Before anything else, do the fingernail test, because it decides whether this product can help you at all. Run a nail lightly across the scratch. If it catches, stop reading. If it glides over, keep going.

The paint on your car is layers: primer, then colour, then a clear coat on top that is thicker than people expect. Most of what look like scratches on a car are marks in that clear layer only, and the reason they show up white is not that they are white. It is that the walls of the groove scatter light in every direction instead of reflecting it back at you.

A compound does not fill that groove. It abrades the clear coat down around it until the surface is level again and there is no groove left to scatter light. This is the part people get wrong: you are not adding anything, you are removing a very small amount of clear coat everywhere else to meet the bottom of the mark.

So the technique is patience over pressure. Small circular passes, moderate pressure, and check the panel frequently by wiping it dry. The mark fades a little on each pass. If it has not moved after several passes, it is deeper than the clear coat and more work will not reach it.

Which is the honest limit, and it is why the fingernail test comes first. If your nail catches, the scratch has gone through the clear into the colour or the primer, and no compound on earth will bring the colour back because the colour is gone. That one needs touch-up paint. This bottle will polish the area around it beautifully and the scratch will still be there.