ChatGPT answers, unedited

Yes. If you're managing paid search and want visibility into competitors' display/video placements, you’ll want something beyond traditional PPC keyword-spy tools.

Tools worth looking at

Similarweb is probably the closest match to what you're describing. Its current Ad Intelligence product covers search, display, social and GenAI, with text, banner, video and native formats, and can show publishers/platforms and competitor campaigns. Similarweb Similarweb

Semrush + AdClarity is another particularly interesting agency setup. Semrush's regular Advertising Research handles paid search—keywords, ads, historical activity, competitors—while AdClarity adds display, video and social intelligence. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers and exposes competitor creative, formats, placements and spend patterns. Semrush Semrush

Adbeat is the one I'd investigate if your primary question is "Where exactly are competitors buying display/video inventory?" It focuses heavily on publisher intelligence and can show competitor publishers, ad copy, landing pages and placement opportunities. Its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, including pre-roll video. Adbeat Adbeat

One important distinction

If by "placements" you mean something like:

"Competitor X's ads appeared on these 37 websites / publishers / YouTube channels, with these creatives and these dates"

then I'd prioritize Adbeat, AdClarity, and Similarweb.

If you mainly mean:

"What keywords are competitors buying, what ads are they running, and how have their PPC campaigns changed?"

then Semrush, SpyFu, and Similarweb are more relevant. Semrush and SpyFu both have substantial paid-search intelligence, including competitor keywords and historical ad activity. Semrush SpyFu

For an agency, I'd shortlist them this way

• Best all-around: Similarweb
• Best if you already use Semrush: Semrush + AdClarity
• Best for deep display placement research: Adbeat
• Best for inexpensive/deep PPC research: SpyFu
• Best combination: Semrush/SpyFu for search + Adbeat/AdClarity for display/video

One caveat: these platforms are generally providing modeled/observed competitive intelligence, not the competitor's actual Google Ads account data. So spend, impressions, placement and performance numbers should be treated as estimates rather than exact campaign metrics.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly B2B, local lead gen, ecommerce, or national brands, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that are most useful for an agency workflow.

Adbeat is the one I'd investigate if your primary question is "Where exactly are competitors buying display/video inventory?" It focuses heavily on publisher intelligence and can show competitor publishers, ad copy, landing pages and placement opportunities. Its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, including pre-roll video. Adbeat Adbeat

One important distinction

If by "placements" you mean something like:

"Competitor X's ads appeared on these 37 websites / publishers / YouTube channels, with these creatives and these dates"

then I'd prioritize Adbeat, AdClarity, and Similarweb.

If you mainly mean:

"What keywords are competitors buying, what ads are they running, and how have their PPC campaigns changed?"

then Semrush, SpyFu, and Similarweb are more relevant. Semrush and SpyFu both have substantial paid-search intelligence, including competitor keywords and historical ad activity.

For an agency, I'd shortlist them this way

Yes. If you're managing paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google Search into display/video placements, there are a few strong options.

The main tools to look at

1. Semrush + AdClarity

This is probably the combination I'd investigate first for an agency.

Semrush's Advertising Research gives you competitor paid-search keywords, ads, positions, landing pages and historical activity. Its data goes back to 2012 for paid-search research. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity, which Semrush offers through its platform, extends the picture into display, video and social. Semrush currently says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers, including placement choices, creative strategy and spend patterns. Semrush Semrush

That's useful for an agency workflow like:

Client → identify search competitors → see their keywords/ads → identify display/video competitors → see publishers/placements → inspect creatives → build competitive report.

semrush.com

2. Similarweb

Similarweb is particularly interesting if you want search + display + video + social in one competitive view.

Its Ad Intelligence product explicitly covers display, video, social and search, with competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords and spend trends. Similarweb

I'd consider it if your client reporting needs to answer broader questions such as:

• Where is the competitor spending?
• What's their channel mix?
• Which publishers are they appearing on?
• What creatives are they running?
• How does their paid strategy compare with ours?

similarweb.com

3. Adbeat

If display/video placement intelligence is the primary requirement, Adbeat is worth a serious look.

It specifically tracks competitors' ads, ad networks, publishers and landing pages, and supports standard display, native, video, interstitial and other formats. It also provides publisher-level analysis and historical creative information. Adbeat Adbeat

So if you're asking:

"Where exactly is this competitor buying display inventory, what ads are they running, and which publishers appear repeatedly?"

