Free local competitor ad snapshot
See exactly what your competitors are running against you.
Tell us your service and your city. We'll pull who's paying to show up for your best keywords, what their ads say, where they send the click, and what they're running on Facebook and Instagram. Then we'll tell you where the openings are. No pitch, no strings.
What's in the snapshot
- 01
Who's bidding on your keywords
The businesses paying to appear for your five to ten most valuable searches in your city, and roughly how aggressively they're bidding.
- 02
What their ads actually say
Headlines, offers, and claims, side by side. You'll see who's competing on price, who's competing on speed, and who's saying nothing at all.
- 03
Where they send the click
A homepage, a dedicated landing page, or a lead-platform form? Where the click lands tells you how seriously each competitor takes their ads.
- 04
What they're running on Meta
Active Facebook and Instagram ads from Meta's public ad library, including how long they've been running. Long-running ads are usually the ones that work.
- 05
The gaps nobody's filling
Searches nobody is bidding on, angles nobody is using, and neighborhoods nobody is targeting. In most local markets there are more of these than you'd think.
- 06
The three moves that matter most
A short, prioritized list of what we'd do with this information. Use it yourself, hand it to your agency, or ask us. Your call.
Request your snapshot
Takes a minute. No account access needed. We'll email the snapshot within three business days.
Why trust us with a look?
Because we run this exact research before launching any client campaign, and we've learned that in most local markets the competition is thinner than owners fear. A few recent results.
Inquiry landed within the first 30 days of running ads for an architecture firm.
ATMO ArchitectureHot tub sales in the first quarter after launch, with a targeted ad strategy driving in-store and online leads.
Hot Springs Pools & SpasQualified, high-ticket leads per week for a manufacturer scaling from $4M toward $10M.
NovoBlend"He took the time to understand my goals and vision and crafted exactly what I asked for. They kept us in the loop and were committed to communication throughout the process. I highly recommend him for any marketing or advertising needs."
Who's building the snapshot
Warren builds every snapshot personally. He runs advertising and growth for branded by clients, from Shark Tank-featured ecommerce brands to dozens of home service companies, and he's audited competitive ad landscapes in more than thirty cities. You'll get the same research our paying clients get before we spend their first dollar.
How it works
1. Request the snapshot
Fill out the form with your service, your city, and the competitors on your mind. Takes about a minute.
2. We pull the ads
We run your core searches, capture the ads and landing pages, and pull your competitors' active campaigns from Meta's ad library.
3. Get your snapshot
Within three business days you'll get a visual snapshot with screenshots, a short written read on the gaps, and the three moves we'd make first.
Who this is for
We're most useful to local service businesses in competitive categories who want to know what they're actually up against before they spend, or spend more.
Good fit
You serve a defined metro, you have at least a couple of real competitors who advertise, and you're planning to run or grow paid campaigns in the next six months.
Not a fit yet
You sell nationwide online, or you're in a category where nobody advertises. There won't be much to snapshot, but we're happy to talk about what would work instead. Use the Reach Us button above.
How to see what ads your competitors are running (free tools, local-business version)
Every ad your competitors run on Google and Meta is public. Most guides to 'spying on competitor ads' are written for marketers at a desk with a $99-a-month tool. This is the version for a local business owner: four free sources, what each one shows and hides, and how to turn an afternoon of looking into decisions about your own ads.
If you'd rather we pull it, the snapshot above covers your top three competitors across all four sources.
01
Google Ads Transparency Center
Search any advertiser by name and see every ad they've run, with dates and formats. The catch: it's organized by advertiser, not by keyword, so you have to know who to look up, and it won't tell you which searches triggered the ad. Start with the names that appear when you search your own core service in your city in an incognito window.
Watch for aggregators (Angi, HomeAdvisor, Networx) bidding on your trade and even your brand name. They're often your biggest competitor in the auction and don't show up in the map pack.
02
The Local Services Ads pack
For most home service searches, the LSA pack sits above everything. Who's in it, their review counts, their rating, and whether they carry the Google Guaranteed badge is all visible by searching. No ad-spy tool covers this, and for contractors it's the channel that matters most.
If three competitors are in the pack with 200+ reviews and you're not, that's a bigger finding than anything in their ad copy.
