Best Strategies and Tools to Monitor Competitors

‍Competitors are often seen as a challenge, a problem.

‍But in reality, they can become one of your biggest sources of inspiration and open up whole new parts of your brand.

‍But all this starts with knowing how to monitor your competition.

‍So, how do you do that to get the most out of it? Keep reading to find out.

‍Many companies do rare competitor monitoring or ignore it altogether. It makes sense, really. What do they do that we don’t?

‍Often, it is the case, and most businesses just stick to the “industry standard.”

‍But in reality, there are many interesting cases that you can learn from. And unless you look at other industry players (not necessarily the ones selling the same thing), you might be out of context.

‍After all, analyzing your rivals is one of the best ways to:

• Understand how you are doing. It’s hard to know how successful you are, unless you have some data to compare your results with.
• See if your rivals are missing something. When other businesses don’t do something that could potentially be beneficial, it’s your chance.
• Learn from their mistakes. While the saying goes that we don’t learn from someone else’s mistakes, it shouldn’t be like that in the business world. Notice what didn’t work for your competition and think why. It can save you from wasting your own resources.
• Check whether you are standing out enough. You see, if you feel like your rivals look too much like you, maybe you need to work on your uniqueness.
• Try some of their successful tactics. If something works for other market players, maybe you could tweak it a bit and do something similar for yourself.
• React to major changes faster. Sometimes, companies in your space could spot some significant shifts earlier than you do. If you come across something like this, analyze it — maybe you can use that.

‍All these are very broad concepts that can make a difference for your business, but, of course, often it will come down to smaller things, like:

• Personalize your product or service offers better based on what others are doing.
• Find more platforms (media) that can improve your exposure and visibility.
• Create better lead magnets that encourage visitors to sign up.
• Get great content and keyword ideas.

‍However you slice it, competitive intelligence monitoring is a big part of what makes brands successful.

‍Whether you find that your rivals launch a cool partnership, have a feature that their customers love, or buy backlinks for SEO — all these details can help you become better.

‍The main secret is to do this consistently and actually apply the insights you discover. But of course, there is more to it. That’s what the next section is all about.

‍Depending on your niche, the best strategies can look very different. But here are some that work across the board for every business:

#1 Don’t Just Focus on Your Direct Competitors

‍Focusing on direct rivals only is one of the most common mistakes you’ll notice right away. It can backfire simply because you’ll be missing out on lots of useful (if not vital) information.

‍Some people ignore indirect competitors. Others don’t pay any attention to the new entrants into the market (even if they sell the same product/service). But neither of these approaches will work in the long run.

‍Instead, what you want to do is to keep an eye on everyone. Yes, that mostly means your direct contenders. But it also includes brands that target the same group of people, outrank you for those keywords you’ve been eyeing, etc., (even if their offering is different).

‍And naturally, you’ll also keep an eye out for new brands that have the potential to become a threat tomorrow or replace you entirely.

‍Source: Code Harbor

‍But when it comes to consistent monitoring, pick just a couple of main rivals. Otherwise, you’ll get lost in all the data.

#2 Track Across the Board

‍Alright, so this whole time we’ve been talking about some monitoring. But what should you even keep track of?

‍Well, there are tons of options. Let’s talk about the major ones.

SEO

‍Of course, SEO is a big part of online visibility. So, you have to know how others in your niche are doing when it comes to search engine optimization. This is the only way to outrank them.

‍What do you want to keep track of here?

• Their keywords (especially the ones you also target) and organic traffic.
• Backlink profile, including new and lost links.
• Site health (speed, Core Web Vitals, etc.)
• Their featured snippets, AI overview recommendations, etc.

Paid Ads

‍PPC is another important tool for many businesses. So, if it’s something you and other companies in your field rely on a lot, monitoring paid ads should be your priority.

‍These are a couple of things you can keep an eye on:

• The platforms they use (Google search, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, etc.)
• Targeted keywords and whether they’re different compared to yours.
• Ad copy and how it works for them.
• Landing pages and their efficiency.
• Traffic volume and budget estimations.

Content Marketing

‍Content marketing is a very broad concept that could include several initiatives. But usually, you don’t need to use every single tactic. How do you choose what you need? Well, market and audience research, trial and error, and, of course, competitor analysis can definitely help.

