ChatGPT answers, unedited

Yes. If your specific need is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how much reach/impression volume are they generating, and across which platforms?”, I’d look at ad-intelligence platforms, rather than the typical “ad spy” tools that mostly give you creative libraries.

My shortlist

• Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — probably the closest match to what you described. It provides modeled spend and impression estimates, competitive creative, placements, flighting, and channel-level views across Meta, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, display/video, CTV and more. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

• Best for: an in-house marketing team that wants a reasonably comprehensive competitive media picture.
• Caveat: it's enterprise-oriented and pricing is generally custom.
• Similarweb Ad Intelligence — strong if you also want search, display, social, landing pages, keywords and competitive traffic context in the same ecosystem. Similarweb describes its product as covering the paid landscape across display, social and search, including channel mix and spend trends. Similarweb

• Best for: marketers who want advertising intelligence connected to broader competitive/traffic research.
• It has also recently added visibility into ads appearing in AI search surfaces such as ChatGPT and Google's AI experiences. Similarweb
• AdSpyder — more of a self-serve option. It aggregates ads across 15+ platforms and lets you track competitors, creative, run time, destination URLs and other signals. AdSpyder

• Best for: an individual marketer or smaller team that primarily needs competitive creative/ad monitoring.
• Important: I'd treat its ad-library information differently from Pathmatics' modeled reach/impression estimates.
• WhatWins / similar newer tools — worth investigating if your priority is live competitor monitoring rather than formal media measurement. Current tools in this category emphasize active ads, ad age, platform mix and creative changes. WhatWins

The important distinction

I'd separate your requirement into two questions:

For your wording specifically, I'd start with a demo of Pathmatics and Similarweb. Pathmatics is particularly aligned with the frequency/impression/spend question; Similarweb is compelling if you want to connect that advertising picture to search demand, traffic, keywords and competitor websites. Sensor Tower Similarweb

One caveat: competitor reach and frequency aren't directly observable numbers in most cases. Platforms like Google can report modeled reach/frequency for your own campaigns, but competitive-intelligence vendors generally have to estimate competitors' impressions/reach from panels, observed ads, spend models and other signals. Google's own documentation illustrates the difference between modeled unique reach/frequency and raw impressions. Google Help

If you tell me your approximate company size/budget and which platforms matter most (Meta, TikTok, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, CTV, etc.), I can narrow this to 2–3 tools and compare likely pricing, coverage, accuracy, and ease of use for an in-house marketer.

Yes. If you mean “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how many people/impressions are they reaching, on which platforms, and what creative are they using?”, there are a few serious options.

My shortlist

The one I'd demo first: Pathmatics

Pathmatics by Sensor Tower specifically provides estimated ad spend and impressions across social, display, video and mobile, with coverage including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and others. It also lets you examine individual creatives, their estimated impressions/spend, flighting and targeting information. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

That's unusually close to your question because you can get from:

Competitor X → platform → campaign → creative → estimated impressions/spend → timing

rather than simply seeing a competitor's ads.

One caveat: “frequency” is generally modeled rather than directly observed. These vendors estimate impressions/reach using panels, crawlers, platform data and modeling, so I'd use the numbers directionally for competitive benchmarking rather than treating them as equivalent to your own first-party ad-platform reporting. Sensor Tower explicitly describes its methodology as combining panel data, crawlers, partnerships/integrations and ML estimates. Sensor Tower

Where MediaRadar is interesting

If your definition of “across platforms” includes CTV/TV + digital + social + search + OOH + print, I'd put MediaRadar into the evaluation. It says it monitors 30+ media channels and provides competitor creative volume, channel mix, campaign cadence, spend and share-of-voice data. MediaRadar MediaRadar

So I'd frame the decision this way:

• Primarily digital/social + estimated impressions: Pathmatics
• Full media mix, including TV/CTV: MediaRadar
• Competitive advertising + broader web/market intelligence: Similarweb

One important distinction

If what you actually want is something like:

“Brand A reached 42% of our target audience 7 times last month, versus Brand B at 28% × 3”

I'd not expect any third-party competitive-intelligence platform to give you that with the same confidence as your own media-platform data. Competitor audience reach/frequency is inherently estimated.

For an in-house marketing team, I'd therefore look for a tool that gives you estimated impressions + spend + share of voice + creative flighting, and then use your own campaign data to calibrate what those numbers mean.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, and which platforms matter most (Meta/Google/TikTok/YouTube/CTV/etc.), I can narrow this to 2–3 tools and compare likely cost, data quality, and how useful they'd actually be for an in-house team.

Where MediaRadar is interesting

If your definition of “across platforms” includes CTV/TV + digital + social + search + OOH + print, I'd put MediaRadar into the evaluation. It says it monitors 30+ media channels and provides competitor creative volume, channel mix, campaign cadence, spend and share-of-voice data.

So I'd frame the decision this way:

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how much reach/impressions are they getting, and which platforms are they putting pressure on?”, there are a few tools worth looking at.

My shortlist

• Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — probably the one I'd demo first for an established in-house marketing team. It provides estimated spend and impressions, historical trends, creatives, placements, flighting, share of voice, and competitor comparisons across Meta, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, display/video, CTV and more. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

sensortower.com

• Similarweb Ad Intelligence — particularly interesting if you want to combine advertising intelligence with broader web/competitive intelligence. It provides estimated impressions, spend, campaign duration, advertiser activity and channel comparisons. Its current product is expanding social coverage, so I'd verify that its Meta/TikTok coverage meets your exact requirements before buying. Similarweb Similarweb

similarweb.com

• Adsmom — worth a look if you're more interested in competitive ad cadence + creative intelligence than enterprise media-spend analysis. It puts Meta, TikTok, Google and LinkedIn ads into one view and lets you filter by reach, duration and timeframe. It also models spend per ad and provides cross-platform activity/Share-of-Voice views. Adsmom Adsmom

adsmom.com

One important caveat

There isn't really a third-party tool that can tell you a competitor's actual frequency and reach with the same precision that the competitor's own ad account can.

For example, Google itself can report unique reach and average frequency using its own modeled data, including cross-device behavior. Google Help Competitor-intelligence vendors instead use panels, crawlers, publisher/network signals and modeling to estimate impressions, spend and reach. Pathmatics explicitly describes its methodology this way, and Similarweb calls its numbers "Tracked Activity Estimates." Sensor Tower Similarweb

So I'd think of the output as:

“Competitor X appears to be running at this level of advertising pressure”

rather than:

“Competitor X reached exactly 2.4M people at 3.7 frequency.”

What I'd choose for an in-house team

If you're at a mid-market/enterprise brand, I'd start with Pathmatics and Adsmom demos and give them the same test:

Take 5 competitors. Show me their advertising activity for the last 90 days by platform, estimated impressions/reach, frequency or cadence, spend, active ads, creative, and changes week-over-week.

Then see which one gives you data you actually trust.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size/budget, and which platforms matter (Meta/TikTok/Google/YouTube/LinkedIn/CTV/etc.), I can narrow this to 2–3 options and compare coverage, estimated reach/frequency methodology, pricing, and what you'd actually get as an in-house marketer.

Yes. If your specific need is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how much reach/impressions are they generating, and how does that compare across Meta/TikTok/Google/etc.?”, there are a few tools I’d look at—but they serve different levels of sophistication.

My shortlist

1. My first choice: Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

Sensor Tower's Pathmatics is probably closest to what you're describing.

It provides estimated ad spend and impressions, historical trends, creative-level data, placements, share of voice, and competitor comparisons across social, display, video, mobile, OTT/CTV and other channels. Its coverage includes Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and more. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

The particularly useful part for an in-house marketer is that you can look at things like:

• Competitor A launched 47 new creatives this month
• Their estimated impressions increased 35%
• Their share of voice went from 12% → 19%
• They shifted budget toward TikTok/YouTube
• Their campaign has been running for 8 weeks
• These 5 creative concepts account for most of their activity

Pathmatics says its estimates are built from panel data, crawlers, partnerships/integrations and modelling, so treat reach/spend as estimates rather than ground truth. Sensor Tower

Downside: it's enterprise-oriented, so I'd expect a meaningful sales process and budget.

2. The one I'd demo if you're not a huge enterprise: Adsmom

Adsmom is particularly interesting for your use case because it explicitly tries to normalize competitive advertising across Meta, TikTok, Google and LinkedIn.

It reports reach, estimated spend, share of voice, creative cadence, ad longevity and platform mix, and says it tracks 200M+ ads with daily updates. Adsmom Adsmom

The creative cadence metric is actually something I'd pay attention to. Knowing that a competitor launched 5 ads last week versus 50 tells you something different from simply knowing their estimated spend.

One caveat: their cross-platform "reach" is necessarily modelled/normalized because the platforms report fundamentally different metrics. Their own methodology describes converting reach/impression signals using estimated frequency and CPM assumptions. Adsmom

So I'd use it for directional competitive intelligence, not as an accounting-grade measurement of competitor reach.

3. Similarweb if you want the broader picture

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence is another strong option. It covers paid search, display, social and GenAI, and provides competitor campaign, creative, impression and spend intelligence. Similarweb Similarweb

I'd lean toward Similarweb if your competitive analysis extends beyond advertising into:

ads → traffic → search demand → competitor websites → audience behavior.

That's a more comprehensive market-intelligence use case than simply monitoring ad frequency.

What I would actually buy

If I were running an in-house marketing team, I'd narrow it to:

Enterprise / large ad budget:
→ Pathmatics

Mid-market / growth team wanting a straightforward cross-platform view:
→ Adsmom

Marketing intelligence + web traffic/search intelligence:
→ Similarweb

Mostly Google/search advertising:
→ Semrush — its Advertising Research is particularly good for competitor keywords, ads, historical PPC activity and estimated budgets. Semrush Semrush

One important distinction: competitor “frequency” is much harder to know accurately than competitor ad activity. Public ad data generally doesn't expose the actual frequency a competitor's campaign delivers to its audience. Tools infer it from panels, impressions, reach models, observed ad serving, etc. So I'd be skeptical of any vendor presenting competitor frequency/reach as precise fact.

If you tell me your approximate annual paid-media budget, B2B vs. B2C, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + TikTok + Google + LinkedIn), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools worth actually taking demos for, including approximate pricing and what each can/can't measure.

Yes. If your goal is specifically “Which competitors are advertising, how often, on which platforms, and roughly how much reach/impression volume are they getting?”, I’d look at ad-intelligence platforms, not just ad-spy/creative libraries.

My shortlist

• sensortower.com — best overall for an in-house marketing team

• Tracks estimated ad spend and impressions across social, display, video, mobile, and increasingly CTV/retail media.
• Covers Meta, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Reddit and others.
• Lets you look at competitors' creatives, placements, spend, impressions, flighting and historical trends. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower
• Particularly good if you need to produce something like “Competitor X has ~18% share of voice, increased spend 35% MoM, and is running these five creative themes.”
• Downside: it's enterprise-oriented and generally requires a sales conversation/custom pricing.
• similarweb.com — best if you want advertising + broader competitive intelligence

• Covers search, display and social and provides estimated impressions/spend, creatives, publishers and campaign information.
• Useful if your competitive analysis also includes traffic, SEO, keywords and website behavior, rather than advertising alone. Similarweb Similarweb
• I'd favor this over Pathmatics if your role spans paid media + broader market/competitor intelligence.
• AdSpyder — worth evaluating if budget/self-service matters

• Aggregates active ads from 15+ platforms, including Google, Meta, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, Amazon, Reddit and Pinterest. AdSpyder
• More useful for “show me everything Competitor X is currently running” than for rigorous reach measurement.

One important caveat about “frequency”

There's a distinction I'd be careful about when evaluating vendors:

Competitor ad frequency is generally estimated, not observed directly.

The platforms don't give you a competitor's actual Meta frequency or unique reach. Tools such as Pathmatics model impressions using panel data, crawlers, platform integrations and other signals. Sensor Tower

So I'd evaluate a vendor on whether it gives you:

Estimated impressions → estimated reach → estimated frequency → spend → share of voice → creative/placement → trend over time

rather than taking a claimed “frequency” number as ground truth.

