6 Best Ad Intelligence Software to Outsmart the Competition

Sometimes the first sign that a competitor is pulling ahead isn’t in your ad account at all — it’s in the places your tools never look. You see stable numbers inside Google Ads or Meta, yet performance shifts outside your line of sight: new angles spreading on publishers you don’t monitor, budgets moving into channels your dashboards don’t track, or funnels scaling before you even realize the test started. That blind spot grows quietly until the gap shows up in pipeline, not in CPMs.

• You spot a wave of competitor creatives across the open web, but your stack can’t tell you which networks or publishers fueled the lift.

• You hear from prospects that “everyone is seeing your competitor lately,” yet none of your platforms highlight where that attention actually came from.

• You notice their funnels getting copied in your niche, but you can’t tell which variations are scaling and which ones already burned out.

We reviewed the ad intelligence tools that go beyond ad screenshots and surface the signals that actually move outcomes. We focused on platforms that reveal spend shifts, publisher patterns, cross-channel rollouts, funnel structures, and long-running creative strategies — the data that helps you adjust early instead of reacting late.

This guide breaks down the six tools that give you the clearest advantage depending on how you buy traffic: native, display, Shopping, PPC, CTV, or mixed-channel. You’ll see where each tool is strong, where it falls short, and how to choose based on real workflows rather than feature lists. But it doesn’t stop there.

And at the end, you’ll get a bonus software that fills a gap every ad platform leaves open — the part of the buyer journey that happens before anyone ever sees an ad, and that most software can’t measure at all.

TL;DR

AdPlexity: best ad intelligence software for native and non-standard traffic sources

Key AdPlexity standout features

• Tracks ads across many traffic types, including native, mobile, desktop, pop, and push

• Lets you search ads with strong filters like network, device, GEO, keyword, and traffic source

• Shows full creatives and landing pages and lets you download them for deeper study

• Sends alerts when new campaigns appear so you can react fast

• Stores live and past ads so you can spot trends over time

AdPlexity focuses on the traffic that many teams struggle to see clearly. When you run native ads, push ads, or pop traffic, the larger, brand-oriented intelligence tools often give you only surface-level insight, which leaves you guessing about how top affiliates and media buyers shape their funnels. AdPlexity fills this gap by showing you real creatives, placements, publisher paths, and landing pages across these less standard channels, which makes it far easier to understand how winning campaigns work without starting from scratch.

Because you can download full landing pages, you are never stuck trying to guess how the funnel looked. You see the headline, layout, social proof blocks, form fields, redirects, and scripts used by top spenders, which helps you copy the structure of proven funnels in a more informed way. Strong filtering then lets you break down results by device, GEO, traffic type, or network, so you can compare what works in a mobile push environment in Mexico against what works on a native desktop flow in France, all inside one dashboard.

That strength comes with a few meaningful trade-offs. AdPlexity gives you visibility, but it does not make strategic decisions for you, so you still need clear thinking, strong offers, and real testing discipline. Data only tells part of the story, and success depends on how well you translate that story into new ideas that fit your niche.

Pricing can also become a barrier for smaller teams because each module—native, mobile, push, or desktop—sits behind a separate paid tier. This creates pressure to choose modules based on where you actually run campaigns, rather than buying the entire suite. In very small GEOs or niche verticals, you may also find thinner data, which means you should pair AdPlexity with your own testing or another intelligence source when operating in markets with low volume.

How AdPlexity helps with ad intelligence and staying ahead

Similarweb: best ad intelligence software for cross-channel competitor visibility

Key Similarweb standout features

• Shows competitors’ display creatives, landing pages, publishers, ad networks, and placements

• Offers a huge ad database with hundreds of millions of display ads for deep research

• Breaks down traffic sources, media mix, referral paths, and audience behavior

• Combines ad intel with SEO, market data, and industry benchmarks to give full context

• Lets you export charts, tables, and reports for deeper analysis and team sharing

Similarweb is built for teams that want one place to understand how competitors win across the entire digital landscape. The ad-intelligence module shows the ads competitors run, but the real value appears when you pair these ads with the traffic and SEO data sitting beside them. You see where users come from, how they behave after clicking, which publishers send the most volume, and how channel mix shifts over time. That blend of ad activity and traffic patterns helps you understand not just that a competitor is spending more, but why their digital presence feels stronger.

Because Similarweb tracks many markets and industries, you can study global patterns in a way most ad-spy tools cannot match. The platform helps you compare countries, devices, channels, and competitors in one step, which is useful when you manage paid campaigns across different markets or report to clients that expect clear, data-backed answers. The large creative database also allows long-span research, so you can see how a competitor changed its ads, which angles lasted, and which publishers kept running those creatives past their first flight.

