Unlocking Market Insights: How to kick start your Competitor Analysis

Today, we’re going to take a sneak peek into your competitors’ marketing playbook. We’re going to discuss why knowing your competitors and your market in so much detail is such a core part of any marketing strategy. Plus, to gain an inside look at your competitors, we’re going to chat about one of the best ways to actually research your competitors’ best performing content.

Hi, my name is Jordan McFadyen. Welcome to the Marketing Mindset podcast. This podcast really is to challenge both you and I to always think about how we can reassess our marketing strategy. So I’m going to share some new thoughts and tactics and ideas to help you and your marketing team or your business move away from random acts of marketing. And the main aim here is we really want to start helping you build a more long-term marketing strategy.

And today’s podcast is focused on having a look at the analysis of your competitors in your market. Because it is so important to understand that full playing field that you’ve got, the competitors that you’ve got, the other businesses that you’re up against. And it’s going to help you determine so much about your marketing strategy, and about how you play, about how you do things with your business and your business’s marketing.

So important, when we sit down and we build out a marketing strategy with some of our clients here at Done By Nine, there is literally a key section around the competitor analysis. Because it is so important to really get that understanding. It’s a critical analysis of the business in general, because it’s going to help you understand the market that you’re actually playing in. It’s going to allow you to understand the different trends, the competitive landscape. You’ll understand that so much better by examining your competitors’ actions. You can identify what’s actually going to work and what’s not. It’s going to help you align your strategy accordingly.

So I would implore you to take the time to actually go through, if you haven’t got this as part of your marketing strategy now, either sit down with the team and actually start to work through some of those competitors that you have, and try and understand that landscape much more.

It’s also a really good opportunity to go through and actually identify a few gaps in the market that your competitors may have actually missed. It’s going to allow you to provide you with new opportunities, really, for growth. And on the other side of the coin as well, it can also alert you to some potential threats that you may be facing as well. Some new products or new services that your competitors are offering that you’ve missed. So it really helps to identify some of those opportunities and those threats by having a look at where your competitors are. What they’re doing, how they’re playing currently.

Benchmarking is also a really interesting one that we do. It helps you benchmark your performance against your competitors, which will, in turn, give you a much clearer idea of where you actually stand in the market and also give you ideas about where you can actually make some improvements as well.

And one of the big ones that we get, and we had this recently with a client as we were sitting down going through their strategy as part of our deep dive session. So part of the deep dive, we sit down with the client and we work through all the different parts of their marketing strategy. And as we got to the competitor analysis, but it actually sparked a few conversations around new ideas, around products and services or marketing strategies that the client could use.

And even we had this last week as a team. So if you listened to last week’s episode, we recently, as Done By Nine, we had our annual kind of get-together where we sit down and work through our strategy for the year and for the business itself and a few of the marketing strategies. And as we’re going through some of the competitors, especially looking at the Australian market, and we’re actually able to learn from some of their successes and some of the mistakes that we saw them making. And as we’re researching that, it did spark a few ideas of things that we could do better, ways that we could promote ourselves better, even some new products and different ways that we can grow in that market.

Looking at your competitors can be a really great way of sparking some new innovation within your existing team. And also with the competitor analysis, by understanding your competitors’ customer bases, what you can actually do as well is you can actually identify potential customers for your own business as well. So you can actually say, okay, these are the people who seem to be interested in them. And now you can have a think about how you can target your marketing efforts to these potential customers as well. And that’s going to help you improve your chances of attracting them to your brand.

So you can kind of have a look to say, okay, these type of strategies is what our competitors are using. This is where they’re placed in the market. These are the type of customers that they’re able to get. That’s a similar type of business or a similar type of company that we’re trying to aim for. We need to be trying to think about how we can replicate and do what they’re doing, but doing it better at the end of the day. And using that competitor analysis as the fuel to really ignite that marketing strategy that you’ve got.

And building a competitor analysis, if we lay it all out, it can be a really lengthy process. So it’s not something that I would suggest you’re just going to pick up just over an hour and just have a real quick look through and kind of chuck something on a bit of paper. I honestly would recommend that you need to actually sit down and spend the time with your team or the marketing team or as business leaders or whatever to actually try and map out this competitor analysis.

We have a look at website content. What type of blogs are they doing? How are they talking to their customers? What type of products and services do they have? We have a look at their overall position and the perception of them and their business within the market. So we put it on a graph where we map out where we are as opposed to some of the other competitors in the market. Are the other competitors seen as more modern, or are they seen as more premium or more cost-effective? We try and map that out so we get a really good perception on where a client kind of sits and where we sit as opposed to our competitors as well.

And then with our competitor analysis, even sitting down and thinking about the branding and thinking about our branding up alongside our competitors. And then the big one as well is thinking around their content and their campaigns that they’re using. How are they actually going to market? How are they presenting themselves on LinkedIn? What is their social media like? What are their campaigns like?