What I'd recommend for an in-house marketer

If you're a mid-market/enterprise brand with a meaningful paid-media budget, I'd demo Pathmatics first, and Similarweb second.

I'd ask both vendors to show you the same hypothetical report:

For most in-house teams, the last three are actually more valuable than simply having an “ad spy” database.

For a cheaper/free layer, I'd also use the platform-native tools alongside whichever paid product you choose. For example, TikTok's Creative Center is free and provides Top Ads with performance-oriented filters and analytics. TikTok For Business TikTok For Business

If you tell me your approximate monthly paid-media budget, B2B vs. B2C, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + YouTube), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools and tell you which I'd actually buy.

Yes. I’d shortlist Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics first for an in-house marketing team. It estimates competitor spend and impressions across social, display, video, mobile, and OTT, and supports frequency/flight and share-of-voice analysis. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

• Pathmatics: Best overall for cross-platform competitive media intelligence.
• Similarweb Ad Intelligence: Strong alternative, especially if you also want search, traffic, keywords, and landing-page intelligence. Similarweb Similarweb
• Adbeat: Better if your focus is primarily display/programmatic rather than social. Adbeat

Important caveat: competitor “reach” and frequency are modeled estimates, not their actual platform-reported audience numbers. I’d use them directionally for benchmarking rather than treating them as precise.

If you tell me your channels (Meta/Google/TikTok/CTV/etc.) and approximate company size/budget, I can recommend the best-value option.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, how much reach are they getting, and how does that differ by platform?”, there are a few options—but I’d separate them into enterprise-grade intelligence vs. practical in-house tools.

My top picks

1. Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — best for serious competitive intelligence

Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics is probably the benchmark if you have a meaningful media budget and want a defensible competitive-media view.

It provides estimated spend, impressions, share of voice, creatives, placements, flighting and advertiser comparisons across social, display, video, mobile and OTT/CTV. Its coverage includes Meta, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn and others. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

The particularly useful thing for your use case is that you can look at a competitor's historical activity, rather than simply seeing the ads currently sitting in a public ad library. Pathmatics says its data is based partly on an opt-in panel observing ads actually served to people, with modeling layered on top. Sensor Tower

I'd choose this if: you're an established in-house team doing quarterly/annual media planning, competitive intelligence, or budget justification.

Downside: it's enterprise software and generally requires a sales conversation/demo rather than being a cheap self-serve subscription. Sensor Tower

2. Adsmom — interesting option for an in-house growth team

This is the one I'd demo first if you don't have an enterprise-level budget.

Adsmom pulls competitor ads from Meta, TikTok, Google and LinkedIn into one workspace and provides modeled reach, estimated spend, activity timelines and creative-level data. It also lets you compare brands and filter ads by reach, duration and timeframe. Adsmom Adsmom

What's particularly relevant to your question is that it explicitly models spend from reach/impressions and frequency, and lets users adjust the assumptions around CPM and frequency. Adsmom

That makes it potentially much more useful than a traditional "ad spy" tool if your question is:

"Competitor X has 40 active ads, but how much audience are they actually reaching and how aggressively are they advertising?"

I'd choose this if: you're a one-to-five-person marketing team and want something operational rather than an enormous enterprise research platform.

3. WhatWins — worth looking at for a lighter-weight setup

WhatWins is positioned around cross-channel competitive monitoring, particularly Meta, TikTok, Google, Instagram and YouTube, rather than just giving you a giant creative database. A recent 2026 comparison puts it at $39/month and specifically positions it around live cross-channel competitive signals. What Wins

I'd put it in the "try it alongside Adsmom" bucket rather than immediately committing to it, because the quality of estimated reach/frequency is more important for your use case than simply having lots of ads indexed.

One important caveat about "frequency"

This is the part I'd be careful about.

Actual competitor frequency is generally not publicly observable. Platforms don't give you the competitor's campaign-level frequency in the same way they give you frequency for your own campaigns.

So when a third-party tool says:

Competitor X → 1.8M reach → 3.2 frequency → 5.8M impressions

you should treat that as a modeled estimate, not ground truth.

For example, Adsmom explicitly describes estimating spend by converting reach into impressions using frequency and then applying CPM assumptions. Adsmom Pathmatics similarly describes its numbers as modeled estimates based on observed advertising activity and panel data. Sensor Tower

That doesn't make the data useless. For an in-house marketer, directional accuracy is often enormously valuable:

• Competitor A is spending ~3× Competitor B
• Competitor C has dramatically increased TikTok activity
• Competitor D is maintaining campaigns for 6+ months
• Your category's share of voice is increasing/decreasing
• A competitor is shifting budget from Meta → YouTube/CTV
• Certain competitors are running much higher apparent reach than you

Those are actionable even if the absolute numbers aren't perfect.

What I'd actually buy

One other distinction I'd make: don't buy a tool just because it has "competitor ads." The free Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center can already show you a lot of the raw creative. The premium value you're looking for is estimated spend + reach/impressions + historical activity + platform mix + competitive share of voice.

If you tell me roughly your monthly ad spend, B2B vs. B2C, and which platforms matter most (Meta/TikTok/Google/YouTube/CTV/LinkedIn), I can narrow this to 2–3 tools and tell you which one I'd personally put in the stack.

2. Adsmom — interesting option for an in-house growth team

This is the one I'd demo first if you don't have an enterprise-level budget.

Adsmom pulls competitor ads from Meta, TikTok, Google and LinkedIn into one workspace and provides modeled reach, estimated spend, activity timelines and creative-level data. It also lets you compare brands and filter ads by reach, duration and timeframe. Adsmom Adsmom

What's particularly relevant to your question is that it explicitly models spend from reach/impressions and frequency, and lets users adjust the assumptions around CPM and frequency. Adsmom

That makes it potentially much more useful than a traditional "ad spy" tool if your question is:

"Competitor X has 40 active ads, but how much audience are they actually reaching and how aggressively are they advertising?"

I'd choose this if: you're a one-to-five-person marketing team and want something operational rather than an enormous enterprise research platform.

3. WhatWins — worth looking at for a lighter-weight setup

WhatWins is positioned around cross-channel competitive monitoring, particularly Meta, TikTok, Google, Instagram and YouTube, rather than just giving you a giant creative database. A recent 2026 comparison puts it at $39/month and specifically positions it around live cross-channel competitive signals. What Wins

I'd put it in the "try it alongside Adsmom" bucket rather than immediately committing to it, because the quality of estimated reach/frequency is more important for your use case than simply having lots of ads indexed.

One important caveat about "frequency"

This is the part I'd be careful about.

Actual competitor frequency is generally not publicly observable. Platforms don't give you the competitor's campaign-level frequency in the same way they give you frequency for your own campaigns.

So when a third-party tool says:

Competitor X → 1.8M reach → 3.2 frequency → 5.8M impressions

you should treat that as a modeled estimate, not ground truth.

For example, Adsmom explicitly describes estimating spend by converting reach into impressions using frequency and then applying CPM assumptions. Pathmatics similarly describes its numbers as modeled estimates based on observed advertising activity and panel data.

Yes. If your core question is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how much reach/impressions are they buying, and how does that vary by platform?”, I’d shortlist Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics, Similarweb Ad Intelligence, and MediaRadar.

My recommendation

1. sensortower.com — best fit for an in-house marketer focused on digital competitors

This would be my first demo.

Pathmatics specifically provides estimated ad spend and impressions, historical trends, creative-level data, flighting, and side-by-side competitor comparisons. It covers platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and others, plus display, video and mobile. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

For your use case, I'd want to use it to answer questions like:

• Competitor A ran X estimated impressions last month
• Their estimated frequency/campaign intensity increased substantially in June
• 60% of their digital spend appears to be social vs. 25% video, etc.
• Which competitors are increasing or decreasing pressure
• Which creatives are being run repeatedly and for how long
• How your brand's estimated share of voice compares

Caveat: these are modeled estimates, not competitors' actual platform reporting. Treat reach, impressions, frequency and spend as directional rather than ground truth.

2. similarweb.com — best if you also care about broader digital competitive intelligence

Similarweb is particularly interesting if you want advertising intelligence alongside website traffic, search, audience and competitive digital behavior. Its Ad Intelligence product provides estimated impressions, spend, publishers, creatives and daily updates, and explicitly supports analyzing ad frequency across channels. Similarweb Similarweb

I'd favor this if the question isn't just “how much advertising are they doing?” but rather:

“What is this competitor's overall digital acquisition strategy?”

3. mediaradar.com — best if you need truly cross-media intelligence

MediaRadar is the one I'd investigate if your competitive set includes TV/CTV + digital + social + paid search + OOH/print, rather than purely digital. It says it tracks 30+ media channels and provides competitor spend, channel mix, creative, share of voice and campaign cadence, with daily refreshes. MediaRadar MediaRadar

Its breadth is compelling for an in-house team that needs a single competitive-media view rather than a digital-only tool.

How I'd choose

One important distinction: “frequency” is much harder to estimate reliably than ad spend or creative presence. Don't buy a tool simply because the demo shows a very precise-looking frequency number. Ask the vendor exactly how frequency is modeled, what its geographic granularity is, whether it distinguishes campaign-level from user-level frequency, and how it validates impression estimates.

What I'd ask for in the demo

I'd give each vendor 5–10 of your actual competitors and ask them to produce the same report:

• Estimated reach
• Estimated impressions
• Estimated frequency
• Estimated spend
• Spend/impressions by platform
• Weekly/monthly trend
• Share of voice
• Number of active creatives
• Creative flight length
• Top campaigns/ads
• Geographic breakdown
• Historical data going back 12–24 months

Then compare the actual numbers they can show for your category, rather than generic platform demos.

For an in-house marketer, I'd start with Pathmatics and MediaRadar, with Similarweb as the third demo. Pathmatics looks closest to your specific “competitor frequency + estimated reach across platforms” requirement, while MediaRadar is the stronger contender if you need the analysis to extend beyond digital. Sensor Tower MediaRadar

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, and the platforms you care about (Meta/Google/TikTok/YouTube/CTV/etc.), I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and give you a rough pricing/ROI comparison.

MediaRadar is the one I'd investigate if your competitive set includes TV/CTV + digital + social + paid search + OOH/print, rather than purely digital. It says it tracks 30+ media channels and provides competitor spend, channel mix, creative, share of voice and campaign cadence, with daily refreshes. MediaRadar MediaRadar

Its breadth is compelling for an in-house team that needs a single competitive-media view rather than a digital-only tool.

How I'd choose

One important distinction: “frequency” is much harder to estimate reliably than ad spend or creative presence. Don't buy a tool simply because the demo shows a very precise-looking frequency number. Ask the vendor exactly how frequency is modeled, what its geographic granularity is, whether it distinguishes campaign-level from user-level frequency, and how it validates impression estimates.

What I'd ask for in the demo

I'd give each vendor 5–10 of your actual competitors and ask them to produce the same report:

• Estimated reach
• Estimated impressions
• Estimated frequency
• Estimated spend
• Spend/impressions by platform
• Weekly/monthly trend
• Share of voice
• Number of active creatives
• Creative flight length
• Top campaigns/ads
• Geographic breakdown
• Historical data going back 12–24 months

Then compare the actual numbers they can show for your category, rather than generic platform demos.

For an in-house marketer, I'd start with Pathmatics and MediaRadar, with Similarweb as the third demo. Pathmatics looks closest to your specific “competitor frequency + estimated reach across platforms” requirement, while MediaRadar is the stronger contender if you need the analysis to extend beyond digital.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, how much reach/impression volume are they getting, and where are they putting their money?”, I’d put Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics at the top of the list for an in-house marketing team.

My shortlist

Why I like Pathmatics: it specifically estimates spend and impressions, tracks actual creatives, flighting, placements and audience information, and lets you compare competitors and channels side-by-side. Its current coverage includes Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, display/video, mobile, OTT/CTV and programmatic, among others. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

That makes it particularly useful for answering questions like:

• “Is Competitor A actually spending more than us?”
• “How aggressively are they advertising this quarter?”
• “Are they always-on or pulsing around launches?”
• “What's their estimated impression volume?”
• “Which channels are responsible for most of their visibility?”
• “Which creatives have been running for months?”
• “What's our share of voice versus the top 5 competitors?”

