Digital marketing is fiercely competitive, and the tactics that work change fast. You need to know what works for your own company, but it pays to look over the fence now and then too, at the tactics and tools your competitors use to get results.
Below are five tools that show what your competitors do well, which of their efforts pay off and what technology they use. We wrote this article in 2020 and updated it in October 2026: we checked what each tool offers and what it costs, and the screenshots are from 2020.
01BuzzSumo: the content that performs best
BuzzSumo shows how your competitors' content performs, and it's useful even before you put your own content marketing strategy into practice. You'll see which of their pieces did best and how they did on social media.
Type the competitor's domain into the search bar and you'll see their most popular articles straight away. Below are the most popular articles on iqads.ro over the six months before we wrote this piece.
As well as content analysis, BuzzSumo has a backlink tool, influencer and journalist search, and email alerts for mentions.
- What for
- The most shared and engaged-with content on a website or a topic.
- Cost
- Paid, from $199 a month billed annually. You can start with a free trial.
02Similarweb: traffic and where it comes from
Your competitors' website traffic says a lot about their digital marketing. Similarweb estimates monthly visits, the main traffic sources and each one's share, the bounce rate, and the social networks that send the most visits.
The example below is from when we wrote this article: estimated visits to emag.ro in November 2020.
A website's free page shows visits over the last three months, the bounce rate, the top three traffic channels and the main keywords. The detail, such as referring websites or social media traffic, needs a free trial or a subscription.
- What for
- A website's estimated traffic, where it comes from and how engaged visitors are.
- Cost
- Basic data is free. The full analysis comes with a free trial and paid packages; for companies, pricing is agreed with the sales team.
03Semrush: keywords and Google rankings
Semrush is one of the most useful tools for analysing SEO (search engine optimisation). You can see which of your competitors' pages bring in the most traffic, which keywords work, where they rank in Google and much more.
If you want one tool that covers your whole SEO strategy, Semrush is a very good choice. Below is a short analysis of the SEO performance of olx.ro.
No monthly budget? Start with the free plan, which gives you 10 reports a day with no card needed.
- What for
- Competitors' keywords, pages and Google rankings, plus auditing your own site and tracking rankings.
- Cost
- Free plan with 10 reports a day. Paid plans start at $139 a month, with a 7-day free trial.
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04Google Ads Transparency Center: your competitors' ads
Google Ads Transparency Center is Google's free, public archive of the ads it serves. (Moat by Oracle, the tool we originally recommended here, closed along with Oracle Advertising on 30 September 2024.)
Search by advertiser name or website and you'll see the ads they've run on Google platforms such as Search, Display, Gmail and YouTube. You can filter the results by time period and by where the ads were shown.
For ads shown in Europe, Romania included, Google also gives extra details, such as the ad's topic and information about the audience it targeted.
- What for
- The ads an advertiser runs through Google: what they look like, where and when they ran.
- Cost
- Free.
Facebook and Instagram
For ads on Facebook and Instagram, the equivalent is the Meta Ad Library, where you can search by keyword or advertiser.
05BuiltWith: the technology behind websites
The right technology can make a real difference to a website, and picking tools that automate digital processes has become a big part of the job in marketing. If you've ever wondered what your competitors use, BuiltWith lists it for you. You can find out:
- Measurement. The tools they use to measure traffic, and their retargeting codes.
- Website. Their CMS and plugins.
- Sales. Their e-commerce platform.
- Email. Their email marketing systems.
And much more. Below is a short analysis of dedeman.ro.
- What for
- The technology on a competitor's website: analytics, advertising, CMS, e-commerce, email marketing.
- Cost
- Free for looking up a single website. Paid plans, with lists of websites, alerts and exports, start at $295 a month.
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