Rank Sonar
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Concepts

Concepts: Keywords & chance score

How keyword tracking works in Rank Sonar and how to interpret the chance score.

What we track per keyword

For every keyword × storefront pair you've added to an app, we capture daily:

  • Rank — your app's position in the App Store or Google Play search results for that term
  • Search volume — normalized 0-100 estimate of monthly searches
  • Search results — how many apps appear in the search
  • Chance score — a composite metric (see below)
  • Top 3 apps — the apps currently ranking #1, #2, #3 for the keyword (with icons)

Data is fetched daily at 06:00 UTC via Vercel Cron. You can trigger a manual refresh from any keyword's row.

Adding keywords

Three ways:

  1. Manual — Type or paste comma-separated terms into the keyword input
  2. AI-suggested — During onboarding and from the keyword view, Claude suggests terms based on your app's description and category
  3. From competitor analysis — Once you track competitors, the system surfaces their ranking keywords that you don't track

Limits per app per tier:

  • Solo: 50 keywords
  • Pro: 250 keywords
  • Studio: 1,000 keywords

The chance score

Chance score is a 0-100 composite metric ranking keywords by opportunity. The formula combines:

  • Search volume — how often the keyword is searched (higher = more traffic potential)
  • Difficulty — competitive density and authority of competitors ranking for the term (lower = easier to rank)
  • Your current rank — distance from Top 10 (higher rank to gain = bigger opportunity)
  • Competitor coverage — whether your top competitors rank for it (presence of competitors validates the keyword as worth targeting)

Higher chance score = better target.

How to read it:

  • 80-100: high-priority targets. Add to subtitle / description if not already present.
  • 60-79: solid candidates. Test in description or keyword field (Apple).
  • 40-59: marginal. Track for context but don't reshape metadata for these.
  • 0-39: noise or already won. No action.

Why we use a composite score instead of just volume

Pure volume rankings push you toward head terms ("recipe app", "music player") where you're competing with established giants. Pure difficulty rankings push you toward zero-volume long-tail. Chance score balances both.

Top 3 apps per keyword: the discovery flywheel

The Top 3 column doubles as a competitor-discovery tool. Apps that appear in 3+ of your tracked keywords' Top 3 lists are very likely real competitors you should track. Click the app icon to add it as a tracked competitor.

This is also why we don't charge per keyword — every additional keyword reveals more competitors.

Storefront switching

Use the storefront picker (top of the keyword view) to switch between your enabled storefronts. Each storefront has independent rankings and chance scores. A keyword that ranks #20 in the US might rank #2 in Japan or vice versa.

See also