One caveat: competitor reach/frequency is modeled, not their actual platform reporting. Pathmatics combines panel data, crawlers, integrations and modeling to estimate spend/impressions. So I'd use the numbers directionally—especially for relative competitive pressure—rather than treating “Competitor X reached 4.2M people” as ground truth. Sensor Tower

Where Similarweb gets interesting

similarweb.com is probably the other tool I'd demo.

It has a nice cross-channel view of competitors' paid activity, including impressions, spend, campaign duration, publishers and campaign reach. Its data is updated daily, and Similarweb explicitly describes its impression/spend numbers as estimates based on its traffic data and modeling. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb Knowledge Center

I'd lean Similarweb if your team wants competitor advertising intelligence alongside website traffic, search behavior, keywords, referrals, etc. I'd lean Pathmatics if media intelligence itself is the primary job.

One important distinction

If by “frequency” you mean actual average frequency = impressions ÷ unique people reached, I'd specifically ask vendors to demonstrate this during a sales demo.

A lot of competitive-intelligence platforms can give you estimated impressions, spend, ad volume, flighting and “reach” signals, but that isn't necessarily equivalent to the platform-level unique reach + frequency you get inside your own Meta/Google/TikTok accounts.

For an in-house marketer, I'd therefore score vendors on:

1. Estimated impressions
2. Estimated unique reach
3. Estimated frequency
4. Spend
5. Share of voice
6. Platform/channel breakdown
7. Creative-level flighting
8. Historical trends
9. Geographic granularity
10. Ability to export data

If you tell me your company size, B2B vs. B2C, approximate ad spend, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + CTV), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools and tell you which one I'd actually buy.

It has a nice cross-channel view of competitors' paid activity, including impressions, spend, campaign duration, publishers and campaign reach. Its data is updated daily, and Similarweb explicitly describes its impression/spend numbers as estimates based on its traffic data and modeling. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb Knowledge Center

I'd lean Similarweb if your team wants competitor advertising intelligence alongside website traffic, search behavior, keywords, referrals, etc. I'd lean Pathmatics if media intelligence itself is the primary job.

One important distinction

If by “frequency” you mean actual average frequency = impressions ÷ unique people reached, I'd specifically ask vendors to demonstrate this during a sales demo.

A lot of competitive-intelligence platforms can give you estimated impressions, spend, ad volume, flighting and “reach” signals, but that isn't necessarily equivalent to the platform-level unique reach + frequency you get inside your own Meta/Google/TikTok accounts.

For an in-house marketer, I'd therefore score vendors on:

1. Estimated impressions
2. Estimated unique reach
3. Estimated frequency
4. Spend
5. Share of voice
6. Platform/channel breakdown
7. Creative-level flighting
8. Historical trends
9. Geographic granularity
10. Ability to export data

If you tell me your company size, B2B vs. B2C, approximate ad spend, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + CTV), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools and tell you which one I'd actually buy.

Yes. If your specific need is “How heavily are my competitors advertising, across which platforms, and roughly how many people/impressions are they reaching?”, I’d look at Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics first.

My shortlist

• Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — best overall for an in-house marketing team.

Pathmatics estimates ad spend and impressions, tracks social/display/video/mobile, and lets you compare competitors by spend, share of voice, creatives, placements and geography. It covers Meta, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn and others, plus CTV/OTT. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower
Best for: “Are we being outspent? Where? How much? What is our share of voice?”
Downside: It's an enterprise-oriented product with custom pricing.

• Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best if you also care about traffic/search intelligence.

Similarweb now provides cross-channel advertising intelligence with estimated spend, impressions and visits, plus competitor creatives, publishers, campaigns and frequency. Its advertiser activity data is updated daily. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb Knowledge Center
Best for: connecting competitor advertising → website traffic → search/display strategy.

• Adbeat — best for display/programmatic competitive intelligence.

It's particularly strong for seeing competitors' display ads, publishers, networks, landing pages and estimated spend/share of voice. Adbeat
Best for: B2B, publishers, programmatic/display-heavy businesses.
Not my first choice if Meta/TikTok are central to your competitive analysis.

• Adsmom — interesting newer/self-serve option.

It claims coverage of Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn and provides reach, estimated spend, share of voice, creative and activity timelines in one interface. Adsmom
I'd test the underlying data against a known competitor before making it your source of truth.

One important caveat about “frequency”

There's a distinction between observable ad frequency and modeled frequency.

Competitor tools generally can't know with certainty that “Brand X showed this ad to the average person 4.7 times.” They don't have access to the competitor's private ad-account delivery data. Instead, platforms like Pathmatics use panel data, crawlers and modeling to estimate impressions/spend. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

So I'd treat the numbers as directional competitive benchmarks, not audited media metrics.

What I'd buy for an in-house team

If I were building a competitive-intelligence stack today:

Pathmatics + the native ad libraries.

Pathmatics gives you the modeled quantitative layer:

Competitor A: ~2.5× our estimated impressions, heavy TikTok/YouTube investment, increasing spend 35% QoQ.

Then use the free native libraries for the actual creative evidence:

• Meta Ad Library
• Google Ads Transparency Center
• TikTok Creative Center/Ad Library
• LinkedIn Ad Library

That combination lets you answer both “How much are they advertising?” and “What exactly are they saying?”

If you tell me your company type (B2B/B2C), approximate marketing budget, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + LinkedIn), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools I'd actually demo, including which ones are likely overkill for an in-house team.

• Meta Ad Library
• Google Ads Transparency Center
• TikTok Creative Center/Ad Library
• LinkedIn Ad Library

That combination lets you answer both “How much are they advertising?” and “What exactly are they saying?”

If you tell me your company type (B2B/B2C), approximate marketing budget, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + LinkedIn), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools I'd actually demo, including which ones are likely overkill for an in-house team.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, how much reach/impressions are they likely getting, and how does that compare across platforms?”, I’d look first at sensortower.com.

My shortlist

• sensortower.com — best overall for your use case.

It provides estimated ad spend and impressions, competitive comparisons, share of voice, creative-level data, and coverage across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and other digital channels. Its data also includes flighting and historical trends. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower
Best for: an in-house marketing/strategy team that wants to quantify how aggressively competitors are actually advertising.

• mediaradar.com — best if you need truly cross-media intelligence.

It goes beyond digital into CTV/TV, streaming, paid search, social, display, programmatic, YouTube, print and OOH, with competitor spend, channel mix, creative cadence and share-of-voice benchmarking. MediaRadar MediaRadar
Best for: brands where you want one competitive view across the entire media mix, not just digital.

One important caveat

I would not treat competitor “reach” or “frequency” as ground truth. These products are estimating what competitors are spending and how many impressions they're generating. That's extremely useful for relative benchmarking—e.g., “Competitor A appears to be running 3× our digital impression volume”—but it's different from having the competitor's actual Meta/Google campaign reporting.

For frequency specifically, I'd ask the sales team for a demo showing the exact metric you're interested in. MediaRadar, for example, explicitly describes frequency context for TV spots and creative/campaign cadence, while Pathmatics emphasizes estimated impressions and spend. MediaRadar Sensor Tower

What I'd choose

If I were an in-house marketer, I'd probably evaluate them in this order:

1. Pathmatics — if digital/social competitive intelligence is the priority.
2. MediaRadar — if you need digital + TV/CTV + OOH + print in one competitive dashboard.
3. Native ad libraries — as a free supplement for validating the actual creative competitors are running.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, and whether you care more about Meta/Instagram, Google/YouTube, TikTok, CTV, or all of them, I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools and give you a realistic sense of pricing, data quality, and which one I'd buy for an in-house team.

If I were an in-house marketer, I'd probably evaluate them in this order:

Yes. If your goal is specifically “How often are my competitors advertising, how much reach/impression volume are they getting, and across which platforms?”, I’d put Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics at the top of the shortlist.

My recommendation

1. sensortower.com — best overall for an in-house marketer

Pathmatics is probably the closest match to what you described. It provides estimated ad spend and impressions, historical trends, actual creatives, flighting, audience/targeting information, and competitor comparisons. Its coverage includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, display/video, mobile, OTT/CTV and more. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

The particularly useful part for your question is that you can look at a competitor and essentially ask:

• How much are they spending?
• How many impressions are they generating?
• Which platforms are they using?
• How aggressively are they advertising over time?
• Which creatives are they running?
• How does their share of voice compare with ours?
• When do they ramp up or go dark?

One caveat: these are modeled estimates, not the competitor's actual platform-reported reach/frequency. That's important when interpreting the numbers.

2. similarweb.com — best if you want broader competitive intelligence

I'd seriously consider Similarweb if you're an in-house marketer who wants advertising intelligence plus broader competitive/traffic analysis.

Its Ad Intelligence covers paid search, display, social and other formats, with competitor spend, impressions, campaigns, creatives and channel comparisons. Its Advertiser Activity product specifically lets you track ad-volume trends and campaign bursts. Similarweb Similarweb

I'd choose Similarweb if your questions are more like:

“Why is Competitor X gaining share, and is their paid media strategy responsible?”

rather than simply:

“How many ads is Competitor X running?”

3. adbeat.com — excellent, but more display-centric

Adbeat is very good for digging into display advertising, publishers, networks, creatives, landing pages and estimated spend. It also supports competitive comparisons and historical spend trends. Adbeat Adbeat

I'd put it behind Pathmatics for your use case because you specifically said across platforms. Pathmatics has the broader social/video/CTV footprint.

What I'd actually buy

For an in-house marketing team, I'd demo Pathmatics and Similarweb side-by-side. Those are the two I'd spend procurement time on.

One important distinction: “reach” and “frequency” are harder to estimate reliably than spend/impressions. Most competitive-intelligence platforms are modeling what they can observe rather than accessing the competitor's actual Meta/Google/TikTok campaign dashboards. Similarweb, for example, explicitly describes its numbers as tracked activity estimates, not total media spend. Similarweb

If you tell me your industry, approximate annual ad spend, and which platforms you care about (Meta/Google/TikTok/YouTube/CTV/etc.), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools that are actually worth paying for, including cheaper options.

Yes. If you’re an in-house marketer and specifically want competitor ad frequency + estimated reach/impressions across platforms, I’d shortlist these:

My top pick: Pathmatics by Sensor Tower

Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics is probably the closest match to what you’re describing.

sensortower.com

It gives you estimated ad spend and impressions, historical trends, actual creatives, flighting, placements, and competitor comparisons across social, display, video and mobile. Its current platform coverage includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Snapchat, LinkedIn and others. Sensor Tower

For an in-house team, I'd use it to answer questions like:

• How aggressively is Competitor A advertising?
• How many estimated impressions are they generating?
• Which platforms are they concentrating on?
• Are they increasing or decreasing activity?
• Which creative concepts are they running repeatedly?
• How long are particular campaigns/creatives in market?
• How does our share of voice compare with theirs?
• Are they much more active during particular seasons/events?

The big caveat: "reach" and "frequency" are generally modeled estimates, not the competitor's actual Meta/Google campaign reporting. That's important when evaluating vendors.

Strong alternative: Similarweb Ad Intelligence

similarweb.com is particularly interesting if you want advertising intelligence plus broader competitive/traffic intelligence.

It provides estimated spend, impressions, campaign duration, publishers and performance-over-time data, and lets you compare competitors. Similarweb Similarweb

One wrinkle: Similarweb's social coverage is still rolling out. Its documentation currently says display/search are available and social is coming, beginning with Meta. Similarweb So I wouldn't choose it over Pathmatics if cross-platform social advertising is your primary requirement today.

Adbeat

adbeat.com is very good if your focus is display/native advertising, particularly understanding publishers, ad networks, creatives and competitor media buying. It also offers estimated spend, share-of-voice comparisons and alerts. Adbeat

But I'd put it behind Pathmatics for your particular use case because you're asking about cross-platform competitor advertising.