‍If you don’t know where to start, look at what other businesses in your niche are doing and answer the following questions:

• What formats are they using (long reads, podcasts, short video guides, etc.)?
• What actually works for them? And why?
• How is their audience reacting to different things? Is this also your audience?
• What tone of voice, messaging, and style are they using? Should you also experiment with yours?
• Do they use user-generated content (UGC) or employee-generated content (EGC)?
• What content types haven’t worked for them?

Social Media

‍Monitoring competitors without tracking their social media presence is useless. These days, everyone is active on socials, so you have to understand how your opponents are doing in this area.

‍Some of the things you can pay attention to are:

• The platforms they use.
• Engagement rates and the posts that perform best/worst.
• The frequency and formats of the posts they use.
• The level of creativity and diversity in terms of messaging and formats.
• Trends over time (followers growth, collaboration improvements, etc.)

Events & Community

‍Tracking events and community might not be the first thing that comes to your mind. But it can be very effective for your own strategies.

‍You see, there are tons of brands out there. Yet, to be truly successful in the long run, you need a base of loyal clients. That’s why communities and events (especially in-person ones) are so important.

‍Try to figure out the following things:

• Are your rivals sponsoring any events? Could this work for you?
• Do they have an online community? What channel do they use (Reddit, Discord, etc.)?
• How do they communicate with their customers? Do they prioritize “deeper” connections?
• Do they have any loyalty programs?
• Do they participate in any industry events that you ignore?

Pricing, Offering & Sales

‍While all the previous points were mostly targeted at marketing initiatives, you can go beyond that. When it comes to the product/service itself, there are often many things you can learn.

‍Today, we suggest starting with pricing, sales tactics, and the actual offering. But feel free to get into other details as well.

‍One of the easiest approaches would be to check every competing brand’s:

• Pricing strategy and its effectiveness.
• Offerings and how they differ from yours.
• Sales tactics — do they use any unexpected approaches?
• Free trials and other free access models different companies offer.
• Upselling and cross-selling strategies — think whether anything similar could work for you.

#3 Check Review Sites to See the Customers’ POV

‍Marketing monitoring has to include the audience’s perception. How do actual buyers see yours and other brands in your niche?

‍Most businesses check the reviews their clients leave. But wouldn’t it also make sense to take a look at what people are saying about your rivals? If there’s one thing you can be sure of, it’s the fact that unhappy customers talk.

‍Of course, you can use social listening tools (more on this later), but you can also simply go to any listing (review) platform or niche forum. Anything from TrustPilot and Capterra to Yelp and Reddit could work.

‍Source: TrustPilot

‍Here, you want to check both negative and positive reviews. They can help you add new features people like or remove some issues you have as well.

‍It can almost become your secret tool. Imagine you can offer your clients something they need even before they tell you about it — all thanks to checking other businesses’ reviews.

#4 Look Into Their Collaborations

‍Partnerships are extremely common. But what most of us do is simply analyze the results of our own collaborations. Now, what we offer you to try is checking who your competitors are teaming up with and what campaign they’re working on.

‍Not just that, you can also track what community causes they’re supporting (if any).

‍Usually, collaborations and community work tend to lead to some positive PR. So, if you see that your rivals’ partnerships result in lots of media coverage, think whether you could do something similar. Maybe you can even bring it to a new level.

‍Ideally, you should be paying attention to both one-time collaborations and long-term partnerships. Your main goal is to check what brings them better outcomes, which will help you choose your future partner wisely.

‍But don’t blindly copy what they do. Instead, show your personality in each association with anyone.

‍Besides, think bigger — you can team up with brands in seemingly unrelated industries. For example, think about the Supreme x Oreo collab.

‍What does a clothing brand have to do with a cookie producer? Yet, it was a success. So, don’t limit yourself, no matter how big or small you are.

‍Source: Supreme

#5 Analyze Their Mentions

‍Any competitor monitoring has to consider what others are saying about your rivals. This includes anything from media mentions to guest blogging. You want to understand how popular other businesses in your niche are. Who’s talking about them?

‍Pay special attention to big names, such as NYT, Forbes, etc. (if any). Next, check whether they have publications in respected industry resources. And after, you can just see if they use guest blogging and niche edits or rely on press releases.

‍Alternatively, you can see that they are really active on Reddit, Quora, or other forums. Try to check whether those seem organic or posted by them — it’s quite obvious usually.

‍If you see lots of guest posts, that means they’re heavily invested in SEO and link building in particular. How are you doing in that direction?

‍If, on the other hand, they have lots of organic PR exposure with press releases that attract attention. This could happen if your rival does things that stand out. Could you maybe replicate something similar?

