How to analyse competitors before launching a website or advertising

Before launching, it helps to understand who customers will compare your offer with. Competitor analysis can help you choose a website structure, explain what distinguishes your service and prepare advertising hypotheses.

To turn research into decisions, first define what you want to learn. For example: what information customers need before enquiring, how to explain the price and which offers to test in advertising.

Compare a specific service for a defined audience. “Every company in our industry” is too broad a task.

Document:

• the service or product;
• the customer type and their task;
• the market, language and service area;
• the expected purchase budget;
• how customers choose and the next step: an order, consultation or estimate request.

For an international business, make separate observations for each language and market. An English website version does not prove that a company offers the same terms in every country.

Include three groups in your list:

1. Direct competitors: solve a similar problem for the same audience.
2. Alternatives: another way to achieve the outcome, such as doing it yourself, hiring a specialist, using a service or choosing a ready-made solution.
3. Competitors for attention: websites and platforms customers encounter in search, even if they sell differently.

For an initial review, you might select 5–8 companies and a few alternatives. This is a working guideline, not a required number. Add participants if they show a substantially different approach.

Use customers’ search queries, directories, ads and company names mentioned in actual sales conversations. Check several queries: results for one word do not represent the whole market.

Record the date, language, search region and URL found. Review ads and organic results separately.

Explore the website as a potential buyer would, from the first screen to the decision to enquire. Also check its mobile presentation, menu clarity and form questions.

Use the same table for every company:

Mark information as “not found” if it is absent from the sources reviewed. No price on a page does not mean the service is expensive. A testimonial does not prove a typical result for all customers.

In Google’s Ads Transparency Center, you can search for ads by advertiser or website name and filter results by region and date. The capabilities are described in Google’s official help.

For Meta, use the Ad Library to examine available ads and how offers are presented. Its purpose is described in Meta’s official article.

Record the problem the ad promises to solve, the terms it explains and where it sends the person. The existence of an ad or a long run does not prove profitability.

If your own Google Ads campaigns have already run and enough data are available, supplement the research with auction insights. These show overlap with other advertisers in the available auctions. They are neither a complete list of market participants nor a report on their sales.

For each conclusion, make three entries:

• Fact: what you can actually see in the source, with its URL and date.
• Assumption: what that might mean for the customer.
• Decision: what you will test on your own website or in advertising.

Hypothetical example. Several companies show “from” prices, but the pages reviewed do not explain the scope. The fact is the absence of an explanation in those sources. The assumption is that customers may struggle to compare offers. The decision is to explain your package scope, additional charges and estimation process, then assess enquiry quality.

This conclusion does not mean competitors work poorly or that a new page will necessarily increase sales. It provides a reasoned hypothesis.

Use third-party traffic estimates only with an understanding of their methodology and limitations. Do not turn them into exact revenue, advertising budgets or customer counts. If a metric is unavailable, leave it unknown.

Prepare the following outputs:

1. A description of the priority customer and their task.
2. Offer differences the company can genuinely substantiate.
3. A page structure and a list of missing materials.
4. A few advertising hypotheses with suitable landing pages.
5. An evaluation process: task, owner, deadline and outcome metric.

First address anything preventing people from understanding the offer or submitting an enquiry. Then test changes that may affect their choice: price explanations, service scope, evidence and qualification questions.

Do not copy other companies’ text, design or promises. Your decisions should account for your capabilities, service economics and customers’ questions.

At iuntsevich.cz, you can discuss market and competitor analysis and strategy development to connect research with website preparation and promotion. The service page sets out the scope and terms.

A useful analysis produces documented observations and specific decisions you can evaluate after launch.