The same depth that makes Similarweb powerful also makes it heavy when you only need simple ad insights. The platform covers SEO, market intelligence, traffic analytics, audience behavior, and app data, which can slow you down if your use case is narrow or if you prefer a cleaner workflow focused only on ads. Many users mention a learning curve because the dashboard has many sections and because interpreting cross-channel signals takes training for smaller teams.

Pricing is another real trade-off. Full ad-intelligence data sits behind higher tiers, and most of the value — market benchmarks, historical views, deeper exports — becomes available only when you purchase enterprise-level access. This can make the platform harder to justify for small brands or low-budget teams. Some reviewers also note that accuracy can drop on low-traffic or niche websites because Similarweb relies on sampling and estimates rather than direct tracking.

How Similarweb helps with ad intelligence and staying ahead

Semrush Advertising Toolkit: best ad intelligence software for PPC-heavy teams that want research and execution in one place

Key Semrush standout features

• Shows competitors’ paid keywords, ad copies, CPC, estimated traffic, and long-term PPC trends

• Gives deep insights on Google Shopping and PLA ads, including product positions and pricing

• Adds cross-channel ad intelligence through AdClarity with display, social, and video visibility

• Lets you manage Google Ads and Meta Ads directly from the same interface

• Tracks campaign performance so you can move from research to launch without switching tools

Semrush’s Advertising Toolkit is built for teams that want a full PPC workflow under one roof. Instead of using one tool to spy on competitors, another to plan ads, and a third to launch campaigns, you can do all of that inside Semrush. The platform lets you start with keyword and ad-copy research, study which ads competitors keep running, and then turn those insights into campaigns in Google or Meta without leaving the dashboard. That tight loop helps you move faster because you can test angles, compare PPC histories, and shape new campaigns while the insights are still fresh.

The PLA and Shopping data adds another layer that many ad-spy tools do not offer. If you run e-commerce, being able to see competitor product listings, prices, and Shopping creatives gives you a clearer sense of which product mixes perform well and how brands position themselves. When you add AdClarity, the toolkit grows even stronger through display, social, and video intel. Seeing spend estimates, top publishers, and creative patterns across 50+ markets helps larger teams understand how media mixes shift as brands scale.

Those strengths also create some complexity. Semrush covers SEO, content, local search, competitive analysis, ads, and reporting, which means the interface carries more options than a focused ad-intel tool. Teams with less PPC experience may need more time to understand what each view means or how to connect search data with Shopping or cross-channel insights. Teams that want a simple creative-spy tool may find the broader platform heavier than they need for daily work.

Many teams notice the real jump in capability happens only when you unlock the higher tiers, because that’s where the full AdClarity dataset sits. The advanced display, social, and video insights are not part of the base plan, so smaller advertisers may feel pressure to upgrade sooner than expected. The suite can also feel heavier when your work revolves only around ads, since you’re paying for SEO, content, and competitor modules that may never enter your workflow. Semrush delivers the strongest return when you use several parts of the platform together, and the value thins when your use case touches only a narrow slice of the tool.

How Semrush helps with ad intelligence and staying ahead

Adbeat: best ad intelligence software for display and native buyers who need publisher-level clarity

Key Adbeat standout features

• Tracks display and native ads across 90+ ad networks, including Taboola, Outbrain, and major open-web networks

• Breaks down publishers and traffic sources so you can see exactly where competitors buy traffic

• Shows creatives and landing pages together so you can study full funnels rather than single ads

• Provides historical spend estimates and trend analysis across display and video campaigns

• Lets you build custom reports so you can package insights for stakeholders or clients

Adbeat focuses on the open-web side of advertising, where display and native placements move fast and budgets spread across many networks. Instead of only showing a banner or a headline, the platform reveals which publishers ran those ads, how often they appeared, and how competitors spread their budgets across networks. This helps you understand how big advertisers scale, because you can see which publishers carry the most volume, which networks get the most spend, and which placements stay live longest. When you manage display or native at scale, these patterns matter more than any single creative.

It also helps you understand the full funnel behind the ads. You can open an ad, jump directly into the landing page, and study the hooks, layouts, redirects, and offer pages that high-spend advertisers use. Combined with trend data, you can see which creatives keep running month after month and which angles competitors abandon quickly. This view is useful for performance teams because it shortens the path between research and testing. Instead of guessing which angles work, you can pull ideas from advertisers already spending on the same networks you plan to use.

Adbeat does not cover every channel, and that creates a gap for teams with broader media mixes. Search, social, and short-form video do not get the same depth as display and native, so you will need other tools if those channels drive most of your spend. When your focus sits on Google Ads or social-heavy campaigns, the insight inside Adbeat will feel incomplete. Its value grows when display and native channels make up a real part of your budget or your experimentation system.

