"He who owns information owns the world." Business professionals have firsthand knowledge of how difficult it is to navigate the modern media niche: one must monitor reviews about their business (and also ideally about competitors), aggregate multiple communication channels with clients, and simultaneously analyze the actions of competitors. Otherwise, it is easy to lose awareness of the entire situation, thus being left behind. Staying up-to-date with market trends ensures a sufficient level of competitiveness and allows for planning ahead.
Strangely enough, proxy remains one of the most crucial tools for competitor analysis and any marketing research. We will discuss this further.
Understanding Proxies in Market Research
If you simply need to check a competitor's website or search for information on the web, you won’t probably think about proxying your requests. When it comes to large-scale research, though, where you need to gather a substantial amount of data from a particular site or multiple sites, the process of data collection and analysis becomes more complicated and significantly slower.
To avoid such issues, you need special automation tools: custom scripts or parsers, ready-made SEO software and marketing tools, specialized web services, modified browsers (anti-detect or headless browsers), etc. Almost all of them operate through proxies.
Proxies for market research act as intermediaries. These are nodes on the network that can redirect your requests on your behalf. But why is this needed in marketing research? It’s simple: large sites actively defend against parasitic traffic because it creates unnecessary load on their hosting. And parsing always constitutes undesired traffic. Thus, websites or web services try to filter and block it.
Protection methods vary, but in most cases, they involve analyzing multiple requests from the same IP. For example, requests may come too frequently (a real person wouldn’t even have time to view the page) or at consistent intervals. The number of connections from the same IP may also be too high, etc.
Proxies allow you to bypass most of these protection mechanisms and secure the user by concealing their identity and changing their IP.
Benefits of Using Proxies in Market Research
Proxies for research solve the following tasks:
- Bypassing Anti-Fraud Systems Due to Frequent IP Address Changes During Scraping: Security systems just don’t manage to accumulate statistics on any single IP and thus don’t block such connections;
- Parallel Data Collection: Technically, each scraping process can be assigned a different proxy IP address, letting each request on the target website be handled as though from a unique user browsing different pages;
- Risk Diversification: Even if a specific IP address is blocked, switching to a new exit proxy is enough to continue operations. This is what can make the data collection process uninterrupted;
- Confidentiality Guarantee: The scraper owner's real identity is protected (unless you enter the data on the target website on purpose, for example, during account authorization). Each proxy represents a unique user. Researchers can also change IPs and log in with new accounts at any time (ideally created specifically for scraping).
- Bypassing Geographical Restrictions: Requests can be blocked at various levels, such as country or website levels. Proxies help circumvent these restrictions by using exit IPs in unrestricted regions.
Remember that proxies only change location (transmitting requests on your behalf). To mitigate other risks, it's crucial to adopt a comprehensive approach - here is the detailed guide on scraping without blocks.
Choosing the Right Proxy Type
Proxy quality and type will determine the level of trust in the target site/service’s security systems. The thing is that different types of IP addresses are perceived differently by these systems:
- Server/Datacenter proxies – These offer minimal trust and are quickly blocked. Even if the address isn't completely blocked (for instance, if it’s already blacklisted or added to the spam database), CAPTCHAs are more commonly displayed. On the one hand, data center proxies are the most affordable and stable, but on the other, they are easily identified and "filtered out" from general traffic. Data center IPs belong to hosting service companies, so blocking these addresses won’t affect regular users, as no one typically accesses the site or service from a data center - most likely, a scraper will be used for this purpose. Detailed information on the pros and cons of data center proxies.
- Residential proxies – These are proxies based on devices belonging to private users, specifically users of local internet providers ( the owners of wired and wireless networks). It doesn’t make sense for the target site or service to block its primary audience, so any bans tend to be short-lived. Anyway, IPs are dynamically distributed among provider users and last no more than a day or two. More details on the specifics of residential proxies.
- Mobile proxies – These are proxies that operate based on IP addresses from mobile network operators. Since IPv4 addresses are scarce and mobile operators have many users, a single IP may serve a large number of real clients. Additionally, the IP can change dynamically as a client moves from one base station to another. Because of this, anti-fraud systems are very cautious about blocking mobile IPs, and any blockages are short-term. This type of proxy enjoys the highest trust level. More details on mobile proxies.
Proxies can be static or dynamic (rotating). More on the difference.
- Static proxies usually operate based on data center addresses, as in other proxy types (residential and mobile), IPs are at least rotated by the communication provider. Therefore, static proxies share all the downsides of data center IPs: they’re easy to track and block. For high-quality online research or scraping, a large number of static IPs is required to create rotating ones (rotation scripts would either need to be developed from scratch or selected from available solutions).
