How do I use the product scorecard?

Follow the steps below to fill out the Product Scorecard or watch the videos listed below:

Step by Step Instructions:

In order to complete the Product Scorecard you’ll have to answer all of the questions in the four sections below. After answering all questions you’ll be given a score for each section as well as a final score for the entire Product Scorecard.

Pro Tip: To fill out the Product Scorecard faster, open new tabs for Roots, Master Keyword List, Profits, Deep Dive and Listing Builder. Now you can quickly switch between the Product Scorecard and the area of Data Dive where you are searching for this information.

Traffic Distribution:

Number of Keyword Roots

Step 1: Navigate to the "Roots" tab in the Product Scorecard tool.

Step 2: Identify and count all keyword roots for this niche. Remember that a keyword root is two or more words which is a unique way of describing a product.

Step 3: After counting the total number of keyword roots fill in the answer in the Product Scorecard.

Distribution of Root SV

Step 1: Navigate to the Roots tab.

Step 2: For the top two largest keyword roots, hover over the yellow search volume percentage bar. If you can not see this bar, toggle your browser zoom settings. While hovering over this bar you’ll see a percentage in decimal form.

Step 3: Add up the percentages of the top two roots, this value will be the answer to Distribution of Root SV.

Step 4: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.
- Example: If your top 2 roots have 0.4 and 0.3 = 0.7 which is 70%, you would choose "more than 50%"

Number of Relevant Keywords >150 SV

Step 1: Navigate to the Master Keyword List.

Step 2: Use the filter section to remove any keywords with search volume less than 150 and click enter. Now your Master Keyword List will only show keywords with a search volume greater than 150.

Step 3: Count the number of keywords that have a search volume greater than 150.

Step 4: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

Profitability:

Product Lifecycle

To answer this question you’ll need to think critically about how long this niche will be performing at a similar level. If this niche is a trend, your response may be as short as 1 year. Niches that are likely to be innovated on or change dramatically over the next few years could also have a shorter product life cycle. Be careful in selecting a product life cycle of 5 years and ensure that the product will in fact remain relevant for that long of a time frame into the future.
Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

ROI (Profit / Net Landed Cost)

Step 1: Navigate to the Profits tab.

Step 2: Fill out the Profits tab completely.
Step 2b: If you have not yet filled out the Profits tab or do not have time to complete this, you can estimate the ROI by calculating Profit / Net Landed Cost. Keep in mind that estimating ROI should only be done in the short term and for the most accurate results you should fill out the Profits tab completely.

Step 3: After determining the ROI of this product, Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

Potential

This section assesses the potential improvements in the design, packaging, intellectual property, and logistics of the product. Each of these questions is a yes or no response. Choose a suitable response based on the potential for enhancements and select them in the Product Scorecard.

Competitiveness:

Reviews

Step 1: Navigate to the Master Keyword List

Step 2: Find the average number of competitor reviews for the entire niche on the left-hand side of the MKL.

Step 3: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

Amazon SEO

Step 1: Navigate to the Master Keyword List.

Step 2: On the top of the screen you’ll see a dashboard that shows the competitor search volume strength and frequency for competitors in this niche. You’ll want to count any competitors with a search volume percentage greater than 60%.

- Step 2b: Count all competitors with a search volume percentage greater than 60%. You can quickly see this by counting the number of competitors that are shown in red (80%+ search volume percentage) or orange (60%+ search volume percentage).

Step 3: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

Average Price Point

Step 1: Navigate to the Master Keyword List.

Step 2: On the left-hand side of the MKL you’ll see the average selling price for all products in the niche.

Step 2: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

4. 1P

Step 1: Navigate to the Master Keyword List.

Step 2: At the top of the MKL you’ll see a column that shows the seller’s country.

Step 3: Count all competitors whose country shows up as “Amazon”.

Step 4: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

5. Visual Content

Step 1: Navigate to the Deep Dive tab.

Step 2: Click "collapse all" to view the image galleries of competitors simultaneously. Inspect the image galleries and determine if each gallery is strong or weak. Count each competitor with images that are not only visually appealing but also functional in convincing a potential customer to buy the product.

Step 3: Open the product detail page for each of these competitors and manually inspect the A+ content.

Step 4: Count all competitors that have strong images and A+ content.

Step 5: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

6. Shrinking

Step 1: Navigate to the Deep Dive tab

Step 2: Inspect the Search Volume Trends and Quarterly Median graph for the niche. Based on the graphs, determine if the trend is going up, down, or remaining flat.

Step 3: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

Pro Tip: If the Google Trends data is not displaying, restart the dive and ensure that your hero keyword is only the name of the product. If a dive is started without putting the hero keyword as the niche name, Google trends data may not display correctly.

7. Seasonality

Step 1: Navigate to the Deep Dive tab.

Step 2: Inspect the Search Volume Trends and Quarterly Median graph for the niche. Based on the graphs, determine the seasonality of the niche.

Step 3: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

8. Variations

Step 1: Navigate to the MKL.

Step 2: Find the Number of Variations row.

Step 3: Count the number of competitors with more than 4 variations.

Step 4: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

9. Major Brands

Step 1: Using critical thinking and independent research, identify which brands are major brands or are sold in retail stores.
Step 2: Count all competitors that fit the criteria listed in Step 1.
Step 3: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

10. Developed Niche

Step 1: Go to the "Deep Dive" tab and check the competitor's image gallery.

Step 2: Note if leading competitors offer bundles or multipacks, indicating a developed niche.

11. Written Content

Step 1: Navigate to the Listing Builder tab.

Step 2: On the bottom of the page, click Battle of the Listings.

Step 3: In the center of the screen, click on Titles (TTL).

Step 4: Examine which of the competitors have 3 or more exact keywords in their titles.

Step 5: Count all competitors that have 3 or more exact match keywords in their titles.
Step 6: Select the appropriate response in the Product Scorecard.

Analyzing Completed Scorecards:

After completing the Product Scorecard, the final score will be shown in your Niche Pipeline. You can now organize your Niche Pipeline to show the highest positive scores by clicking the top of the Score column. Double-click the column header to toggle between positive and negative scores appearing at the top of your list.

The best product validation is done after completing many scorecards. In order to launch 1 product, you might fill out as many as 100 scorecards to ultimately order samples for 3-5 products.

Generally, the higher the positive score, the lower risk that niche is. The larger the negative score, the higher the risk. Ensure that you have correctly filled out the Product Scorecard before proceeding.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the Product Scorecard article.