03
Meta Ad Library
Search a competitor's page name and see every active Facebook and Instagram ad, the creative, the copy, and how long it's been running. An ad that's been live for four months is working; an ad that disappeared after a week wasn't. Filter to active ads and sort by start date.
Local businesses rarely run Meta ads consistently. The ones that do are usually the ones growing fastest.
04
Auction Insights inside your own account
If you're already running Google Ads, Auction Insights shows exactly who you're bidding against on each campaign, how often they outrank you, and their impression share. It's the only source that reveals competitors you didn't know about, including out-of-town companies targeting your city.
Run it by campaign, not account-wide, because the competition for 'water heater replacement' is different from 'drain cleaning.'
05
What to actually look for
Not their budget; every tool's spend estimate is unreliable, often by 10x. Look at the offer (free estimate, $89 tune-up, financing), the hook (speed, price, guarantee, family-owned), the call to action (call vs. form vs. book online), the landing page they send traffic to, and seasonality in when ads start and stop.
Write it in a grid: competitor by offer, hook, CTA, page. Gaps in the grid are your positioning.
06
Turn the snapshot into decisions
If everyone promises 'same-day service,' promising it too is table stakes, not an advantage. If nobody mentions financing, that's an opening. If their landing pages are homepages, a dedicated page wins on conversion rate alone. Check again quarterly; competitors change offers with the season.
The snapshot pairs well with the landing page teardown: once you know what the ads say, we check whether your page answers them.
What the snapshot includes
One visual report, three named competitors, four sources. Here's what we pull for each.
Google Search ads
Headlines, descriptions, sitelinks, and the landing page for each competitor, from the Ads Transparency Center and live searches in your city.
LSA and map pack
Who holds the Local Services pack and the map pack for your core searches, with review counts, ratings, and badges.
Meta ads
Active Facebook and Instagram creative with run dates, so you can tell what's working from what was tried once.
Questions people ask about competitor ad research
Q
How can I see what ads my competitors are running?
Google Ads Transparency Center for search and display ads, Meta Ad Library for Facebook and Instagram, a plain Google search in your city for the Local Services pack, and Auction Insights inside your own Google Ads account. All four are free; the snapshot pulls them together for you.
Q
Can I see how much my competitors spend on Google Ads?
Not accurately. Transparency Center doesn't show US spend, and third-party tools estimate it, often off by an order of magnitude. Auction Insights shows impression share and how often they outrank you, which is more useful than a guessed dollar figure.
Q
Is Meta Ad Library free?
Yes. It shows every active ad for any page, with creative, copy, and start date. Inactive ads are retained for at least a year for most advertisers.
Q
What are Local Services Ads and why do they matter?
The 'Google Guaranteed' pack that sits above search ads for most home service queries. You pay per lead, not per click. For contractors it's usually the highest-intent paid channel, and competitor ad tools ignore it completely.
Q
Why does Angi show up when I search my own company name?
Lead aggregators bid on trade and brand keywords to capture homeowners and resell the lead, sometimes back to you. Seeing them in the auction is a reason to bid on your own brand and to reconsider paying them for leads.
Q
Should I copy my competitors' ads?
No. Use the snapshot to find what everyone says, then say something they don't. If all five promise same-day service, same-day service is no longer a reason to pick you.
Q
How often should I check competitor ads?
Quarterly for most trades, monthly during your busy season. Offers and creative change with the weather, and a competitor launching financing or a new guarantee is worth knowing within weeks.
Q
Do I need a paid tool like SpyFu or Semrush?
Not for a single local market. Paid tools are built for keyword-level research across many competitors. For a service business in one metro, the four free sources above show more than you'll act on.
Q
What if my competitors aren't running any ads?
That's a finding. It usually means the search auction in your market is cheap and the LSA pack is open, which is the best possible time to start.
Q
What's in the free snapshot?
Three named competitors (you pick them or we do), their Google search ads and landing pages, their presence in the LSA and map packs, their active Meta ads, and a one-page gap analysis: what everyone claims, what nobody claims, and where your ads should sit.
Related tools and reading
Why free?
Because it's the fastest way to show you how we think. Most people take the snapshot, sharpen their own ads, and move on, and that's fine. Some decide they'd rather have us run the campaign, and that's how we earn clients: by being useful first.