Analytics for Competitor Research: Tools and Strategies

Analytics for Competitor Research: Tools and Strategies

Understanding your competitors is crucial for succeeding in business today. Competitor research reveals their positioning, offerings, marketing, and more so you can identify weaknesses to exploit and strengths to emulate.

Analytics provide deep insights into competitors most people overlook. When leveraged properly, data illuminates what your rivals are doing to attract customers so you can outperform them.

This guide will explore the top analytics tools for competitor research along with proven strategies to optimize their use. Follow these methods to uncover competitive advantages through analytics.

Why Analytics are Vital for Competitor Research

Many businesses rely on superficial competitor data like social media followers or website traffic estimates. But analytics provide unparalleled visibility. Here’s why they’re so valuable:

Reveals Untapped Opportunities

You discover lucrative opportunities your competitors miss, from gaps in their product lineup to under-optimized keywords. Analytics highlight areas where you can edge out rivals.

Metrics Show Strategy Impact

See which strategies actually drive results for competitors based on analytics like sales volumes, lead quality, and conversion paths. Learn from their most and least effective tactics.

Gauges Their Strengths & Weaknesses

Analytics indicate where competitors excel and falter, from website functionality to social engagement to SEO. Use this intel to outperform them by shoring up their weaknesses and mimicking their strengths.

Provides Audience Insights

You gain invaluable data about your competitor’s audience makeup, interests, and behavior through analytics. Tailor your own strategies accordingly.

Sets Data-Based Benchmarks

Analytics give you real figures to benchmark against so you can set tangible goals around market share, revenue, web traffic, sales funnels, and more.

Supports Strategic Decisions

Backed by accurate analytics, you make smarter choices on pricing, features, channel investments, promotions, partnerships, hiring, and positioning relative to competitors.

Enables Ongoing Optimization

You can monitor competitor analytics over time to see how your efforts to surpass them are impacting market share and positioning. Continuously refine your approach.

In short, analytics help you make strategic moves rooted in real data to pull ahead. Combining analytics across tools provides a 360-degree view no single source offers.

20+ Tools to Analyze Competitor Data

Sophisticated tools exist to track any competitor data imaginable. Here are 20+ top options:

Search Traffic

• Ahrefs – See competitors’ organic keywords and ranking positions. Identify opportunities to outrank them.
• SEMrush – Track competitors’ search visibility and traffic sources. Find untapped keywords.
• SpyFu – Check how competitors optimize pages for specific keywords including ads.
• MozBar – Add this SEO toolbar to see competitor domain and page authority scores.

Social & Web Presence

• SimilarWeb – View estimated monthly traffic for any site plus top referral sources.
• Alexa – Check global and country-specific web traffic rankings for competitors. See audience overlap.
• Facebook Audience Insights – Check competitor brand pages’ demographic data and post engagement.
• Followerwonk – Analyze a competitor’s Twitter followers and activity to compare.
• Facebook & Instagram Ad Libraries – View active ads competitors are running on these platforms.

Digital Advertising

• SpyFu – See competitors’ paid ad history including keywords, budget, impressions and clicks over time.
• Google Ad Previews – Search Google to view text ads competitors are running for target keywords.
• NinjaCat – Track when competitors increase paid search budgets and expand keywords targeted.

Products & Pricing

• BuiltWith – Get details on competitors’ tech stack, services, and integrations powering their website and marketing.
• Datanyze – Spy on competitors’ website technologies and third-party tools.
• Pricesearcher – Compare your product prices against competitors in one place.
• Google Shopping – Review pricing levels and product offerings competitors have in Google Shopping.

Jobs & Hiring

• LinkedIn Insights – Gain intel on competitors’ company size, top skills, seniority levels, locations, and key hiring areas.
• Thinknum Alternative Data – Uses job listings data to estimate competitors’ hiring rates, salaries, and growth.

Brand Sentiment & Reviews

• BrandTotal – Track online mentions and brand sentiment toward competitors across the web.
• ReviewTrackers – Monitor online reviews competitors get on Yelp, Facebook, Google and more in one dashboard.

This collection of analytics tools covers all the bases when researching competitor activity. The next step is learning how to mine the data for strategic insights.

3 Steps to Uncover Competitive Opportunities

The process for using analytics to gain an edge involves 3 key phases:

1. Identify Metrics to Track

First, determine which specific data points will provide the most valuable competitor intelligence for your business.

For instance, if your ecommerce site competes on pricing and product selection, analyze:

• Competitor website traffic
• Top-selling product categories
• Pricing for top products
• New product launch rate
• Promotional strategies

Uncovering 2-3 key metrics for your top 1-2 competitors makes a difference. Avoid information overload.

2. Gather Data from Multiple Sources

Next, leverage the analytics tools mentioned earlier to start collecting relevant competitor data points.

Pull analytics from various sources for a more complete picture. Search traffic tools offer different insights than social media or digital ad analysis.

Capture competitor metrics consistently over time. Updated data allows you to spot trends and tune strategies.

3. Interpret Findings Strategically

Finally, interpret the data to identify actionable opportunities to gain advantage.

For example, seeing a top competitor aggressively expanding into a new product category gives you time to counter their move. Or learning they receive many negative reviews on website ease of use could mean improving your own site navigation to compete.

Analytics often point to strategic changes and smart investments that countercompetitors. Base moves on where the data indicates opportunities exist.

Advanced Competitive Research Strategies and Tactics

Beyond the basics, savvy businesses employ additional strategies to really leverage analytics for competitor research:

Reverse Engineer Successful Competitors

Dig into why certain competitors excel by studying their metrics. Replicating strengths that analytics confirm drive sales, leads or conversions lifts your own performance.

