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Search demand shows how much of what shoppers search for your product data answers, category by category and market by market. It ranks what to add first by the searches each change would let shoppers find, so enrichment effort goes where the demand is. Every organization has it, under Analyses in the sidebar.

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How it works

Cernel compares each of your categories with what shoppers search for in a market, using monthly search figures from Google Ads. It matches every search term to the attributes and values shoppers use to narrow down that kind of product. A search counts as answered when your product data has the attribute and value it asks for. Say shoppers search for “linen midi dress”: your Dresses answer it once they carry Linen as a material and Midi as a length. Open Search demand from the Analyses section of the sidebar. Its subtitle sums it up: What shoppers search for, what is on the rise, and how much of it your product data answers. The page has four parts:
  • Demand captured: a ring with the headline, for example Your products answer 64% of what shoppers search for. Beside it, Answered and Not answered yet show the searches a month and the search terms behind each part, and Captured over time charts the share over the last year.
  • Cernel recommends: your three highest-ranked recommendations as cards, under a line like You could reach 12,400 more searches a month.
  • Recommendations and Categories: the full ranked list of what to add, and every analyzed category with how much of its demand you capture.
  • Trends: the options shoppers search for more and more, with a 12-month forecast.
The Taxonomy and Market pickers at the top decide what the page reads. Each market is a language you’ve added under Languages & markets, so en_GB and en_US are two markets, each with its own search demand. The Market picker shows when you have more than one.

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Why you would use this

Start with what's worth the most

Every recommendation comes with the searches a month it would let shoppers find. The one at the top is the one worth doing first.

See your catalog the way shoppers search

Demand captured tells you how much of real search demand your product data answers, for the whole catalog and for each category.

Catch rising demand early

Trends shows the values whose searches are growing, so you can add them to your agents while demand is still climbing.

Read each market on its own

Shoppers in Denmark and the UK search differently. Switch the market and every figure on the page follows.
Key concept: missed demand. Missed demand is the searches a month shoppers make that your products don’t answer yet. On a recommendation, it’s the searches a month the change would let shoppers find.Recommendations are ranked by that figure, weighted by the products in their category, so a gap that touches 2,000 products ranks above the same gap on 20.

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Step-by-step guide

1

Open Search demand

In the sidebar, under Analyses, click Search demand. Check the Taxonomy and Market at the top right: every figure on the page is read for that taxonomy and market.
2

Read how much demand you capture

The Demand captured ring shows the share of searches your products answer. Answered and Not answered yet put numbers on both parts: searches a month, and how many search terms they come from. Captured over time shows how the share has moved over the last year.
Hover the Google Ads mark next to a figure to see where it comes from: Monthly searches, from Google Ads.
3

Pick a recommendation

Start with the Cernel recommends cards, or scroll to the Recommendations list for the full ranking. A recommendation is one of two kinds:
  • Add options to Color agent: shoppers search for options that agent doesn’t offer yet, for example Butter yellow.
  • Add Fit to Dresses: shoppers search the category by an attribute it doesn’t have yet.
The list shows Products (the products in the category and its subcategories) and Missed demand for each row, and marks the top three High impact. Click a row to see its options, and click an option to see the search terms behind it. Use Find a recommendation to search by option, agent, or category.
4

Review it in the agent's sandbox

Click Review for 340 products on a card, or Review on a row.
  • For new options, Choose values to add lists the options with every one picked. Untick the ones you don’t want and click Continue to agent. The agent’s sandbox opens with these options as its first request, so you can test them on your products before you save.
  • For a new attribute, click Create attribute (or Review). In Add attribute, check the Attribute name and click Continue to agent builder. The sandbox opens with a first draft of the agent that fills the attribute.
To add a single option, open the row and click Apply next to that option.
When you save the agent, the recommendation leaves the list. The new options or attribute count towards Demand captured the next time the category is measured.
5

Dig into a category

In Categories, look a category up with Find a category, or start at the top: the list is ranked by missed searches and the products they cover. Each row shows Products, Captured (the share of the category’s searches your products answer), and Missed demand. Click Open to go to the category’s own page.
6

Check the trends

Trends charts the monthly searches for one option, with a shaded Forecast for the next 12 months (High, Most likely, and Low). Click an option under Pick a trend to see it in the chart to chart it. Each row says where the option belongs, for example Add to Color in Dresses · 340 products, and how much its searches grew on last year. Click Review to add it, the same way as a recommendation.

