International digital market research services: which country, through which channel, in what order?

We wrote this guide for companies that want to expand abroad but can’t decide which country to start with, already export or sell cross-border online and are looking for a new market, or started advertising in a country and didn’t get the results they expected. We based the data sources and rules we describe on official documentation from Google, Eurostat, the World Bank, Türkiye’s Ministry of Trade and Trendyol; the sources are listed by number at the end of the page. We verified statistics and support provisions against the source as of October 2026. Our own field observations are marked separately under the heading “Expert note”.

Our market research work runs in three layers: measuring how much and how a product is searched for in target countries, examining who competes in the same searches and which channel the product can be sold through, and comparing countries on the same criteria and validating the top choice with a small test. The sections below explain how these layers work and what we look at in the research, in that order.

What is international digital market research?

International digital market research measures, with digital data, in which countries a product or service is searched for and bought, who it will compete with there and which channels it can be sold through. Unlike classic market research, most of the data comes from what people actually search for and where they actually buy: search volume, product density on marketplaces, competitors’ visibility and the result of a small ad test.

We cover entering the chosen market, meaning local-language site, ad and content work, separately on our international marketing page; this page goes into the measurement before the entry decision.

How is demand measured: search volume and the local language

The first step in measuring demand is finding which words the product is searched for with in the target country. These words are often not a direct translation of the name you use at home: the same product may be searched for by its generic name in one country, by a brand name in another, or by what it’s used for. We draw the keywords from the country’s own language, real search suggestions and competitor pages.

Google’s Keyword Planner gives monthly search estimates and ad cost estimates for keywords; Google notes that campaign performance also depends on other factors such as bid, budget, ad quality and customer behavior in the industry.² That’s why we use search volume as an indicator of demand, and don’t read it on its own as a sales forecast.

We measure demand not with a single keyword but with a keyword cluster: the product’s generic name, searches by purpose, searches close to buying such as “best” or “price”, and competitor brand names are kept in separate groups. That way we can tell apart a country where the product is searched for a lot but mostly for information, and a country with fewer searches that are closer to buying.

How should Google Trends be read?

Google Trends is based on a largely unfiltered sample of Google searches, and shows interest not as an absolute number but on a scale normalized from 0 to 100: each data point is divided by the total searches of the geography and time range it represents.¹ That’s why two regions showing the same interest don’t always have the same total search volume, and searches made by very few people appear as 0.¹

Google stresses that Trends data isn’t a scientific poll, and should be considered as one data point among others before drawing conclusions.¹ We use Trends to see the direction of interest, its seasonality and its regional spread within a country, and read volume together with Keyword Planner and other sources.

Online shopping habits and official statistics

A product being searched for in a country doesn’t mean people buy it online. That’s why we complement search data with official statistics. According to Eurostat, in the EU in 2025, 95% of people aged 16–74 had used the internet in the last 12 months, and 78% of them had bought goods or services online.⁴ There are clear differences between countries: the share of internet users who never bought online was 26% in Portugal, 27% in Bulgaria, 28% in Italy and 30% in Cyprus, while the share who had bought within the last three months was 87% in Ireland and 86% in the Netherlands.⁴

For countries outside the EU, we use indicators such as the share of the population using the internet, published by the World Bank with ITU data.⁵ These figures show how ready a country is for the digital channel, not the demand for your product. When we put the two side by side, the countries with both interest and buying habits stand out.

Official statistics are usually published with a year’s delay and show the national average; they don’t always reflect behavior specific to your product group. That’s why we use statistics not to rule out countries, but to set the context for search and marketplace data. We also note local differences such as payment habits, shipping expectations and returns culture in the entry plan at this stage.

Competitor analysis: who shows up in the same searches?

A country with high demand may also have high competition. We examine the target keywords one by one in that country’s search results, and list the local and international competitors that stand out, the page types (product page, category, comparison, marketplace) and the companies running ads. If the first page of results is full of marketplaces, a marketplace stands out as the entry channel; if it’s full of independent stores, your own site does.

We also compare how often competitors are searched for by brand name. Search share, a brand’s monthly search volume as a proportion of the total for brands in the category, shows who’s known in the market and how much awareness work a new brand will need. We produce this comparison in our own dashboard alongside competitor brands, by country and language.

We also look at which pages and keywords competitors gain visibility with: one competitor may stand out with category pages, another with comparison articles, another only with ads. This table shows which type of content is missing in that country, and where a new brand could start.

Channel: marketplace or your own site?

