Key Takeaways
- SpyFu supports a six-step process that turns competitor data into conquesting campaigns, intent-matched landing pages, and measurable net-new ARR.
- Steps 1–2 define competitor footprint and ad spend, Step 3 reveals keyword gaps, Step 4 maps high-intent pages, Step 5 filters low-intent noise, and Step 6 launches campaigns with UTM tracking.
- Intent-matched landing pages and disciplined negative-keyword management are the main levers that keep CAC low while capturing high-CPC competitor keywords.
- Pipeline attribution comes from mapping UTM values to CRM fields, which enables weekly conquesting-pipeline and 90-day-lag ARR reporting.
- Ready to convert your SpyFu analysis into closed-won pipeline? Schedule a discovery call to map your competitor data to measurable ARR.
The 6-Step SpyFu Competitor Analysis Framework
This framework follows SpyFu’s interface and mirrors how a B2B buyer moves from awareness to vendor selection. Step 1 identifies which competitors deserve attention. Step 2 quantifies their investment and highlights their highest-intent keywords. Step 3 uncovers the gaps your campaigns miss. Step 4 pinpoints the landing pages and content that capture that demand. Step 5 filters the keyword list by intent and strips out navigational noise. Step 6 turns the refined list into conquesting campaigns supported by comparison-focused landing pages. The measurement section then connects UTM data to CRM records and finally to ARR dashboards.
Step 1: Domain Search to Size Each Competitor’s Footprint
Purpose: Establish the full paid and organic footprint of each competitor before you invest time in deeper analysis.
Actions: Enter the competitor’s root domain into SpyFu’s search bar to access their competitive profile. Review the overview dashboard for estimated monthly paid clicks, number of paid keywords, organic keyword count, and estimated monthly SEO clicks so you can judge their overall presence. Once you confirm they are a meaningful player in your space, export the paid keyword list as a CSV for detailed review in Step 2.
Inputs/Outputs: The input is the competitor domain. The output is a ranked list of their top paid keywords by estimated monthly spend, plus their organic ranking positions.
Decision Criteria: Prioritize competitors with more than 500 paid keywords and meaningful estimated monthly paid clicks in your target verticals. These domains usually signal enough spend and volume to justify a conquesting strategy.
SaaS Hypothetical: A project management SaaS analyzes a direct competitor and finds 1,200 paid keywords, with the top 50 focused on “team task tracking software” and “project management for remote teams.” Those 50 keywords become the seed list for Step 2.
Tip: Cross-reference the SpyFu domain overview with Google Ads Auction Insights to confirm real impression-share overlap before you commit conquesting budget.
Common Mistake: Focusing on a single competitor. Run this step for your top three to five competitors so you see category-level demand patterns, not just one company’s strategy.
Step 2: PPC Research to Quantify Spend and Intent Signals
Purpose: Identify which keywords the competitor actively funds, which ad copy they keep, and what intent those keywords reveal.
Actions: Open the competitor’s PPC Research tab in SpyFu. Filter the keyword list by estimated monthly value in descending order so the highest-investment terms rise to the top. Review the ad history panel to see which headlines and descriptions have run longest, since longevity usually signals profitability. Export the top 200 keywords with their estimated CPC, monthly clicks, and ad copy for your working file.
Inputs/Outputs: The input is the exported paid keyword list from Step 1. The output is a prioritized table of high-spend keywords paired with ad copy variants the competitor has validated through spend.
Decision Criteria: Competitor conquesting campaigns often carry higher CPCs than generic campaigns yet can still produce MQLs at lower cost when the landing page is intent-matched. High-CPC competitor keywords remain worth targeting when you can send traffic to tightly aligned pages.
SaaS Hypothetical: The same project management SaaS sees the competitor’s top-spending ad group built around “Asana alternative for agencies,” with one headline running unchanged for 14 months. The team treats that line as validated messaging and mirrors the core value proposition in differentiated copy.
Tip: Treat ad copy that has run for six months or longer in SpyFu’s history panel as proven messaging. Use it as a benchmark for your own tests.
Common Mistake: Copying competitor ad copy word for word. Use it to understand the promise they make, then position your unique strengths to avoid legal risk and confusion.
Step 3: Kombat Analysis to Reveal Keyword Gaps
Purpose: Find the exact keywords competitors bid on that your campaigns ignore, which usually represent the highest-impact gaps.