And that’s what I want to focus on quickly here today as well. I want to share with you a simple free tool that you may know about. And if you do, that’s great. Hopefully you’re going to get some ideas of how you could use it better. And if you don’t, well, the minute this podcast is over, I would suggest you go have a play. Because even if you’re not going to sit down and do your competitor analysis right away, because like I say, it can take time, even just using this tool as a way just to spark some thought starters. Brainstorming about your competitors and learning about what they’re doing and how it could spark some innovation out of your campaigns and your content as well.

And that tool is the Facebook Ad Library. If you can remember to use this tool to analyse content and analyse the offers of your competitors out in the market, it can be really powerful. So it’s a Facebook Ad Library. And it’s a tool that allows you to literally see the ads and the different campaigns run by any brand on Facebook and Instagram. So it’s not just your key competitors. You can look at absolutely any brand and see what they’re currently putting money behind at the moment.

Now, as a bit of history, this was initially put together a few years ago. More than that, probably. It’s been around a very long time. Initially created to promote transparency in advertising, particularly around social and political issues. Essentially, what it does is the tool itself is actually providing a real significant insight, really, into competitors’ advertising strategies. And what it does is it allows you to actually understand things like your competitors’ ad creatives, the different campaigns that they have, the offers that they’re currently running, and even having a look at the platforms that they prefer as well.

Actually, just go to Google, obviously, or Facebook Ad Library, or just go to facebook.com/ads/library. You literally enter the country you want to have a look at, or just have a look at all countries. You can put in the ad category if there is an ad category associated with it. And then you just search for specific keywords or pages, and you can start analysing through there.

And you can refine the results. And I think this is where it gets really powerful as well, by refining the results, by having a look at different platforms. So seeing, are your competitors using LinkedIn more than they are Facebook? What type of media are they actually preferring as well? Is it video over articles? It’s going to give you all that type of insight. And as well as that, you can also see both live and inactive ads as well.

And getting an understanding of that as well, if you’re having a look at the inactive ads, you’ll get an understanding about which ads have stopped running, which can help you identify some less successful strategies and less successful campaigns.

So as you’re having a look through the Facebook Ad Library, one of the things I would implore you to have a bit of a look at is even checking the dates of when the campaigns first kind of kicked off. What that’s going to tell you is, is this an always-on campaign? Is this a campaign that the competitor has identified as being one of the core components of lead generation? And it’s been so good and so powerful for them that it’s been running for such a long time. So there’s a whole heap of data that you can actually have a bit of a look at in there to try and determine what was a success.

And I also find that even going through each ad’s details and having a look at their creative, their call to action, what type of copy are they using? It is going to give you that real good comprehensive look at an ad’s design and the actual messaging as well.

And I will also preface this by saying, obviously, Instagram and Facebook are one platform. But you can also do this for Google search and display campaigns. So when you’re searching and you see a competitor’s ad, so you can’t go to a website and kind of type in a competitor and see their ads from there, but if you get served one of their ads, you can click the three dots next to the ad and to learn more about that advertiser. And just like that, you’re going to be able to see their full scope of creative that they’re using.

And the same with LinkedIn as well. We find this really beneficial with LinkedIn. If you go to a page on LinkedIn, you can have a look and click on posts. When you go to posts, you can then choose to have a look at sponsored content from there. And from there, you’ll get an understanding about what content that particular brand has chosen to actually put money behind on those different platforms.

That kind of leads nicely into that limitation that we can see as well, is that what it’s not going to show you, and what you do need to think about as you’re reviewing some of the content from your competitors on these platforms, is it’s not necessarily going to show you that it’s done wonders for that business as well. So I wouldn’t look at a campaign on there and say, well, that’s what X, Y, and Z are doing. So that’s 100% what we’re going to have to do. So we’re going to have to go out and do this similar type of thing.

What I’m suggesting that you do is that you have a look to understand how your competitors are playing in the market, and also generate ideas of how you could be better or how you can serve a better lead magnet, better content to your audience. Something that’s going to fulfil their desire or answer their questions in a much better and more cohesive way so that you can stand out in the marketplace. That’s how I think you do it.

And obviously the other limitations that you have with the Facebook Ad Library is it’s not going to show you the target audience of a particular ad, for example. It’s not going to show you the budget of how much a business is actually putting towards that particular campaign. It’s not going to show you the KPIs or the type of campaign that they’re trying to run. It’s not going to show you that it was an awareness campaign as opposed to a conversion campaign. But what it will mean is that you’re going to get a bit of a sense about what your competitors are doing, but you’re not going to get that entire picture, I guess, is what I’m trying to say. So those are some of the limitations. But again, it can be a really powerful tool and a powerful way for you to be able to get some insights on your competitors as well.

