How to Size Up Your Competitors' Marketing in One Afternoon (Free Tools)
You can size up your competitors' marketing in about four hours with free tools. Check their ads in Google's Ads Transparency Center and the Meta Ad Library, see who shows up in Google Maps, compare reviews, walk through their websites like a buyer, and ask AI assistants who they recommend. Score each rival on one sheet, then act.
Key takeaways
- Google and Meta both publish searchable libraries of the ads businesses run. Anyone can look.
- Google says local results are based on relevance, distance and prominence, and reviews feed prominence.
- A simple 0-to-2 score sheet turns a pile of notes into two or three clear next moves.
Why bother looking at competitors at all?
Looking at competitors shows you what buyers see before they call you. Your customer compares you side by side with two or three other businesses, often in less than a minute. If you never look at that same screen, you are guessing about price, reviews, offers and messages. One afternoon of looking replaces months of guessing.
The goal is not to copy anyone. It is to find gaps. Maybe every rival runs ads but none of them show prices. Maybe the top business in Maps has twice your reviews but has not replied to one in a year. Those gaps are where you win.
Keep the list short. Pick the three to five businesses that you lose jobs to most often, plus the one that shows up first when you search for your main service. That is your set for the afternoon.
What do you need before you start?
You need a list of three to five competitors, a spreadsheet or notepad, a phone and a computer, and a private or logged-out browser window. Block about four hours. Work through the same steps for every competitor in the same order, so your notes line up and the scores at the end are fair.
Set up your sheet with one row per competitor and these columns: ads, Maps presence, reviews, website, speed to contact, AI mentions and notes. You will fill in each column as you go. Add a row for your own business too. It is easy to judge rivals harshly and yourself kindly, so score yourself with the same rules.
A logged-out or private window matters because search results can change based on your history. You want to see something close to what a stranger sees.
How do you see the Google ads your competitors run?
Go to Google's Ads Transparency Center at adstransparency.google.com and search the competitor's business name or website. Google describes it as a searchable library of advertisers and the ads they have served on Search, YouTube, Gmail and Display. You can filter by date and location, then read the actual ad text.
For each competitor, note:
- Are they advertising at all? No results usually means they rely on organic search, referrals or other channels.
- What do they promise? Write down headlines, offers, guarantees and any prices.
- Which services do they push? The services they pay to promote tend to be the ones that make them money.
- Verified or not? Google marks advertisers as verified or unverified, and shows the name of the business that paid for the ads.
One limit to know: the center shows the ads, not the budget, the keywords or the results. Treat it as a view of their message, not their spend.
How do you check their Facebook and Instagram ads?
Open the Meta Ad Library and search the competitor's Facebook page name. It lists ads that are currently running across Meta's apps, including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, with the date each ad started. An ad that has run for months is usually one that works well enough for them to keep paying for.
As you scroll, note:
- The offer in each ad, such as a free estimate, a seasonal discount or a financing option.
- The format: photo, video or carousel. Real job-site photos and short videos tell you how they want to look.
- How many versions they run. Many versions of one idea suggests they are testing.
- The start date. Long-running ads show you their best-performing message.
The library only shows ads that are active right now, except for ads about elections or social issues, which Meta keeps longer. If you check again next month, you will see what they stopped and what they kept.
Where do they show up in Google Search and Maps?
Search your main service plus your city in a private window, on both phone and computer. Write down who appears in the ads, in the map pack and in the first organic results. Google says local results are ranked on relevance, distance and prominence, so the businesses that keep showing up have usually earned it.
Run four or five searches that real buyers type: the main service, an urgent version such as "emergency" or "same day," and one or two specific jobs. Then open each competitor's Google Business Profile and note:
- Primary category and the services listed.
- Number of photos and how recent they look.
- Whether they post updates, list hours and answer questions.
- Their review count and star rating.
Google's own help page says prominence is based on things like how many websites link to a business and how many reviews it has, and that more reviews and positive ratings can help local ranking. That makes the next step important.
How do you compare reviews fairly?
Compare four numbers for each business: total reviews, average rating, reviews in the last three months and the share of reviews that got an owner reply. Recent reviews and replies matter to buyers. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found 74% of consumers only care about reviews from the last three months.
The same survey found that 89% of consumers expect business owners to respond to reviews, and that 68% require at least a four-star rating before they will use a business. So a rival with 300 old reviews and no replies may be weaker than they look.
Read 10 to 15 recent reviews for each competitor, both good and bad. Look for repeated words. If customers keep praising one rival's "clear pricing" or complaining about another's "no-shows," you have just learned what buyers in your market care about most.
What should you check on their websites?