The fastest way into a country is often a strong marketplace there: the customers are already there, and payment and returns habits are established. We examine the number of sellers in the same product group, the price range, review levels and shipping times on marketplaces, and state plainly where your product could stand in that picture.

Selling abroad from Türkiye through a marketplace is also an option: in Trendyol’s micro export model, commercial shipments that don’t exceed 600 kilograms and 30,000 euros are made with an electronic commerce customs declaration, and the model is open in the Gulf countries, some European countries and Azerbaijan.¹⁰ If you choose to enter with your own site, Google recommends using different URLs for each language version and connecting the versions with hreflang; each language version must list itself as well as all other versions.⁷⁶

Market analysis: how are countries compared on the same criteria?

The research’s most important output is a comparison table where countries are scored on the same criteria. For each country we assess demand, competition, channel fit, ad cost, shipping and customs, and localization load on the same scale, and set the weights together based on your goals. The same table can give a different result for a company that wants fast sales and one that wants to build a brand over the long term.

We write the reasoning and source next to every score in the table. That way the decision comes not from an impression that “this country looks good”, but from logic your team can check too, and the same table can be updated and reused a year later.

We also show how the ranking changes when the weights change. If a country comes out on top only thanks to a high score on a single criterion, we say so clearly; a result like that points to an assumption that needs special attention in the test.

Validating with a small test

Desk research only gives you a hypothesis. In the top-ranked country, we send traffic with a limited-budget search ad to a landing page prepared in the local language, and measure interest through real clicks, time on page and conversions. Google Ads location targeting is based on signals such as user settings, devices and behavior, and 100% accuracy isn’t guaranteed in every situation; that’s why we check the country split of test traffic separately in Analytics.³

Export support from Türkiye’s Ministry of Trade

This support is available only to companies registered in Türkiye. Decision No. 5973 on Export Support supports, at a rate of 50%, the consultancy and report costs of preparing a market entry project covering a company’s target market, pricing, marketing and channel strategy; a company can receive support for up to 2 market entry projects.⁸ The transport and accommodation costs of a company’s own international market research trips are also supported at 50%; this support can be used up to 5 times in a calendar year and up to 20 times in total.⁸ Because the maximum amounts written in the Decision are updated at the start of every calendar year by the rate of (CPI + D-PPI) / 2, we check the current limits in the Ministry’s table.⁹ Eligibility depends on the Ministry’s assessment; we don’t promise any support outcome.

Even if you don’t plan to use the support, these headings are the skeleton of a good entry plan: an entry decision made without writing down which market, at what price, through which channel and with what budget also makes it harder to evaluate results in the first months.

How do our market research services work in the first 30 days?

The job of the first 30 days isn’t scanning the whole world; it’s narrowing down candidate countries, comparing them on the same criteria and preparing the top choice for validation. We work in this order:

1. Week 1 · Scope: the product, capacity, export experience and candidate countries are written down; the weights of the criteria are set together.
2. Week 2 · Data: a local-language keyword list is drawn up for each country; search, statistical and marketplace data are collected in the same format.
3. Week 3 · Comparison: countries are scored in a single table; competitors and channels are written up for each country.
4. Week 4 · Decision and test plan: the target market order is presented with its reasoning; the test plan for the top country is approved together.

How to choose a market research company

Very different kinds of work are sold under the name “market research”. The three common approaches compare like this:

Whichever approach you choose, ask for concrete answers to these questions: how are keywords drawn up in the local language, which data sources are used, what criteria are countries compared on, is the result validated with a test, and in whose name and in what format is the report delivered? Red flags:

1. Machine-translated keywords: a list not checked against local search suggestions can rule out a good market for no reason.
2. Scores without sources: every score in the comparison table should come with its reasoning and source.
3. A single source: a country decision based only on Google Trends or only on search volume.
4. Promised subsidies: eligibility for Ministry support depends on the Ministry’s assessment; a proposal that presents it as certain isn’t telling you the whole story.
5. Data ownership: keyword lists, the comparison table and test accounts should be handed over to you.

What determines international market research pricing?

The cost of market research grows mainly with the number of countries and languages compared; each country means its own keyword list, its own review of search results and its own marketplace scan.

We work out the scope together in the first meeting, then send a written proposal. The ad budget spent on the test is separate from our service fee and is paid directly to the ad platform.

Market research pricing: estimated ranges

Estimated one-off range, excluding VAT; scope is confirmed in a written proposal after the first meeting. As of October 2026.

If you’d like to look at your international goals together, pick a meeting day that suits you below.