Uncover Hidden Patterns in Their Metrics

Look for patterns in performance dips, customer reviews, buying cycles, or web traffic across seasons or events. These can inform promotions and product releases.

Gauge Their Growth Rate Against Yours

If competitor site traffic, app installs, or social followers grow faster than yours, that signals their strategies are resonating. Analytics help you pinpoint areas to catch up.

Combine Datasets for Deeper Analysis

Blend analytics from multiple tools to uncover insights others miss. For instance, correlating search traffic surges to positive reviews indicates SEO strength.

Automate Monitoring and Notifications

Set up alerts through analytics platforms and tools like Mention so you automatically get notified when competitors hit key milestones. Act swiftly on breaking updates.

Analyze Competitor Announcements in Real-Time

When competitors release new products, features, partnerships, funding, or other news, immediately review analytics to assess initial impact on their business.

Define Competitor Personas

Go beyond company-level insight by researching the personas behind competitors through tools like Crystal and ResponseSource to optimize positioning.

Monitor Industry and Market Changes

Aggregate analytics on industry-wide trends from sources like IBISWorld to better interpret competitor data within the larger market context.

Build a Competitive Dashboard

Centralize key competitor metrics into one dashboard using a tool like Cyfe or Geckoboard for an efficient way to monitor their activity regularly.

Study Competitors of Competitors

Look beyond your own direct competitors to analyze metrics for companies your rivals also aim to steal market share from. This reveals additional opportunities.

Rather than reacting to competitors, strategic market leaders use analytics to predict and influence competition proactively. Competitor intelligence is most impactful when monitored continually over time.

Winning with Competitor Analytics

As competition intensifies across industries, analytics increasingly separate market winners and losers. Companies not actively analyzing competitors risk being blindsided by strategic threats.

With the right competitor metrics and proactive strategies, you spot opportunities to pull ahead while anticipating challenges. You base decisions on real data rather than assumptions.

Competitor analytics empower you to:

• Match competitors on strengths like pricing or UX
• Exploit weaknesses from negative reviews to minimal keyword targeting
• Seize openings to enter new spaces first
• A/B test promotions against competitors
• Predict future moves based on past analytics
• Convince investors of potential by benchmarking metrics
• Build strategic moats that competitors can’t easily overcome

In competitive business environments, analytics allow you to play offense and defense effectively. Competitor intelligence is too vital to neglect.

By dedicating resources to continually mine and interpret data on rivals, companies set themselves up to outmaneuver the competition. Overwhelm competitors with analytical insight. The future belongs to those who research best.

FAQ: Analytics for Competitor Research: Tools and Strategies

Q1: Why is competitor research important for businesses?

A1: Competitor research is crucial for identifying weaknesses to exploit and strengths to emulate. It helps businesses understand their competitors’ positioning, offerings, and strategies, providing valuable insights to outperform them.

Q2: How do analytics enhance competitor research?

A2: Analytics provide deep insights into competitors that go beyond superficial data. They reveal untapped opportunities, show the impact of competitors’ strategies, gauge their strengths and weaknesses, provide audience insights, set data-based benchmarks, support strategic decisions, and enable ongoing optimization.

Q3: What are some key analytics tools for competitor research?

A3: Some top analytics tools for competitor research include:

• Search Traffic: Ahrefs, SEMrush, SpyFu, MozBar.
• Social & Web Presence: SimilarWeb, Alexa, Facebook Audience Insights, Followerwonk.
• Digital Advertising: SpyFu, Google Ad Previews, NinjaCat.
• Products & Pricing: BuiltWith, Datanyze, Pricesearcher, Google Shopping.
• Jobs & Hiring: LinkedIn Insights, Thinknum Alternative Data.
• Brand Sentiment & Reviews: BrandTotal, ReviewTrackers.

Q4: What steps should be taken to uncover competitive opportunities using analytics?

A4: The process involves three key phases:

1. Identify Metrics to Track: Determine which specific data points will provide the most valuable competitor intelligence for your business.
2. Gather Data from Multiple Sources: Use various analytics tools to collect relevant competitor data points.
3. Interpret Findings Strategically: Analyze the data to identify actionable opportunities to gain an advantage.

Q5: How can businesses reverse engineer successful competitors?

A5: By studying their metrics, businesses can dig into why certain competitors excel and replicate strengths that drive sales, leads, or conversions. Analytics confirm these strengths and help lift a business’s performance.

Q6: What are some advanced strategies for leveraging analytics in competitor research?

A6: Advanced strategies include:

• Uncovering hidden patterns in competitors’ metrics.
• Gauging competitors’ growth rates against your own.
• Combining datasets for deeper analysis.
• Automating monitoring and notifications.
• Analyzing competitor announcements in real-time.
• Defining competitor personas.
• Monitoring industry and market changes.
• Building a competitive dashboard.
• Studying competitors of competitors.

Q7: Why is it important to monitor competitors continually?

A7: Continual monitoring allows businesses to spot opportunities to pull ahead while anticipating challenges. It helps make informed, data-driven decisions and stay ahead of the competition.

Q8: How do analytics empower businesses to win against competitors?

A8: Analytics help businesses match competitors on strengths, exploit weaknesses, seize new opportunities, test promotions, predict future moves, convince investors, and build strategic advantages. They provide the insights needed to play both offense and defense effectively in competitive environments.

Q9: What are some examples of actionable insights from competitor analytics?

A9: Examples include identifying under-optimized keywords, discovering gaps in competitors’ product lineups, understanding the impact of their promotional strategies, and analyzing negative reviews to improve your own offerings.

Q10: What are the benefits of setting up a competitive dashboard?

A10: A competitive dashboard centralizes key competitor metrics into one place, making it easier to monitor their activity regularly and efficiently. This helps businesses keep track of competitors’ moves and adjust their strategies accordingly.