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For example, at
time of this writing there are 131 ads for term digital camera. The top bid is 79 cents. Bubble gum machine has 13 ads with a top bid of 49 cents. Chapstick Raspberry Vanilla has no bids on term which means that top spot could be purchased for minimum price of 10 cents per click.
Google is your likely next step. To my knowledge, Google analysis tools are only available to registered advertisers. However, it is easy to find your competition on Google. Simply enter your search term and check right side of results screen. Those ads are from top advertisers. Checking subsequent pages will reveal entire list of advertisers for that term.
Tip: Sometimes advertisers target your term, but don’t sell your product. Read ads and visit sites to get a more accurate idea of your direct competitors.
The natural results (the normal, non-ad results) of your search are important as well. Check those to see top ranked sites in your market. Users are much more likely to click on natural results than they are ads. The stores at top of list are likely to be well established and may represent some solid competition.
Visit your competitor’s web sites and see what they are selling. Get names and site locations. This may seem time consuming, but it will help with future research. Check for site quality, organization, and ease of use. If their site is ugly or hard to navigate, that can work to your advantage.
Next, check out Yahoo Shopping. Retailers setup stores with Yahoo’s services and are then included in Yahoo Shopping’s listings. This can be a good way to get fast traffic. For market research, it means easy access to competitor sites. On Yahoo Shopping main page, do a search for your product (Braun blenders for example). The results show sponsored ads and normal listings. The sponsored ads come from Overture, so you should already be familiar with those.
The normal listings come from Yahoo Product Submit results and Yahoo’s web-crawler database. What is important in this list is displayed just below top sponsor listings and just above normal listings. There should be two numbers: Number of products and number of stores. ‘Braun blenders’ shows 989 products from 76 stores (at time of writing). Those numbers give you an indication of how many stores you’re up against.
Finally, visit eBay. Find eBay Stores area (located in Specialty Sites box on homepage at time of writing). Enter your search term to see how many eBay stores are selling your product. ‘Braun blenders’ shows ten items in eBay stores. The search may show regular listings below store results. These results can give you some idea your product’s popularity as well as feasibility of selling it on eBay.
Remember, some competition is good because it shows that there is an interest in your product. Too much competition is bad because it means low profitability. The spot where you can make good money is somewhere in between. A solid business plan built on thorough market research will certainly boost your chances significantly.
Jason Carr is a small business owner, dedicated student of e-commerce strategy, and producer of BeginBiz, an online resource for those looking to start an internet business. Check BeginBiz for more help with your market research, advertising, web hosting, or domain registration.
