How to find winning products with spy tools (step by step)

A "winning product" isn't magic. It's a product with proven demand, room to compete and a margin that survives ad costs. Spy tools help you check all three before you spend money on stock or ads.

Here's a step-by-step process you can repeat for every product.

Step 1: Build a long list of candidates

Start wide. Spend an hour collecting 20–30 products that are already selling.

• TikTok Shop: Kalodata's top products, filtered to the last 7–30 days
• Shopify: WinningHunter's trending products, and ShopHunter on stores in your niche
• Free: TikTok Creative Center's top products, Amazon Movers & Shakers

Put each one in a spreadsheet with a link and a one-line note on why it caught your eye.

Step 2: Cut it down with three quick filters

Remove anything that fails one of these:

1. Price: can you sell it for at least 3x what it costs you, including shipping? Ads eat margin fast.
2. Shipping: is it light, unbreakable and size-free? Fragile or sized items mean returns.
3. Visual hook: can you show why it's great in the first 3 seconds of a video? If not, it'll be hard to advertise.

You should be down to 5–10 products.

Step 3: Confirm demand with long-running ads

This is where ad spy tools earn their keep. Advertisers don't keep paying for ads that lose money, so an ad that has run for weeks is a strong sign the product sells.

For each remaining product:

• Search it in AdSpy (Facebook and Instagram) and PiPiAds (TikTok), or the free Meta Ad Library
• Look for ads that have been running for 30+ days
• Check whether several different advertisers are promoting it
• Read the comments: "Where can I buy this?" is what you want to see

Keep products with at least one long-running ad and more than one advertiser. Save the best 5–10 ads for each into a folder.

Step 4: Check the competition

Pick your top 2–3 products and look at who sells them.

• SimilarWeb: how much traffic do the top stores get, and from where (paid social, search, organic)?
• ShopHunter: is this product one of their best sellers?
• Their store: what do they charge? What do reviews complain about?

You're looking for one clear way to be better: a lower price, a bundle, a better angle in the ads, faster shipping, or better photos.

Step 5: Study the winning ads (don't copy them)

Go back to the ads you saved and write down:

• The hook in the first 3 seconds
• The problem the ad shows
• The proof (demo, before and after, reviews)
• The offer (discount, bundle, free shipping)

Then write three new hooks of your own using the same angles. Copying a competitor's actual video is lazy and often gets ads rejected. Copying the angle is just good research.

Step 6: Make the creative and test small

• Product photos with Mokker or Canva Pro
• 3–5 short video ads in CapCut Pro, each with a different hook
• A voiceover with ElevenLabs if you don't want to record your own
• Product page and ad copy drafted with ChatGPT or Claude

Launch with a small test budget that you decide in advance, and decide in advance how you'll judge the results. Keep what works, cut what doesn't, and move to the next product on your list.

The tools for each step

Every paid tool in that table is in the Luxury Tools membership, for $29.95 a month. See the ecommerce lineup, or compare the tools in Best product research tools and Best ad spy tools.