So here are some power tips that I would say if you’re going to go through the Facebook Ad Library, things that I would suggest to you, how you should use it and how you be able to get the best out of that platform. What I would suggest is go beyond just your competitors. I know we’re talking about competitor analysis, but when we’re trying to spark new ideas, look for other industries, or look for competitors or similar businesses in different geographic locations as well. That can be a great way to expand your brainstorming and seeing what other people in your market or in competing industries or different industries are doing to attract new clients or to attract new customers.

Also, think about how you can identify winning combinations with ad creative and not just standalone elements. So I’d always ask myself, what kind of ads are being run on Instagram in your niche at the moment? What type of ads are being run on Facebook in your country? What are the ones that seem to be the most popular? Kind of even go next level in and get a Google spreadsheet out and start to actually plug down some of that data in there. Think about what type of creative materials are brands promoting in Messenger right now? Are brands using the Facebook network display ads? If so, what type of creative are they using there as well?

I’d also have a look at things like their offers and their CTAs, their call to actions. Looking at competitors, are they using things like lead magnets to actually gather emails? Or are they trying to drive sales to an e-commerce store using discount codes or discounts? Or are they literally using Facebook or LinkedIn or Instagram for running top of funnel content to increase their brand awareness? Driving people to a certain landing page on their website. And that’s how they’re starting to use the ads and generate their awareness as well.

And also, I would entice you to actually go through and explore the entire marketing funnel. So sometimes what we’ll do as part of this competitor analysis with clients is we’ll try to go beyond just the ad and try and have a look at the entire experience that customers are actually potentially going down. So having a think about how you can differentiate yourself from what other people and their full funnels actually have.

And I’d do this by actually going through and seeing what landing page are they actually going to on their website? Is their product page that they’re linking to, is that more compelling to what you currently have now? Are they using any call to actions on there that are really good, and you can kind of take and trial in your own campaigns as well? So I’d definitely think about how you can actually go beyond just going to Facebook Ad Library and just having a bit of a look and seeing some of the campaigns and some of the creative that they’re using.

How can you take it that step further? And how can you actually become a customer? Even go on the landing page and sign up for the lead magnet. See what that funnel is actually like afterwards. If you need to, actually buy their product and see how do they then service you as a client or as a customer, and get some ideas of how you could differentiate yourself within your market as well, by using the Facebook Ad Library as that first kind of brainstorm, but then analysing that creative and taking it that one step further and actually seeing how is that content then turning people into customers and into clients?

So look, I know we’ve talked a lot there around competitor analysis and how it is a big part of a marketing strategy. The Facebook Ad Library is a potential game changer in terms of helping you with that research. But remember, while the Facebook Ad Library is an incredible useful tool, it’s just a tool. And I think we’ve got to remind ourselves that it is part of a much larger strategy, and one that should encompass a comprehensive understanding of your market and your audience and your competitors as well. Because just remember that your winning marketing strategy is going to be built on multiple different pillars.

And the Facebook Ad Library is going to help you strengthen just one of those pillars, which is the competitor analysis part. So it is just one part of that overall strategy. And the Facebook Ad Library is going to help you unlock some of these insights into your competitors’ advertising strategies. But just remember that it isn’t the silver bullet. It’s not giving you the entire picture. It’s giving you some relevant content and relevant idea about different campaigns. But again, it’s not the silver bullet. It’s not showing you whether those campaigns are working for that client. It’s not showing you what’s beyond those campaigns as well. So you need to take what you learn there as a grain of salt and as inspiration.

The aim here is not to replicate what others and your competitors are doing, but it’s more, how can you learn from it? How can you identify some of the successful elements and use those insights to actually create your own unique marketing approach that then aligns and heads back to your brand and resonates with your audience? Because your audience is the key here that you need to always be thinking about. Your marketing strategy needs to be as unique as your business.

And look, if you want to chat more about your strategy or you want to sit down and actually analyse your competitors and your market and your landscape, that’s what we do best. That’s our bread and butter. That’s how we spend most of our days, is looking through those strategies and implementing those strategies so that we can not only analyse and learn more about your competitors, but actually help create content that’s going to make you stand out in a cluttered environment.

So if you do need some advice, reach out to us on our website. You can go to donebynine.com. Click on the contact button. You’re more than welcome to reach us through there. Either myself or a member of the team will get back in touch. Otherwise, while you’re on the website as well, you’ll find all our other content, all our podcasts, all our blogs are all online at donebynine.com.

And look, if you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, I really would ask if you could hit that follow button or give us a rating. It really is the best way just to support us to be able to make you more content, and hopefully give you some more information and spark some new ideas of how you can move away from random acts of marketing and how you can actually start to build some tactics to support your overall long-term marketing strategy. But again, hopefully you have enjoyed today’s podcast. You’ve walked away with a few pieces of inspiration, a few tactics that you can take away today to help build out your competitor analysis.

And as always, if you’ve got any questions, you’re more than welcome to email me, jordan@donebynine.com is my email address. Or hit us up at the website, donebynine.com. And we’ll see you on the next episode of the Marketing Mindset podcast next Thursday.