How I'd rank them for an in-house marketer

One important distinction: if by "frequency" you mean actual estimated times a person sees an ad, rather than simply how often/for how long a competitor is running ads, I'd specifically test this with the vendors before buying. Most competitive-intelligence platforms can model impressions, spend, flighting and ad activity, but they don't have access to a competitor's actual platform-level frequency report.

For an in-house marketing team, I'd start with a Pathmatics demo and ask them to show you a real competitor in your category—not a canned demo. Have them demonstrate 30/60/90-day impressions, estimated reach/frequency, spend, platform mix, creative-level impressions, and historical changes. That will tell you very quickly whether the estimates are actually useful for your planning.

If you tell me B2B vs. B2C, your approximate annual ad spend, and which platforms matter most (Meta/Google/TikTok/YouTube/LinkedIn/etc.), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and what I'd expect to pay.

Yes. If your goal is specifically “How often are competitors advertising, how much reach/impressions are they likely getting, and how does that compare across platforms?”, there are a few tools worth looking at.

My shortlist

What I'd recommend

If you're an in-house marketer and don't have a huge enterprise research budget, I'd demo Adsmom and Similarweb first.

Adsmom is unusually close to what you're describing: it says it provides reach and frequency estimates, estimated spend, activity timelines, daily changes, creative tracking and share of voice across Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn. Adsmom

If you're at a larger organization and this will become a serious competitive-intelligence function, I'd put Pathmatics at the top of the list. It provides estimated spend and impressions, historical trends, creative-level data and competitive comparisons across social, display, video and mobile, with coverage including Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and others. Sensor Tower

Similarweb is probably the most interesting middle ground if you also want competitor websites, traffic and broader marketing intelligence alongside ads. Its Ad Intelligence product models impressions and spend, tracks campaign duration, and lets you compare advertisers and investment trends. Similarweb

One important caveat

Don't treat competitor frequency or reach estimates as ground truth. Competitors' actual platform-level frequency, unique reach and spend generally aren't publicly available. These products infer them from observed ads, panels, traffic data, modeled CPMs, etc. For example, Similarweb explicitly says its impression/spend estimates are modeled from traffic data, CPM and CTR. Similarweb

So I'd use the data primarily for relative competitive intelligence:

“Competitor A is advertising substantially more heavily than us on Meta, has been running this creative for 8 weeks, and appears to be increasing investment.”

rather than:

“Competitor A reached exactly 4.27M people at 3.2 frequency.”

If you tell me your approximate company size, B2B vs. B2C, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + LinkedIn), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually buy and what each costs.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how much reach/impressions are they buying, and where?”, I’d look at Pathmatics by Sensor Tower first.

My shortlist

• sensortower.com — best overall for an in-house marketer

• Estimates ad spend and impressions by competitor.
• Covers social, display, video and mobile, including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit and others.
• Lets you see flight dates, creative, placements, spend/impressions, channel mix and share of voice. Sensor Tower
• This is probably the closest match to your request for competitor frequency + estimated reach across platforms.
• Downside: it's positioned as an enterprise product, so expect sales-led/custom pricing.
• similarweb.com — best if you want broader competitive intelligence

• Tracks competitor activity across search, display and social and provides estimated impressions, spend and visits.
• Particularly useful if you want to connect ad activity to website traffic, search behavior and overall market intelligence. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb Knowledge Center
• An interesting recent addition: Similarweb launched visibility into ads appearing in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews in August 2026. Similarweb
• I'd choose this over Pathmatics if your role encompasses broader digital competitive intelligence rather than primarily media intelligence.
• adbeat.com — good for display/native, less ideal for your exact need

• Strong at seeing competitor creatives, publishers, networks, landing pages, flight dates and estimated spend.
• Particularly good for understanding where competitors are buying inventory and which creatives they're running for long periods. Adbeat Adbeat
• But it's more display-centric, so I wouldn't make it my first choice for a true cross-platform view.

One important caveat

“Frequency” and “reach” are generally modeled estimates, not the competitor's actual Meta/Google campaign reporting. For example, Similarweb explicitly describes its numbers as tracked activity estimates, based on multiple data sources and modeling—not the advertiser's total media spend. Similarweb Knowledge Center

So I'd think about the outputs like this:

My recommendation: if you have budget for an enterprise tool, demo Pathmatics and Similarweb side-by-side. Ask each vendor to take 3–5 of your actual competitors and show you monthly spend, impressions, estimated reach/frequency, channel mix, creative flighting and historical trends. That's a much better test than a generic product demo.

If you tell me roughly your company size, B2B vs. B2C, and which platforms matter most (Meta/Google/YouTube/TikTok/LinkedIn/etc.), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and give you a realistic sense of pricing.

Yes. For an in-house marketer, I’d look at ad intelligence platforms rather than generic competitive research tools. The right choice depends on whether you care most about paid social, display/programmatic, search, CTV, or overall share of voice.

Here are the ones I’d shortlist:

If I were choosing for an in-house marketing team:

Enterprise brand / CMO reporting
→ Pathmatics by Sensor Tower
You’ll get the closest thing to “How aggressively is a competitor advertising?” with estimated impressions, spend, creative volume, and channel comparisons. Sensor Tower

Growth marketing team that also owns SEO, PPC, and competitive strategy
→ Similarweb
It’s more of a marketing intelligence hub; the ad product can show competitor paid activity trends and estimated impressions/spend, while the broader platform helps connect that to traffic and market movement. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb Knowledge Center

Smaller in-house team with limited budget
→ Start with:

• Meta Ad Library
• Google Ads Transparency Center
• Similarweb free/entry products
• Manual creative tracking (monthly competitor swipe file)

One caution

No tool can truly know a competitor’s exact frequency (e.g., “the average person saw this ad 4.7 times”) because platforms do not expose that data publicly. These tools estimate based on panels, observed placements, publisher/network data, and modeling. Treat them as directional benchmarks rather than audited media numbers. Sensor Tower Similarweb Knowledge Center

If you tell me your category (B2B SaaS, ecommerce, CPG, finance, etc.), ad channels (Meta/Google/CTV/TikTok), and approximate company size, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools that are actually worth paying for.

Smaller in-house team with limited budget
→ Start with:

• Meta Ad Library
• Google Ads Transparency Center
• Similarweb free/entry products
• Manual creative tracking (monthly competitor swipe file)

One caution

Yes. If your specific need is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how many people are they reaching, and where are they putting the money?”, I’d shortlist these:

My pick: Sensor Tower Pathmatics

Sensor Tower's Pathmatics is probably the closest match to what you're describing. It provides estimated ad spend and impressions, lets you compare competitors side-by-side, and shows creative, audience, targeting, placement and flighting information. Its coverage includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and other digital channels, plus CTV/OTT and programmatic. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

sensortower.com

The particularly useful distinction is that Pathmatics isn't just an ad library. It attempts to quantify how much advertising pressure a competitor is putting into the market. That's much closer to answering:

“Competitor X has been running 35 creatives, generating an estimated 18M impressions, with particularly heavy activity on Meta and YouTube.”

rather than simply:

“Here are the ads Competitor X is running.”

When I'd choose MediaRadar instead

MediaRadar is arguably better if your competitive analysis needs to extend beyond digital. It covers 30+ media channels, including social, search, digital/display, programmatic, CTV/OTT, TV, print and OOH, and provides competitor spend, channel mix, creative volume, campaign cadence and share-of-voice benchmarking. MediaRadar MediaRadar

mediaradar.com

So I'd think of it this way:

• Mostly digital/social + want impressions/reach estimates → Pathmatics
• You want the entire media landscape, including TV/CTV/OOH → MediaRadar
• Mostly web/search/display competitive intelligence → Similarweb

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence can compare competitors' paid strategy across search, display and social, including impressions, spend, publishers and ad frequency. Similarweb Similarweb

similarweb.com

One important caveat

I'd treat estimated reach/frequency as directional competitive intelligence, not ground truth. These companies use modeled/panel/observed ad data rather than having access to competitors' actual Meta/Google campaign reporting. Pathmatics, for example, describes its methodology as collecting ads served to opted-in panel users and using that data to model the broader market. Sensor Tower

If you're an in-house marketing team deciding whether to spend $X on one of these, I'd actually do a trial/demo with your 5–10 closest competitors and ask each vendor to show you:

1. Estimated impressions/reach by competitor
2. Frequency or ad exposure over time
3. Spend estimates by platform
4. Share of voice
5. Creative volume and new-creative cadence
6. Meta vs. YouTube vs. TikTok vs. display vs. CTV
7. Historical trends (ideally 12–24 months)
8. How granular the geographic/audience breakdowns are
9. Export/API capabilities
10. Exactly how their reach and impression estimates are calculated

That demo will tell you much more than a generic feature comparison. For the use case you described, I'd start with Pathmatics and MediaRadar head-to-head.

I'd treat estimated reach/frequency as directional competitive intelligence, not ground truth. These companies use modeled/panel/observed ad data rather than having access to competitors' actual Meta/Google campaign reporting. Pathmatics, for example, describes its methodology as collecting ads served to opted-in panel users and using that data to model the broader market.

“Competitor X has been running 35 creatives, generating an estimated 18M impressions, with particularly heavy activity on Meta and YouTube.”

rather than simply:

“Here are the ads Competitor X is running.”

When I'd choose MediaRadar instead

MediaRadar is arguably better if your competitive analysis needs to extend beyond digital. It covers 30+ media channels, including social, search, digital/display, programmatic, CTV/OTT, TV, print and OOH, and provides competitor spend, channel mix, creative volume, campaign cadence and share-of-voice benchmarking.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, where are they advertising, and roughly how many people/impressions are they reaching?”, there are a few serious options. For an in-house marketing team, I’d shortlist these:

My top pick: sensortower.com

This is probably the closest match to what you're describing.

Pathmatics provides estimated ad spend, impressions, share of voice, creative activity, placements, and flighting across social, display, video, mobile and OTT/CTV. It covers platforms including Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and others. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

For example, you could look at a competitor and ask:

• How much are they estimated to be spending?
• How many impressions are they generating?
• Which platforms are driving their media mix?
• When did their campaign start/end?
• Which creatives are they running?
• How does their share of voice compare with ours?
• Are they increasing or decreasing activity month over month?

The important caveat: competitor reach/frequency isn't directly observable the way your own Meta/Google campaign data is. These products are modeled estimates based on panels, ad observations and other data sources. Sensor Tower explicitly describes Pathmatics' methodology as incorporating first-party panel data and modeling. Sensor Tower

Strong alternative: mediaradar.com

I'd seriously consider MediaRadar if you're interested in broader cross-media competitive intelligence, rather than primarily digital.

It tracks competitor advertising across 30+ channels, including digital, CTV, paid search, social, print, OOH and more, with daily-refreshed competitive data. It specifically advertises tracking creative volume, campaign cadence, channel mix and share of voice. MediaRadar MediaRadar

That makes it particularly interesting if your competitors are spending meaningfully on TV/CTV + digital + OOH, where a purely digital tool can leave gaps.

Worth looking at: similarweb.com

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence is more compelling if your team already uses Similarweb for web traffic/market intelligence.

It covers search, display and social, with competitor campaigns, creatives, publishers, estimated impressions and spend. Their methodology includes ad collection plus modeling of impressions and spend, with data refreshed daily. Similarweb Similarweb

I see it as especially useful if you want to connect:

competitor ads → traffic → search demand → website behavior

rather than treating ad intelligence as a standalone function.

How I'd choose

One distinction I'd make before buying: “frequency” and “reach” are often not the same thing as what you get in your own ad platforms. Competitive-intelligence vendors generally estimate impressions/reach/frequency rather than having access to the competitor's actual campaign reporting.

If you tell me your industry, approximate annual paid-media budget, and which platforms matter most (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + CTV), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 tools for an in-house team and give you a rough idea of pricing/ROI and what each one actually lets you see.

Yes. If your specific question is “How often are my competitors advertising, roughly how many impressions/reach are they generating, and how does that compare across platforms?”, there are a few serious options.