Adbeat is closer to the specialist tool I'd want than a traditional SEO/PPC platform.

adbeat.com

What I'd use for an agency

I'd think about it as two different jobs:

• Search intelligence: Semrush / SpyFu / iSpionage
• Display + video placement intelligence: Adbeat / AdClarity / Similarweb

If you want one platform, I'd investigate Semrush + AdClarity and Similarweb first.

If your clients specifically ask you, "Show me where our competitors' display and video ads are actually appearing," I'd put Adbeat high on the shortlist because publisher/placement intelligence is its core specialty. Adbeat

One important caveat: these platforms are competitive-intelligence estimates, not access to the competitor's actual Google Ads account. Placement, spend and impression figures should therefore be treated as modeled/observed intelligence rather than exact campaign data.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly local businesses, e-commerce, SaaS, B2B, etc., I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that make the most sense for an agency workflow, including pricing and which ones give you exportable/white-label reports.

semrush.com

2. Similarweb

Similarweb is particularly interesting if you want search + display + video + social in one competitive view.

Its Ad Intelligence product explicitly covers display, video, social and search, with competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords and spend trends.

I'd consider it if your client reporting needs to answer broader questions such as:

Yes. If you’re managing paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google search ads into display/video placements, I’d shortlist these:

My top 3

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best all-around

similarweb.com

This is probably the closest match to what you're describing. It covers search, display, social and video, with competitor creatives, publishers/platforms, keywords, spend/impression estimates and campaign-level intelligence. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb

For an agency, the big advantage is being able to go from:

"Competitor X is bidding on these keywords"

to:

"They're also running these display/video creatives, on these publishers, with this apparent spend/visibility."

2. Semrush + AdClarity — best if search is your core workflow

semrush.com

Semrush's native Advertising Research is particularly good for paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, historical activity, position changes and competing domains. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity extends that into display, video and social. Semrush says AdClarity covers 650,000+ publishers and provides competitor creative, placement and spend information. Semrush Semrush

So if you're already living in Semrush, this is an attractive "don't add another major platform" solution.

3. Adbeat — best for actually dissecting display buying

adbeat.com

Adbeat is the one I'd look at if display/video placement intelligence is the particularly important piece.

It can show competitor ads, publishers, ad networks, landing pages and placement URLs, with coverage of standard display, native and video ads. Adbeat Adbeat

It also has useful agency-oriented reporting, comparisons and alerts. Its current pricing starts at $249/month for Standard and $399/month for Advanced. Adbeat

What I'd use as an agency

If your clients are primarily Google Ads/PPC clients, I'd think about it this way:

• Search competitor research: Semrush
• Search + display + video in one competitive view: Similarweb
• Deep display/programmatic placement research: Adbeat
• Search-only specialist: SpyFu/iSpionage

The important distinction is that "seeing that a competitor runs display ads" isn't the same as seeing their actual placements. If your goal is to tell a client "Competitor A is repeatedly appearing on these publishers/URLs, using these creatives, and appears to be emphasizing video/display rather than just search," I'd prioritize Similarweb, AdClarity, or Adbeat over traditional PPC spy tools.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and your monthly tool budget (e.g. <$300, $300–$1k, $1k+), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3-tool agency stack and explain exactly what each gives you that the others don't.

This is probably the closest match to what you're describing. It covers search, display, social and video, with competitor creatives, publishers/platforms, keywords, spend/impression estimates and campaign-level intelligence. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb

For an agency, the big advantage is being able to go from:

"Competitor X is bidding on these keywords"

to:

"They're also running these display/video creatives, on these publishers, with this apparent spend/visibility."

2. Semrush + AdClarity — best if search is your core workflow

semrush.com

Semrush's native Advertising Research is particularly good for paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, historical activity, position changes and competing domains. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity extends that into display, video and social. Semrush says AdClarity covers 650,000+ publishers and provides competitor creative, placement and spend information. Semrush Semrush

So if you're already living in Semrush, this is an attractive "don't add another major platform" solution.

3. Adbeat — best for actually dissecting display buying

adbeat.com

Adbeat is the one I'd look at if display/video placement intelligence is the particularly important piece.

It can show competitor ads, publishers, ad networks, landing pages and placement URLs, with coverage of standard display, native and video ads. adbeat.com adbeat.com

It also has useful agency-oriented reporting, comparisons and alerts. Its current pricing starts at $249/month for Standard and $399/month for Advanced.

What I'd use as an agency

If your clients are primarily Google Ads/PPC clients, I'd think about it this way:

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence that goes beyond Google/Bing search into display + video placements, I’d shortlist these:

Best options

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — probably the closest fit

similarweb.com is probably where I'd start if you want one platform for client competitive research.