- Rotating proxies are ideal for research. Typically, the service provider is responsible for rotating outgoing IPs. The latter may change under different conditions: when a working IP “drops off” on a timer, via API, by link, with each new request, etc. Meanwhile, the user's entry point to the proxy network remains static — there is no need to change connection parameters every time. The scraper functions as usual, with no need to update the proxy list.
Proxies can generally be divided into two groups:
- Free proxies are those that are publicly accessible. There are no guarantees or obligations. They have low stability and minimal lifespan, with low privacy and security levels. Only free data center proxies are available in open access, so free proxies do not work for serious business tasks.
- Paid proxies – offer guarantees and clear rental terms. High stability, good coverage, and access to residential and mobile IPs.
Here is the article on the topic: Paid vs Free Proxies
To sum it up, paid rotating mobile or residential proxies work better for large-scale market research (including search engine position monitoring, price tracking, competitor site scraping, etc. In rare cases, when target sites have weak security systems, rotating data center proxies may also work well, offering traffic cost savings.
The larger the provider’s proxy pool and the more accurate the targeting and rotation conditions, the better.
Recommendations for Using Proxies in Market Research
To start with, choose anonymous proxies that use password protection (or whitelisting) to ensure no one else can access your proxy.
Secondly, select proxies with precise targeting. This will let you obtain IP addresses from the same network provider (residential or mobile proxies). This enhances credibility with security systems, as IP rotation within the same provider’s network comes as a dynamic address change, similar to reconnecting from the same computer or smartphone.
Targeting also enables you to check local results and site personalization algorithms, which may be essential for certain research types.
Thirdly, monitor load balancing for websites and web services. Too frequent requests and actions with identical timing intervals are easily detected and blocked. To prevent blocks, use varied request intervals with randomization or switch IPs with each new request.
If you need to gather large data volumes from a single site, use parallel connections. According to the number of flows, each session runs through a separate proxy.
Fourthly, use headless browsers or anti-detect tools. They are easily connected via API and make it possible to work with dynamic content. Many modern websites use AJAX or JavaScript, generating final HTML directly in the browser. A simple parser might find nothing here.
Real rendering helps bypass popular traps like hidden input forms and special links.
Fifthly, watch human-like actions and interactions. For example, you can manually fill in fields, move the cursor, and vary scrolling patterns. The more realistic the behavior, the lower the risk of blocks.
Sixthly, pay attention to technical headers and digital fingerprints. Websites and anti-fraud systems use complex algorithms to detect bots and parsers. Minor details can reveal the use of anti-detect browsers or proxies.
Seventhly, observe the contents of the robots.txt file. It outlines rules for interacting with site content, while some sections may be restricted. Attempts to access restricted sections can be perceived as parsing or attack threats.
Here is a more comprehensive guide on scraping websites without blocks.
Residential Proxies
Perfect proxies for collecting valuable data from all over the world.
Potential Challenges and Solutions
Scraping Legality
If you collect data from public website sections (pages visible to any user), it's difficult to establish liability. Your actions resemble those of any other user. The only potential concern from site administration might be a violation of fair use policies or access to restricted areas of the system (which is unlikely if you respect restrictions in the robots.txt file).
Additionally, there may be allegations of unauthorized use of intellectual property like text, images, videos, etc. Therefore, avoid copying and redistributing any acquired content. Calculating any actual damage caused by your scraping load seems unreal.
If you're using scraping to automate routine user actions, there should be no issues.
Some countries actively regulate tools that bypass regional restrictions. Proxies can fall under such tools, so be sure to check the laws of countries where you plan to use entry and exit points in the proxy network.
However, this is rare. In most countries, using proxies is not a crime and is entirely legal.
Regional Data Dependency
Many sites may display different versions of pages and content in different countries and regions. Search engines do the same, often personalizing results based on previous queries and user actions. Therefore, clarify this factor in advance and decide on proxy locations with appropriate exit points and targeting parameters (for selecting and rotating new addresses).
The same approach can be used to compare different regional versions of target sites during large-scale research.
Low-Quality Proxies
You can’t affect proxy quality, so start by choosing a reliable service provider based on their history and reviews from actual users. If you encounter a poor provider, stop using their services and select another one. To avoid wasting time and effort, consider choosing Froxy from the start.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Proxies are indispensable for monitoring and full-scale marketing research. They enable parallel information-gathering streams and help avoid unnecessary blocks.
Rotating mobile or residential proxies are ideal for research purposes. In some cases, where the target site has a less robust security system, rotating server proxies may be sufficient.
Free proxies, lacking quality and stability guarantees, will only add problems.
You can find high-quality rotating proxies with us. Froxy offers over 10 million IPs, precise targeting, and convenient automatic rotation settings. Our proxies are compatible with any specialized software and services. You only pay for traffic, while the number of simultaneous connections can be very large - up to 1,000 ports per account.