My shortlist

1. Pathmatics — probably the one I'd demo first

Pathmatics is particularly well aligned with what you're describing. It estimates ad spend and impressions, lets you examine historical trends, and shows creative-level information including spend, impressions, flighting, placements and audience information. It covers Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, display/video, mobile and CTV, among others. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

The useful thing for an in-house marketer is that you can get beyond “Competitor X is running Meta ads” to something closer to:

Competitor X increased paid-social investment 35% → launched 12 new creatives → estimated impressions increased → campaign has been running for 6 weeks → Instagram is carrying most of the activity.

That's much more actionable for planning.

sensortower.com

2. MediaRadar — I'd pick this if you want the broadest media picture

MediaRadar is compelling if your competitive analysis extends beyond purely digital. It monitors digital, social, search, CTV, video, print and OOH, with competitor spend, creative, channel mix and campaign changes. It also specifically advertises creative-level frequency and daily refreshed competitive data. MediaRadar MediaRadar

So if you're trying to answer:

“How aggressively is Nike advertising relative to Adidas across the whole media ecosystem?”

I'd investigate MediaRadar.

mediaradar.com

3. Similarweb — good if you already have it

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence provides estimates for spend, impressions and visits, and lets you examine competitors across search, display and social. Its advertiser-activity product is designed specifically around comparing competitive advertising intensity and campaign bursts. Similarweb Similarweb

The big caveat is important: these are estimates of observable/tracked activity, not the competitor's actual media numbers. That's true of this entire category. Similarweb

similarweb.com

One important distinction: reach vs. impressions

I'd be careful when a vendor says “estimated reach.”

Impressions are considerably easier to estimate from competitive ad-intelligence data. Unique reach/frequency is much harder because the vendor generally doesn't have the platform's complete user-level delivery data.

For an in-house team, I'd prioritize a tool that gives you:

• Estimated impressions
• Estimated spend
• Ad/creative count
• Flight dates and campaign cadence
• Platform/channel mix
• Share of voice
• Historical trends
• Creative-level spend/impressions
• Geography
• Audience/placement information
• Ideally frequency or exposure estimates

Then use your own platform data for actual reach/frequency when you're evaluating your campaigns.

What I'd do in your position

I'd demo Pathmatics and MediaRadar side-by-side, using 5–10 of your actual competitors and asking each vendor to answer the same questions.

For example:

1. How many estimated impressions did Competitor A generate last month?
2. How frequently did their creative appear?
3. What percentage was Meta vs. YouTube vs. TikTok vs. display?
4. Which competitors increased spend fastest?
5. Which creatives have been running longest?
6. Can I see estimated reach/frequency, or only impressions?
7. How accurate are estimates at the brand + platform + geography level?
8. Can I export the data into Excel/BI?
9. How far back does historical data go?

If your world is primarily paid social/digital, I'd start with Pathmatics. If you're responsible for a broader brand/media budget including CTV, TV, OOH, etc., I'd lean MediaRadar.

If you tell me your industry, approximate annual media spend, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + TikTok + Google + YouTube + CTV), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually shortlist and explain what each is likely to cost.

If you tell me your industry, approximate annual media spend, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + TikTok + Google + YouTube + CTV), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually shortlist and explain what each is likely to cost.

2. MediaRadar — I'd pick this if you want the broadest media picture

MediaRadar is compelling if your competitive analysis extends beyond purely digital. It monitors digital, social, search, CTV, video, print and OOH, with competitor spend, creative, channel mix and campaign changes. It also specifically advertises creative-level frequency and daily refreshed competitive data. MediaRadar MediaRadar

So if you're trying to answer:

“How aggressively is Nike advertising relative to Adidas across the whole media ecosystem?”

I'd investigate MediaRadar.

mediaradar.com

3. Similarweb — good if you already have it

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence provides estimates for spend, impressions and visits, and lets you examine competitors across search, display and social. Its advertiser-activity product is designed specifically around comparing competitive advertising intensity and campaign bursts. support.similarweb.com support.similarweb.com

The big caveat is important: these are estimates of observable/tracked activity, not the competitor's actual media numbers. That's true of this entire category.

Yes. If your goal is “What are my competitors running, how often are they showing up, and roughly how much audience/impression volume are they getting across platforms?”, I’d shortlist a few tools—but Sensor Tower’s Pathmatics would be my first look for an in-house marketer.

My recommendation

1. sensortower.com — best overall for competitive ad intelligence

Pathmatics is specifically built around competitive advertising. It provides estimated ad spend and impressions, historical trends, actual creatives, flighting, and channel/platform breakdowns. Its coverage includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, OTT, display, video and more. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

For an in-house team, I'd particularly like it for questions such as:

• “Has Competitor A increased its advertising pressure over the last 90 days?”
• “Which competitors are spending most heavily on Meta vs. YouTube vs. TikTok?”
• “How many impressions are they estimated to generate?”
• “Are they running continuously or in bursts?”
• “Which creatives/messages are they putting the most weight behind?”
• “What's our share of voice relative to the category?”

It also lets you compare advertisers side-by-side and analyze historical spend/impression trends. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

Important caveat: competitor reach and frequency are modeled estimates, not the platforms' actual first-party reach/frequency data. I'd treat them as directional competitive benchmarks rather than absolute truth.

2. similarweb.com — best if you want broader competitive intelligence

Similarweb is attractive if you want ad intelligence + broader competitor/site/search intelligence in the same ecosystem.

Its Ad Intelligence currently covers search, display and social, with estimated spend, impressions, campaign duration, ad volume and publisher coverage. Similarweb Similarweb

One wrinkle: Similarweb says its Social coverage is still expanding, with Meta coming first, so I'd specifically verify that the platforms you care about are covered sufficiently before buying. Similarweb

How I'd choose

Sensor Tower's Audience Insights can complement Pathmatics by showing competitor audience characteristics, ad exposure and audience overlap—useful if your real question is “Who are they reaching?” rather than merely “How many impressions are they buying?” Sensor Tower

One thing I'd be careful about

No third-party tool can reliably tell you exact competitor frequency across all platforms. Meta, TikTok, Google, etc. don't expose competitors' campaign-level first-party reach/frequency to you.

So I'd structure the competitive dashboard around:

Estimated spend → estimated impressions → estimated reach → implied frequency → platform mix → creative volume → flighting

rather than treating any single “frequency” number as ground truth.

If I were an in-house marketer and had budget for one tool, I'd demo Pathmatics first. It's closest to the specific job you're describing. If you tell me your industry, B2B/B2C, approximate ad budget, and which platforms matter (Meta/TikTok/YouTube/Google/CTV/etc.), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools and tell you which one I'd actually buy.

Yes. If your specific need is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how much reach/impression volume are they generating, and which platforms are they using?”, I’d shortlist these:

My top pick: Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

sensortower.com is probably the closest fit for an in-house marketing team wanting cross-platform competitive ad intelligence.

It provides estimated:

• Impressions and ad spend
• Share of voice
• Platform/channel mix
• Historical advertising activity and seasonality
• Individual creatives and how long they're running
• Competitor comparisons
• Social, display, video, mobile and increasingly CTV/OTT and retail media coverage

It specifically covers platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit and others. Sensor Tower

The important caveat: competitor “reach” and “frequency” are estimates, not the actual numbers from the competitor's ad accounts. I'd treat them as directional intelligence rather than measurement-grade media reporting.

A strong alternative: Similarweb Ad Intelligence

similarweb.com is particularly attractive if you want to combine competitor advertising with broader web/traffic intelligence.

It lets you compare competitor activity across paid channels and look at things such as ad volume, impressions, spend, publishers and campaign bursts. Similarweb Similarweb

I'd lean toward Similarweb if your questions are more like:

“Competitor X suddenly increased advertising — where did they put the money, and did it coincide with increased traffic?”

Whereas Pathmatics is stronger for:

“How much are these five competitors advertising, on which platforms, with what creatives, and how has that changed over the last 12 months?”

One distinction I'd make

If by frequency you literally mean:

“Competitor X is reaching the same consumer an estimated 4.2 times per month”

I'd be cautious. Most competitive-intelligence platforms are better at ad impressions / estimated spend / share of voice / ad volume than giving you a truly reliable cross-platform deduplicated frequency figure.

For example, Pathmatics reports impression estimates and share of voice across channels, while Sensor Tower's Audience Insights can add information about competitor audiences and ad exposure. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

What I'd buy as an in-house marketer

If I were putting one tool on the procurement shortlist, I'd demo Pathmatics first. It appears to be the closest match to what you've described, particularly if you're responsible for competitive intelligence, media planning, or budget decisions in-house. Sensor Tower says Pathmatics provides ad spend and impression estimates across key markets and platforms, along with creative-level, campaign and competitive benchmarking data. Sensor Tower

If you tell me B2B vs B2C, your main platforms (Meta/Google/TikTok/YouTube/CTV etc.), and roughly your company size/budget, I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools and give you an approximate price/feature comparison.

Yes. If your specific need is “What are competitors spending, how often are they showing ads, and roughly how much audience are they reaching across platforms?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. Pathmatics — probably the closest match

sensortower.com

Pathmatics is specifically built around competitive advertising intelligence. It provides estimated ad spend and impressions, historical trends, creative-level data, flighting, placements, and side-by-side competitor comparisons. Its coverage includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and other digital environments. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

For an in-house marketer, I'd particularly like it for questions such as:

• “Is Competitor A actually increasing paid social?”
• “How much more media pressure are they putting behind this product launch?”
• “Which competitors have the highest estimated impressions?”
• “How long are their campaigns running?”
• “Which creatives are being pushed hardest?”
• “Are they shifting budget from Meta to YouTube/CTV?”
• “What does our share of voice look like versus the category?”

One important caveat: estimated impressions/reach are modeled, not the competitors' first-party platform reporting. So I'd use the numbers directionally rather than treating “Competitor X reached 4.2M people” as ground truth.

2. MediaRadar — my pick if you're truly cross-media

mediaradar.com

MediaRadar is particularly compelling if your definition of “across platforms” includes digital + social + search + programmatic + CTV/OTT + linear TV + print/OOH. It says it tracks 30+ media channels and provides competitive spend, channel mix, creative, share-of-voice and frequency-related data. MediaRadar MediaRadar

I'd lean toward MediaRadar over Pathmatics if you're a brand where TV/CTV is a meaningful part of the competitive landscape.

3. Similarweb — best if you want advertising + broader competitor intelligence

similarweb.com

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence provides estimated spend, impressions and visits across paid search, display and social, with daily updates. It also connects the advertising activity to broader web/traffic analysis, which can be very useful for an in-house growth team. Similarweb Similarweb

So if your question is less “what ads are they running?” and more:

“How much are they advertising, where are they advertising, and is that translating into traffic?”

I'd seriously consider Similarweb.

What I'd buy for an in-house team

If you primarily care about paid digital/social: Pathmatics.

If you need a holistic media picture including TV/CTV: MediaRadar.

If you're a growth/e-commerce team that also wants competitor traffic, search and website intelligence: Similarweb.

One nuance I'd emphasize: “frequency” is much harder to measure reliably than impressions. A vendor can estimate impressions reasonably well, but true person-level frequency requires knowing unique reach. I'd ask each vendor in the demo:

“Show me exactly how you calculate competitor unique reach and frequency. Is frequency observed at the person/panel level, modeled from impressions, or inferred from campaign activity?”

That's a very useful question because two platforms can report dramatically different “frequency” numbers while both calling them estimates.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, and which platforms matter most (Meta, Google, TikTok, YouTube, CTV, LinkedIn, etc.), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually demo and what I'd expect to pay for each.

Yes. For an in-house marketer, there are several competitive ad intelligence platforms, but the right one depends on whether you care most about paid social, search, display/CTV, B2B, or true reach/frequency estimates.

