Competitor research keywords: what marketers search for
69 competitor research keywords on US Google with a year of monthly data: ad library searches rose 28%, how-to searches fell 58%, and what that means.
Marketers researching competitors now search for the ad libraries, not for advice on how to research. Across the 15 ad library searches in our set, US Google demand averaged 240,000 a month over the past year, up 28%. Across 17 competitor research keywords such as "competitor analysis", "seo competitor analysis" and "competitor monitoring", it averaged 17,600, down 58%. A year earlier there were 4.4 ad library searches for each of those. Now there are 13.7.
The figures come from 69 keywords pulled from DataForSEO on 4 October 2026, in six groups, each with monthly history to August 2026. Every change below compares the last 12 months (September 2025 to August 2026) with the 12 before, unless it says otherwise.
Which ad libraries get searched most
| Search term | Avg a month | Aug 2025 | Aug 2026 | 12 months vs previous 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| meta ad library | 84,000 | 49,500 | 110,000 | +129% |
| facebook ad library | 79,500 | 74,000 | 74,000 | -3% |
| ads library | 47,600 | 40,500 | 60,500 | +25% |
| tiktok creative center | 10,100 | 9,900 | 9,900 | -26% |
| google ads library | 5,800 | 5,400 | 5,400 | +12% |
| google ads transparency center | 5,400 | 3,600 | 6,600 | +94% |
| tiktok ad library | 3,000 | 3,600 | 2,400 | -34% |
| linkedin ad library | 3,000 | 2,900 | 2,900 | +14% |
| youtube ads library | 580 | 590 | 480 | -29% |
| reddit ads library | 460 | 480 | 390 | +29% |
| instagram ad library | 360 | 480 | 320 | -29% |
| pinterest ad library | 220 | 260 | 170 | -23% |
| snapchat ads library | 130 | 170 | 140 | -29% |
| twitter ads library | 88 | 140 | 70 | -52% |
| bing ads library | 37 | 30 | 40 | +22% |
Meta is two thirds of it. The three Meta names make up 68% of ad library searches here. "meta ad library" passed "facebook ad library" in May 2026 and reached 110,000 in August, against 74,000. The two names combined rose from 123,500 to 184,000 searches a month, August to August. Our Meta Ad Library guide covers how to use it.
Google's Transparency Center nearly doubled. "google ads transparency center" averaged 5,400 a month, up 94%. Add "google ads library" and Google draws about 11,300 a month, still under a tenth of Meta.
TikTok fell. "tiktok creative center" dropped 26% and "tiktok ad library" 34%.
The rest are small. LinkedIn's library holds at about 3,000 a month. YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest, Snapchat, X and Bing together come to about 1,500, under 1% of the total. Learn Meta, Google and TikTok first; our guide to every ad library covers the others.
Competitor research keywords: the how-to searches fell
| Search term | Avg a month | Aug 2026 | 12 months vs previous 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| competitor analysis | 6,800 | 4,400 | -52% |
| competitor pricing | 3,100 | 2,900 | -31% |
| competitor analysis template | 1,400 | 590 | -58% |
| competitor keyword research | 1,200 | 260 | -76% |
| seo competitor analysis | 1,200 | 320 | -77% |
| competitor analysis example | 850 | 260 | -57% |
| competitor tracking | 410 | 390 | -61% |
| competitor ads | 400 | 210 | -56% |
| competitor monitoring | 370 | 110 | -58% |
| competitor swot analysis | 330 | 110 | -39% |
| social media competitor analysis | 320 | 140 | -71% |
| how to check competitor website traffic | 310 | 30 | -22% |
| competitor price monitoring | 290 | 70 | -75% |
| competitor backlinks | 190 | 50 | -78% |
| how to find competitors | 150 | 10 | -19% |
| ppc competitor analysis | 140 | 10 | -64% |
| spy on competitors | 140 | 110 | -82% |
All 17 fell. "competitor analysis" peaked at 22,200 in March 2025 and was down to 4,400 by August 2026, 80% below the peak. Google reports identical figures for "competitive analysis", so we count it once.