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Advanced configuration

Opening a category takes you to its page in Search demand, in the same market. The top of the page has the way back to Search demand, the category name and its product count, a stamp like Updated 2 days ago, and the Market picker. Click the category name to see the category in the catalog.Below that:
  • Demand captured for this category alone.
  • Demand capture over time, a chart of the category’s searches and the share it captures. With Show details on, the chart marks each recommendation you accepted, so you can see what moved the line.
  • The category’s own Recommendations.
  • Sub categories, with Name, Products, Demand capture, Missed searches, and Open recommendations for each. Open a sub category to see its recommendations.
To measure the category again before its next scheduled measurement, click the refresh button next to the stamp (Measure this category again). After a measurement, the button waits a while before you can use it again.
Cernel analyzes a category when it’s specific enough to compare with what shoppers search for and holds enough products for a reliable reading. A category that isn’t analyzed opens with Why Dresses isn’t analyzed and one of these reasons:
  • Dresses is too broad to compare with what shoppers search for. They look for something more specific.
  • Dresses has too few products to compare with what shoppers search for.
  • Dresses hasn’t been compared with what shoppers search for in this market yet.
When categories inside it are analyzed, the page adds Its demand is measured in the categories inside it. and lists them under Sub categories. Otherwise it offers Back to Search demand.
Every language you add under Languages & markets is also a market, and Search demand reads what shoppers search for in each one separately. Pick the market at the top of the page; the choice carries over when you open a category. To add a market, add its language. See Languages.
If the agent a recommendation adds options to is set on a category above this one, Choose values to add ends with a button like Add 3 values instead of Continue to agent. Clicking it adds the picked options for you, without opening the sandbox.
  • Dashboard: the Recommendations widget lists the five categories where your open recommendations are worth the most, read on your primary language and market. Click a category to open its page, or View all categories to open Search demand.
  • Catalog: with Insights on, a category Cernel analyzes shows a Search demand button with its number of open recommendations. It opens the category’s page.
  • Agent sandbox: when an agent has open recommendations, the sandbox says You have Search demand recommendations for this agent that answer more of what shoppers search for. Click See them here. to open them.
Figures appear once a category has been measured against what shoppers search for in the market you picked. A figure that reads Not sized has no search volume measured behind it yet.

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Frequently asked questions

No. Since 26 October 2026 every organization has Search demand, under Analyses in the sidebar. It used to be called Market insights.
Monthly searches come from Google Ads, for the market you picked. Cernel matches each search term to the attributes and values in the category and checks which of them your product data has. You don’t set up keyword lists.
Every recommendation is ranked by the searches a month it would let shoppers find, weighted by the products in its category. Missed demand is those searches a month. Hover the info icon next to Recommendations to see this on the page.
The share updates the next time the category is measured. Open the category’s page to see when it was last updated, and click the refresh button next to the stamp to measure it again now.
It depends on the message:
  • No categories to analyze yet: your products aren’t organized into categories yet.
  • No search demand data for this market yet: Cernel hasn’t measured your categories in this market yet. Pick another market, or check back later.
  • Add products to your categories: your categories are analyzed, but none of them has products. Click Go to catalog to add some.
  • Nothing to recommend right now: your product data answers everything Cernel has measured. New recommendations show up when shoppers search for something your catalog doesn’t answer yet.
Hover it to read the reason, for example There is nothing to run for this recommendation. If the reason doesn’t tell you what to do next, contact support@cernel.com.
Your organization has one language, so there’s one market to read. Add a language under Languages & markets to compare markets.
Completeness measures how filled your tracked attributes are: how many products have a value for each one. Search demand measures how much of what shoppers search for your product data answers, which can mean adding options or attributes you don’t have yet. A category can be 100% complete and still miss demand. See Completeness Score.

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What’s next

Agent Sandbox

Test the options and attributes a recommendation adds on your own products before you save.

Completeness Score

See how filled each tracked attribute is in a category.

Languages

Add a language to read search demand in another market.

Attributes

Learn how attributes and their options work across your categories.