‍Either way, if you want to become and stay visible, you have to know who’s “shining” in your niche.

#6 Choose the Best Tools

‍Until now, we’ve talked about dozens of things you could track. But how can you do that? By using proper tools.

‍The thing is that you can monitor many aspects manually — true. Yet, it can take you way too much time, especially if you want to analyze multiple competitors.

‍So, ideally, you want to have a couple of solutions that can speed up this process for you.

‍In the next section, we’ll share some of the best software on the market that covers different needs. But here is a little note — at first, it might seem like you need every single tool, which can get expensive and overwhelming.

‍So, the most logical approach here is to think about what you want to track and what your budget is. Based on this, you can then pick just one or two solutions that actually make sense for you.

‍And, of course, before you commit to anything, sign up for a free trial (if available).

‍With that said, let’s get into the selection of the best tools that can help you keep an eye on your rivals.

‍Below, you’ll find some of the most popular platforms among many marketers and business owners. They all cover different needs and requirements, so just go through the list and pick what you like.

#1 Ahrefs

‍Source: Ahrefs

‍Best for: Keyword, backlink, and content gaps analysis.

‍Price: From $129/month for Lite plan (or Starter plan with access to three features for $29/month).

‍Features:

• In-depth backlink monitoring.
• Strong SEO focus with keyword searches, content gap analysis, etc.
• Free webmaster tools for site audit.
• Affordable Starter plan for beginners.

‍We’ll mention a couple of SEO solutions in this guide because they are different and can work for diverse use cases. Now, let’s look into the first option — Ahrefs.

‍Ahrefs is one of those tools that looks like it’s been in the SEO game forever. This is probably closer to the truth than you think. It is search engine optimization software with one of the best sets of features.

‍Often, people refer to it as the most comprehensive SEO tool. And there is a reason for that. For one, they have every single functionality you might need for optimization. Plus, it has one of the largest and most frequently updated live backlink indexes.

‍So, if you are obsessed with link building, it might be one of the best picks out there.

#2 Semrush

‍Source: Semrush

‍Best for: Tracking SEO, traffic/market trends, social media, and PPC in one place.

‍Price: From $139.95/month for Pro SEO plan.

‍Features:

• All the basic SEO functionality.
• Additional Traffic & Market analysis for $289/month.
• Social media management and analytics platform from $20/month.
• Advertising plans for PPC research and analysis from $99/month.

‍Before, Semrush was only considered to be an SEO solution with some additional marketing features. But today, they’ve expanded into positioning themselves as a marketing platform, not just an SEO tool.

‍Of course, many still use it as an alternative to Ahrefs, but it also has additional functionality that can help you analyze traffic and market trends, work with PPC campaigns, generate content, and manage your social media.

‍It sounds great, but you also have to consider that all that additional functionality comes at an extra cost. And if you add it all up, it might be too much for many SMBs.

‍Still, it is a great tool for monitoring other businesses in your niche across the board.

#3 Moz Pro

‍Source: Moz

‍Best for: Affordable and beginner-friendly SEO analysis.

‍Price: From $49/month for Moz Pro.

‍Features:

• Most SEO functionalities that business owners need.
• One of the simplest UIs out there, which is perfect for beginners.
• Affordable pricing compared to other SEO tools on the market.

‍And here comes another SEO tool. Moz Pro is especially popular among marketers who love an easy-to-use interface and don’t need many advanced features.

‍Still, it gives you many opportunities to compare your situation with the one your rivals have. You can check their keyword rankings, backlink profiles, content gaps, on-page SEO structure, etc.

‍So, it is a great optimization tool you can use if you’re on a budget or you aren’t extra proficient in SEO.

#4 Sprout Social

‍Source: Sprout Social

‍Best for: Social media competitive analysis.

‍Price: From $199 per seat/month.

‍Features:

• Keep tabs on your opponents’ posts.
• Monitor their social media performance across several platforms.
• Check their audience engagement metrics, growth rate, audience size, etc.

‍Sprout Social is software many choose for their social media marketing. You can use it for all your basic SM management needs. But apart from that, it is really helpful when it comes to tracking your competitors by assessing their social strategy.

‍This social listening tool allows you to “hear” what people are actually talking about and understand how they feel about you and other brands. And, of course, you can also track all the important engagement metrics (for any business).

#5 Phlanx

‍Source: Phlanx

‍Best for: Monitoring your opps’ social media engagement rates.

‍Price: From $49/month.

