Guides
Analysing competitor ads: competitive analysis for advertising
Advertising shows what a competitor spends money on: which offers matter to it, which customers it is after and when it makes its move. Here is how to analyse your competitors' ads without searching for them yourself every day.
Updated October 24, 2026
Why watching their advertising pays off
Websites and price lists rarely change. Advertising changes all the time, because it is paid for every day. If you follow your competitors' ads, you usually see new offers, promotions and new target groups first, often weeks before they show up anywhere else.
Where your competitors' ads are
In the EU the big platforms have to disclose the ads they show. Meta keeps the Meta Ad Library for Facebook and Instagram, Google the Google Ads Transparency Center for Search, YouTube and its ad network. TikTok and LinkedIn have libraries of their own.
AdLupe brings Meta and Google together on one page and reads both for you every day. For TikTok and LinkedIn, AdLupe links straight to each competitor's ads.
What to look for
A single ad says little. What tells you something is what happens over time:
- Run time: ads that run 30 days or longer usually work. The short ones were often just a test.
- Waves: many new ads at once announce a campaign, a product or a season.
- Messages: which benefits, prices and promises keep coming back?
- Channels: does a competitor bet on Instagram, Google Search or YouTube?
- Search terms and cost per click: which Google searches does it pay for, and what does a click cost it?
- Markets: which countries does it advertise in, and where not yet?
Four steps with AdLupe
- Enter a website: AdLupe looks for the ad accounts at Google and Meta. If you are not sure whom to watch, AdLupe suggests companies that bid on the same Google search terms as you.
- Confirm the accounts: one click, so only the right ads come in.
- Read every day: new, changed and stopped ads of all competitors on one page, plus a side-by-side comparison and each competitor's share of the ads in your industry.
- Ask: in Claude or ChatGPT, in your own words. How to connect AdLupe.
What AdLupe costs
One plan for businesses and the self-employed: €9.99 a month including VAT, cancel any month. Up to 10 competitors and 3 markets, your whole team at no extra cost. See pricing or create an account and add your first competitor.