Actions: Open SpyFu’s PPC Kombat tool and enter your domain plus up to three competitor domains. Review the Venn diagram that segments keywords into three groups: only your keywords, only competitor keywords, and shared keywords. Export the “competitors only” segment so you have a clear gap keyword list for later steps.
Inputs/Outputs: The input is your domain plus competitor domains. The output is a gap keyword list segmented by estimated CPC and monthly search volume.
Decision Criteria: Focus on gap keywords with commercial modifiers such as “pricing,” “alternatives,” “vs,” and “reviews” instead of broad informational queries. Separate campaigns and modifiers like “vs [competitor]” often improve CTR, support market share growth, and reduce CPA in competitor campaigns.
SaaS Hypothetical: The Kombat output shows the competitor bidding on “[Competitor] vs Monday.com” and “[Competitor] pricing 2026,” while the SaaS team ignores both. These terms carry pricing and comparison intent, which usually convert at the highest rates in B2B paid search.
Step 4: Top Pages to Plan High-Intent Landing Destinations
Purpose: Identify which landing pages and content assets capture the competitor’s highest-traffic keywords, then plan intent-matched destinations on your own site.
Actions: Open the competitor’s Top Pages tab in SpyFu. Sort by estimated monthly paid clicks so you see the pages that matter most. Note the URL structure, page title, and the keywords each page ranks or bids for. Compare this list to the gap keyword list from Step 3 to see which gaps lack a strong landing page on your domain.
Inputs/Outputs: The input is the gap keyword list from Step 3. The output is a content and landing page gap map that shows which competitor pages require a direct counterpart on your site.
Decision Criteria: Landing pages aligned to specific keywords usually show lower bounce rates than generic homepages. This message match between query and destination becomes one of your strongest conversion levers.
SaaS Hypothetical: The competitor’s top paid page is a “[Competitor] vs [Your Brand]” comparison page driving an estimated 800 monthly clicks. The SaaS team has no equivalent page. They build one with a clear feature matrix and switching resources to close that gap.
Tip: Treat a missing landing page as a blocker. Build the destination first, then activate the campaign so you do not waste high-intent clicks.
Common Mistake: Sending all conquesting traffic to the homepage. Homepage bounce rates for mismatched traffic often exceed 60 percent and destroy CAC efficiency.
Step 5: Intent Filtering and Negative-Keyword Hygiene
Purpose: Strip navigational, informational, and low-converting queries from the gap keyword list before launch so you protect budget and Quality Score.
Actions: Apply the Keyword Pyramid Method to the exported gap list and segment terms into four layers: Solution Terms, Integration and Comparison Terms, Problem-Solving Terms, and General or Educational Terms. This structure shows where to focus spend, since the top two layers usually carry the strongest purchase intent. Concentrate initial budget on those top layers. Use the bottom two layers as the base of your negative keyword list so you avoid paying for low-intent informational traffic. Beyond these pyramid-based negatives, add competitor brand names as phrase-match negatives to block pure navigational searches, and exclude common low-intent suffixes such as “tutorial,” “free,” “jobs,” and “login.”
Inputs/Outputs: The input is the full gap keyword list. The output is a filtered, campaign-ready keyword set plus a structured negative keyword list segmented by match type.
Decision Criteria: In B2B software, phrase-match negatives on competitor brand names often catch many low-value variations. SaaS teams benefit from keeping a sizable negative list, reviewing it regularly, and cutting wasted spend wherever search terms show clicks without conversions.
SaaS Hypothetical: The project management SaaS adds “[Competitor]” as a phrase-match negative to block navigational searches for the competitor’s login page, while keeping “[Competitor] pricing” and “[Competitor] alternative” as active targets. This change removes the single largest source of wasted spend in their competitor campaigns.
Tip: Start with phrase or exact match negatives and monitor impression volume for 14 days before moving to broad negatives. This approach reduces the risk of blocking high-intent queries like “free trial” that still signal purchase intent.
Common Mistake: Treating the negative keyword list as a one-time task. Effective negative keyword strategy relies on weekly search term audits that focus on zero-conversion queries with meaningful spend.
Step 6: Build Conquesting Campaigns and Comparison Pages
Purpose: Turn the filtered keyword list into isolated conquesting campaigns supported by intent-matched landing pages that speak directly to each searcher’s mindset.