‍Features:

• Check your competitor’s social media performance.
• Know their engagement rates across different platforms.
• Understand who your rivals partner with to promote their product or service.

‍Phlanx is a tool that helps you see how active other brands’ followers are on socials. This software assesses the ratio between views and actual engagement for any account, including bloggers and your opponents.

‍So, if you are struggling to improve your own engagement rates, this type of insight can be really useful. It can give you ideas of how to improve your situation.

‍On the other hand, you may find that even though other businesses have more followers, their engagement might be lower than yours.

‍It is also an amazing solution if you want to work with bloggers because you can see how active their audience is. And this matters much more than the number of their subscribers. The same goes for your competitors’ partnerships. You can check how effective the influencers they work with could potentially be.

#6 SpyFu

‍Source: SpyFu

‍Best for: SEO and PPC research.

‍Price: From $39/month for the Basic plan.

‍Features:

• Basic SEO features, from keyword research to backlink analysis.
• Strong focus on PPC monitoring.
• An affordable tool for easy and informative SEO and PPC analysis.

‍SpyFu’s name suggests some espionage activities. And it sort of lives up to its name. You can dig through your competitors’ SEO and PPC strategies in one place.

‍This solution can be a good choice for many, as it combines both organic and paid traffic analysis. So, you can analyze focus keywords, backlinks, and rankings while also checking how other brands approach their paid ads. You can monitor their ad copy, target keywords, etc.

‍The best part is that it’s pretty affordable while giving you access to infinite search queries used by your rivals.

#6 SpyFu

‍Source: SpyFu

‍Best for: SEO and PPC research.

‍Price: From $39/month for the Basic plan.

‍Features:

• Basic SEO features, from keyword research to backlink analysis.
• Strong focus on PPC monitoring.
• An affordable tool for easy and informative SEO and PPC analysis.

‍SpyFu’s name suggests some espionage activities. And it sort of lives up to its name. You can dig through your competitors’ SEO and PPC strategies in one place.

‍This solution can be a good choice for many, as it combines both organic and paid traffic analysis. So, you can analyze focus keywords, backlinks, and rankings while also checking how other brands approach their paid ads. You can monitor their ad copy, target keywords, etc.

‍The best part is that it’s pretty affordable while giving you access to infinite search queries used by your rivals.

#7 BuzzSumo

‍Source: BuzzSumo

‍Best for: Spotting competitive trends useful for your content marketing.

‍Price: From $199/month for the Content Creation plan.

‍Features:

• Find the most trendy and viral content.
• Understand what works best for your competitors.
• Check other companies’ online mentions.
• Set alerts for different topics to stay updated even if you don’t have time to check this manually.

‍BuzzSumo is like that place where you can get all the latest “gossip” in one concise summary.

‍Basically, you can track any topic related to your niche and see who’s saying anything about it, and whose posts get the most attention.

‍While you can monitor exact businesses, it’s often a good idea to look at the bigger picture. You can often discover some brands that you weren’t even considering as your rivals.

‍You can also see who mentions your companies of interest, so that you know when someone else’s product gets trendy and picked up by celebrities.

‍Another useful feature is that you can dig through questions across forums and see exactly what kind of answers your audience needs. Using that in your content later on is a perfect plan to make your posts actually helpful.

#8 Brand24

‍Source: Brand24

‍Best for: Real-time social monitoring.

‍Price: From $199/month for the Individual plan.

‍Features:

• Analyze topics and sentiments.
• Track the influencers that other businesses work with or you want to collaborate with.
• Monitor your competitors’ brand mentions across the web in real time.
• Compare your reach, sentiment, and volume with your rivals.

‍Brand24 is a perfect tool for anyone who wants to keep track of their brand mentions as well as those of other brands. But it doesn’t just list those mentions — it shows you the emotional context behind them, whether it’s positive, negative, or neutral.

‍This way, you can quickly know when your rivals’ campaigns are not hitting the right spot with the target audience. As a result, you can learn from their mistakes and avoid making the same ones in the future. Of course, their successes can be useful too.

‍But even if you aren’t sure who you’re competing with, you can simply track your target keywords and see who pops up. Sometimes, those could be brands that offer something different from your product/service.

‍Brand24 also gives you data on the share of voice to see how your market visibility compares to other companies.

#9 Owletters

‍Source: Owletters

‍Best for: Email campaign analysis.

‍Price: From $29 per month for the Starter plan.

