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How to get a market report

Name a kind of business and a US place, and Otto counts how many there are, how many per 10,000 people, and what their own websites show, then lists the openings it found. Every figure says how it was counted.

Updated 2026-10-30

A market report answers "what is this market like?" for one kind of business in one US place, for example dog groomers in Austin, TX, or roofers in Ohio. Otto counts the businesses, reads their websites, and lists what stands out. Every number in the report sits beside how it was counted, so you can check it.

Only people who can use Outreach or Competitors can make one, and only when market reports are switched on for your Otto server. If they are not, Otto says so when you start one.

Make a report

  1. Open Market reports.
  2. Type the kind of business, for example dog groomers, and the place, with its state: Austin, TX, or a whole state such as Ohio.
  3. Choose quick or full (see below), and start it.
  4. Wait a few minutes. The report shows what it is doing, such as "Reading competitors' websites: 12 of 20". You can make one report at a time.

Quick or full

  • Quick counts the market and reads up to 20 competitors' websites.
  • Full reads up to 50, compares your town with the whole state, and adds a section of context read from the web.

What is in it

  • The count. How many businesses of that kind are in Overture Maps' open listings for the area, by kind and by town; how many are chains or branches; and how many have a website. Chains and websites are counted in up to 500 of the listings.
  • Per 10,000 people. That count against the place's population, where the listings carry one. A full report for a town gives the same figure for the whole state, so you can see whether the town has fewer of them or more.
  • What their websites show. Otto reads independent businesses' own websites, spread evenly through the listings. It counts the tools they use (booking, invoicing, email marketing, live chat, review requests), signs such as hiring, running ads, a dated website or one not built for phones, how many people they name, and the prices they publish.
  • Search interest. Five years of Google search interest for the kind of business. This needs search interest switched on for your Otto server (it reads Google Trends through DataForSEO); if it is not, the report says so and the rest still works.
  • Openings. Fixed rules over the counts, such as "31 of 50 take no bookings online", or fewer of them per person than across the state. They are never a guess.
  • A summary of the counted facts. If the written summary uses a number that is not in the counts, Otto throws it away and builds a plain one from the counts instead.
  • Context (full only). What customers usually pay, how the business is run and licensed, what is changing and the main risks, read from the web, with its sources and what it could not find out.
  • How this was counted. The method for every figure.

Use it

  • Download the competitors as a CSV: each business's name, website, town, phone, how many people it names, tools, signs, prices and what it says about itself.
  • Share it with a client with a read-only link. Making a new link stops the old one. You can share a report once it is finished.
  • Start a cold campaign from it. Otto makes a draft cold campaign with this market's search filled in. Nothing is found, kept or sent until you do it yourself, and this works only when cold campaigns are switched on for your Otto server. See how to run a cold email campaign.
  • Delete a report once it has finished.

What it costs

  • The summary and the context are AI work and use your business's monthly AI allowance, as does reading search interest. If the allowance is used up, the report does not start. See Your monthly allowance.
  • Reading the listings and the websites costs nothing.
  • A business can make up to 10 reports a month, unless your Otto server sets another limit. A report that fails does not count. More start again on the 1st.

What it cannot tell you

  • Listings miss some businesses, and some listed ones have closed. The count is what the listings hold, not every business there is.
  • A website that could not be read is left out of the website figures. A tool Otto cannot see in a page's code counts as missing.
  • Prices are what the websites publish, not what customers pay.
  • Search interest is for the whole United States, not your town.
  • The context comes from web pages. Check its sources before you rely on it.
  • A report is research, not financial, legal or investment advice.

If it doesn't work

  • "Say the state too, for example: Austin, TX." Add the state to the place.
  • "Market reports are not setup on this server yet." They are not switched on for your Otto server.
  • "A business makes at most 10 market reports a month." The month's reports are used. More start again on the 1st.
  • "A report is already being made." Wait for it to finish, then start the next.
  • "No kind of business in Overture's listings matches" what you typed. Try other words, such as "plumbing" or "marketing agency".
  • A report says it failed. Try again in a while; a failed report does not count towards your month.