The CEP Finder goes beyond simply listing "what users are searching for." Instead, it uses AI to deeply investigate and analyze "at what moments and why your customers think of and consider a specific product category." Just enter a product name, and it compiles everything into a single report — from real-world pain points consumers face, to frequently searched keywords, and even specific question examples they might type into an AI search engine. It is an extremely useful tool.
What is CEP?
CEP stands for Category Entry Point, referring to the specific situations, contexts, and triggers that cause consumers to need or think of a particular product category.
For example, rather than just the category "sneakers," it refers to specific real-life moments such as "looking for sneakers that won't get wet during a rainy commute."
Each CEP includes two key elements:
Nano intent: The specific purposes and detailed intentions that differ from person to person even within the same CEP scenario.
Key Buying Factor: The specific product attributes or constraints that lead consumers to filter alternatives and make actual purchase decisions in a given situation.
The CEP Finder can be used following a simple workflow, without requiring any complex background knowledge.
Enter the product name or brand name you want to analyze in the search bar at the top of the screen. After entering the information, click the Run button to create a new analysis project.
The newly created project is added to the project list at the bottom. The analysis proceeds meticulously through a 5-stage AI pipeline:
Stage 1: Basic information research
Stage 2: Product anchor and category extraction
Stage 3: In-depth consumer context research
Stage 4: CEP extraction and Nano intent generation
Stage 5: KBF (Key Buying Factor) derivation
Monitor the progress in the list and wait until the analysis is complete. The list view also provides functionality to select multiple projects for deletion or refresh, in addition to checking the current stage.
Once the analysis is fully complete and the status changes to "Complete," click the corresponding list item to navigate to the detailed results screen. Product information is displayed at the top of the results screen, and you can download the entire analysis as a Markdown document report for further use.
The results screen is organized around the CEP card grid so users can focus directly on the core insights. Each card represents a single CEP scenario and surfaces its Nano intent, Key Buying Factor, and the total search volume of related keywords at a glance. The top of the screen also shows the product being analyzed alongside the data collection date, so you always know which moment in time the insights are drawn from.
Clicking a card opens the in-depth insight modal for that CEP, and the CEP Expansion" card at the end of the grid lets you extend the analysis whenever you need more coverage.
When the CEPs from the initial analysis are not enough, the CEP Expansion card lets you widen the scope of analysis. With a single click, the AI carries over the existing analysis context, generates additional CEPs, and appends them to the results grid. Because the CEPs you were already reviewing stay in place, you can extend coverage step by step without losing context.
Clicking a CEP card opens a modal where you can dive into that scenario in depth. The modal is organized around three kinds of information: a Nano intent & Key Buying Factor summary, AI search question examples, and related-keyword Google search results (SERP).
The Nano intent and Key Buying Factor summary helps you understand what consumers actually want in that CEP and which criteria drive their product choice.
The AI search question examples combine the CEP and its Key Buying Factors to automatically generate questions consumers are likely to type into an AI search bar — ready to be applied directly to content and search strategy.
The related keywords list is composed of keywords whose AIO (AI Overview) answers share a similar context with the CEP. Clicking a keyword lets you view the Google search results (SERP), AIO included, as-is, and past snapshots collected for the same keyword are laid out as a SERP history in chronological order.
This lets you compare and track how the results have evolved — which pages have been ranking on top, and how the tone of AI search summaries has shifted — on a single screen. Each snapshot is labeled with its collection date so you always know which moment in time you are looking at.