‍Features:

• Assess anyone’s email marketing strategy.
• Capture a screenshot of the emails they send to their customers.
• Set alerts for certain keywords or websites.

‍Email marketing is a big thing for many companies, so we had to include a tool that allows monitoring your competition’s efforts with this tactic. Have you ever wondered what letters all your rivals send to their subscribers?

‍If that’s the case, you will love Owletter. Basically, it’s software where you can choose any website and receive screenshots of all the emails they send out.

‍Sure, you can subscribe to all their newsletters and go through them manually. But it can get messy really fast, so this tool can help you organize and store everything you need. Plus, it can do some basic analysis to summarize their email frequency and find some interesting patterns.

#10 Similarweb

‍Source: Similarweb

‍Best for: Web performance tracking.

‍Price: From $199/month for the Starter plan

‍Features:

• Check the types and amounts of traffic any website gets.
• Analyze your rivals’ PPC campaigns.
• Get to know what backlinks lead to the most referral traffic for other businesses.

‍If you want to monitor competitors’ traffic sources, audience types, and PPC performance? You can do it all with Similarweb. Basically, this software allows you to search for any site and check how they get their website visitors.

‍You can see whether they’re good at SEO and get tons of organic traffic, or if a particular mention brings them most of their referral traffic.

‍Apart from organic search, you can also get insights into their PPC campaigns. You get all the data you need, from the keywords they target and the ad copy to the campaign performance.

‍Needless to say, all this information can help you improve your traffic and make all your marketing initiatives (whether it’s SEO or PPC) more intentional.

#11 Hootsuite

‍Source: Hootsuite

‍Best for: Monitoring social media presence and managing your accounts.

‍Price: From $149/month for the Standard plan.

‍Features:

• Get the scope of your competitor’s social activity.
• Check brand mentions.
• See public opinion about your brand and other businesses on socials.

‍Hootsuite helps you understand what the social media scene is like. Long story short — you can check what your rivals are doing and how people are reacting to that.

‍It’s also a tool for tracking trends and topics that are relevant in your niche. Every business targets some keywords/hashtags. And Hoosuite can give you updates on what people post using those keywords.

‍Of course, it also comes with a social listening tool that helps you understand social sentiments.

‍Many use and like this platform. Still, if you want to compare your performance with other companies, you can only do that manually. So, just keep that in mind.

#12 HypeAuditor

‍Source: HypeAuditor

‍Best for: Tracking competitors’ influencer marketing campaigns.

‍Price: From $299/month.

‍Features:

• Understand your rivals’ influencer marketing strategy.
• Analyze different influencers and check who other brands work with.
• Check the quality of each blogger’s audience (if they have bots, fake engagement, etc.).

‍HypeAuditor is a solution you’ll often see on any influencer marketing list. The thing is that working with bloggers is sometimes based on guessing. Even if they give you some of their stats, you never know whether those are real.

‍So, in order to avoid these issues, you can use this tool and see everything you might want to know about any influencer.

‍But of course, we’ve included it here because it’s also great for monitoring competition and their collabs. Whether you want to partner with the same creator or analyze the potential results of other brands’ campaigns, this software can give you the information you need.

‍Besides, it allows you to compare your influencer marketing campaigns with the ones your rivals launch. As a result, you can clearly see what works to optimize your spending and get even better results from your future activities.

#13 Screaming Frog

‍Source: Screaming Frog

‍Best for: Performing site audits on any website.

‍Price: $279/year.

‍Features:

• Check your competitor’s online visibility.
• Audit their sites for vulnerabilities.
• Check their backlink quality.

‍We’ve already mentioned that it’s extremely useful to keep an eye on your competitors’ backlink profiles. Sure, you can do that with any SEO tool we’ve mentioned by now. But if you want to take it to the next level and get all technical, you need Screaming Frog.

‍It allows you to easily go through any site and check for technical issues that can affect the performance. But on top of that, you can look through their backlinks and understand a lot about what they’re doing to rank high in search results (if they do).

‍Competitive monitoring pays off when you do it strategically. While it’s essential to keep an eye on other brands in your niche, you don’t need to track every single thing we’ve listed here. This is more of a guide that shows you all the possible opportunities.

‍But now, it’s your turn to choose what your business needs.

‍Besides, as we’ve already mentioned, pick only a couple of brands to monitor regularly. You can do extensive research once in a while. But trying to keep an eye on everyone all the time is exhausting and even pointless because it’ll be hard to process that data and apply it somehow.