Visit each competitor's homepage on your phone and act like a buyer with a problem. Time how long it takes to find the phone number, the main services, the area served and a way to book or request a quote. Note anything that makes you hesitate, such as slow loading, pop-ups or missing prices.
Use this short checklist:
- First screen: Can you tell what they do and where within five seconds?
- Contact: Is there a tap-to-call button and a short form?
- Proof: Real photos, reviews, licenses, guarantees?
- Service pages: Does each main service have its own page?
- Speed: Run the homepage through Google's free PageSpeed Insights tool and note the mobile result.
Then do a mystery test. Fill out one competitor's contact form or call during business hours, and time the reply. You are not trying to waste their time; a simple question about availability is enough. Speed of reply is often the real difference between businesses with the same reviews.
How do you check what AI assistants say about them?
Ask two or three AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, the same questions a buyer would ask, like "Who is a good roofer near me?" or "Best plumber for a water heater in my area." Write down which businesses are named, what reasons are given and which sources are cited.
This step is new, but it is growing fast. BrightLocal's 2026 survey found that the share of consumers using ChatGPT and similar tools for local recommendations rose from 6% to 45% in one year.
Look for patterns. AI answers often repeat facts found on a business's website, its Google profile, review sites and directories. If a competitor is named and you are not, look at what the AI says about them. That usually points to pages, reviews or listings you are missing. Run the same questions a few times, since answers can change between tries.
How do you turn your notes into a score?
Give each competitor, and yourself, a score from 0 to 2 in seven areas, then add them up. Zero means missing or poor, one means average and two means strong. The total matters less than the gaps. Look for areas where everyone scores low; that is open ground you can take first.
| Area | 0 = weak | 1 = average | 2 = strong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google ads | No ads found | A few generic ads | Many ads with clear offers |
| Meta ads | No active ads | One or two ads | Several ads, some running for months |
| Maps presence | Not in the map pack | Shows for some searches | Top three for most searches |
| Reviews | Few, old or under 4 stars | Decent count, some replies | Many recent reviews, owner replies |
| Website | Slow, unclear, hard to contact | Clear but thin | Fast, clear, proof and service pages |
| Speed to contact | No reply within a day | Reply same day | Reply within an hour |
| AI mentions | Never named | Named sometimes | Named often with reasons |
Once the sheet is full, circle your two lowest scores and the one area where all rivals are weak. Those three items become your plan for the next 90 days. For example, if nobody replies to reviews, start replying to every review this week. If every rival is slow to answer forms, set up instant replies.
How often should you repeat this?
Repeat the full check every three to six months, and do a quick 30-minute pass on ads and reviews each month. Markets change: new businesses open, rivals change offers and AI answers shift. A dated score sheet lets you see trends, such as a competitor whose review count is climbing fast.
Save screenshots of ads and search results with the date in the file name. Over a year, those files become a record of what your market tried, what lasted and what disappeared. That record is more useful than any single snapshot.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to look at my competitors' ads and websites?
Yes. Google's Ads Transparency Center and the Meta Ad Library are public tools built so anyone can see who is advertising and what they say. Websites, reviews and business profiles are public too. Stay on the right side of the line by not copying their words, photos or logos, and by never posting fake reviews or posing as a customer to cause harm.
How many competitors should I analyze?
Three to five is enough for most small businesses. Pick the ones you lose jobs to most often and the business that appears first when you search your main service. More than five turns the afternoon into a week, and the extra rivals rarely change what you decide to do next.
Do I need paid tools like Semrush or Ahrefs?
Not for a first pass. Free tools show the ads, reviews, map rankings and websites buyers actually see. Paid SEO tools add estimates of keywords, traffic and backlinks, which help when you plan a bigger SEO push. Start free, and only pay for data once you know which question you need answered.
What if a competitor does not advertise at all?
That tells you something useful. They may rely on referrals, organic search or a strong Google Business Profile. Check their reviews and Maps rankings closely, since that is likely where their leads come from. If no one in your market advertises, a small, well-aimed ad budget may get you noticed quickly.
What should I do first after scoring?
Fix the cheapest gap with the biggest effect. For many service businesses, that means replying to every review, answering leads faster, or adding clear service pages to the website. Pick one or two changes, give them 90 days, then rerun the same checks and compare the new scores with the old ones.
The bottom line
A competitor check does not need software or a consultant. It needs one afternoon, a clear score sheet and the discipline to act on the two or three gaps you find. If you want a second set of eyes on your results, Book a free call with Mike, or run the free 60-second check to see how search and AI tools describe your business today.
Sources
- Google Ads Help: Ads transparency (Ads Transparency Center)
- Buffer: Meta Ad Library guide (what the library shows)
- Google Business Profile Help: How to improve your local ranking on Google
- BrightLocal: Local Consumer Review Survey 2026
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