Top 15 Competitor Analysis Tools for Social Media Marketing

Many marketers are vying for attention on social media. Since winning over the patronage of digital users is highly competitive, you need to set yourself apart from the competition to be successful.

This article will introduce 15 powerful tools you can use to help you with your marketing efforts.
 

Why competitive analysis tools?

Following up on another company's performance is time-consuming and can be very distracting. It's hard to focus on your responsibilities when you have to divide your attention between different tasks.

How are you supposed to grow your business if instead of working towards it, you're always distracted by the pressure of watching out for what the competition is doing?

Knowing what your competitors are up to is still essential to the success of your business. Be sure to monitor what they're doing, but must you do this yourself? Why should you, when technology can do it for you?

Investing in these tools allows you to work with maximum focus and free up your time so you can carry out other important tasks. Using these tools to analyze your rivals' data gives you a clearer picture of how your business is performing compared to them.

We've selected 15 tools in this article. Some of them are free, while you'll need to pay for others—but they're the best in the industry, so it's worth your investment.

1. Agorapulse

Agorapulse is an SMM tool that's been around since 2011. It can help you manage, control, and organize your social media presence, which should be an important part of any marketing efforts. It lets you see what your competitors are posting on their social accounts, so you know how they're doing.

This software is not only easy to use but also really helps your online marketing by guaranteeing that all your marketing activities are in just one place, plus it’s superb for reporting.
 

2. Google Alerts

This service will drop you a quick email notification when your competitor posts something new. You don't have to visit their page every time to check if they've updated, which means you can focus on other tasks.

Google Alerts act as a social media management tool by offering updates on your competitor's activities and allowing you to keep an eye on them in a stress-free way. This is a great way to keep up with what's happening without having to follow them or always check their account. You can see their posts, comments, reviews, and other activities.
 

3. Alexa

Alexa can provide useful information about your competitors. It can analyze their website and social media data, showing it to you in a judge-like fashion so you know who is winning and how.

This tool reveals a lot of insights about your competitors, such as how often they post (activity rate), as well as their engagements, interests, and reactions to others’ posts. This means you are one step ahead of your rivals and can track their marketing efforts.
 

4. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is an invaluable traffic tracking tool that enables you to uncover where your competitors' traffic comes from and how they get it. It also lets you see what the audience's interests are, so you can tailor your content to appeal to a similar audience.

You can use SimilarWeb results to know what your competition's audience is up to. This will give you the chance to beat rivals in acquiring new clients.
 

5. Talkwater

Using the tool, you can see how your competitors' ads are received across different parts of the world and if they involve a conversation.

It shows you the conversation between your rivals and their customers—and by analyzing this data, you can state what strategy could be best for your business.

The product also displays the mentions and recommendations of their customers which you can use as a foundation to drive future engagements. It is a great tool for companies that want to understand their competitors better, though it does tend to be on the expensive side.
 

6. Mention

Mention is a simple app and it’s perfect for marketers and managers who want to know what their rivals are doing. You can get all their mentions from different sites and see how far they're going.

You can get your hands on lots of information about your competitors with the Mention app. Just type their name and start browsing their website mentions and reviews without them even realizing it.

Here's a smart trick you can use to get a heads-up on your competitors’ business: Connect your site or profile with their mentions, so when they get mentioned, you'll know about it.
 

7. Spyfu

Spyfu analyzes your competitor's keyword strategy to identify their best performing keywords—i.e., what keywords generate more revenue for them. The tool is best for helping you develop a strong keyword strategy of your own.

This spy tool lets you know what strategies your competitors use to make the most money from their websites. You can then use such techniques without your competitors knowing where you found them.
 

8. Fanpage Karma

This is one of the most dangerous tools on this list. What it does is that it allows you to see how your competition engages with its viewers.

For example, by using this exceptional tool, you can easily view Facebook page insights that are visible only to admins.
 

9. SpyOnWeb

Most competitors tend to hide their mentions on other sites, but not anymore with SpyOnWeb! With this spy software, mentions quickly become visible and you diminish the likelihood of being a left-out player in the market.

There are many helpful features in this app that allow you to spy on your competitors. All you have to do is put their URL into the search bar and it'll give you all of the handles and sites affiliated with the rival. It's one thing to be informed, but it's an entirely different thing to know your competition inside and out.
 

10. Owletter

Most brands end up building an email list by gradually moving users from social media marketing to their email newsletter and campaigns. One strategy some businesses use is contacting their customers via emails. This technique helps them grow a list of potential and existing clients.

Owletter might be the key to success for your business. By gaining access to the mailbox details of your competitors, you'll know what's coming. It's important to do so, too, as growing on email is the next big thing!
 

11. Sprout Social

It’s a very simple tool that gives you insights into your competitors’ activities. It shows you what they're up to and how people are reacting to their content.

With this tool, you can see what your target audience is doing and whether or not they’re engaged with your competitor's content.
 

12.  Pathmatics

“Pathmatics” sounds like mathematics for a good reason. This intelligent tool indeed can give you a glimpse of who your competitor's target audience is, which then allows you to get better insight into how you can snatch them from your rival.
 

13. Adbeat

Receive invaluable insights on your competitor's ads with Adbeat. It will provide you with information on their advertising strategy and how it is doing, as well as customers’ reactions to the ads. With this tool, you'll be able to plan your ad strategy more confidently.
 

14. MozBar

You can use this powerful tool to gather more information about the websites you research. It helps you learn about their search capabilities and potentials, showing how they fare on Google. (Would you like to know the best SEO practices for your Instagram page?)

If you want to overtake your rivals, assessing their search power is the right move. You can use MozBar to compare your strengths and weaknesses to the competition and improve accordingly if you want to overpower them.
 

15.  Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine collects and archives web content at different moments throughout the years, to be able to show the evolution of any site. All yearly data can be viewed with the help of this user-friendly tool.

The Internet Archive gives you information about what your website's competitors are doing, in terms of things that are working and those that aren't. You can use this information to make plans for the new year.
 

Final thoughts

It's hard to know which social media competitor analysis tool is best for your needs, but it's always worth the time to research the features of each before deciding.

You may also want to try a few different tools before settling on one, as they all have different pros and cons.