A few I’d shortlist:

My recommendation by in-house use case

• You run a national brand with a sizeable media budget: Start with MediaRadar. It is closer to a media intelligence/market monitoring tool than a simple “spy tool.” MediaRadar
• You’re a growth/performance marketer: Look at Adsmom. The combination of creative tracking + estimated reach/spend + cadence is closer to what paid teams usually want. Adsmom Adsmom
• You’re B2B: Evaluate CompetiVU because channel coverage (especially LinkedIn and trade publications) matters more than consumer ad libraries. CompetiVU
• You mainly want “what ads are they running and what messages are winning?” Use Competable or AdSpyder. Competable AdSpyder

A caveat: true competitor reach and frequency are difficult to measure externally. Platforms can estimate impressions/reach using modeling, but they generally do not have the same first-party exposure data that platforms like Meta or Google have for your own campaigns. For example, Google’s own reach/frequency reporting is based on its internal campaign data and models. Google Help

If I were building an in-house competitive intelligence stack, I’d usually pair:

1. A media intelligence tool (MediaRadar or similar) for market-level spend/share-of-voice trends
2. A creative intelligence tool (Competable/AdSpyder/Adsmom) for messaging and execution analysis
3. Native platform libraries (Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, LinkedIn libraries) for validation

If you tell me your industry (B2B/B2C), primary channels (Meta, Google, LinkedIn, CTV, etc.), and approximate budget tier, I can narrow this to 2–3 realistic options.

Yes. If your specific need is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how many impressions/reach are they getting, and how does that compare across Meta/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, display, CTV, etc.?”, I’d shortlist these:

1. sensortower.com — my first choice

This is probably the closest match to what you described.

Pathmatics gives you estimated spend, impressions, share of voice, creatives, placements, flighting, and competitive comparisons across social, display, video, mobile and OTT/CTV. Its coverage includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Reddit, Snapchat and others. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

The particularly useful part for an in-house marketer is that you can look at historical trends, so you can identify things like:

• Competitor X increased impressions 40% in the last quarter
• Competitor Y is running 3× as many creatives
• A competitor has dramatically increased YouTube/CTV investment
• Which campaigns are being continuously "flown" versus short bursts
• Relative share of voice within your category

Sensor Tower says its estimates combine panel data, crawling, integrations and modeling, so treat reach/impressions/spend as modeled estimates rather than ground truth. Sensor Tower

For a sophisticated in-house marketing team, this is the one I'd demo first.

2. similarweb.com — best if you want broader competitive intelligence

Similarweb has recently expanded its Ad Intelligence product and now lets you analyze competitors across search, display, social and GenAI, including impressions, spend, campaigns, creatives and publishers. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb

Its advertiser activity reporting is particularly interesting because it gives you ad-volume trends and campaign bursts, alongside estimated impressions and spend. Similarweb Knowledge Center

I'd favor Similarweb if you also want to answer questions such as:

"They're advertising more—but is that translating into more traffic?"

because its broader platform gives you competitor website traffic, search, audience and digital behavior alongside advertising intelligence.

3. CompetiVU — interesting if you're B2B

If you're marketing a B2B company, I'd take a look at competivu.com.

It's explicitly designed around B2B competitive advertising and claims coverage of LinkedIn, Google, Meta, programmatic, trade publications and niche B2B channels, including ad frequency and reach. CompetiVU

That's potentially more useful than a huge enterprise ad-intelligence platform if your competitors advertise heavily in trade media and LinkedIn.

One important caveat about "frequency"

I'd be careful when vendors say frequency/reach.

Platforms generally cannot see the actual unique reach and frequency numbers inside a competitor's Meta/Google/TikTok account. Those are proprietary platform metrics. Instead, they infer/model things like impressions, spend and audience exposure from panels, observed ads, publisher data and other signals.

So I'd separate the metrics into:

What I'd do in your shoes

If you're one in-house marketer trying to make better competitive/media decisions, I'd demo Pathmatics and Similarweb side-by-side and give the sales reps the exact same test:

"Show me the last 12 months for my company and 5 competitors. I want estimated impressions, spend, creative count, platform mix, campaign duration, frequency/repetition signals, and share of voice by month."

Then ask them to show you how their reach/impression estimates are calculated rather than just accepting the headline number.

I'd also ask for pricing before getting too invested—Pathmatics is positioned primarily as an enterprise product, while Similarweb can make more sense if you'd use its broader competitive intelligence capabilities too. Sensor Tower Similarweb Knowledge Center

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, B2B vs. B2C, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + LinkedIn + CTV), I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for, including lower-cost options.

Yes. If you mean “I want to see how often competitors are advertising, estimated impressions/reach, spend, creative, and channel mix across Meta/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, display, CTV, etc.”, there are a few serious options.

My shortlist for an in-house marketing team

1. Pathmatics by Sensor Tower — probably the one I'd demo first.

Pathmatics provides estimated ad spend and impressions across major platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, etc. It also lets you analyze individual creatives, messaging, targeting/audience information, flighting, and competitor share of voice. sensortower.com

Pathmatics by Sensor Tower

The important distinction is that it isn't merely an ad library. You can get closer to answering:

“Competitor X appears to be running 15 creatives, but how aggressively are they actually buying media?”

That's where estimated impressions, spend, timing, and platform mix become useful.

2. MediaRadar — strongest if you care about the whole media ecosystem.

MediaRadar goes broader than digital, covering digital/social/programmatic alongside CTV, TV, OTT, paid search, print, OOH, and more. It emphasizes competitive spend, share of voice, campaign cadence and creative monitoring. www.mediaradar.com

MediaRadar

I'd lean MediaRadar over Pathmatics if your job involves questions like “How much is the competitor putting behind TV/CTV vs digital?” rather than primarily digital/social.

3. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — particularly interesting if you already have Similarweb.

Similarweb currently provides estimated impressions, spend, campaign duration, publishers and ad activity, with daily updates. It also lets you compare advertisers and connect advertising activity with its broader web-traffic intelligence. support.similarweb.comsupport.similarweb.com

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

One caveat: Similarweb itself describes these as tracked activity estimates, rather than an advertiser's total spend. That's an important caveat with all competitive-ad-intelligence platforms. support.similarweb.comsupport.similarweb.com

One important distinction about “frequency”

If by frequency you mean actual average frequency = impressions ÷ unique reach, I'd be careful.

These platforms can estimate impressions and advertising intensity, but competitor unique reach/frequency is generally modeled rather than directly observed, especially across walled gardens. So I would not buy a tool expecting Nielsen-level certainty that “Brand X exposed 2.7 million people an average of 4.2 times.”

Instead, I'd use the data to establish a competitive pressure index:

• Estimated impressions
• Estimated spend
• Number of active creatives
• Days/weeks in market
• Platform mix
• Creative rotation
• Share of voice
• Estimated audience/reach where available
• Spend/impression trend over time

That is usually much more actionable for an in-house marketer.

What I'd do in your position

I'd demo Pathmatics + MediaRadar and give them the exact same test:

“Take these 5 competitors and show me their estimated impressions, spend, platform mix, creative count, campaign duration and frequency/reach over the last 90 days.”

Then ask specifically how they derive impressions, reach and frequency, and whether those numbers are modeled at the brand, platform, campaign or creative level.

If you tell me your industry + the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta/Google/YouTube/TikTok/CTV) + roughly how many competitors, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for, including which one is likely to be overkill.

Yes. If your main need is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how many people/impressions are they reaching, and how does that compare across platforms?”, I’d shortlist Pathmatics (Sensor Tower) first, with Similarweb Ad Intelligence as the main alternative.

My recommendation: Pathmatics / Sensor Tower

sensortower.com is probably the closest fit to what you're describing.

It gives you:

• Estimated impressions and spend by competitor
• Ad frequency/flight patterns — when campaigns start, stop, and ramp up
• Platform/channel breakdowns across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, display, video, OTT/CTV, etc.
• Actual competitor creatives and how long they're running
• Share of voice versus competitors
• Historical trends, so you can see whether a competitor is increasing or decreasing pressure
• Geographic comparisons
• Creative-level analysis, including formats, messaging and CTAs Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

Importantly, Pathmatics isn't just a scraper of ad libraries. It uses panel data, ad observation, partnerships and modeling to estimate impressions and spend, which is much closer to the "how much exposure are they actually generating?" question. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

Similarweb is the other one I'd demo

similarweb.com is particularly attractive if you want competitor intelligence beyond advertising.

It can compare spend, impressions and visits across paid search, display and social, while also showing creatives, publishers, campaigns and trends. Similarweb specifically advertises the ability to analyze frequency across channels. Similarweb SimilarWeb

I'd lean toward Similarweb if your team also wants:

• Competitor website traffic
• SEO/PPC intelligence
• Audience overlap
• Paid search
• Broader market intelligence

So it's more of a competitive marketing intelligence platform, whereas Pathmatics feels more purpose-built for media/ad intelligence.

One important caveat about "reach"

I'd be careful with any vendor promising precise competitor reach and frequency.

Competitors' platforms don't give these vendors their actual campaign-level reach/frequency data. They're estimating it from observed ads, panels and modeling. For example, Similarweb explicitly describes its metrics as tracked activity estimates, not the advertiser's total media activity. Similarweb

So I'd use the numbers primarily for relative benchmarking, e.g.:

"Competitor A appears to be putting ~2.5× more digital impression pressure into the market than Competitor B, with the biggest increase coming from Meta and YouTube."

rather than:

"Competitor A reached exactly 4.2 million people at a frequency of 3.7."

The former is useful competitive intelligence; the latter implies a level of precision the underlying data generally can't support.

What I'd buy for an in-house marketing team

One other interesting development: Similarweb now has AI ad intelligence covering ads appearing in ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Google AI Overviews, so if "across platforms" eventually includes AI search, that's worth putting on the demo checklist. SimilarWeb SimilarWeb

If I were an in-house marketer, I'd demo Pathmatics and Similarweb side-by-side and ask each vendor to show me the same 3–5 competitors. The deciding test would be whether the resulting estimates are actionable enough to answer: who is increasing ad pressure, on which platforms, with what creative, and roughly how much audience exposure are they buying?

If you tell me your industry + B2B/B2C + approximate annual media spend, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that are actually worth paying for rather than giving you the enterprise-software laundry list.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, how much reach/impression volume are they getting, and across which platforms?”, there are a few serious options.

My top pick: Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

sensortower.com

For an in-house marketing team, this is probably where I'd start. Pathmatics provides estimated ad spend and impressions, share of voice, and competitor activity across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, OTT, TikTok, X, display and video. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

That makes it particularly useful for questions like:

• Which competitors are increasing their paid media presence?
• What platforms are they concentrating on?
• What is their estimated impression volume?
• Which brands have the highest share of voice?
• Which creatives are being run repeatedly?
• How does our media mix compare with theirs?

Caveat: these are modeled estimates, not competitors' actual first-party campaign data. I'd use the numbers primarily for directional benchmarking and trend detection, rather than treating an estimated 12M impressions as literally 12M.

Best alternative: Similarweb Ad Intelligence

similarweb.com

Similarweb has become particularly interesting because its Ad Intelligence product combines search, display, social and other paid channels, with estimates for impressions and spend, plus advertiser activity, creatives and publishers. Its data is refreshed daily. Similarweb Similarweb

I'd favor Similarweb over Pathmatics if you also want broader competitive intelligence—traffic, search behavior, audience, etc.—rather than buying a tool primarily for advertising intelligence.

Best for display/programmatic: Adbeat

adbeat.com

Adbeat is excellent if your concern is specifically display/programmatic competitor activity. It tracks competitors' ads, publishers, networks, landing pages and estimated spend, and lets you compare advertisers and share of voice. Adbeat Adbeat

I wouldn't make it my first choice if your requirement is genuinely cross-platform social + video + display, though.

How I'd choose

One important distinction: “frequency” is harder to get reliably than impressions/reach. Many platforms can estimate impressions, spend and ad volume, but true person-level frequency (e.g. Competitor X showed this ad to the average user 4.7 times) generally isn't publicly observable. Sensor Tower's Audience Insights can add information about competitor audiences and ad exposure, but it's still modeled/panel-based rather than the competitor's actual frequency report. Sensor Tower

If I were buying one tool for an in-house marketing team, I'd demo Pathmatics and Similarweb side-by-side. The deciding question would be whether you need deep paid-media intelligence (Pathmatics) or paid media + broader market/competitor intelligence (Similarweb).

