5 Knowledgeable ways of spying competitors

Most marketers approach the competition analysis with the wrong way of thinking. They see a successful advertisement and think: “I should do it exactly!”

This is a recipe for mediocrity.

Players don’t always know what they are doing. Their campaigns may be worse, and blindly following them can land in the same hole. You also don’t want to enter the copying war and become indistinguishable.

This is the thing: a competitive analysis is not about copying. It’s about learning.

In this guide I will show you how to become a marketing detective, not plagiarism.

Competitors may not always know better. But you Down They still want to know what your competitors are doing because:

• Competitors may know something you don’t have: Maybe they discovered a original approach that works. Or maybe they broke the code with budget allocation and the location of ads that maintain low CPA. You don’t want to imitate their campaign; You introduce engineering, what works and why.
• Facilitate you compared to comparative results: Without context, $ 100 per click seems crazy. But in industries such as legal or insurance can be on a par with the course. Competition data maintain your expectations in reality.
• They assist you find gaps and possibilities: Sometimes the most valuable observations are what competitors do not do. Incorrectly served recipients, neglected messages or archaic positioning are possibilities that can be used to detect a varied, sharper proposition of values.
• Reveal market trends before they hit you: If your competitors are starting to move messages or offers, this is not random. It can signal seasonal trends, algorithm changes or changing the mood of consumers. Find a wave and throw it away.

Let’s examine how to train advertising strategies for your competitors:

1. Exploit advertising libraries from the main advertising platforms

Most of the main advertising platforms offer “advertising libraries” or transparency centers in which users can view inactive ads, advertising data, keyword search data and many others.

Here are the best platforms that you should discover:

Red Meta library

The Meta AD library allows you to see all lively and inactive ads that every page works on meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Audient network, Messenger and threads.

Choose the AD category and then search for the keyword and advertisers. For example, these are ads that we conducted:

You can click “See the details of the advertisement” to see more information about each advertisement. You can also click the call button to act on any advertisement to see which side of the target advertising is sent by paid traffic.

You can also add filters, such as by language, platform, media types, lively status and dates.

If you click the brand content card, you can also search for specific brands or creators and see their paid partnership content:

However, you should be “declared” on the platform, otherwise it will not appear.

Google Transparency Center

Exactly, like the finish version, Google Ads Transparency Center shows the company’s ads at Google Search, Maps, Play, Shopping and YouTube.

Search for an advertiser or website and you will see all their ads:

However, you will not be able to see target keywords or recipients that these companies are targeted. You will have to operate a competitive intelligence tool (see below.)

TELTOK advertising library

The Tiktok advertising library shows all ads run by advertisers on their platform. You can see original (e.g. a brief film) when the advertisement worked, how many unique users saw it, and a summary of the purpose of the advertisement.

You can even see who paid for the advertisement (in this case Tiktok Loewe ads are probably paid by their agency, Publicis):

If you don’t do any search, you can see the entire advertising database:

LinkedIn advertising library

The LinkedIn advertising library shows all the ads that the company operated on its platform. You can search by company name or keyword.

Unfortunately, LinkedIn shows only a few details: a copy, creativity and target page that you can click.

2. Exploit competitive intelligence tools

Advertising libraries are amazing, but they don’t show you all information. For example, the Google Ads Transparency Center does not show keywords to which the company is headed.

To see this, you need to operate a competitive intelligence tool such as the Ahrefs website explorer.

Connect the competitor’s domain to the site’s explorer and go to Paid keywords report.

For example, here keywords that Shopify directs in Google ads. You can also see the target page they operate, estimated paid traffic he receives, and CPC. If it floats above the enlargement glass, you can also see the real Google advertisement:

If you prefer to see all the ads that the site is launched in Google, go to Paid ads report:

If you prefer to see their land pages, go to the paid page report:

3. Exploit advertising intelligence platforms

You have social media and search advertising. What about display ads? You need such a tool to spy on the advertising Adbeat.

Enter the competitor’s domain and you will be able to see how many ads, their advertising channels, creatives by size and type in which the ads are running and more.

Pretty frosty.

4. Browse the advertising repositories

Sometimes the best ideas come from real examples. Specialized advertising repositories offer a mix of the highest results, original and experimental ads in various industries.

Here are some useful advertising libraries:

Even better, build your own Suipe file. Advertisements of screenshots that you see in social media or Google store them in a repository, such as concept or air, and organize them by brand, date, message or original format angle.

5. Do it yourself

Sometimes the most effective research comes from experiencing competitors as a potential customer.

Here’s what you can do:

• Search keywords relevant to your industry and products: Pay attention to which competitors appear consistently and what messages they operate. Consider the operate of VPN to get more correct search results (especially in the case of local searches).
• Become retargeed: Visit their websites and browse their products or services. Then monitor what retargetment ads serve in the next few weeks. This often reveals their retarge and message strategy for various stages of the funnel.
• Register in your newsletters: E -mail marketing is often in line with advertising campaigns. Monitor their promotions, launching products and seasonal campaigns.
• Follow them on social media: Many brands run murky posts or campaigns focused on the audience, which you can sometimes catch and analyze.

Data collection is only half the battle. The real value is due to the transformation of competitive research into possible steps.

What can you do with all your competitors’ ads? Here are some ideas:

1. Compare their ads in time: If a competitor stays on the header or CTA for weeks, it probably works. Identify what messages they store and what they abandon.
2. Find coherent motifs or messages: If many competitors emphasize something like “quick delivery” or “24/7 support” that can be a stake in your industry. Work up your unique spin to stand out.
3. Analyze their land pages: Follow competition advertising on the target pages to understand the full client’s journey. How do they create their offers? What calls do they operate? These observations can inspire improves your own conversion paths.
4. Develop counter-Mesia: Set your product as a response to the vowels of competitors. If they emphasize “speed”, you may emphasize “depth” or “reliability”.
5. Browse the underrated platforms: Noticing that competitors are not lively on Pinterest, Reddit or Tiktok? This may be your opportunity to test and win in advance.

Final thoughts

The goal is not to copy competitors’ methods, but to understand what works and improve.

Advertisers are the most successful not only on competitors; They operate competitive observations as one contribution among many to creating unique campaigns focused on the audience, which stand out and do not blend.

Just remember: don’t copy. To learn. Sound. Raise. Soon your competitors will be a spying of your ads in search of inspiration.