It now covers search, display, social and video, with advertiser, publisher and platform-level intelligence. You can inspect actual creatives, landing pages, keywords, impressions, spend estimates and where competitors' display ads are appearing. Similarweb Similarweb

A particularly useful agency workflow is:

Competitor → channel mix → campaigns → creatives → publishers/placements → estimated spend → landing page.

Similarweb also explicitly says its display campaign data comes from publisher placements it tracks, while search campaign data is based on search landing pages and associated ads. Similarweb

My take: Best single choice if you want to answer both "What are they bidding on?" and "Where else are they buying media?"

2. Semrush Advertising Toolkit + AdClarity

If you're already a Semrush user, this is a very compelling option.

semrush.com combines Advertising Research for paid search with AdClarity for display/video/social. Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as covering 650,000+ publishers across 50+ markets. Semrush Semrush

The interesting part for your use case is the placement intelligence:

• Display publishers
• Video publishers
• YouTube channels
• Display ad position
• Video position — pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll, etc.
• Buying method — programmatic, ad network or direct
• Spend/impression estimates
• Actual creatives
• Campaigns
• Share of voice

Semrush SemrushAnd the search side gives you competitor keywords, ads, positions and historical paid-search activity. Semrush

My take: Probably the best agency-oriented combination if you want search intelligence and broader ad intelligence in the same ecosystem.

3. Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

sensortower.com is stronger when your clients are spending meaningful amounts across the broader media ecosystem.

It gives you:

• Display
• Video
• YouTube
• Social
• Mobile
• OTT/CTV
• Programmatic/direct buys
• Publisher/site targeting
• Creative-level spend
• Impressions
• Flighting
• Audience information

Pathmatics can show the actual creative, messaging, CTA, site targeting, spend, impressions and flighting associated with individual creatives. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

The catch: I wouldn't buy Pathmatics primarily for paid-search competitor research. Its strength is broader digital/media intelligence rather than being a SpyFu-style search keyword tool.

4. Adbeat — excellent if placements are the priority

adbeat.com is one I'd seriously consider if your real question is:

"Where exactly is this competitor buying display/programmatic traffic?"

It covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and lets you investigate advertisers, publishers, ad networks and placements. Adbeat

Its publisher/placement data is particularly useful for prospecting new display inventory. Adbeat explicitly positions this around discovering the publishers and traffic sources competitors are using. Adbeat

Current plans also expose publisher placement URLs, which is valuable when you're trying to turn competitor research into actual media-buying opportunities. Adbeat

Downside: You'd want something like SpyFu/Semrush alongside it for serious paid-search research.

Don't overlook Google's own free intelligence

For Google Search + YouTube + Display, Google's own adstransparency.google.com is surprisingly useful.

Google says the repository covers ads served by verified advertisers across Search, Display, Gmail and YouTube, and you can search by advertiser/website and filter by things such as date and targeted location. Google Help

Google originally described the Transparency Center as covering Search, YouTube and Display. blog.google

The limitation is that it's primarily an ad/creative transparency database, rather than the richer competitive-estimation layer you get from Similarweb or AdClarity. You don't get the same level of estimated spend, publisher analysis, competitive benchmarking, etc.

So I'd actually use it alongside whichever paid tool you choose.

What I'd buy as a paid-search agency

I'd narrow it down like this:

• One-tool solution: Similarweb Ad Intelligence
• Already heavily invested in Semrush: Semrush Advertising Toolkit Pro + AdClarity
• Display/programmatic is a major service: Adbeat + SpyFu/Semrush
• Enterprise clients / CTV / broad media intelligence: Sensor Tower Pathmatics
• Budget-conscious search-only: SpyFu
• Free supplement for Google: Google Ads Transparency Center

One important caveat: none of these can literally see a competitor's entire media buy. Placement and spend figures are modeled/observed data, so I'd treat them as directional competitive intelligence rather than the competitor's actual account-level data. Similarweb, for example, explicitly describes its spend figures as tracked activity estimates, not total media spend. Similarweb

If your main goal is "I want to enter a competitor domain and get their Google keywords + search ads + display creatives + exact publisher sites + YouTube placements + estimated spend", I'd put Similarweb vs. Semrush/AdClarity at the top of the evaluation.

"Where exactly is this competitor buying display/programmatic traffic?"

It covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and lets you investigate advertisers, publishers, ad networks and placements. Adbeat

Its publisher/placement data is particularly useful for prospecting new display inventory. Adbeat explicitly positions this around discovering the publishers and traffic sources competitors are using. Adbeat

Current plans also expose publisher placement URLs, which is valuable when you're trying to turn competitor research into actual media-buying opportunities. Adbeat

Downside: You'd want something like SpyFu/Semrush alongside it for serious paid-search research.

Don't overlook Google's own free intelligence

For Google Search + YouTube + Display, Google's own adstransparency.google.com is surprisingly useful.

Google says the repository covers ads served by verified advertisers across Search, Display, Gmail and YouTube, and you can search by advertiser/website and filter by things such as date and targeted location. support.google.com

Google originally described the Transparency Center as covering Search, YouTube and Display. blog.google

If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor visibility across search ads + display placements + video ads, you’ll usually need a combination of tools. No single platform has perfect coverage across Google Search, programmatic display, YouTube, and social. Here are the strongest options by use case:

My recommended stack for a paid search agency

1. Best overall client reporting stack

Semrush + Similarweb

• Semrush:

• Competitor keywords
• Search ad copy history
• Landing pages
• Paid keyword overlap
• Shopping/PPC research Semrush
• Similarweb:

• Paid channel mix
• Display/video/social visibility
• Publisher and campaign insights
• Competitive spend trends Similarweb Similarweb

This combination works well when you need to tell clients: “Here is what your competitors are bidding on, where they are advertising, and how their messaging differs.”

2. Best for seeing actual display placements

If your main question is:

“Where are competitors’ banners and videos actually running?”

Look at:

• Adbeat — strong for display/native/video placement intelligence, showing publishers, creatives, landing pages, and media-buying patterns. Adbeat
• Semrush’s AdClarity integration — useful for discovering display and video competitors, publishers, and campaigns. Semrush

3. Best budget-friendly PPC competitor research

For smaller clients:

• SpyFu: - Good Google Ads keyword history
• Competitor ad variations
• Easy client-friendly reports SpyFu

Pair it with:

• Google Ads Transparency Center (free, but limited)
• Manual SERP checks
• Meta Ads Library for social creative research

If I were building an agency toolkit

SMB / mid-market clients

• Semrush
• SpyFu
• Similarweb (when budget allows)

High-value clients ($10k+/month ad spend)

• Similarweb
• Adbeat
• Semrush
• Pathmatics (if media mix includes programmatic/video)

Ecommerce clients

• Similarweb + Semrush + a dedicated creative intelligence tool

One thing to watch: these platforms generally provide estimated intelligence, not competitors’ exact Google Ads accounts, bids, or placements. Use them for strategy, messaging gaps, and market analysis rather than exact replication. Similarweb

For an agency managing multiple PPC accounts, I’d lean toward Semrush + Similarweb as the core, then add Adbeat only for clients where display/video competitive intelligence matters.

Yes. If you need competitor intelligence across search + display + video, rather than just PPC keyword spying, I’d shortlist these:

My take for a paid-search agency

1. Similarweb is probably the closest match to what you're describing.
Its Ad Intelligence covers search, display, social and GenAI, with text, banner, video and native formats, and can show publishers/platforms. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb

That makes it particularly useful if you want to answer a client question like:

"Where is Competitor X advertising, what are they running, and how does their investment split between Search, Display and Video?"

2. Semrush + AdClarity is a strong agency choice.
The normal Semrush Advertising Research product is very good for Google paid search—keywords, competitors, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages, etc. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity adds the display/video/social side. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers, including competitor creatives, formats, placements and spend patterns. Semrush

So I'd consider Semrush + AdClarity if you're already using Semrush for PPC/SEO.

3. Adbeat is the one I'd investigate if placements are especially important.
It's much more display-focused. It can show advertisers, ad networks, publishers, landing pages and placement sources, with coverage of standard display, native, video, interstitial and other formats. Adbeat

Its paid tiers explicitly include publisher placement URLs, ad-network filtering, direct publisher buys, alerts, and estimated spend at higher levels. Adbeat

If I were buying for an agency

I'd rank them:

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best single platform for cross-channel competitive intelligence.
2. Semrush + AdClarity — best if you want search/SEO/PPC intelligence tightly integrated with display/video.
3. Adbeat — best if your differentiator is display/programmatic placement research.
4. Semrush Advertising Research alone — excellent for search, but not enough if display/video is a core requirement.