The technical searches fell furthest: "seo competitor analysis" down 77%, "competitor keyword research" 76%, "competitor backlinks" 78%. Several dropped in a single step in October 2025. "competitor keyword research" went from 4,400 in September to 590 in October and has averaged under 1,000 a month since.
"competitor pricing" fell least of the bigger terms and is now second in the group. Pricing seems to be the research job people still bring to Google; how to monitor competitor pricing covers the free way to do it.
Tool shopping searches fell too
| Search term | Avg a month | 12 months vs previous 12 |
|---|---|---|
| website traffic checker | 16,300 | -27% |
| price tracking | 11,700 | -23% |
| social listening tools | 4,000 | -42% |
| semrush pricing | 2,100 | -48% |
| rank tracking tools | 1,900 | +76% |
| market research tools | 1,300 | -49% |
| semrush alternatives | 1,300 | -43% |
| competitor analysis tools | 1,100 | -72% |
| ahrefs pricing | 1,100 | -78% |
| sprout social pricing | 1,100 | -73% |
| hootsuite alternatives | 840 | -27% |
| semrush vs ahrefs | 770 | -75% |
| website change monitoring | 720 | -48% |
| similarweb pricing | 610 | -37% |
| competitive intelligence tools | 580 | -79% |
| ahrefs alternatives | 580 | -70% |
| similarweb alternatives | 580 | -55% |
| spyfu alternatives | 330 | -9% |
| ad spy tools | 140 | -24% |
18 of 19 fell. The one riser, "rank tracking tools", owes it to two odd months: 8,100 searches in both February and March 2026, against 720 or fewer in nine of the other ten.
The steepest falls are the head-to-head and price checks: "semrush vs ahrefs" down 75%, "ahrefs pricing" 78%, "sprout social pricing" 73%. Those are exactly the questions a buyer can now put to an AI assistant, which will name a shortlist when asked. This data cannot show where the searches went, only that fewer of them happen on Google.
Which strategy frameworks dominate
| Search term | Avg a month | 12 months vs previous 12 | Busiest month vs quietest |
|---|---|---|---|
| unique selling proposition | 90,500 | -7% | 1.0x |
| porter's five forces | 30,900 | +30% | 3.3x |
| swot analysis template | 12,800 | -37% | 2.7x |
| competitive advantage | 6,100 | -17% | 4.1x |
| perceptual map | 4,100 | -18% | 8.1x |
| battlecard | 1,500 | -12% | 1.2x |
| positioning statement examples | 1,300 | -21% | 5.0x |
| competitive landscape | 1,100 | -36% | 1.5x |
| tows matrix | 1,100 | -18% | 2.7x |
| competitive matrix | 590 | -19% | 4.2x |
Porter's five forces leads, and grew. At 30,900 a month it is searched 2.4 times as often as "swot analysis template", which fell 37%. The bare term "swot analysis" is bigger than both, at 90,500 a month in our wider keyword pull, though we have no trend for it. Nine of the ten framework terms fell.
Ignore the top row. "unique selling proposition" has reported exactly 90,500 every month since April 2025. A line that flat says more about Google's rounding buckets than about demand, so treat it as a rough size only.
These are student searches. Porter's five forces swings 3.3 times between its busiest months (49,500 in September and October 2025, and again in February 2026) and its quietest (14,800 in each of June, July and August 2026). "perceptual map" swings 8.1 times. Peaks in September, October and February, troughs in summer: the shape of a school year. "battlecard", a sales enablement term, moves 1.2 times, steadier than the median ad library search (1.5 times).
If you publish framework content, you are mostly writing for students. That can bring traffic; it rarely brings buyers. If you need one for real work, start with our Porter's five forces template.