If you tell me your B2B/B2C, approximate annual ad spend, and the platforms you care about (Meta/Google/LinkedIn/TikTok/YouTube/etc.), I can narrow this down to 2–3 tools and compare pricing, platform coverage, estimated reach/frequency capabilities, and how useful each actually is for an in-house marketer.

Yes. For an in-house marketer, there are several competitive ad intelligence tools, but the right one depends on whether you care most about estimated reach/frequency, creative monitoring, media spend, or cross-channel coverage.

Here are the ones I’d shortlist:

My practical recommendation by use case:

• Consumer brand / omnichannel marketing team: Start with MediaRadar or AdClarity. They’re closest to answering: “How much are competitors spending, where are they spending it, and how aggressive are they being?” adclarity.comwww.mediaradar.com
• Paid social / growth marketing team: Look at Adsmom because it is closer to the workflow of monitoring creative tests, ad volume, estimated reach, and platform shifts. adsmom.com
• B2B SaaS or industrial marketing: Consider CompetiVU alongside LinkedIn ad library analysis. competivu.com
• Large enterprise with a formal media intelligence function: Nielsen or MediaRadar are more likely fits. www.nielsen.com

A few caveats:

• No tool has perfect competitor reach/frequency data, especially on walled gardens like Meta, TikTok, and Google. Most “reach” and “frequency” numbers are modeled estimates rather than the actual advertiser’s platform reporting.
• The most valuable outputs are often relative signals:
  • competitor ad volume increasing/decreasing
  • creative fatigue vs. new messaging
  • channel mix shifts
  • share of voice
  • campaign launch timing
  • estimated spend trajectory

If I were building a lean in-house marketing stack, I’d probably test:

1. Adsmom for fast-moving digital/social competitive monitoring
2. MediaRadar if leadership needs executive-level competitive reporting
3. Platform-native sources like Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, and TikTok Creative Center as free supplements

The key question is: Are you mostly trying to monitor paid social competitors, or do you need a full media picture including TV/CTV, search, display, and offline? That changes the recommendation quite a bit.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how much reach/impressions are they generating, and how does that mix compare with ours?”, I’d look first at Sensor Tower / Pathmatics.

My recommendation: Pathmatics

For an in-house marketing team, it’s probably the strongest fit because it combines:

• Estimated impressions and spend by competitor
• Ad frequency / activity trends over time
• Share of voice comparisons
• Competitor creative libraries
• Flighting — when campaigns start/stop
• Channel/platform breakdowns
• Social, display, video, YouTube, OTT/CTV and other digital channels
• Historical trends so you can see whether a competitor is ramping up or backing off sensortower.com

One important caveat: these are modeled estimates, not competitors' actual media-platform reporting. I'd use the numbers directionally—for example, “Competitor A appears to be generating ~2x our impression volume”—rather than treating a reported 14.2M impressions as precise. sensortower.com

Another one I'd demo: Similarweb Ad Intelligence

Similarweb Ad Intelligence is particularly interesting if you want to connect advertising intelligence with broader competitive intelligence.

It provides estimated impressions, spend, campaign duration, publishers, and competitive comparisons. Its current coverage is particularly strong around display/search, with social coverage being expanded. www.similarweb.com

How I'd choose

Sensor Tower's Audience Insights can also show competitor audience characteristics and ad-exposure patterns, which is useful if your question is not just “how much are they advertising?” but “who are they actually reaching?” develop.sensortower.com

One newer option worth knowing about: Adsmom is positioning itself specifically around normalized cross-platform metrics, including estimated reach, frequency, share of voice, creative cadence and spend across Meta, TikTok and Google. It's much more lightweight/newer than the enterprise incumbents, but could be worth investigating if you don't have a huge research budget. adsmom.com

If you tell me your industry, approximate ad budget, and which platforms matter (Meta/TikTok/Google/CTV/YouTube/etc.), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for as an in-house marketer, including likely pricing tier and what each one can/can't tell you about frequency and reach.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, how much audience are they likely reaching, and how does that compare across Meta/TikTok/Google/YouTube/etc.?”, there are a few good options—but they differ quite a bit in data quality and breadth.

My shortlist

I'd start with Pathmatics. Sensor Tower describes it as providing estimated ad spend and impressions, share of voice, creatives, flighting, and competitor comparisons across social, display, video, mobile and OTT/CTV. Its current platform coverage includes Facebook/Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Reddit and others. sensortower.comsensortower.com

The important caveat: competitor “reach” and “frequency” are estimates, not ground truth. These vendors don't have access to your competitor's ad-account reporting. Pathmatics, for example, combines panel observations with modeling to estimate impressions and spend. sensortower.com

What I'd actually use it for

For an in-house team, I'd want a dashboard that lets me answer:

• Competitor A: estimated impressions / reach / frequency by month
• Share of voice: competitor vs. us
• Platform mix: Meta vs. TikTok vs. YouTube vs. CTV, etc.
• Creative frequency: how long individual ads stay in market
• Spend intensity: when competitors are ramping up/down
• Creative volume: number of new ads launched
• Messaging: offers, claims, CTAs and themes
• Geo: where competitors are concentrating spend
• Trend: “Competitor X increased digital investment 35% in the last 3 months”

Pathmatics is particularly good for this kind of media-strategy / competitive intelligence workflow because it lets you compare advertisers side-by-side and analyze spend, impressions, creatives, placements and share of voice. sensortower.comsensortower.com

One alternative I'd demo

Adsmom is worth looking at if you're primarily a DTC/e-commerce or growth marketer and don't need a huge enterprise intelligence platform. It specifically advertises aggregated reach, frequency/SOV-type signals, estimated spend, creative assets and daily changes across Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn. adsmom.com

I'd be more cautious about treating its estimated reach numbers as definitive until you've tested them against your own campaign data.

Bottom line:

• Enterprise / serious media planning → Pathmatics
• Already paying for Similarweb → evaluate Ad Intelligence first
• Lean growth/DTC team wanting a simpler competitor-ad workspace → Adsmom
• Need actual audience reach/frequency rather than just ad sightings → ask every vendor to show you their methodology and a sample report for 3–5 competitors before buying.

If you tell me your industry, approximate annual media spend, and which platforms matter most (e.g. Meta + TikTok + YouTube), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually put on an in-house marketer's shortlist.

Yes. For an in-house marketer, you’re looking for competitive advertising intelligence (sometimes called “ad intelligence” or “media intelligence”) rather than traditional social listening. The tricky part is that true competitor reach + frequency across platforms is mostly modeled/estimated because platforms don’t expose competitors’ actual delivery data. The best tools combine ad libraries, creative tracking, spend modeling, and share-of-voice estimates. adlibrary.com

My shortlist:

A few practical recommendations by use case:

If you are a mid-size in-house marketing team

I’d start with Adsmom or MediaRadar. They’re closest to answering:

• “Who is increasing spend?”
• “Which competitors are launching new creative?”
• “Are they heavier on Meta vs Google vs TikTok?”
• “How often are they refreshing ads?”
• “What is their estimated share of voice?”

www.mediaradar.comadsmom.com

If you are B2B

Look harder at CompetiVU or MediaRadar. Many B2B tools miss trade publications, LinkedIn activity, and category-specific presence. competivu.comwww.syncmedia.io

If you need actual reach/frequency planning

For your own campaigns, use measurement tools (platform reporting, Nielsen/Kantar-type solutions, cross-media measurement platforms). Competitor tools generally cannot know a rival’s true frequency cap or deduplicated reach; they estimate it. www.syncmedia.io

Before buying, I’d ask vendors to demo these exact views:

1. Competitor spend trend by month
2. Estimated impressions/reach by channel
3. Frequency or ad longevity estimates
4. Creative launch cadence
5. Share of voice vs your brand
6. Historical view (12+ months)
7. Export/API access for your BI stack

If you tell me your industry (B2B/B2C, category, and whether you care more about paid social, search, CTV, or all media), I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I’d actually shortlist.

Yes. For an in-house marketer looking to understand competitor ad frequency, estimated reach/impressions, spend signals, creative strategy, and cross-platform presence, I’d look at competitive ad intelligence platforms rather than just ad libraries.

My shortlist:

A few practical notes:

• True competitor “frequency” is hard to measure. Platforms can estimate it using observed ad activity, impressions, placements, spend models, and platform signals, but they generally cannot know the exact frequency cap or person-level exposure your competitor achieved.
• Reach estimates are directional, not equivalent to your own first-party campaign reporting.
• For many in-house teams, the biggest value is actually:
  • “What new creatives did competitors launch?”
  • “Which messages/offers are they repeating?”
  • “Are they increasing investment?”
  • “Which channels are they prioritizing?”
  • “How quickly are they refreshing creative?”

My recommendation by company size:

• Small/mid-size in-house team: Start with Adsmom or a similar focused ad intelligence tool. It appears designed around exactly this workflow: competitor ads + cross-platform comparisons + estimated reach/spend signals. adsmom.com
• Large brand with competitive intelligence needs: Evaluate MediaRadar because it goes beyond digital into broader media monitoring and category benchmarking. www.mediaradar.com
• B2B SaaS/industrial: Look closely at CompetiVU because channel mix and trade publication presence often matter more than consumer-style ad volume. adsroid.comcompetivu.com

Before buying, I’d ask vendors to run your actual competitor set and show:

1. last 90 days of creative launches,
2. estimated spend trend,
3. platform mix changes,
4. reach/impression methodology, and
5. whether they can export data into your BI/dashboard stack.

That demo usually reveals quickly whether the data is actionable or just a nice-looking ad archive.

Yes. For an in-house marketer, I’d look at competitive ad intelligence platforms rather than traditional “ad spy” tools. The best choice depends on whether you care most about paid social, search/display, CTV/offline, or cross-channel share of voice.

Here are the ones I’d shortlist:

My recommendation by scenario

If you’re a typical in-house growth/performance marketer:

• Start with Adsmom if your world is mostly Meta/TikTok/Google and you want competitor frequency, reach, and creative intelligence. adsmom.comadsmom.com
• Move to MediaRadar if you need executive reporting, broader channel coverage, and a more enterprise CI workflow. www.mediaradar.com

If you’re B2B:

• I’d evaluate CompetiVU alongside MediaRadar because B2B competitive advertising often requires trade media and niche channel visibility that consumer ad tools miss. www.mediaradar.comcompetivu.comadsmom.com

A few caveats

• “Reach” and “frequency” are usually modeled estimates, not first-party platform truth. Platforms like Meta and Google do not expose competitor campaign delivery data publicly, so vendors infer it from observed ads, spend models, impressions/views, and other signals. adsmom.comadsmom.com
• The most actionable metric is often not raw reach — it’s:
  • creative velocity (how often they launch new ads)
  • ad longevity (which ads stay live)
  • channel mix shifts
  • share of voice changes
  • messaging/theme changes

For an in-house team, I’d usually build a weekly competitor dashboard around those five signals rather than just “who spent the most.” www.mediaradar.comadsmom.com

If you share your company type (B2B/B2C), channels you care about (Meta, Google, LinkedIn, CTV, etc.), and approximate budget/team size, I can narrow this to 2–3 tools.

Yes. If your specific need is “How often are competitors advertising, where are they advertising, and what kind of reach/impressions are they likely getting?”, I’d look at dedicated ad-intelligence platforms, not just general competitive-intelligence tools.

