Ways to use competitor ad research
Here are six jobs you can do with AdScanner, with the screens and steps for each.
See what a competitor runs on Google right now
The job is a quick read of a competitor before a pitch or a planning call. On the AdScanner home page, type the competitor's domain in Advertiser domain or Transparency Center ID and click Capture ads. Open the job. The All formats tile shows how many ads the scan captured, and the Search, Display and YouTube tiles split them by format. You get the advertiser's ads with their dates in one place, up to 5 per job on Lite and up to 50 on Pro. No domain to hand? Click one of the Try examples under the search box to see a scan first.
Find the competitor ads that have lasted
The job is to spot the ads a competitor keeps running. On the AdScanner job page, every group lists the longest-running ads first, and each card shows Live N d. Each tile shows the average days live, and a line beside the search box can say which format runs longest. Use Search ad text… to find ads that mention an offer or a word. You get a shortlist of long-running ads to study.
Put a competitor's ads in a PPC Ad Editor preview
The job is to show a client or teammate a competitor's ads as ads. Pick the ads on the AdScanner job page, choose a dashboard in Selected ads, and click Send N to Studio. Click Open the preview. You get a new preview in PPC Ad Editor, one campaign named after the advertiser, with an ad group per format.
Hand over competitor copy as a spreadsheet
The job is to get competitor search ads into a file. Pick search ads on the AdScanner job page and click Download N as .xlsx. You get PPC Ads Editor.xlsx, the PPC Ad Editor bulk-upload spreadsheet, with headlines, descriptions, final URL and last-shown date for each ad. Import it into PPC Ad Editor when you want to work on it there.
Check which channels a competitor advertises on
The job is to see where on Google a competitor chooses to advertise, and in which formats. On the AdScanner home page, pick one or more under Channel: Search, Youtube, Shopping, Maps or Play. Leave every channel unselected to scan them all. You can also pick a format, All, Text, Image or Video, before you click Capture ads. Run another scan with a different channel to compare. Each scan lands in AdScanner job history, so you can come back to it. You get a view of a competitor's ads channel by channel.
Study a competitor's image and video ads
The job is to see a competitor's display and video creative, and how long it ran. On the AdScanner home page, pick Image or Video before you click Capture ads. AdScanner says that image and video creatives carry no headline or description, so they are captured for research: the advertiser, the dates and how long each ran. They cannot be sent into a PPC Ad Editor preview or downloaded as a spreadsheet. For ads you want to edit as a preview, scan Text or All.