If one of your digital dreams was to see your competitors’ ads and spy on the paid campaigns they run, to learn what works and get inspiration for your own digital campaigns – you have come to the right place, and here we will explain how to do just that and which technological tools to use. Thanks to the fact that everything done in online spaces can be tracked and analyzed, today you can also track and monitor what your competitors are doing!
As digital marketers, you would surely love to know what your competitors are doing, so just picture this: through the use of smart and dedicated digital tools, you can see where your competitors get traffic from, how much they pay for users coming from ads, which of their ads work best, and other fascinating and important data. Sounds “juicy” and beneficial to your marketing efforts, right?
Today we will talk about the fascinating field of Ad Intelligence – competitor ad intelligence – and review tools that allow you to see and learn about your competitors’ ads, well-known and useful tools that are part of the seldom-discussed field of internet intelligence. So put on an elegant hat and sunglasses, and let’s set out to “spy” a bit on competitor ads.
Why do you need ad intelligence and competitor tools?
As digital advertisers and marketers, you naturally want to deliver the right message, to the right target audience, and at the right time, but in today’s competitive reality that is much easier said than done. Just as you use software and analytics tools to track and measure the performance of your own marketing and advertising moves, it makes total sense and is only natural that you also make an effort to obtain data regarding your competitors’ performance in the advertising arena. Tools that allow you to see your competitors’ ads and data regarding their campaigns provide the exact missing piece of the puzzle, a piece that can definitely help you build a better, more effective digital presence.
It is important to note that ad intelligence and ad “spying” tools are completely legitimate, even if some people consider them to be in the gray area of digital marketing. There is no improper, illegal, or platform rule-violating use here, but simply smart technological tools that extract relevant and practical data from the mountains of big data available on the web – in this case, data about your competitors’ ads. Rest assured that your competitors are also using the software and tools we review here to track your campaign performance!
Software for viewing competitor ads
I have prepared a list of 8 competitor ad research tools that will make your life easier. For each tool, I noted which types of ads it displays, how much it costs, and how many ads it includes:
BigSpy
A very user-friendly tool for new users, with an intuitive interface. The tool allows you to search by marketing objectives, by CTA, and by creatives in specific markets. The tool allows you to receive notifications and real-time updates regarding brands and companies you choose. The tool might not provide in-depth statistics and complex analyses, but it definitely provides a lot of useful and important information.
The BigSpy platform works on Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Admob, Yahoo, and Pinterest ads – containing over 650 million ads.
Pricing starts at $9 per month, but to get serious data, you need to purchase the $99 per month package.
Mainly useful for: Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Admob, Yahoo, and Pinterest ads
AdSpy
A competitor ad tool, high quality and user-friendly even for beginners, and excellent for paid campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. A very friendly tool for use by affiliate marketers. Specializes in discovering ads on Facebook and Instagram, allowing you to get deeper data that also includes ads not shown on the page (Dark Posts).
The AdSpy tool contains over 90 million ads, works on Facebook and Instagram, and also features options for searching and filtering by comments, big data statistics, and more. Subscription pricing starts at $149 per month.
Mainly useful for: Facebook and Instagram ads
SpyFu
One of the best ad spying tools, which also allows you to download all of your competitors’ most profitable keywords and relevant ads in paid and organic search. The SpyFu tool reveals your competitors’ search marketing secrets. Simply search by domain and get plenty of useful and relevant information regarding search ads, PPC, keywords, organic rankings, and historical ad changes over the years. SpyFu also offers additional competitor research tools, mainly regarding Google advertising.
A quality competitor research and ad spying tool, especially in SEO and search PPC contexts. Pricing starts at $33 per month.
Mainly useful for: Google Search ads, Display ads, SEO
PowerAdSpy
PowerAdSpy is one of the strongest tools for competitor ad research; the tool includes Google, Display, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Native, Reddit, and Quora ads. The tool features ads from over 100 countries, and over 50 million ads. One of the most recommended high-quality competitor research and ad spying tools, mainly for Google Search, Display, Native, Facebook, and Instagram ads. Pricing starts at $49 per month for Facebook ads only and goes up to $349 for ads across all advertising channels.
Mainly useful for: Google Search ads, Display ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Native ads, and Advertising with YouTube ads
SEMRush
Many know SEMRush as one of the most popular, powerful, and useful tools for competitor research and competitive intelligence in digital marketing. The company also offers a tool that allows you to view competitors’ ads and gain useful data about them. This tool mainly focuses on your competitors’ activities in paid and organic search, competitor keyword research, and the like. You will be able to see and understand what works for your competitors in search and what their marketing strategy is regarding Google search.