My shortlist

My first demo would be Pathmatics by Sensor Tower. It specifically provides estimated ad spend and impressions and covers social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit and others, plus display/video/mobile. It also lets you examine historical trends, individual creatives, flighting, placements and competitor comparisons. sensortower.com

MediaRadar would be my second demo, particularly if you care about more than digital. It monitors search, display, social, programmatic, video, CTV, print and OOH, with daily-refreshed competitive activity and creative data. It also emphasizes campaign cadence, share of voice and cross-channel benchmarking. www.mediaradar.com

Similarweb Ad Intelligence is compelling if your team already uses Similarweb. It estimates impressions, spend and visits, tracks campaign duration/first-seen/last-seen dates, and lets you compare advertisers. Its current documentation says social coverage is being expanded, so I'd verify that the specific platforms you care about are covered before buying. support.similarweb.com

One important caveat

I'd be careful with the word “reach.” These vendors generally don't have competitors' first-party campaign delivery data. They're modeled estimates based on observed ads, traffic/panel data, publishers, CPM/CTR assumptions, etc. For example, Similarweb explicitly describes its impressions and spend as estimates of tracked activity rather than an advertiser's complete media spend. support.similarweb.com

So I'd use the tools primarily for relative competitive intelligence, e.g.:

“Competitor A appears to have increased paid-social pressure ~40% over the past 8 weeks, is running 3× our creative volume, and is concentrating spend on Instagram and YouTube.”

rather than:

“Competitor A reached exactly 4.2M people.”

What I'd ask for in the demo

Give each vendor 5–10 of your actual competitors and ask them to show you:

1. Impressions/reach estimates by competitor
2. Ad frequency or exposure/cadence over time
3. Spend estimates by platform
4. Number of active creatives
5. First-seen / last-seen dates for campaigns
6. Share of voice vs. your brand
7. Platform mix — Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Google, CTV, etc.
8. Historical data going back at least 12 months
9. How they model impressions/reach
10. Whether you can export the data into your BI/reporting stack

If you're an in-house marketer and primarily care about digital/social, I'd start with Pathmatics. If you need a genuinely cross-media view—including CTV/TV/OOH—I'd put MediaRadar alongside it. Similarweb is particularly attractive if you're already paying for Similarweb and want to consolidate tools.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, where are they advertising, and roughly how much audience/impression volume are they getting?”, I’d shortlist these:

My recommendation: Pathmatics

For an in-house marketer, I'd start with Pathmatics if competitive advertising is the primary use case. It tracks competitors across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Reddit, display/video, OTT/CTV and other channels, with estimated spend and impressions, creative-level data, flighting, placements and share of voice. sensortower.comsensortower.com

That gets you much closer to the dashboard you're describing:

Competitor → platform → campaign/creative → days active → estimated impressions → estimated spend → share of voice

It can also show historical trends, which is particularly useful for determining whether a competitor is always-on vs. bursty/seasonal. sensortower.comsensortower.com

One caveat: these are modeled estimates, not the competitors' actual platform data. Pathmatics combines panel data, crawlers, partnerships and modeling to estimate spend/impressions. sensortower.comsensortower.com

When I'd choose Similarweb instead

If you want more than advertising—e.g. competitor traffic, SEO/PPC, paid social, referral sources, audience behavior, and advertising—I'd lean toward Similarweb. Its Ad Intelligence provides estimated spend, impressions and visits across search, display and social, with data updated daily. support.similarweb.com

Similarweb also explicitly tracks creative refresh frequency, which is a nice fit for your “how frequently are they advertising?” question. www.similarweb.com

One important distinction

If by “reach” you mean unique people reached rather than impressions, I'd be more cautious. Competitive-intelligence platforms are generally much better at estimating impressions/exposure and spend than giving you a truly comparable unique-reach number across Meta + Google + TikTok + YouTube + CTV.

So I'd evaluate vendors using this exact question:

“Can you show me, for 5 named competitors, weekly estimated impressions, estimated unique reach, frequency, spend, active days, and creative count broken down by Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Google/display and CTV?”

Ask for a sample report using your actual competitors before buying. That's likely to reveal coverage limitations much faster than a generic demo.

My ranking for an in-house team:

1. 🥇 Pathmatics — if ad competitive intelligence is the core job
2. 🥈 Similarweb — if you want broader competitor/marketing intelligence
3. AdClarity — if programmatic/display is particularly important
4. Semrush — if budget matters and you want an all-around marketing platform

If you tell me your industry, approximate ad budget, and the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta + Google + TikTok + CTV), I can narrow this to 2–3 tools and tell you which one I'd actually buy.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, roughly how many impressions/reach are they getting, and how does that compare across platforms?”, I’d look at ad-intelligence platforms rather than generic social listening tools.

My shortlist

Pathmatics is probably where I'd start. Its current offering provides estimated spend and impressions, historical trends, actual competitor creatives, flighting, and side-by-side share-of-voice comparisons across social, display, video and other channels. Its coverage includes Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Reddit and more. sensortower.com

Pathmatics / Sensor Tower

AdClarity is particularly interesting for your specific question because it explicitly markets frequency, reach, impressions, audience targeting and timing alongside competitor spend and creative. It covers social, display, video and CTV and says its audience product spans 52 markets. adclarity.com

AdClarity

Similarweb Ad Intelligence is compelling if you want this to feed into a broader competitive-marketing workflow. It covers search, display, social and GenAI advertising and provides estimated impressions, spend trends, campaign duration and campaign reach/coverage. support.similarweb.comsensortower.com

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

One important caveat

I'd be careful with the word “reach.” None of these tools has a magical view of a competitor's actual unique users across Meta + TikTok + YouTube + programmatic. A lot of what you're getting is modeled/estimated intelligence based on panels, crawlers, publisher/platform signals and other data sources. For example, Sensor Tower says Pathmatics combines panel data, crawlers, partnerships/integrations and ML models to estimate spend and impressions. Similarweb likewise calls its figures “tracked activity estimates.” support.similarweb.comsensortower.com

So I'd use the data for directional competitive benchmarking, e.g.:

Competitor A: ~35M impressions/month, heavy Meta + YouTube
Competitor B: ~18M impressions/month, concentrated on TikTok
Competitor C: ~12M impressions/month, high frequency / lower reach
Our brand: ~20M impressions/month

rather than treating a reported “42M reach” as ground truth.

What I'd buy as an in-house marketer

If you're a mid-market/enterprise brand with a meaningful paid-media budget, I'd demo Pathmatics and AdClarity side-by-side and ask each vendor to show you the same 5–10 competitors.

Specifically ask them to demonstrate:

1. Estimated impressions by platform
2. Estimated unique reach and frequency
3. Spend estimates
4. Creative-level flight dates
5. Share of voice
6. Historical data — ideally 12–24+ months
7. Geo-level cuts
8. Audience/demographic estimates
9. Cross-platform deduplication methodology
10. How they handle Meta, TikTok, YouTube and CTV

If your primary use case is “I want to know how aggressively my competitors are advertising and whether they're reaching people more frequently than us,” I'd lean AdClarity. If it's **broader competitive media planning, spend/impression benchmarking and creative intelligence, I'd lean Pathmatics.

If you tell me your industry, approximate annual paid-media spend, and which platforms matter most (e.g. Meta/TikTok/YouTube/CTV/Google), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually put on an RFP, including likely pricing tier and what each one can/can't measure.

Yes. If your main question is “How often are competitors advertising, how much reach/impression volume are they getting, and how does that vary by platform?”, I’d shortlist these:

My pick for an in-house marketing team: Pathmatics

Pathmatics by Sensor Tower is probably the first demo I'd take.

It gives you estimated spend and impressions, historical trends, actual creatives, placements, flighting, audience profiles, and competitive share-of-voice views across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Reddit, display, video, mobile and OTT/CTV. sensortower.com

That's particularly useful for questions like:

• “Competitor X has been running Meta ads for 8 weeks. How aggressively?”
• “Are they putting more weight behind YouTube or Meta?”
• “Which competitors have the highest estimated impression volume?”
• “What creative are they repeatedly putting money behind?”
• “When do competitors ramp up or go dark?”
• “What's our category's digital share of voice?”
• “Are we seeing a genuine shift in competitor investment, or just more creative variants?”

One important caveat: competitor reach and frequency aren't directly observable in the way your own platform accounts can report them. These vendors use proprietary/panel/modeling approaches to estimate advertising exposure, impressions and spend. Sensor Tower, for example, describes Pathmatics as using panel data and proprietary methodologies. sensortower.com So I'd use the numbers primarily for relative competitive intelligence and trend direction, rather than treating “Competitor X reached 4.2M people at 3.7 frequency” as ground truth.

When I'd choose MediaRadar instead

MediaRadar is arguably the better choice if your definition of “across platforms” includes TV/CTV, paid search, digital, social, programmatic, video, print and OOH, rather than primarily digital. It says it tracks 30+ media channels and provides competitor spend, channel mix, creative, cadence and share-of-voice intelligence with daily refreshes. www.mediaradar.com

I'd lean MediaRadar if you're an integrated marketer responsible for the whole media landscape.

I'd lean Pathmatics if you're primarily trying to understand digital/social competitor advertising behavior.

One thing I'd specifically ask during the demos

Don't just ask “Do you have reach and frequency?”

Ask them to show you a real competitor in your category and demonstrate:

Competitor → platform → campaign → estimated spend → estimated impressions → estimated reach → frequency → creative → dates

Then ask how each metric is estimated and what the confidence/coverage limitations are by platform.

That's where the products can differ considerably, and it's much more informative than a generic feature comparison.

If you tell me your industry + the platforms you care about (e.g. Meta/Google/TikTok/YouTube/CTV), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually put through an in-house marketer's buying evaluation, including likely pricing tier, data quality, and what I'd test in each demo.

Yes. For an in-house marketer, you’re generally looking for competitive ad intelligence (not just “ad spy” tools). The best choice depends on whether you care more about estimated spend/reach, creative analysis, media mix, or brand-level competitive reporting.

Here are the ones I’d shortlist:

A few notes before buying:

• True competitor reach + frequency is difficult to measure. Platforms don’t expose competitors’ actual impressions/frequency, so vendors estimate using public ad libraries, observed activity, modeling, and benchmarks. Treat numbers as directional rather than audited media delivery. www.mediaradar.comadsmom.comadsmom.com
• If your goal is “How much are competitors spending and where?” → start with MediaRadar or Adsmom.
• If your goal is “What creative angles are competitors scaling?” → AdScanner.Ai or Adsmom.
• If you’re running B2B, look at tools designed for B2B competitive advertising rather than consumer ad trackers; for example, CompetiVU focuses on B2B channels and reach intelligence. competivu.com

For most in-house marketing teams, I’d evaluate:

1. Adsmom for a lean paid media/creative team.
2. MediaRadar for a director/VP-level competitive intelligence function.
3. Pathmatics/Sensor Tower if you have enterprise budget and need formal reporting.

A useful evaluation question for vendors: “Can you show me a competitor’s estimated impressions, spend trend, creative rotation, and platform mix over the last 90 days for three brands in my category?” The answer will reveal quickly whether the tool is genuinely useful or just a creative swipe file.

Yes. For an in-house marketer, you’re looking for competitive ad intelligence (not just social listening). The best tool depends on whether you care most about estimated spend/reach/frequency, creative tracking, or cross-platform coverage.

Here are the ones I’d shortlist:

My recommendation for an in-house marketing team:

• Large brand / $1M+ monthly paid media budget: start with Pathmatics by Sensor Tower. It is closest to what you described: “How much are competitors advertising, where, how often, and what is the estimated impact?” sensortower.comsupport.similarweb.com
• Growth-stage company needing a broader market view: Similarweb Ad Intelligence is often the better all-around competitive intelligence layer because it connects advertising activity with traffic and market behavior. support.similarweb.comsupport.similarweb.com
• Paid search-heavy business: pair a tool like Semrush with Meta/Google native insights rather than paying for a full enterprise ad intelligence platform.

A few caveats:

• No third-party tool can truly know competitor frequency the way the advertiser’s own ad platforms can. These tools estimate based on panels, crawlers, publisher signals, and modeling. sensortower.comsupport.similarweb.com
• Treat numbers like “impressions,” “reach,” and “spend” as directional benchmarking, not audited media delivery.
• The most actionable outputs tend to be: share of voice, creative themes, launch timing, channel mix, and spend changes.

If you tell me your industry (B2B/B2C, ecommerce/SaaS/local, approximate ad spend, and which platforms matter: Meta, Google, TikTok, CTV, LinkedIn), I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I’d actually evaluate.