Measuring the success of your campaigns is straightforward when you have metrics and data. However, assessing the effectiveness of your competitor’s campaigns is a different ballgame–you don’t have and cannot have access to their performance indicators.
The good news is there are ways to know if a competitor's campaign is successful and it only involves sharpening your sleuthing skills and spotting patterns in their content and creatives.
In this article, I’ll talk about the signs that point to the success of your competitor’s campaign so you can learn from them and apply that knowledge to your campaigns.
You can easily check your competitor’s campaign success using Panoramata, an all-in-one competitor monitoring tool that gives you a bird’s eye view of your competitor’s activity and publishes real-time updates on their every move.
Sign up for free today to scope out your competitor’s ads, emails, landing pages, and more!
A Guide to Assessing the Effectiveness of a Marketing Campaign
- 3 signs that indicate your competitor’s campaign is successful
- Their campaign has been active for a long time
- Their campaign has several variations
- They’re using the same creative again and again
- Frequently Asked Questions
- 1. What are signs that a competitor’s campaign is successful?
- 2. How can I track a competitor’s campaign performance?
- 3. Can I replicate a successful competitor campaign?
3 signs that indicate your competitor’s campaign is successful
Their campaign has been active for a long time
The longer a campaign has been running, the more likely it’s a successful one because simply put, companies won’t continue publishing a campaign with a horrible return on investment.
A campaign that has been active for months or weeks usually means that the ad is garnering a decent amount of clicks and conversions.
However, unless you’ve been tracking an ad from the start, you won’t know how long a campaign has been active.
This is where Panoramata can be useful. In a few steps, you can identify your competitor’s longest-running campaigns.
Here’s how to do this.
- Go to the Panomarata homepage. Click on Brands Search on the leftmost panel of the Panoramata dashboard. Alternatively, you can click Quick Search at the top of the page.
- Then, type in the name of your competitor or brand you want to monitor. Choose the corresponding brand from the search results.
- You will be taken to the brand’s page on the summary tab. Switch to the ads tab by clicking on Ads which you can find on top of the page.
- On the Ads tab, you will see several ways to search through your competitor’s ads.
You can search by typing in a keyword under the search bar (for example: Christmas). You can also select a date range if you want to see ads published in a certain period.
Click the search button if you’re using a keyword or date range to filter results.
Your competitors aren’t going to fix what’s not broken–they will share a campaign that has garnered a high number of clicks until the engagement level from the ad decreases.
- To find the oldest active ads, first, set the filter labeled “Active?” to active “right now”.
You also have additional options for filters such as asset type and network.
- Select the type of asset you want to see (under Assets). You can pick from text, video, images, and carousel.
- Choose a network (feed or display).
- Lastly, sort the results by Oldest First to see the oldest active ads first.
Just like that, you’ll find your competitor’s successful ad campaigns.
For each ad, you can see the date it was first published and the links to its landing page, Facebook Ad library page, and/or the brand’s website.
You can also download the ad for future reference or better yet, save it to a list on Panoramata so you can access it easily and share it with your team.
But there are more ways to determine whether a competitor’s campaign is successful…
Their campaign has several variations
Another telltale sign of campaign success is when it has several variations. In other words, the brand has repeatedly reproduced the campaign in different ways.
They’ll tweak the images, switch up the copy, or add new footage but the campaign is essentially the same, they’re just building on it. That means the campaign is getting good results and they’re refining it continuously to see if it can work even better.
Check out your competitor’s most frequently edited campaigns in just a few steps on Panoramata.
- Go to the Panoramata dashboard. Look for your competitor through Brands Search on the leftmost panel.
- Go to the Ads tab on your competitor’s brand page.
- Next, set the filter labeled “Active?” to ads that are active “right now”.
- Set the Asset and Network filters to your desired assets and networks.
- Then, under the “Sort” filter, choose “Most detected” to find the most repeated ads.
They’re using the same creative again and again
Do you see your competitor publishing the same ad repeatedly? Are they using the same copy or messaging again and again? That also points to a successful campaign.
Your competitors aren’t going to fix what’s not broken–they will share a campaign that has garnered a high number of clicks until the engagement level from the ad decreases.
To discover your competitor’s most popular campaigns:
- Go to their brand page on Panoramata and click on the Ads tab.
- Explore the ads section and customize the filters as needed.
By adjusting the filters, you can:
- Select a date range
- Type in a keyword
- Choose the active status of the ads you want to see
- Choose the asset type of the ads you want to see (e.g. text, video, images)
- Choose a network (display or feed)
- Sort results by newest first, oldest first, most popular, or most detected.
- Next, observe what creative your competitor uses frequently. They will sometimes post these creatives at the same time in a row. The headline or copy may vary but the video or image will remain the same.
Browse through several ads to get a feel for their most used creatives. You will then notice their most successful campaigns through this process.
There you have it–the three signs that your competitor’s campaign is successful. We hope this helps you in your competitor analysis and strategy planning.
Try out Panoramata today to take your competitor intelligence to the next level.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are signs that a competitor’s campaign is successful?
Look at how long a campaign has been active, if it has several variations, or if your competitor has used the same assets or creative for the campaign repeatedly. Those signs are indicative of high engagement, increased traffic, and better brand visibility. Positive reviews, shares, and comments also signal success.
2. How can I track a competitor’s campaign performance?
Use tools like Panoramata or social listening platforms to monitor their traffic, ad performance, and social media engagement. Analyzing their SEO and paid ad strategies can also provide insight.
3. Can I replicate a successful competitor campaign?
You can take inspiration but avoid copying directly. Focus on understanding what worked and adapt those strategies to fit your audience and goals.
