A 15-point checklist for dissecting competitor ads

Researching competitor ads without a list leaves you with an impression instead of data. The fifteen boxes below can be filled in an afternoon for one competitor, with one 20-credit radar run, and the result feeds straight into a brief.

Group A — message (5 points)

1. Which ad has run longest, and for how many days.

2. What problem it names, verbatim.

3. Whether the three longest-running ads name the same problem. If they do, that is their core message.

4. What result they promise. Specific or vague.

5. Whether they discuss price. Directly, indirectly, or not at all.

Group B — structure (5 points)

6. Which pattern the first three seconds use. See the five patterns in dissecting a winning creative.

7. Dominant format. One person talking, product demo, fast multi-cut.

8. Average length.

9. How many variants of the main creative. Many variants means serious testing.

10. At what second the call to action appears.

Group C — landing page and distribution (5 points)

11. Which type the landing page is. Homepage, product page, dedicated page, or form. See where competitor landing pages go.

12. Whether the landing page headline matches the ad's first three seconds. A mismatch is where they are losing viewers.

13. How many platforms they run on at once.

14. Which platform has the most ads.

15. Whether any seasonal ad has returned. If so, note the month.

Cost and time

One multi-platform ad radar run — 20 credits, 60 ads, runs in the background — provides enough data to fill all fifteen boxes. For three competitors that is 60 credits and about three hours.

If the competitor advertises on TikTok, note that the radar has no TikTok — TikTok's own library covers only Europe, the UK and Switzerland. Use ads library — 15 credits, 3 pages — for top TikTok ads by industry instead.

Which boxes matter most

If you can only fill three, fill 1, 3 and 12.

Boxes 1 and 3 give you the competitor's validated message. Box 12 gives you the most common mistake in advertising, including your own: the ad says one thing and the landing page says another.

How often to repeat

Monthly for your main competitor, quarterly for the wider list. Keep the old table to compare — an ad that died is also information.

Frequently asked questions

Are any boxes unfillable? Spend and performance are. All fifteen above are readable from public data.

How many competitors is enough? Three is enough to see the industry pattern. Above five nobody reads the whole table.

Is there a spreadsheet template? The fifteen boxes are the structure; build a sheet with 15 columns and one row per competitor.