How to Use SmartScout to Analyze Amazon Competitors?

Selling on Amazon is a lot easier when you know who you’re really up against. Competitor analysis helps you understand which brands are winning, how crowded your niche is, what keywords matter, and where there might still be room to stand out. Without that, it’s easy to pick the wrong product, chase the wrong keywords, or spend money on ads without a clear strategy.

That’s where a SmartScout competitor analysis workflow can help. SmartScout gives you a clearer look at competing brands, top products, PPC activity, traffic relationships, and keyword opportunities, so you can make better decisions about your listings, ads, and product positioning.

Let’s walk through how to do it step by step.

Key Takeaways

• SmartScout helps you analyze Amazon competitors beyond surface-level signals like price, reviews, and images.
• Start with competitor brands, then narrow your research to the products, keywords, ads, and traffic relationships that actually drive performance.
• Use the data to make smarter decisions about your listing, PPC strategy, product targeting, and market positioning.

Step 1: Find the Competitor Brands That Actually Matter

Before you start comparing individual products, zoom out and look at the brands behind them. One of the biggest mistakes Amazon sellers make is treating every similar product as a direct competitor. In reality, some brands are too broad, too premium, too cheap, or too unrelated to be useful comparisons.

In SmartScout, you can start this step in a few ways:

• Use Subcategories if you want to explore a specific niche and see which brands are active there.
• Use the Brands tool if you already know the market you want to research.
• Use Products if you are starting from a specific ASIN and want to trace it back to the brand behind it.

Once you find relevant brands, look at signals like estimated revenue, top products, product count, category presence, seller structure, and Amazon in-stock rate. These details help you separate real competitors from brands that only look similar on the surface.

At this stage, the goal is simple: build a shortlist of competitor brands that are actually worth studying.

For example, if you sell a kitchen storage product, you do not need to analyze every major home goods brand on Amazon. You want to find brands competing in the same product type, price range, and customer use case. SmartScout helps you narrow that list by showing which brands are active in the category, which ones are generating meaningful sales, and which products are driving their performance.

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Once you have that shortlist, you can move into the more useful part of the analysis: figuring out which of their products are actually winning.

Step 2: Identify the Products Driving Competitor Performance

Once you have a shortlist of competitor brands, do not analyze their entire catalog. Most brands have a mix of winners, average products, and low-performing listings. Your job is to find the ASINs that are actually driving results.

In SmartScout, open each competitor brand and review its top products. You can also use the Products tool to filter by brand, category, subcategory, revenue, seller count, and other product-level data.

Pay attention to:

• Estimated revenue - shows which products are worth studying
• Sales trends - helps you see whether demand is growing or slowing down
• Price point - shows how the competitor is positioned in the market
• Seller count - helps you understand whether the listing is controlled or crowded
• Category and subcategory - confirms whether the product is truly relevant to your niche

The goal here is to move from “this brand is a competitor” to “these are the specific products I need to understand.”

For example, a kitchen storage brand might sell drawer organizers, food containers, spice racks, and fridge bins. But if most of its revenue comes from stackable food containers, that is the product line you should focus on first.

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By the end of this step, you should have a short list of competitor ASINs to study more closely.

Step 3: Use AdSpy to See How Competitors Are Advertising

Once you know which competitor ASINs matter, the next question is: how are they getting visibility?

This is where SmartScout’s AdSpy tool comes in. Instead of only looking at where competitors rank organically, AdSpy helps you see how they are showing up in sponsored placements and which keywords they may be using to drive paid traffic.

Start by looking up the competitor products, brands, or keywords you found in the previous step. Then use AdSpy to spot patterns in their PPC activity.

Pay attention to:

• Sponsored keywords - which search terms competitors are appearing for in ads
• Repeated keyword appearances - which terms seem important enough for competitors to keep targeting
• Competing brands in paid results - who is actively fighting for visibility in the same space
• Branded keyword activity - whether competitors are targeting brand names or defending their own
• Relevant keyword gaps - terms competitors are advertising on that you are not using yet

The goal is not to copy every keyword a competitor touches. Some terms may be too broad, too expensive, or not relevant enough for your product. Instead, use AdSpy to find useful patterns: which keywords competitors care about, where they are spending attention, and where there may be room for you to test your own campaigns.