AI search terms are where the growth is
| Search term | Avg a month | 12 months vs previous 12 |
|---|---|---|
| ai overviews | 122,000 | +269% |
| generative engine optimization | 4,400 | +69% |
| answer engine optimization | 2,400 | +121% |
| ai visibility | 830 | +836% |
| chatgpt seo | 390 | -2% |
| llms.txt | no data | n/a |
"ai overviews" averaged 122,000 searches a month and peaked at 201,000 in April 2026. "ai visibility" went from an average of 88 a month to 830. "generative engine optimization" grew on the year but peaked in August and September 2025; August 2026 was 45% below August 2025. DataForSEO returned no volume at all for "llms.txt". Our explainer on AI Overviews covers what they change for your own traffic.
What this says about how marketers work now
They go to the source. The libraries show the actual ads, free, straight from the platforms. Searches for them grew while "competitor ads" fell 56%. People who know where the answer lives skip the search for advice.
They ask Google for the method less. Every one of the 17 research task searches fell. Our reading is that the method now comes from an AI answer, either on the results page or in an assistant. The data fits that; it cannot prove it.
Tool shortlists form somewhere else. Price and comparison searches for Semrush, Ahrefs, Similarweb and Sprout Social all fell. Interest in the tools has not vanished: Semrush's own estimated search traffic grew 5% this year, as our traffic study of 46 tools shows. Fewer people research the purchase with a generic Google search.
The useful habit is checking, not reading. If competitor research is part of your job, look at the three libraries that matter (Meta, Google, TikTok) and each rival's pricing page on a fixed schedule.
Figo does that check for you: once a week it reads the Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center and TikTok Ad Library for each competitor you track, along with their pricing page, and emails what changed. Ours, so judge accordingly. If you follow one or two rivals, the libraries are free and a calendar reminder does the same job.
How we got these numbers
- Source: DataForSEO Labs keyword overview, Google United States, English. Pulled on 4 October 2026; the latest full month is August 2026.
- Keywords: 69 in six groups, chosen by us. The single figure for "swot analysis" comes from a wider pull of keyword suggestions made the same day, which has no monthly history.
- Search volume: Google's monthly US search estimates, reported in rounded buckets (590, 720, 880, 1,000 and so on). "Avg a month" is our mean of the last 12 monthly figures, so it can differ slightly from the single number DataForSEO quotes (6,800 against 6,600 for "competitor analysis").
- Change: September 2025 to August 2026 against September 2024 to August 2025.
Limits worth knowing:
- Estimates from a keyword model, not counts. Google rounds, groups close variants and revises, and the vendor models on top. A change in either moves the numbers. Read sizes and directions.
- Single months mislead. "how to find competitors" is down 93% August to August but 19% on the 12-month view. "competitor pricing" is up 21% August to August and down 31% on the year. That is why the tables use 12-month windows.
- Odd months stay in. September 2025 shows one-month spikes in eight terms: "website traffic checker" jumped from 18,100 to 60,500, then fell back to 14,800 in October. They sit inside the current window, so if anything they make the declines look smaller.
- Small terms are noisy. Google's buckets sit 20% to 30% apart, so a small term can jump that much on a few dozen searches.
- The list is ours. The ratios depend on which terms we picked.
Figo's reports use the same kind of search data; where Figo's data comes from marks which numbers are measured and which are estimated.
Questions people ask
What is the most searched ad library?
The Meta Ad Library, by a distance. In August 2026 "meta ad library" had 110,000 US Google searches and "facebook ad library" 74,000, against 6,600 for "google ads transparency center" and 2,400 for "tiktok ad library".
How many people search for competitor analysis each month?
About 6,800 searches a month on US Google over the past year, down 52% on the year before and 80% below the March 2025 peak of 22,200. Google reports identical figures for "competitive analysis".
Which competitor analysis framework gets searched most?
SWOT, if you count the bare term "swot analysis" at 90,500 a month. Among frameworks with a year of history, Porter's five forces leads at 30,900 a month, up 30% and more than twice "swot analysis template".
Is search volume the number of people searching?
No. It counts searches, not people, comes in Google's rounded buckets and lumps close variants together. Treat it as a size and a direction, never as an exact count.
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