ASOMaster
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Real popularity

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Every checked keyword gets an estimated volume, modelled from the store's own search results. Real popularity is a second, separate number that comes from a source you authorise. ASOMaster shows both side by side so you can see where they agree.

Two numbers, never mixed

In a Rankings cell, estimated volume has a wave glyph and real popularity a target glyph . They never share a glyph or a column. When a market has no popularity yet, a small corner notch on the cell says the verdict is using the estimate. Popularity is shown on a 0 to 100 scale; when a source has no data for a phrase it shows as missing, not as zero.

Sources are set up in Settings › Popularity (or the Real popularity step of the setup guide). After connecting, Fetch popularity in Rankings pulls numbers for the current app.

Apple Ads

Apple's own search popularity for App Store phrases, per storefront, read through the Apple Ads API with your account. This is the closest thing to real App Store demand.

You need an Apple Ads account with API access.

  1. Create a key pair with OpenSSL (Terminal on a Mac; on Windows, the OpenSSL that comes with Git for Windows works): openssl ecparam -genkey -name prime256v1 -noout -out apple-ads-private.pem, then openssl ec -in apple-ads-private.pem -pubout -out apple-ads-public.pem.

  2. In Apple Ads, open Account settings › API, invite an API user (or use your own with an API role) and upload the public key.

  3. Apple then shows a Client ID, Team ID and Key ID. Enter them in ASOMaster and drop the private key file. The Organization ID is only needed when your user can see more than one ad account.

Apple Ads shows search popularity as a 1–5 level in its interface; the finer score available through the API is a relative 1–100 index (ASOMaster shows it on its 0–100 scale), not a search count. It isn't comparable across countries. Apple only scores phrases it tracks, so rare long-tail phrases are often missing. Most phrases sit near the bottom of the scale, which is why ASOMaster judges popularity with its own thresholds rather than the estimate's.

Average monthly Google web searches for a phrase in a country, put on a 0 to 100 log scale. Google publishes no Play Store search counts, so this is a demand signal for the topic, not for Play searches. ASOMaster labels it as web searches for that reason.

You need:

  • A Google Ads developer token (Basic access or higher for production accounts).
  • Your Google Ads customer ID (the 10-digit number at the top of Google Ads, like 123-456-7890).
  • An OAuth client ID and client secret (desktop app type) from Google Cloud, and a refresh token for your Google account with the Google Ads scope, from the Google Ads API OAuth flow.
  • The manager account ID, only if you reach the account through a manager (MCC) account.

Google rounds and buckets its numbers, and accounts without active spend may see coarser data. Keyword Planner data refreshes monthly, so there is little point fetching it more often.

Import a CSV

Have popularity from another ASO tool? Export it as CSV and import it as a third source. The file needs a keyword column (also accepted: term, phrase, search term), a popularity value from 0 to 100 (volume columns are converted to the same log scale), and optionally a country column with two-letter codes. Commas, semicolons and tabs all work; exports from Astro and similar tools import as they are.

Imported numbers are labelled Imported and are only as fresh as the file. Each tool uses its own model, so they won't match Apple's or Google's numbers.

Astro on this Mac

If you use Astro, ASOMaster can read its database directly: in Add app or Keywords, choose Import and Read Astro on this Mac. Astro's popularity becomes Imported popularity, and each Astro app's phrases join the tracked app with the same App Store ID as ideas. ASOMaster reads a copy; nothing in Astro changes. macOS may ask you to allow access to another app's data.

What leaves your computer

Only the phrases being looked up, sent straight from your computer to Apple or Google with your own credentials. Credentials are stored in the OS keychain. Nothing passes through our servers.