Another thing to keep in mind is how coverage shifts by market size. Reviews often note that Adbeat is strongest in major GEOs and high-volume verticals, where more data flows through open-web networks. In smaller markets, you may see fewer campaigns, fewer publishers, or thinner patterns. Pricing can also feel geared toward agencies or mid-market advertisers rather than small teams. The tool works best when you run multi-network campaigns, handle many accounts, or need data you can package for clients or leadership.

How Adbeat helps with ad intelligence and staying ahead

Pathmatics by Sensor Tower: best ad intelligence software for teams that need cross-channel spend and creative transparency at enterprise scale

Key Pathmatics standout features

• Tracks ad spend across desktop, mobile, social, video, and connected TV with detailed breakdowns

• Covers display, video, programmatic, and emerging channels like retail media

• Shows creatives, placements, publishers, and flight dates so you can study full cross-channel strategy

• Supports media planning and buying teams with visualizations and exportable reports

• Integrates with Sensor Tower’s broader ecosystem for deeper data and workflow support

Pathmatics is built for advertisers that run serious cross-channel campaigns and need clarity on how budgets move across platforms. Instead of giving you a snapshot of isolated ads, the tool highlights how much competitors spend, which channels receive the most budget, and how that spend shifts as campaigns scale. You get a unified view of desktop, mobile, social, video, and CTV in the same interface, which helps large teams understand how their market behaves across the full ad landscape. When your media mix is wide, this kind of transparency becomes far more valuable than creative-only spy tools.

The creative and publisher views add another layer by showing placements, publishers, and flighting. You can see which ads ran, where they ran, how long they stayed live, and how that aligns with spend estimates. This gives strategy and buying teams a clearer way to benchmark performance, because you can tell when a competitor invests heavily in a channel, tests a new creative angle, or shifts budget to a new publisher set. Combined with enterprise-ready reporting and exports, Pathmatics fits into workflows where teams need to manage many markets, share intelligence across stakeholders, and back decisions with strong data.

Because Pathmatics is designed for larger advertisers, the workflow comes with some complexity. The depth of spend data, cross-channel coverage, and visualization options requires time to set up and interpret, which can feel heavy if your campaigns are simple or your budget is small. Teams often need onboarding or internal processes to get the full value, especially when integrating the data with planning or buying systems. When you want a lightweight or fast creative-spy workflow, Pathmatics may feel slower than tools built for quick inspiration rather than strategic decisions.

Another thing to know is that Pathmatics does not try to connect ad activity to downstream outcomes like conversions or revenue. It focuses on spend, reach, creatives, and placements, but you need your own analytics or attribution tools to understand how those impressions translated into performance. Pricing is also custom and tends to favor enterprise budgets, which makes it harder to justify for small organizations or solo buyers. The tool fits best when you run campaigns across many channels and markets and need data that scales with your organization.

How Pathmatics helps with ad intelligence and staying ahead

SpyFu: best ad intelligence software for teams that want deep Google Ads insights without enterprise pricing

Key SpyFu standout features

• Shows historical Google Ads data, including every keyword a competitor has bought and the estimated clicks, CPC, and spend behind those choices

• Offers unlimited searches and exports on many plans, which removes the row caps common in larger suites

• Includes PPC overlap tools like “Kombat,” which compare your keyword set against competitors and flag shared, missed, and waste keywords

• Combines organic and paid data so you can see how search strategies work together rather than in isolation

• Gives clear visibility into ad-copy history, keyword-level changes, and long-running PPC patterns

SpyFu is designed for advertisers who live inside Google Ads and need a clear, historical view of how competitors buy search traffic. Instead of only showing you what keywords are live today, the platform pulls forward years of PPC history so you can see which terms competitors kept bidding on, which ones they dropped, and when they scaled up or down. This historical depth helps you understand not only what works, but what has worked for a long time, which matters when you build campaigns meant to compete at the keyword level. Because the data includes CPC estimates, click volume, and ad copies, you can shape your early tests with a stronger sense of competitive pressure.

The unlimited search and export options make SpyFu easier to use than tools that charge more as you pull more data. You can dig through large keyword sets, compare many competitors, and explore different ad histories without feeling restricted by caps or paywalls. The PPC overlap tools then help you see where you stand relative to competitors by labeling keywords you share, keywords they win, and keywords you could add. The mix of organic and paid data helps you understand when a brand’s SEO presence supports or conflicts with its paid presence, which is useful for shaping integrated search strategies.

SpyFu focuses almost entirely on Google search, and that creates gaps for teams with broader media mixes. If your campaigns depend on display, social, video, or native ads, SpyFu cannot give you the same depth that tools like Adbeat or Pathmatics provide. It works best as a Google Ads intelligence engine, not as a cross-channel platform. When you run blended campaigns across multiple networks, you will need additional tools to get a full picture.