SEMRush’s ad research tool comes as an additional feature in its powerful and comprehensive software rather than an exclusive ad spying service. Thus, you get a very powerful platform with extensive capabilities; make sure to use all its features wisely if you purchase a subscription. Pricing starts at $119 per month.
Mainly useful for: Google Search ads, Display ads, SEO
AdVault
An advertising and digital marketing intelligence tool focused on Native Ads and landing pages. The tool is similar in capabilities to other tools designed for native ads, but it also includes landing pages and offers high capability in locating top-performing ads and landing pages globally, featuring over 10 million ads and landing pages. Works, for example, on Outbrain, Taboola, and more.
You can use the tool to find winning ads and landing pages in your field of activity and replicate the most successful campaigns for your website and business. Pricing for the AdVault service starts at $97 per month.
Mainly useful for: Native ads: Advertising on Outbrain and Taboola
WhatRunsWhere
A tool that allows you to see your competitors’ Facebook ads and get useful, interesting data about their social media campaigns, so you can see what works for them and what doesn’t, what their Facebook advertising strategy is, and naturally use this data to create more successful campaigns for yourself. Quality data on display ads and native ads enables identifying successful and effective creative ads in your market niches and leveraging effective campaigns to build your strategy.
The WhatRunsWhere tool is relatively expensive and is aimed more at agencies rather than individual websites. Pricing starts at $299 per month for native and desktop ads only, and $399 per month for full coverage that also includes mobile ads.
Mainly useful for: Google ads and Display ads
Anstrex
An excellent and powerful tool for native ads. The Anstrex tool is easy to use, highly capable in extracting data, and mainly allows using the information to improve your conversions in the campaigns you run. The tool features over 10 million ads and works very well for native ads on various sites. Alongside its wide capabilities and extracting a lot of useful data from the Anstrex platform, it covers the most ad networks for native ads and other ad types, and also offers a dedicated tool for push ad intelligence and dropshipping product ads – with data from all over the world, including Israel.
Pricing starts at $70 per month for Native ads only, or $140 per month for Native ads and push ads.
Mainly useful for: Native ads: Outbrain and Taboola, push ads, Dropshipping ads
AdPlexity
The last ad spying and competitor intelligence tool we review already puts you entirely in the big leagues, for serious digital marketers only. The tool AdPlexity is a powerful, comprehensive tool that provides an all-in-one system for a variety of traffic sources. AdPlexity works with all types of ads – Search, Social Media, Native, Mobile, Desktop, E-commerce, PUSH, and other campaign types. You can analyze competitor campaigns by network and by tracking, and also find other new campaigns running by the same advertiser. The AdPlexity tool is also suitable for finding winning landing pages and additionally allows downloading these landing pages as well as ads and plenty of other data regarding your competitors’ advertising performance.
AdPlexity’s model is that you purchase a service for each specific type – advertising channel that you want data on – each such module is priced separately. For example, mobile ads, desktop, e-commerce, native, mobile ads from carriers worldwide – each ad type is priced separately – which can lead to very high usage costs compared to other tools in this article. The price per module starts at $199 per month per user. There are special pricing tiers for large clients requiring large volumes of data from around the world.
Mainly useful for: Google Search ads, Display ads, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Native ads, E-commerce ads, push ads, and more
Summary
Competitor research is probably not the sexiest area in digital marketing, but it is definitely important and can significantly advance your business digitally; this includes seeing and learning from your competitors’ successful ads. A good campaign starts with checking your competitors: what their best landing pages are, which ads work for them, and which creative performs well in your industry – do not start a campaign without checking what competitors have done. How to decide which tool to use? First, whether there are ads in the countries where you run campaigns; second, whether the tool includes a wide variety of ads; and on which platforms you are looking for ads. I recommend trying 3 different tools and then choosing the one that meets your requirements, and of course, take the tool’s cost into consideration. If you do competitor research once a month, there is no point in buying a $350 tool.
About the Author
Or Fialkov is the CEO and owner of Fialkov Digital, a digital marketing and advertising agency. He runs paid campaigns on Google, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and TikTok, and builds websites and landing pages. He also implements AI in businesses, including AI agents, agentic marketing automation, AI reporting systems, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), and AI video for campaigns.