Actions: Create separate campaigns for each intent bucket: Pricing Intent such as “[Competitor] pricing,” Problem or Complaint Intent such as “[Competitor] alternatives” and “cancel [Competitor],” and Review or Validation Intent such as “[Competitor] reviews” and “[Competitor] vs [Your Brand].” Build a dedicated landing page for each campaign that mirrors the search intent. Use pricing comparison tables for Pricing Intent, migration resources and switch-and-save messaging for Problem or Complaint Intent, and G2 badge collections with feature matrices for Review or Validation Intent. Apply UTM parameters structured as utm_source=google, utm_medium=cpc, utm_campaign=conquesting-[competitor], and utm_content=[intent-bucket] to every ad URL.
Inputs/Outputs: The input is the filtered keyword set and intent segmentation from Step 5. The output is a set of live campaigns with dedicated landing pages and UTM-tagged URLs ready for CRM pipeline tracking.
Decision Criteria: Campaigns that match intent at the keyword, ad, and landing page levels usually convert at higher rates than funnel-mismatched campaigns. This conversion lift often determines whether conquesting generates net-new ARR or simply burns budget.
SaaS Hypothetical: The project management SaaS launches three campaigns. The Pricing Intent campaign drives to a page that opens with a TCO comparison table. The Problem or Complaint campaign leads with “Tired of [Competitor]’s onboarding complexity?” and features a migration case study. The Review campaign highlights G2 ratings and a side-by-side feature matrix. Each page uses a single CTA: “Book a Demo.”
Tip: Keep competitor references factual and comparative. Avoid competitor logos, and make sure ad headlines clearly show your brand as the advertiser so you stay within Google’s trademark rules and avoid passing-off claims.
Common Mistake: Combining all three intent buckets into one campaign. Consolidation hides which intent type drives the lowest CAC and blocks meaningful optimization.
Measurement and Validation: Track Conquesting to ARR
The UTM structure from Step 6 flows into HubSpot or Salesforce as a campaign source field on every contact record. Map the UTM campaign value to a custom CRM property called “Conquesting Competitor” and the UTM content value to “Intent Bucket.” This setup enables pipeline reporting filtered by competitor and intent type, which are the two variables you control through SpyFu analysis.
The primary ARR measurement sequence follows a clear chain. An ad click with UTM tags leads to a landing page form submission. That form creates a HubSpot contact with UTM properties. The contact progresses to SQL stage, then to a Closed-Won opportunity tagged with the conquesting campaign source. The ARR from that opportunity then appears under the conquesting-[competitor] campaign in your revenue dashboard. Each link in this chain must work or attribution breaks.
B2B SaaS sales cycles often create attribution gaps because a prospect may click a conquesting ad in week one and close 90 days later. Full CAC, cohort LTV, and payback-period analysis needs an extended window of clean data to reflect those longer cycles. Use SQL-stage pipeline value as a leading indicator of ARR by reporting on “conquesting pipeline created” monthly, while “conquesting ARR closed” runs on a rolling 90-day lag. Leadership then sees a real-time proxy metric and a confirmed revenue metric side by side.
CAC reduction is measured by comparing the blended CAC of conquesting campaigns against your account-wide CAC baseline. This CAC view confirms what Step 2 predicted: higher CPCs on competitor terms are often offset by stronger conversion rates, which lowers blended CAC for conquesting campaigns compared to the rest of the account.
Advanced Variations: Scaling Across Competitors and Channels
Once you validate the single-competitor playbook with 90 days of pipeline data, you can scale it horizontally. Run Steps 1 through 5 for each of the top three to five competitors from Step 1, then build a competitor-specific campaign and landing page for each one. Apply shared negative keyword lists across all conquesting campaigns at the account level so you keep hygiene centralized.
LinkedIn layering extends this framework for enterprise SaaS with ACV above $25,000. Export the company list from CRM records tagged with the conquesting campaign source, upload it as a LinkedIn Matched Audience, and run Sponsored Content to the same job titles with a “Why teams switch from [Competitor]” message. This creates a multi-touch sequence where prospects see the conquesting narrative in both search and LinkedIn feeds.
SpyFu’s Top Pages data also feeds directly into CRO heuristic audits. When you identify a competitor’s highest-traffic page, run a structured three-evaluator heuristic review of your equivalent page across relevance, clarity, trust, and friction. Turn that review into a prioritized fix list before you scale media so you do not send high-intent traffic to a page that cannot convert.
Quick-Start Checklist and Next Steps by Team Maturity
Checklist: Export competitor domain overview from SpyFu. Export the PPC Research keyword list with ad copy history. Run Kombat gap analysis against your domain. Map Top Pages to find missing landing pages. Segment gap keywords by intent layer. Build a negative keyword list with phrase-match competitor brand exclusions. Create isolated campaigns per intent bucket. Apply the UTM structure to all ad URLs. Map UTM properties to CRM contact records. Report on conquesting pipeline weekly and conquesting ARR on a 90-day lag.
