Competitive analysis report template and sample

A competitive analysis report tells a decision-maker what competitors are doing, what it means for you, and what to do about it. The good ones are short, dated, and end with actions that have an owner. Below is a structure that works, a competitive analysis report template you can copy, sample excerpts from a hypothetical report, and how the weekly version differs from the quarterly one.

What goes in a competitive analysis report

Six sections and an appendix, in this order:

Write the executive summary last. It is read first and often read alone, so every line should be a finding plus its consequence, not a teaser for the rest.

The competitive landscape section sets the frame: direct rivals, indirect ones, and the status quo (spreadsheets, an agency, doing nothing). One chart helps here, usually a positioning map of the rivals on the two things buyers trade off, or a market map when there are too many rivals to plot.

Profiles stay to one page each. The nine fields in the competitor analysis template are a good standard.

The matrix compares on buyer criteria, not your feature list. A competitive matrix where you win every row tells the reader you wrote it.

Competitive analysis report template

Copy this outline into a doc and fill it in order, except section 1.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT
[Company] · [Period] · [Author] · [Date]

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
   - Finding 1: fact, then so what
   - Finding 2
   - Finding 3
   - Decision needed: what, from whom,
     by when

2. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
   - Direct rivals
   - Indirect rivals
   - Status quo (what buyers do instead)
   - One chart: positioning map or
     market map
   - Top five buying criteria

3. COMPETITOR PROFILES (one page each)
   - Their pitch, word for word
   - Price and what each tier includes
   - Who they win, who we win
   - Channels: ads, search, social,
     reviews
   - Strengths and weaknesses, each
     with evidence

4. COMPARISON MATRIX
   - Rows: buying criteria
   - Columns: us plus each rival
   - Score 1 to 5, source for each

5. WHAT CHANGED SINCE LAST REPORT
   - Date · rival · change · link

6. IMPLICATIONS AND ACTIONS
   - Action · owner · due date

APPENDIX
   - Sources and dates checked
   - Observed facts vs estimates

Sample competitive analysis report excerpts

These excerpts come from a hypothetical report for Larkspur, a project management tool for architecture practices, with two fictional rivals. They show the standard each section should reach.

Executive summary (excerpt)

1. Drafthaus cut its entry price from $39 to $29 per user on 2 September, and moved time tracking to its $49 tier. For practices that track time, which is most of ours, Drafthaus got more expensive. Do not match the headline cut.
2. Studio Ledger published eleven comparison pages in six weeks, two of them about us. Both rank on the first page for "Larkspur alternative". We need our own comparison page within a month.
3. Decision needed: whether to add a free tier for sole practitioners. Owner: CEO, by 31 October.

Each finding is a dated fact, then one sentence on what it means. No adjectives.

Competitor profile (excerpt)

Comparison matrix (excerpt)

The rows Larkspur loses are in the table. That is what makes the rows it wins believable.

Implications and actions (excerpt)

• Publish a Larkspur vs Studio Ledger page with prices in a table. Owner: marketing, by 24 October.
• Add a "time tracking included" line to our pricing page and sales deck. Owner: product marketing, this week.
• Brief sales on the Drafthaus price change: lead with the total for a 10 person practice. Owner: sales lead, by Friday.

Weekly vs quarterly reports

The same structure serves two very different jobs.

The weekly report is a competitor intelligence report in its purest form: dated changes, one interpretation each, one thing to do. For what that looks like in practice, see the sample briefing, where every item carries its evidence, what it means and a recommended action.

The quarterly report then builds on the weekly ones. Its section 5 is largely the last thirteen weekly reports, filtered to what still matters. Teams that skip the weekly habit end up rebuilding section 5 from memory, which is how reports end up missing a rival's price change from two months ago.

Agencies usually need a third, monthly version for clients, sitting between the two. The format is in putting competitor intelligence in a client report.

Where the evidence comes from

Label every number in the report as observed or estimated, and say where it came from in the appendix.

Observed: prices from their pricing page (and the Wayback Machine for history), live ads from the Google, Meta and TikTok ad libraries, new pages from their sitemap, ratings and review counts from Google and Trustpilot, what buyers said on sales calls.

Estimated: organic traffic, keyword counts, ad spend and revenue. These come from tools that model them, and two tools can disagree by a wide margin. Use them for direction over time, never as a precise figure, and read how accurate traffic estimates are before putting one in front of a board.

Common mistakes

No actions. A report that ends in observations has handed the reader the hard part.

One undated document, updated forever. Each report should be a dated snapshot, so readers can see what changed between versions.

Estimates presented as facts. One wrong traffic number, spotted by the reader, discredits the whole report.

Forty pages. Nobody reads them. Put detail in the appendix and keep the body to what changes a decision.

Where Figo fits

Figo writes the weekly version. Every Monday it sends a briefing on each tracked competitor's new ads on Google, Meta and TikTok, changed pages and pricing, rankings, social posts and reviews, with one suggested action. Ours, so judge accordingly. It does not write the quarterly report: the matrix, the implications and the decisions need someone who knows your strategy and talks to your buyers. If your rivals mainly compete through enterprise sales cycles rather than public marketing, a weekly marketing feed will cover too little of what matters.