A quick exercise for you:
Type in the most relevant keyword for your business on Google and see what comes up.
(I’ll wait.)
Do you find your competition hustling it out on Google?
Did you find their ads?
Does the spell look and sound similar to that of your own business?
One last question:
In the time you had for the exercise above, how many competitor ads did you manage to find?
One, three, seven competitors?
And that’s only Google.
How about trying to find various other ad campaigns that your competitors run on LinkedIn, Meta, Reddit, Quora, Pinterest, and many other channels available?
Plus, what about everything that happens after someone clicks on that ad? What happens next?
How will you ever know unless you physically click on ads, sign up for whatever your competitors are promoting, and let their offers flood your inbox?
Assuming you did that, what do you do with this avalanche of new information?
Is there a way to collect all this data automatically, without having to do this manually, ever week/month for every single competitor, on a lot of different networks?
Let’s find out!
(spoiler: yes, it’s possible, just click the link below!)
See who your competition is advertising to
Looking into your rearview mirror is an absolutely basic thing you do when you drive or ride.
It’s one of those ingrained habits that’ll save your life.
Yet, there’ll be blindspots -- while changing lanes, backing up into a parking lot, taking U-turns, and more.
Blindspots also exist in competitor analysis.
Consider “target audience”.
You thought you knew who your target audience is, was, and will be. However, you could have missed a section of these audiences. Or maybe you forgot that there were overlapping audiences too.
Getting a first-hand glimpse (quickly and effectively, in a single dashboard) of sets and subsets of audiences your competition is advertising to is the first step.
Avoiding blind spots can be a lifesaver.
Improve your own creatives
Assuming you are a B2C company that sells skincare and hair care products (or maybe you are).
Let’s say you use Panoramata -- and you should -- for researching or for competitive analysis.
How is your competition designing and creating ads?
With a single search or by making a list of your direct competitors, you can see a large swathe of creative inspiration in a single click (or maybe two or three).
Identify opportunities you can use, improve your own creatives, and grab the angles you didn’t think of.
Take inspiration from their hooks
Talking about hooks and angles: you could have thought that you’d want to go by instinct and use a simple “coupon” offer, a seasonal discount, or a simple “free shipping” offer in your ads and creatives.
There are, however, several other angles and hooks you can use like:
- social proof in your creatives
- running offers with a deadline (FOMO)
- comparison to other brands
- leading creatives with user-generated content (like testimonials)
Don’t miss out on hooks and angles to spice up your ads. Learn it from your competitors’ ads.
Understand what your competitors are doubling down on
Smart competitors figure out what works best for them (ad creatives, hooks, angles, styles, design, and copy) and then instinctively double down on their strategy.
You’ll often notice that they start using more of “what works” than anything else. You’ll identify their “best creatives” often reflecting what works for them.
Chances are that it could just be the thing that might work for you too.
Using a tool like Panoramata allows you to keep track of various competitors (complete with their multiple campaigns) in a single dashboard.
Understand what’s working for your competition. Notice the patterns. Read the signals.
Check their landing pages
Competitor ads are front-facing. They are what their own audiences see first (before clicking). You get to see that, of course.
If you just rely on Google search or random social channel discovery for ads, you aren’t getting the complete picture.
What’s next, after clicking the ad? It’s usually a landing page (hopefully).
How are those landing pages built? What tools or technology is that landing page built with?
How effective are your landing pages?
What changes have been made on those landing pages (and/or websites) during a specific period?
Landing pages complete at least one part of the puzzle for you -- the ads + landing page combos that your competitors use.
Make your own swipe file
Over time, you’ll be tracking several competitors -- each with multiple campaigns (ads, emails, landing pages, websites, and varying profiles for SEO).
That’s why it is important to create lists and/or swipe files. Panoramata not only lets you browse and dig through data but also creates lists.
Configure each list with exclusive filters, parameters, and variables to build exactly what you need.
Creating swipe files dedicated to creatives for your ads, newsletters, and landing pages) is a smart way to do competitor research.
Swipe lists can educate, inspire, and provide you with specific updates (going by the parameters you set) all at the same time.
Reverse-engineer their acquisition strategy
Bringing it all together, what are the specific channels each competitor uses to acquire customers?
Is it SEO alone? Or is it content marketing, blogging, social media, SEO, ads on Google, and ads on social channels?
Are your competitors just driving traffic to websites or to dedicated landing pages?
What exactly is their acquisition strategy?
Take a complete look at everything your competitors are doing including:
- the frequency of emails sent
- the style of copy used
- the graphics, and visuals
- the angles, and hooks
- the offers, and more
You can get inspired to do something similar.
Or you can reverse-engineer their strategy, only to do it better than them. If you can identify opportunities, you can use them for yourself. If you get inspired, you can follow right through.
Get all the information you ever need, with a single tool like Panoramata.
Casual browsing is one thing; effective competitor analysis is something else altogether.
One place. One dashboard. Ongoing inspiration and learning from your competitors are key.
