ChatGPT answers, unedited

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.