Competitor analysis before your first campaign
Competitor analysis before your first campaign
When you prepare your first marketing campaign, the excitement usually goes into the design and the offer. But your customer will not see your ad alone. They will see it next to what others are offering, and they will compare. If you do not know what they are looking at, you are writing your message with your eyes closed.
Competitor analysis is not academic research, and it is not an exercise in imitation. It means understanding the market as your customer sees it, so you know where you stand and what to say. You can begin it yourself with the steps below.
Work out who you really compete with
Do not stop at the biggest names in your field. A competitor is anyone your customer might go to instead of you. Sort them into three kinds:
- Direct competitors, who offer the same service to the same customer in your area.
- Indirect competitors, who solve the same problem another way.
- The usual alternative: what the customer does if they buy from nobody, such as leaving the problem as it is.
To find names, search the way your customer searches, in Arabic and in their own words. And ask your customers who they compared you with before choosing you. That simple question reveals what no search will. Five or six competitors are usually enough to begin with.
Collect what the customer sees
Make a simple table with a row for each competitor, and record what is publicly available:
- The main message: what does the first screen of their website say?
- Services and offers, and prices where they are published.
- The audience: who do they seem to be talking to?
- Channels: where are they active, what do they post, and how do they respond to people?
- Ads: public ad libraries on some platforms, including the Meta Ad Library, let you see what they are advertising.
- Contact: how many steps does it take a customer to reach them?
Then try being a customer yourself. Send an enquiry and see how and when they answer. You may learn more from that than from their whole website.
Listen to their customers
Public reviews and comments are among the richest sources you have. Read map reviews and the comments on their accounts. What do people genuinely praise? Which complaint keeps coming back? If the same complaint runs across the market, such as slow replies or unclear steps, it may be your opening, provided you can really do better. Treat reviews with care, since some may not be genuine, and pay attention to the overall pattern rather than any single comment.
Look for the gap
Lay out what you have gathered and ask:
- What does everyone say, to the point that it no longer sets anyone apart?
- Which group of customers is nobody addressing clearly?
- What do we really offer that competitors do not highlight?
- Where are they honestly ahead of us, and what will we do about it?
Do not be harsh on competitors and gentle on yourself. An analysis that concludes you are best at everything is of no use.
Turn findings into decisions
The value of the work lies in what it changes in your plan. Come away with a few written decisions: the audience you will start with, the message that sets you apart in one sentence, the channels you will test, and what you will deliberately leave alone.
Avoid copying what a competitor does. You cannot tell whether it is working for them, and you only ever see what is visible to the public. Use what you see to understand the market, stick to what is openly available, and take specialist advice first if you plan to compare yourself with others in an ad.
Do it again
Markets move. Return to your table every so often, particularly before major campaigns and seasons such as Ramadan, and add what you have learned from your own results.
If you would like someone to do this with you, the marketing team at GenAI Hub offers a competitor analysis service and hands you its findings, so you can base your decisions on them before your first campaign.