Help CenterThe KDP Spy Chrome browser extension can be found in the left-hand side menu of Book Bolt.
Its main purpose is to help you analyze actual on-site Amazon data by pulling results about a particular niche you’re interested in.
Getting started with Book Bolt’s KDP Spy extension
To get started, you need to have a Book Bolt account with a username and password. Then, log in to Book Bolt with these credentials and select the KDP Spy extension on the left-hand side menu. It will bring you to the Chrome web store. Click on “Add extension” and it will be automatically added to your Chrome browser, where the puzzle piece icon is found in the top right-hand side corner. Click on this icon and it will prompt you to log into KDP Spy with your Book Bolt credentials.
Once you’re logged in, the KDP Spy extension is ready to be used. To use the extension, you first want to go to Amazon.com.
Note: KDP Spy only works on the Amazon.com domain and not the other locales such as the UK or Germany. However, while much of the research which you are doing can be applied to those markets, too, the US market has the most volume of sales and is therefore the most appropriate.
Once you’re on Amazon.com, you will first need to enter in a keyword that you want to search for. Once you’ve typed it in the Amazon search box, click on “Search”. This will bring back the Amazon results page. You’re now ready to use KDP Spy. Click on it in the Chrome tray and it will open up the extension.
Reading the results from KDP Spy
You will see two main labels at the top of the KDP Spy extension. These are “Search” and “Keywords”. We will start with “Search” first and discuss “Keywords” afterwards.
You’ll have the option to click on “Start”, “Reset”, or “Save”. Click on “Start” first. This will enable the extension to read the results on the page up to a maximum of 100 and you will get all the information about this keyword entry in one spot. You will be able to stop the search at any time.
The information that the extension will bring back includes data about the products’ ASINs, images, titles, prices, best-sellers ranks (BSRs), how many reviews the book has received, estimated sales, estimated revenue, author, date of publication, etc. Each of the columns can be sorted by simply clicking on the clickable column title.
Furthermore, you can also save the results at any time. Just click on either a single checkbox or click on the “select all” to select all items and then click “Save”. The results will be downloaded on your computer and you can also have them saved in your Book Bolt account.
Doing keyword research with KDP Spy
The second part that the KDP Spy can help with is to enable you to do keyword research. You can click on “Keywords” at the top of the extension and click on “Search” to find the best keywords for your book. The results will come back with the particular keyword, the Amazon search volume for that keyword, the Google search volume, and the Google cost per click.
Remember that Google search volume and cost per click is an indication of customer interest and should serve as confirmation or denial of your observations regarding Amazon search volume. The higher the cost per click and search volume on Google is, the more likely it is that a high Amazon search volume means that the keyword is truly popular.
Here’s an example. A search about “wedding planners” on Amazon.com via the KDP Spy extension will yield the relevant listings, along with the image of each product, the BSR, ratings, estimated sales, estimated revenue, author, publisher, and price. This information (which can be saved) can later be used in a Product Search on Book Bolt, as well as through the Cloud module, or even the Book Scout module to do a reverse ASIN search and others.
Or, it could simply serve as a light exercise in new product brainstorming.
The choice is yours. And so is the convenience of doing it on Amazon.com without having to switch to Book Bolt’s interface.
Utilizing the KDP Spy Chrome extension
Since KDP Spy helps you look for keywords, you can also use it in conjunction with the Book Scout module, amongst others. This module enables you to do a reverse ASIN search to figure out what the top keywords a specific title is ranking for.
Say, you’ve looked for a keyword of interest on Amazon.com via KDP Spy. You’ve come across a best-seller, whose success you’d like to emulate. Simply go to Book Bolt, pick the Book Scout module and paste your chosen book’s ASIN to dissect its corresponding keywords.
Furthermore, the KDP Spy extension is very useful for keyword research. It can be considered an equivalent of the Cloud module, but using Amazon.com’s interface, instead of that of Book Bolt.
However, we do recommend using Book Bolt’s modules and Book Bolt’s interface nonetheless. Why? Because it offers a lot more functionality and depth to your research.
If you start your research with the Cloud module, move onto the Products tool, and then onto listings optimization via the Keywords and KDP modules, you may skip on KDP Spy altogether.
In that case, KDP Spy is indeed best used as a brainstorming tool while you browse for product ideas on Amazon.com