One important distinction: none of these should be treated as a literal log of every impression a competitor bought. They're competitive-intelligence datasets, so placement coverage, spend and impression estimates depend on the provider's collection methodology. Similarweb, for example, describes its data as coverage of competitor campaigns and advertising distribution rather than direct access to the advertiser's ad accounts. Similarweb Knowledge Center

If you tell me your clients' typical verticals (e.g. SaaS, ecommerce, legal, local services) and whether you care more about Google/YouTube, programmatic, or Meta, I can give you a tool-by-tool comparison of pricing, placement visibility, historical depth, creative spying, and estimated spend and tell you which one I'd actually pay for.

"Where is Competitor X advertising, what are they running, and how does their investment split between Search, Display and Video?"

2. Semrush + AdClarity is a strong agency choice.
The normal Semrush Advertising Research product is very good for Google paid search—keywords, competitors, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages, etc. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity adds the display/video/social side. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers, including competitor creatives, formats, placements and spend patterns. Semrush

So I'd consider Semrush + AdClarity if you're already using Semrush for PPC/SEO.

3. Adbeat is the one I'd investigate if placements are especially important.
It's much more display-focused. It can show advertisers, ad networks, publishers, landing pages and placement sources, with coverage of standard display, native, video, interstitial and other formats. adbeat.com

Its paid tiers explicitly include publisher placement URLs, ad-network filtering, direct publisher buys, alerts, and estimated spend at higher levels.

If I were buying for an agency

I'd rank them:

Yes. If you manage paid search and want competitor intelligence spanning search + display + video placements, the market is a bit fragmented, but a few tools stand out.

Best options

1. Similarweb — probably the closest match to what you're describing

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence is particularly interesting because it explicitly combines search, display, social and video, rather than making you stitch together separate tools. It exposes competitor campaigns, creatives, publishers/platforms, impressions and estimated spend. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb

For video specifically, its tooling can show the actual video ads, target URLs, campaign duration, networks and associated ad networks. Similarweb Knowledge Center

I'd put this at the top of your list if your question is:

"Where are my competitors actually advertising, what are they running, and how big does their activity appear to be?"

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent agency combination

Semrush's native Advertising Research is strong for Google paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, landing pages, historical activity, etc. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity fills in the display/video side. Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as covering display, video and social, including competitor creative strategy, ad formats, placement choices and spend patterns. Semrush

So an agency workflow could be:

Semrush Advertising Research → search strategy
AdClarity → display/video/social + placements

That's a very compelling combination if you're already paying for Semrush.

3. Adbeat — worth looking at if placements are the priority

If by "placements" you specifically mean:

• Which publisher sites are carrying competitor ads?
• Which networks/exchanges appear to be involved?
• What creatives are running?
• How long have they been running?
• Which landing pages are they pushing?
• What appears to be getting the most exposure?

Then I'd investigate Adbeat separately. It's historically been much more focused on competitive display intelligence than traditional PPC tools.

4. SpyFu — great search companion, not your all-in-one

SpyFu is useful when the primary objective is search competitor research—keywords, ads, historical PPC activity, etc. It isn't where I'd go if display/video placement intelligence is a major requirement.

Semrush's own search product similarly goes quite deep on paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, rankings and historical trends. Semrush

What I'd choose for an agency

If you're managing multiple clients, I'd shortlist them this way:

• Best single platform: Similarweb Ad Intelligence
• Best if you're already a Semrush shop: Semrush + AdClarity
• Best for deep display/programmatic placement research: Adbeat
• Best search-only complement: SpyFu
• Best enterprise-grade media intelligence: Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

One important caveat: none of these gives you a literal, complete log of every impression a competitor bought. Much of the spend, impression and placement information is modeled/estimated. Similarweb, for example, describes its display data as combining multiple sources including panels, contributory networks, direct measurement and broad ad collection. Similarweb Knowledge Center

If your actual goal is "I want to enter a competitor domain and get a report showing their Google search ads + YouTube ads + display creatives + the websites/apps/placements those ads appeared on", I can narrow this down to the 3 tools that do that best and compare their pricing, coverage, and agency workflow.

"Where are my competitors actually advertising, what are they running, and how big does their activity appear to be?"

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent agency combination

Semrush's native Advertising Research is strong for Google paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, landing pages, historical activity, etc. semrush.com semrush.com

Then AdClarity fills in the display/video side. Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as covering display, video and social, including competitor creative strategy, ad formats, placement choices and spend patterns. sv.semrush.com

So an agency workflow could be:

Semrush Advertising Research → search strategy
AdClarity → display/video/social + placements

That's a very compelling combination if you're already paying for Semrush.

