The most successful brands rely on multiple sources of data to inform their strategies and decision-making processes. They do this by relying on web scrapers to automatically track multiple vectors of information, including:
• Brand mentions
• Competitor mentions
• Product pricing
• Audience demographics
This information is then pooled into wide-reaching market research, which is only ever as good as the data it contains. Some sources of this data (primarily websites and social media platforms) employ blockers that restrict the ability of businesses to use automated crawlers (bots) from gathering it.
Using real IP addresses from real people
The main tool for data-hungry businesses to avoid these bot-blocking measures are residential proxies. These proxies source IP addresses from individuals who are willing to share their connections for a price, and include them in their proxy network. Proxy providers then allow businesses to automatically request information from the websites of their choice, all the while posing as a real individual with a residential IP address.
However, anti-bot systems are becoming more sophisticated and can flag multiple requests coming from the same IP address as potentially automated, and block them, even if the IP address is a residential one. As these measures are becoming more prevalent, rotating residential proxies are becoming the norm for data extraction.
Rotating IP addresses
Proxies are now able to provide multiple IP addresses that constantly and automatically change at set intervals to mimic the behavior of multiple users. This makes it much more difficult for the website to flag and block the automated requests, allowing companies that employ residential proxies to get more data both in volume and variety.
How to use residential proxies for market research
SOAX is building an automated one-stop data extraction platform for data-hungry companies around the world. They envision a future where companies can unlock data and insights in just a few clicks and a fraction of the time it takes today.
Lisa Whelan, Content Manager, SOAX