How to find a competitor's marketing strategy
A marketing strategy leaves public traces on every channel it uses. Here's where to read each one, and how to tell the main channel from the noise.
Check each channel where the competitor could get users, using its public trace: search rankings for SEO, the ad libraries for paid, creators' videos for influencers, its own accounts for social, store listings for apps and referral codes for partners. Then rank them: one or two channels usually bring most of the growth.
Which channels should I check?
All of them once, because the main one is often not the one you'd guess.
| Channel | The public trace | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | Pages that rank for category searches | Google, an SEO tool, their sitemap |
| Paid ads | Running ads and their age | Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok libraries |
| Creators | Sponsored videos and discount codes | YouTube, TikTok and Instagram search |
| Own social | Posts, views and how often they post | Their accounts |
| App stores | Rating, reviews, title keywords | The listing |
| Partners | Affiliate links, referral offers | Video descriptions, the site's scripts |
| PR and launches | Press, podcasts, Product Hunt | Google News, directories |
How do I tell the main channel from the rest?
By volume and repetition: the main channel shows up again and again with large numbers, the rest appear once.
| Report | Google / SEO | Google Ads | Meta ads | TikTok | YouTube | X | Influencers | Affiliates | App Store | PR | Referral program | Other | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Perplexity | ||||||||||||||
| Cursor | ||||||||||||||
| ElevenLabs | ||||||||||||||
| HeyGen | ||||||||||||||
| Notion | ||||||||||||||
| Canva | ||||||||||||||
| Zapier | ||||||||||||||
| Duolingo | ||||||||||||||
| Cal AI | ||||||||||||||
| Opal | ||||||||||||||
| Liquid Death | ||||||||||||||
| Gymshark | ||||||||||||||
| AG1 |
Across our 13 stored reports, influencers were a main or supporting channel for 11, SEO for 12 and Meta ads for 12. But each company leans on one or two of them.
What does a finished breakdown say?
One sentence on where growth comes from, then the evidence per channel.
- PerplexityAI tools
Perplexity grows mainly through carrier and device-maker distribution deals and word of mouth, now backed by a heavy Meta ad push for its Computer agent and a large paid-creator program.
Meta adsOther channelsLinkedIn - CursorAI tools
Cursor grows mainly through word of mouth from people using the product, amplified by a large paid and unpaid creator network on YouTube and TikTok; search mostly catches people already looking for the brand.
YouTubeOther channelsInfluencers - ElevenLabsAI tools
Most traffic is direct or brand search, with Google ranking ElevenLabs' own pages for its name, while a large long-running Meta ad campaign and outside creator tutorials on YouTube and TikTok build the demand behind it.
YouTubeMeta adsTikTok - HeyGenAI tools
HeyGen grows mainly through paid YouTube creator sponsorships with affiliate links, backed by a large always-on Google and Meta ad program, while organic search mostly captures existing brand demand.
YouTubeGoogle AdsMeta ads - NotionSaaS
Notion's growth rests on its brand: brand searches bring most of the roughly 150M monthly visits, and creators and template makers built that brand while Meta and LinkedIn ads add a steady paid push.
SEOInfluencersInstagram - CanvaSaaS
Canva's growth is mostly habit and word of mouth (62.9% of visits are direct) plus a huge SEO footprint of template and "maker" pages (20.8% organic), with paid and social as smaller support.
Other channelsSEOYouTube
Read a few: how Notion gets its users, Duolingo's, Liquid Death's.
How do I turn it into my own plan?
Copy the channel where they're strong and you can afford to be, and skip the one that needs their budget.
- If their main channel is creators, list the creators and the codes they use; start with the smaller ones.
- If it's SEO, note the page types that rank (templates, comparisons, integrations) and build the same type.
- If it's paid, copy the hooks of their longest-running ads, not the newest.
Questions
How do I find out a competitor's marketing strategy?
Check each channel's public trace: search rankings, ad libraries, creator videos, their social accounts, store listings and affiliate codes. Then rank the channels by how much each shows.
What is a competitor marketing analysis?
A breakdown of where a competitor gets its customers, channel by channel, with the evidence for each, so you can decide which channel to compete on.
How long does it take to analyze a competitor's marketing?
A few hours by hand per competitor. A report from our AI takes a few minutes and checks 19 channels.
Is it legal to analyze competitors' marketing?
Reading public ads, posts, listings and search results is normal market research.