3. Adbeat — worth looking at if placements are the priority

If by "placements" you specifically mean:

If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor visibility across search + display + video placements, you’ll usually need more than a traditional PPC keyword tool. The strongest options fall into a few categories:

Best tools by what you want to uncover

1. “Where are competitors running display and video ads?”

Use:

• Adbeat — one of the strongest options for seeing competitor display creatives, publisher sites, ad networks, native placements, and video formats. Adbeat
• Similarweb Ad Intelligence — covers search, display, social, and video formats with advertiser, creative, publisher, and campaign insights. Similarweb Knowledge Center

2. “What Google Ads keywords, copy, and campaigns are competitors running?”

Use:

• SpyFu — strong for historical Google Ads keywords, ad variations, and competitor PPC research. SpyFu
• Semrush Advertising Research — strong for paid keyword overlap, competitors, and search ad analysis. Semrush

3. “I need a client-facing competitive report”

Usually:

• Similarweb — better executive reporting because it combines paid channels, traffic estimates, competitors, and market context. Similarweb
• Semrush — easier if clients already receive SEO/PPC reports from you.

My typical agency stack recommendation

For a paid media manager handling multiple clients:

Budget-conscious stack

• SpyFu → search competitor keywords/copy
• Google Ads Transparency Center → manual creative checks
• Semrush → reporting layer

More advanced PPC agency stack

• Similarweb → cross-channel intelligence
• Adbeat → display/video placement intelligence
• Semrush → keyword and SEO/PPC workflow

Enterprise / competitive intelligence

• Similarweb + Adbeat + a creative intelligence platform (such as Moat)

One caveat: no competitor tool can perfectly reveal another advertiser’s exact Google Display Network placements, bids, audiences, or spend. Most platforms use a mixture of crawled ads, observed placements, traffic panels, and modeled estimates. Similarweb Knowledge Center Adbeat

If your clients are mostly B2B lead gen, ecommerce, local services, or SaaS, the best tool mix changes quite a bit.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that covers search + display + video placements, there are several good options—but they have different strengths.

My shortlist

1. Semrush + AdClarity — probably the best fit for you

The interesting part is that Semrush's normal Advertising Research is primarily your search intelligence layer: competitor paid keywords, ad copy, historical activity, estimated traffic/cost, etc. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity adds the piece you're asking about: display, video and social advertising intelligence, including competitor creatives, placement choices, publishers/platforms and spend/impression-type estimates. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush Semrush

That's particularly useful for an agency because you can build a competitor report like:

Search: What keywords are they buying?
Display: What sites are they appearing on?
Video: Which YouTube/video environments are they using?
Creative: What messaging/creative are they running?
History: When did they launch/change campaigns?

2. Adbeat — excellent if display is the priority

adbeat.com is probably the tool I'd investigate first if your clients spend heavily on GDN/programmatic/display/native/video.

It specifically exposes competitors' ads, publishers, ad networks and landing pages, and covers standard display, native, video, interstitial and other formats. Adbeat

The really valuable agency feature is placement intelligence: you can identify where competitors are buying traffic and discover publisher opportunities. Adbeat

Its current pricing page also explicitly lists publisher placement URLs, desktop/mobile filtering, ad networks and direct publisher buys. Adbeat

So if your question is:

"Where exactly are my competitor's display ads running?"

Adbeat is one of the strongest answers.

3. Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — worth considering for enterprise clients

Pathmatics by Sensor Tower is another major advertising-intelligence platform. It's particularly interesting if you need cross-channel media intelligence at scale, rather than just PPC keyword research. It's also commonly positioned against Adbeat in the competitive-intelligence category. G2

I'd look at this more seriously if you're managing larger brands and need competitive spend/share-of-voice analysis across channels.

4. Similarweb — good broader intelligence layer

similarweb.com is useful when you want to connect ad intelligence to the overall competitive picture—traffic sources, audience, referrals, search, paid traffic, etc.

I'd generally choose it alongside a dedicated ad-intelligence platform rather than as your sole tool for granular display-placement research.

5. SpyFu — great search companion, not your display solution

spyfu.com is excellent for the classic PPC questions:

• What keywords does the competitor bid on?
• What ads have they run?
• How long have they run them?
• Who are their paid-search competitors?
• What landing pages are they using?

But I wouldn't buy SpyFu specifically to answer "where are their display/video ads running?"

