Four Ways to Explore Search Trends with Demand Analysis

Demand Analysis gives you flexible ways to understand consumer demand through search data. Depending on your goal, you can choose between Search Terms, AI Topics, Topics, or Keyword Lists. Each method offers different strengths for discovering, tracking, and benchmarking demand.

Search Terms

Search Terms let you analyse demand for specific words or phrases (e.g., a brand name, product model, or competitor). You enter the exact keyword and immediately see search volume, trends, and competitive insights.

Benefits:

• Precision: Focus on the exact terms that matter to you
• Control: Perfect for when you already know the keywords you want to track
• Comparability: Benchmark multiple terms side-by-side to see relative demand

Use Cases:

• Tracking branded vs. non-branded demand (e.g., “Nike Air Max” vs. “running shoes”)
• Monitoring competitor terms to evaluate brand awareness
• Measuring demand changes around seasonal campaigns or product launches

AI Topics

AI Topics use semantic AI to automatically surface clusters of related keywords around a seed term. Instead of relying only on exact matches, you instantly uncover adjacent, multilingual, and unexpected search terms that consumers are using.

Benefits:

• Discovery: Reveal hidden opportunities that traditional keyword research might miss
• Efficiency: One-click topic generation saves manual keyword building
• Breadth: Understand consumer demand around broader themes, not just isolated terms

Use Cases:

• Exploring adjacent demand around a trend (e.g., starting with “hair loss” and discovering terms like “scalp treatments,” “biotin shampoo,” or “alopecia clinic”)
• Identifying early signals of emerging consumer interests
• Expanding your keyword set for campaigns or content strategies

Topics (US)

Predefined Topics are curated, US-centric categories of keywords grouped by industry, product type, or theme. They let you quickly analyse demand for common market areas without building a list from scratch.

Benefits:

• Speed: Instant access to ready-made keyword groups
• Benchmarking: Compare your performance against established categories
• Consistency: Ideal for recurring, high-level tracking

Use Cases:

• Quickly sizing the market for “Streaming Services” or “Pet Food” without manual keyword research.
• Starting point for teams new to Demand Analysis who need a high-level overview analysis

Keyword Lists

Keyword Lists are customisable, reusable collections of terms that you or your team create. They allow you to build the exact keyword sets that matter to your business and use them across Similarweb solutions.

Benefits:

• Relevant: choose the keywords that matter most to your business
• Flexibility: Define your own categories, from niche product lines to competitor sets
• Collaboration: Shared lists keep teams aligned and consistent
• Ease of use: lists created in other areas of Similarweb can be easily used in Demand analysis, without additional action needs
   

Use Cases: 

• Building a portfolio view of all your brand and product keywords
• Creating competitor sets for benchmarking demand across multiple players
• Tracking ongoing campaign keywords in one centralised place.

To recap, how to choose the right method?

• Use Search Terms for precision tracking.
• Use AI Topics for exploration and discovery.
• Use Topics for fast benchmarking.
• Use Keyword Lists for customization and collaboration.

Together, these four methods make Demand Analysis a flexible, powerful way to uncover and act on consumer demand.