Founder-led teams (sub-$1M ARR): Start with one competitor, one intent bucket focused on Pricing Intent, and one landing page. Validate conversion rate before you expand. This approach keeps setup light and feedback fast.
Growth-stage teams ($1M–$10M ARR): Run all three intent buckets against your top two competitors at the same time. Prioritize CRM UTM mapping in the first two weeks so you avoid attribution gaps that compound over the full sales cycle.
Scale-up teams ($10M+ ARR): Layer LinkedIn retargeting on top of search conquesting campaigns, feed SpyFu Top Pages data into a quarterly CRO audit, and rerun Steps 1 through 3 every 60 days so you catch new competitor keyword investments early.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to set up a SpyFu-based competitor conquesting campaign from scratch?
The SpyFu research phase, which includes domain search, PPC Research export, Kombat gap analysis, and Top Pages review, usually takes two to four hours for a single competitor. Building the negative keyword list and segmenting keywords by intent adds another two to three hours. Landing page creation is the longest step, since a comparison page with a feature matrix, social proof, and a single CTA often requires three to five business days when design and copy run in parallel. A realistic timeline from SpyFu export to live campaign is seven to ten business days. You typically see the first meaningful conversion data within two to four weeks of launch, and pipeline impact becomes visible at the 60-to-90-day mark as trials and demos convert to Closed-Won opportunities in the CRM.
How accurate is SpyFu’s estimated ad spend and keyword data?
SpyFu’s estimates are directionally accurate, not exact. The platform models competitor spend from auction data, historical ad appearances, and estimated click volumes, since it does not see actual Google Ads billing data. Treat the numbers as relative signals. A competitor showing ten times your estimated spend is almost certainly outspending you in that keyword category, even if the dollar figure is off. The most reliable SpyFu data points are ad copy history, which reflects real ad activity, and keyword presence, which confirms active bidding. Cross-reference SpyFu’s keyword list with Google Ads Auction Insights for your own account before you commit conquesting budget.
What are the most important negative keywords to add when running competitor conquesting campaigns?
The highest-priority negatives fall into three groups. First, add the competitor’s brand name alone as a phrase-match negative so you block navigational searches from users looking for the competitor’s login page, since those clicks almost never convert. Second, add informational suffixes as phrase-match negatives, including “tutorial,” “how to use,” “documentation,” “API docs,” and “help center.” Third, add employment and recruitment terms such as “jobs,” “careers,” “salary,” and “[Competitor] engineer.” After launch, export 30 to 90 days of search term reports and run a weekly audit that flags any term with more than 20 clicks and zero conversions, then add those as campaign-level negatives. Avoid broad negatives like “free” until you test, because “free trial” and “free demo” often signal real purchase intent in SaaS.
How do you attribute net-new ARR to a competitor conquesting campaign when the sales cycle is 60 to 90 days?
The attribution setup starts with UTMs. Every conquesting ad URL needs a utm_campaign value that identifies the competitor, such as conquesting-[competitor-name], and a utm_content value that identifies the intent bucket, such as pricing, alternatives, or reviews. These values must map to custom CRM properties on the contact record at form submission, not just sit in Google Analytics. Once UTM data lives in HubSpot or Salesforce, pipeline reports can filter by campaign source at every funnel stage, including MQL, SQL, Opportunity, and Closed-Won. For the 60-to-90-day lag, report on “conquesting pipeline created this month” as the leading indicator and “conquesting ARR closed” on a rolling 90-day window as the lagging indicator. Present both so leadership sees early signal and confirmed revenue impact together.
How often should the SpyFu competitor analysis be rerun?
A full rerun of Steps 1 through 3, which covers domain overview, PPC Research export, and Kombat gap analysis, should occur every 60 days for active competitors. Competitors adjust keyword investment, launch new ad copy, and shift keyword categories on a monthly rhythm, and a 60-day cadence catches meaningful changes before they open large gaps in your coverage. Review the negative keyword list weekly for high-spend accounts and every other week for accounts spending under $10,000 per month. Run the Top Pages analysis in Step 4 quarterly, since landing page architecture usually changes more slowly than bidding behavior. Also rerun the full framework whenever a competitor announces a product update, pricing change, or funding round, because these events often trigger new keyword investments that SpyFu surfaces within two to four weeks.