What I'd use for a paid-search agency

If you're trying to build a competitive research workflow for client reporting, I'd narrow it to:

Best overall:
Semrush + AdClarity

Best for serious display/programmatic research:
Adbeat

Best enterprise/media-intelligence option:
Pathmatics / Sensor Tower

And I'd think of them as complementary rather than interchangeable:

Semrush Advertising Research → Google paid search
AdClarity / Adbeat → display + video + publishers/placements
Pathmatics → broader cross-channel media intelligence

One particularly useful workflow is to start with Semrush to discover the client's actual paid-search competitors, then run those domains through AdClarity or Adbeat to see whether those same competitors are also investing heavily in display/video. Semrush itself recommends essentially this separation between its paid-search research and AdClarity for display/video/social analysis. Semrush

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly B2B, ecommerce, local, SaaS, etc., I can also rank these by price, data depth, placement visibility, historical data, and agency reporting and tell you which one I'd actually pay for.

"Where exactly are my competitor's display ads running?"

Adbeat is one of the strongest answers.

3. Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — worth considering for enterprise clients

Pathmatics by Sensor Tower is another major advertising-intelligence platform. It's particularly interesting if you need cross-channel media intelligence at scale, rather than just PPC keyword research. It's also commonly positioned against Adbeat in the competitive-intelligence category. g2.com

I'd look at this more seriously if you're managing larger brands and need competitive spend/share-of-voice analysis across channels.

4. Similarweb — good broader intelligence layer

similarweb.com is useful when you want to connect ad intelligence to the overall competitive picture—traffic sources, audience, referrals, search, paid traffic, etc.

I'd generally choose it alongside a dedicated ad-intelligence platform rather than as your sole tool for granular display-placement research.

5. SpyFu — great search companion, not your display solution

If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor ad intelligence across Search + Display + Video, you’ll usually need a stack rather than one tool. Most PPC tools are strong on Google Search ads, while a smaller group has meaningful display/video placement intelligence. Similarweb Adbeat

Here are the main competitors to evaluate:

Best tools by need

1. You want to know where competitors' display ads are running

Start with:

• Adbeat — one of the better-known tools for seeing competitor display creatives, publishers, ad networks, landing pages, and formats including video/native/display. Adbeat
• Pathmatics — stronger for enterprise-level media measurement, spend estimates, and broader digital advertising visibility. Backlinko

Useful questions these answer:

• Which publishers are carrying competitor ads?
• Are they buying native, banner, pre-roll, or programmatic?
• Which creative concepts have been running longest?
• Which landing pages are they pushing?

2. You want Google Ads competitor keywords + ad copy

Best options:

• SpyFu — strong historical PPC keyword and ad variation database. SpyFu
• semrush.com — good for competitor paid keywords, ads, estimated spend, and landing pages. Semrush
• Similarweb — combines PPC data with broader traffic/channel analysis. Similarweb

3. You want YouTube/video competitor ads

Look more toward:

• Similarweb — broader paid channel intelligence including video/social/display views. Similarweb
• Pathmatics — enterprise-grade video advertising intelligence. Backlinko
• Adbeat — useful for video ad formats within its display/programmatic coverage. Adbeat

Typical agency stack

For a paid search agency managing multiple clients, a practical setup is:

Budget-conscious

• SpyFu → Search competitor keywords/ad history
• Semrush → PPC + SEO competitor research
• Adbeat → Display placement intelligence

Mid-market agency

• Semrush + Similarweb + Adbeat

Enterprise / large accounts

• Similarweb + Pathmatics + Adbeat + Moat

One caveat

No competitor tool can truly reveal all competitor placements because much of programmatic buying, audience targeting, and auction data is private. These platforms rely on combinations of crawled ads, panels, partnerships, and modeled estimates, so they’re best used for directional intelligence and creative strategy, not exact spend/bid replication. Adbeat Backlinko

For a PPC agency workflow, I’d usually prioritize:

1. Adbeat for “where are they showing?”
2. SpyFu/Semrush for “what are they bidding on?”
3. Similarweb for “how does their paid strategy fit into their whole acquisition mix?” Similarweb SpyFu

Yes. If you're managing paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence that extends beyond Google/Bing search into display + video placements, the field narrows considerably.

Best options

My shortlist for an agency would be Similarweb, Semrush + AdClarity, and Adbeat.

1. Similarweb — strongest single-platform option

Similarweb now positions its Ad Intelligence product specifically around seeing competitors' display, video, social, and search activity. It includes competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends, and channel mix. Similarweb

That's particularly useful if your question is:

"Where is this competitor spending money across the entire paid ecosystem?"

