Why (and How) to Truly Invest in Competitor Research

In digital marketing, staying ahead of the curve is the key. Whether you’re launching a new campaign or optimizing an existing one, competitor research can give you the insights needed to make smarter, strategic decisions. Effective competitor research is about more than seeing what others are doing; it's about learning, adapting, and outperforming them.

The real problem, however, isn’t knowing how to do competitor research; it’s actually putting it into practice. Let’s dive into why competitor research is often deprioritized and how you can buck that trend.

Why Competitor Research Is Often Skipped

Competitor research is a powerful tool for improving your marketing strategy, but it takes time, results are often directional, and translating that information into something actionable can be tricky. If you’re not making it a priority, customer research can easily slip through the cracks in favor of daily tasks and ad hoc projects. 

Over time, a lack of focus on customer research means you’re operating in a dangerous silo, without context for the market landscape. You may be optimizing the heck out of your account without understanding the larger opportunities or threats to prioritize in the bigger picture.

How Competitor Research Helps You Win

Competitor research isn’t just about looking at what your competition is doing. It’s about using that info to make smarter, informed decisions. Done right, competitor analysis can help you: 

• Identify Market Opportunities: Keeping a pulse on your competitors allows you to spot emerging trends and shifts in your industry. It can help you anticipate any market changes, identify gaps, and adjust your strategy to capitalize on new growth areas.
  
  
  

• Spot Emerging Threats: By analyzing competitor investments and industry shifts, you can also identify potential threats before they hit you. The key here is to act early so you can see initial signs of disturbance (like new competitors entering the market or an existing player changing their strategy, pushing a new differentiator, or launching an innovative new product).
  
  
  

• Set Your Own Benchmarks: Competitor research allows you to see where you stand compared to your competitors. This is important for identifying areas to improve, whether it’s in PPC, SEO, or content marketing. For example, if your competitor's content ranks higher than yours, you can target those gaps in your own SEO/PPC strategy to improve rankings or drive traffic. Start with something like the below and drill down to keywords that matter to your business:
  
  
  

• Refine Your Messaging and Positioning: By understanding how your competitors are reaching and engaging with their audiences, you can fine-tune your messaging to resonate better with your ideal customers.
  
  
  
  

• Find Gaps in Your Competitors’ Strategies (and Use Them for Your Benefit): Competitor research reveals areas where your competitors may be lacking, whether it's in their ad copy, landing pages, or content strategy. These gaps are an opportunity for you to step in and address unmet needs/pain points within your audience.
  
  
  
  

• Leverage Insights for Campaign Optimizations: Whether it's paid media, SEO, or content, competitor research helps you figure out what’s working (and what’s not) for others in your space. You can use this information to refine your campaigns and ultimately get better results.

The biggest takeaway here is that competitor research helps you avoid reinventing the wheel. Rather than playing guesswork or following trends blindly, competitor research provides the data you need to make informed decisions. 

When to Do Competitor Research

Competitor research should ideally be a regular part of your routine (we conduct periodic performance audits), but it’s especially important during:

• New Product or Campaign Launches: Before launching, competitor research helps you avoid mistakes and find untapped opportunities for success.
  
  
  

• Strategy Updates: If you’re revising your strategy, competitor research helps you compare and see how your strategy stacks up against your competitors.
  
  
  

• Industry Changes or Shifts: When major changes happen in your industry, competitor research helps you stay aware and adapt quickly.
  
  
  

A Practical Guide to Conducting Competitor Research

Now that we’ve covered why competitor research is a must, let’s talk about how you can do it effectively. One quick note before I jump into the steps: AI tools can be highly effective in speeding up competitor research. Just about any LLM can quickly scan competitor websites, content strategies, and customer reviews to provide insights that would typically take hours or days of manual effort.

AI can also help process and analyze all that data and come up with actionable next steps, which is often the trickiest part of competitor research. 

As with any AI process, you’ll need to heavily QA the output, but it’s already become an essential part of our competitor-research process at Blackbird.

Speaking of the process, ours looks like this:

Identify Your Competitors

The first step is to identify your competitors, both direct and indirect. Use tools like SEMrush, SpyFu, and Google Auction Insights to gather a list of competitors in your space and get a lay of the land.

Analyze Their Website and Landing Pages

Next, dive into how your competitors present themselves in front of the audience. Focus on:

• Positioning and messaging

• Calls to Action (CTAs)

• User experience (UX) and the conversion funnel

This will help you understand how your competitors are positioning themselves and where you can improve.

Break Down Their Paid Media Strategy

Look at your competitors’ paid media strategy for insights into their ad campaigns:

• Ad copy and creative

• Promotions and offers

• Seasonal sales

• Audience targeting

• Keywords

• Budgeting & traffic 

Even though these insights may not be perfect (especially if we get them from third-party sites), they can guide your strategy.

Study Their SEO Strategy

SEO is a long-term game, and competitor analysis here is essential. Look at:

• Top-ranking pages and keywords

• Content strategy

• Schema and organic content structure

These insights can reveal what’s driving their success and help you tweak your own SEO plan.

Conclusion

Competitor research is one of the most effective tools for improving your digital marketing strategy, but only if you actually use it. When done properly, it provides actionable insights that align with your broader objectives. By learning what works (and what doesn’t) for others, you can optimize your campaigns to be more effective and stay ahead of the competition.