Store storefront. A score of 67 means that keyword is searched more often than a term scoring 50, in that market. It is not an absolute query count — it is a relative index Apple uses for ad pricing.
Related terms
- Keyword PopularityKeyword popularity is a 0–100 score measuring how often users search for a given term in the App Store, derived from Apple Search Ads demand signals.
- App Store Search Ranking FactorsApp Store search ranking factors are the signals Apple's algorithm uses to determine which apps appear at the top of results for a given keyword — primarily metadata relevance, user engagement, and app quality indicators.
- Keyword DifficultyKeyword difficulty is a 0–100 score estimating how hard it is to break into the top-ranking positions for a given App Store keyword, based on the strength of apps currently holding those positions.
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Put this into practice
Score App Store keywords by popularity and difficulty across 109 storefronts — the numbers behind apple search ads.
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