Why Every Business Should Complete A Digital Competitor Analysis

First things first, what is a digital competitor analysis?

A digital competitor analysis compares what you are doing in digital against both your direct and indirect competitors. It looks at how you compare in every angle of digital.

There is a high likelihood that your competitors are doing things well in digital that you are not. And vice versa. Doing a digital competitor analysis lets you find out weak spots where your competition is lagging behind, and also points out things they are doing exceptionally well that you can mimic to lift your own business.

Regularly comparing yourself against competitors keeps your business in check and agile.

Digital market share

In digital there is a thing called ‘digital market share’ - essentially how much of the digital market do you own - e.g how much visibility and brand equity do you own on different digital platforms and on what different topics. What makes up 100% of digital market share is you and your competitors. You will have a portion of it, but so will a host of competitors.

What are some key areas you can analyse yourself?

1. Facebook

The easiest place to start, is to look at your competitors pages. - How many page likes do they have? 

- Is the general sentiment on the page positive/negative?

- How frequent do they organically post in comparison to you?

There is a section on every company Facebook page called ‘page transparency’. Inside this you can view every ad, and what content your competitors are putting media spend behind. This will give you an idea of what your competition's social strategy is.

2. Google Ads

Inside Google Ads there is a section named ‘auction insights’. Simply put, what this does is show how often your ads show in comparison to your competitors for the keywords you bid on in Google Ads.

3. Google My Business

This one is simple, how does your listing compare to others?

- Is it complete?

- Is it accurate?

- Are regular posts being uploaded?

- Are products listed on the profile?

- Is the GMB profile linking to the best page on your website?

4. Google Trends

Google Trends is a free tool that lets you measure the interest and trends of certain topics, themes and brands over time. Use Google Trends to compare interest in your company’s brand vs your competition over time.

5. Organic Search

Every business should measure how they are ranking in organic search against their competitors. There are a number of paid tools that help measure this e.g SEMRUSH. Consistently seeing how much share of organic search you have for keywords and themes in comparison to your competitors is a must.

How often should you do a competitor analysis?

You should keep an eye on what your competitors are doing in digital on a consistent basis, always checking on their activity. Every 6 months your internal team should actively complete a full report on what your competition is up to so that you have a clear idea on how you are shaping up against your competitors.