Measuring ad intensity by industry: the method

"Which industry runs the most ads" is a reasonable question, but counting ads is the wrong way to answer it: one advertiser making twenty variants of a single creative counts as twenty. The three metrics below are measurable and reflect real intensity.

Why counting ads is wrong

Three reasons:

Variants get counted repeatedly. The same creative appears under several ad IDs.

Data windows differ between libraries. Google Ads Transparency Center has a window of roughly 30 days, so a count there does not compare directly with Meta (ad library comparison, accessed 21/09/2026).

There is no spend. Twenty small-budget ads and one large-budget ad count very differently while the intensity may be the same. See why nobody can estimate a competitor's budget.

Three measurable substitutes

1. Number of distinct advertisers. Count advertisers, not ads. This is the best measure of how crowded an industry is.

2. Share of ads alive over 90 days. An industry with many long-running ads has found its formula; an industry full of new ads is still testing. See a long-running ad is a profitable ad.

3. Average variants per creative. Many variants means advertisers are testing seriously, so they have resources and are competing hard.

The method

Step 1 — pick three or four keywords representing the industry, not the industry name. "Sunscreen" and "serum" rather than "cosmetics".

Step 2 — run the radar per keyword. Multi-platform ad radar — 20 credits per run, 60 ads, runs in the background, in Vietnam, with variants merged and longest-running first.

Step 3 — count the three metrics per keyword.

Step 4 — repeat for a second industry so you have something to compare. A single number says nothing.

Two industries × three keywords is 120 credits.

The comparison table

Industry	Distinct advertisers	% alive over 90 days	Avg variants per creative
A
B

The second column is the most useful when choosing a niche: a high share means the formula is settled and you have to beat an already-high standard.

Limits to state plainly

No TikTok. TikTok's ad library covers only the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland, so there is no TikTok Vietnam ad data by brand name. For top TikTok ads by industry use ads library — 15 credits, 3 pages — but that is a different metric and does not compare with the table above.

Results are filtered. The radar keeps only ads containing every word of your query, so you may get fewer than 60 — deliberately.

This is not market research. It is an estimate from public data the ad libraries display, over a keyword set you chose yourself.

Frequently asked questions

How many keywords are enough? Three or four per industry. One keyword makes the result depend too much on word choice.

How often should I repeat it? Quarterly. Advertising intensity moves with the season.

Can I compare Vietnam with another country? The radar runs for Vietnam. Cross-country comparison needs separate runs and care about differing data windows.