Another thing to know is that SpyFu is not a full SEO or analytics suite. It gives you rankings and keyword visibility, but it does not go deep on backlinks, technical SEO, or real-time rank tracking. Many teams use it alongside a full SEO platform for daily optimization. The tool shines when you want affordable, deep PPC insight without the complexity or cost of larger suites, but it will not replace your technical SEO or analytics tools.

How SpyFu helps with ad intelligence and staying ahead

Analyze: Bonus software to track AI-driven buyer journeys you can’t see in ad platforms

Analyze is not an ad intelligence platform, and it is not trying to be. While the rest of this list helps you see where paid impressions run and how competitors buy media, Analyze focuses on a different blind spot entirely: the buyer journeys that start inside AI answer engines long before anyone ever lands on an ad or a search result.

Most GEO tools stop once they confirm your brand appeared in a ChatGPT or Perplexity response. You get a visibility score, maybe a sentiment score, and a list of prompts where you showed up, yet there is still no connection to what happened next. 

A mention in Perplexity gets treated the same as a citation in Claude, even though one might quietly drive qualified traffic and pipeline while the other sends nothing of value.

Analyze closes that gap by tying AI visibility to real sessions, conversions, and revenue. It tracks which answer engines send visitors to your site (Discover), which pages those visitors land on, what actions they take, and how much revenue they influence (Monitor). You see prompt-level performance across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini, along with conversion rates, assisted revenue, and ROI by referrer instead of vanity visibility alone. 

From there, Analyze helps you act on those insights (Improve), while keeping a running view of how your brand’s sentiment and positioning evolve across the AI landscape over time (Govern).

Your team then stops treating “AI visibility” as a vague brand metric and starts proving which engines deserve investment, which prompts truly move revenue, and where GEO work actually turns into pipeline.

Key Analyze features

• See actual AI referral traffic by engine and track trends that reveal where visibility grows and where it stalls.

• See the pages that receive that traffic with the originating model, the landing path, and the conversions those visits drive.

• Track prompt-level visibility and sentiment across major LLMs to understand how models talk about your brand and competitors.

• Audit model citations and sources to identify which domains shape answers and where your own coverage must improve.

• Surface opportunities and competitive gaps that prioritize actions by potential impact, not vanity metrics.

Here are in more details how Analyze works:

See actual traffic from AI engines, not just mentions

Analyze attributes every session from answer engines to its specific source—Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini. You see session volume by engine, trends over six months, and what percentage of your total traffic comes from AI referrers. When ChatGPT sends 248 sessions but Perplexity sends 142, you know exactly where to focus optimization work.

Know which pages convert AI traffic and optimize where revenue moves

Most tools stop at "your brand was mentioned." Analyze shows you the complete journey from AI answer to landing page to conversion, so you optimize pages that drive revenue instead of chasing visibility that goes nowhere.

The platform shows which landing pages receive AI referrals, which engine sent each session, and what conversion events those visits trigger. 

For instance, when your product comparison page gets 50 sessions from Perplexity and converts 12% to trials, while an old blog post gets 40 sessions from ChatGPT with zero conversions, you know exactly what to strengthen and what to deprioritize.

Track the exact prompts buyers use and see where you're winning or losing

Analyze monitors specific prompts across all major LLMs—"best Salesforce alternatives for medium businesses," "top customer service software for mid-sized companies in 2025," "marketing automation tools for e-commerce sites."

For each prompt, you see your brand's visibility percentage, position relative to competitors, and sentiment score.

You can also see which competitors appear alongside you, how your position changes daily, and whether sentiment is improving or declining.

Don’t know which prompts to track? No worries. Analyze has a prompt suggestion feature that suggests the actual bottom of the funnel prompts you should keep your eyes on.

Audit which sources models trust and build authority where it matters

Analyze reveals exactly which domains and URLs models cite when answering questions in your category. 

You can see, for instance, that Creatio gets mentioned because Salesforce.com's comparison pages rank consistently, or that IssueTrack appears because three specific review sites cite them repeatedly.

Analyze shows usage count per source, which models reference each domain, and when those citations first appeared.

Citation visibility matters because it shows you where to invest. Instead of generic link building, you target the specific sources that shape AI answers in your category. You strengthen relationships with domains that models already trust, create content that fills gaps in their coverage, and track whether your citation frequency increases after each initiative.

Prioritize opportunities and close competitive gaps

Analyze surfaces opportunities based on omissions, weak coverage, rising prompts, and unfavorable sentiment, then pairs each with recommended actions that reflect likely impact and required effort. 

For instance, you can run a weekly triage that selects a small set of moves—reinforce a page that nearly wins an important prompt, publish a focused explainer to address a negative narrative, or execute a targeted citation plan for a stubborn head term.