For example, if several competing kitchen storage products keep appearing for “stackable food containers,” “pantry organization bins,” and “airtight storage containers,” those terms may be worth reviewing for your own PPC and listing strategy.

By the end of this step, you should have a focused list of competitor keywords and PPC opportunities to test, monitor, or avoid.

Step 4: Use Traffic Graph to Find Product-Targeting Opportunities

Keywords are only one part of competitor research. You also want to know which product pages are connected to your competitors and where shoppers may be comparing, discovering, or buying related items.

In SmartScout, use Traffic Graph to look at the competitor ASINs you found in the previous step. This helps you see product relationships around those ASINs, so you can find advertising and positioning opportunities that are not obvious from keyword research alone.

Look for:

• Closely connected products - ASINs that shoppers may view or buy alongside competitor products
• Complementary products - items that could work well for bundles, cross-sells, or product targeting
• Adjacent competitors - similar products that may not show up in your first search
• High-value ASIN targets - product pages worth testing in Sponsored Products campaigns
• Patterns across multiple competitors - products that keep appearing around the same niche

Say you are researching a competitor’s stackable food containers. The obvious targets might be other food container listings. But Traffic Graph could point you toward pantry bins, fridge organizers, spice racks, or lunch prep containers that serve the same type of shopper. Those connected ASINs can become useful product-targeting tests, especially if they match your price point, use case, or customer intent.

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Use this step to build a list of ASINs that are worth testing in product-targeting campaigns. Some will be direct competitors, while others will be related products that give you a smarter way to reach the same audience.

Which Smartscout Plan Should You Choose for Competitor Analysis?

You do not need the biggest SmartScout plan just to start analyzing competitors. The right choice depends on how deep you want to go.

For most sellers using SmartScout mainly for competitor analysis, Business is likely the best fit because it gives you more of the market, category, and traffic data needed to understand how competitors are actually positioned.

That said, Essentials may be enough if you are not doing advanced market mapping yet. If your main goal is to research competitor brands, review products, check search-term data, and find keyword opportunities, Essentials can still give you a solid competitor research workflow without jumping straight to Business.

For a full feature-by-feature breakdown, see our SmartScout pricing guide.

FAQ

How Many Amazon Competitors Should I Analyze in SmartScout?

Start with a small list. For most products, analyzing 5 to 10 relevant competitor brands is enough to spot useful patterns without getting overwhelmed. You can always expand the list later if you are entering a bigger or more competitive niche.

How Often Should I Check Competitor Data in SmartScout?

For active products, it is worth reviewing competitor data at least once a month. If you are launching a new product, changing your PPC strategy, or entering a fast-moving category, you may want to check more often so you can react to pricing changes, new competitors, keyword movement, and shifting demand.

Should SmartScout Replace Manual Competitor Research on Amazon?

No. SmartScout gives you the data behind the market, but you should still review competitor listings manually. Look at images, titles, bullet points, reviews, pricing, coupons, A+ Content, and customer complaints. The best competitor research combines SmartScout data with what shoppers actually see on Amazon.

What Should I Save From a SmartScout Competitor Analysis?

Keep a simple list of your main competitor brands, priority ASINs, keyword opportunities, product-targeting ideas, and any listing or PPC actions you want to test. The goal is not to collect endless data. It is to leave with a clear plan for improving your product, listing, ads, or positioning.

Know Who You’re up Against Before You Make Your Next Move

Amazon is hard enough without guessing what your competitors are doing. When you know which brands are winning, which products are driving sales, and where the keyword or PPC opportunities are, it becomes much easier to make smarter decisions.

SmartScout helps you get that clearer view. Instead of relying only on what you see on the Amazon search results page, you can dig into the data behind competing brands, products, traffic, and keywords.

So before you launch a new product, adjust your listing, or spend more on ads, take a closer look at the competitors that matter.

Want to try it for less? Get SmartScout with 25% off using our exclusive discount.