I'd lean toward this if you're doing client-level competitive audits and strategy, rather than just looking for individual ads.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — probably the best agency stack

Semrush's regular Advertising Research is very good for paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, historical activity, competitors, etc. Its data goes back to 2012 for paid search. Semrush Semrush

The interesting part for your use case is AdClarity, which Semrush now integrates into its advertising offering. It covers display, video and social, including publisher/placement choices, creatives and estimated spend. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush

So you can effectively have:

Search → keywords → ad copy → landing pages → display → video → publishers/placements

in one broader competitive workflow.

For someone managing multiple clients, this is probably the first one I'd trial.

3. Adbeat — best if display placement intelligence is the priority

Adbeat is much more specialized.

It lets you investigate competitors' publishers, ad networks, landing pages and creatives, with coverage including standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers. Adbeat

This is the one I'd investigate if your question is more like:

"Which websites and ad networks are actually carrying my competitor's campaigns?"

rather than:

"What is my competitor doing in paid search?"

Adbeat is particularly interesting for programmatic/display prospecting and competitive placement analysis.

What I'd choose for paid-search client management

I'd rank them:

1. Semrush + AdClarity — best balance of search + display/video + agency reporting.
2. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best broader cross-channel competitive intelligence.
3. Adbeat — best specialist tool for digging into display/video placements and publisher strategy.
4. SpyFu — excellent search/PPC intelligence, but I'd pair it with a dedicated display intelligence product.

One important distinction: "can see the competitor's ad" isn't the same as "can identify where that ad was served." For your particular requirement, I'd prioritize tools that expose publisher/placement, creative, campaign, impression/spend estimates and historical appearance, rather than ordinary PPC spy tools.

If you tell me your typical clients (e.g. B2B SaaS, ecommerce, local services, legal, healthcare) and whether you care more about Google Display/YouTube specifically vs programmatic display, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools actually worth paying for and compare their approximate pricing/features.

Similarweb now positions its Ad Intelligence product specifically around seeing competitors' display, video, social, and search activity. It includes competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends, and channel mix. Similarweb

That's particularly useful if your question is:

"Where is this competitor spending money across the entire paid ecosystem?"

I'd lean toward this if you're doing client-level competitive audits and strategy, rather than just looking for individual ads.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — probably the best agency stack

Semrush's regular Advertising Research is very good for paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, historical activity, competitors, etc. Its data goes back to 2012 for paid search. Semrush Semrush

The interesting part for your use case is AdClarity, which Semrush now integrates into its advertising offering. It covers display, video and social, including publisher/placement choices, creatives and estimated spend. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush

So you can effectively have:

Search → keywords → ad copy → landing pages → display → video → publishers/placements

in one broader competitive workflow.

For someone managing multiple clients, this is probably the first one I'd trial.

3. Adbeat — best if display placement intelligence is the priority

Adbeat is much more specialized.

It lets you investigate competitors' publishers, ad networks, landing pages and creatives, with coverage including standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers.

This is the one I'd investigate if your question is more like:

"Which websites and ad networks are actually carrying my competitor's campaigns?"

rather than:

"What is my competitor doing in paid search?"

Adbeat is particularly interesting for programmatic/display prospecting and competitive placement analysis.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across Search + Display + Video, I’d look beyond the traditional SEO/PPC tools.

Best options

1. Similarweb — probably the closest match to what you're asking for

Similarweb's current Ad Intelligence product explicitly covers display, video, social, and search, including competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends, placements, and channel mix. Similarweb Similarweb

For an agency, the interesting part is that you can go from:

Competitor → campaign → creative → placement → landing page → estimated spend

rather than just seeing which keywords they're bidding on.

I'd put this at the top if your goal is cross-channel competitor intelligence.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — very strong agency option

Semrush's normal Advertising Research is particularly good for Google Search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, landing pages and historical activity. Semrush Semrush

But the important distinction is AdClarity. Semrush says AdClarity covers display, video and social, including publisher sites and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Semrush Semrush

So the combination is compelling:

• Search: Semrush Advertising Research
• Display/video/social: AdClarity
• Shopping: Semrush PLA Research
• Reporting: Semrush ecosystem

If you're already paying for Semrush, I'd investigate whether adding AdClarity gets you what you need before buying another platform.

3. Adbeat — particularly good for display

If your clients spend meaningful money on programmatic/display, I'd take a serious look at Adbeat.

It focuses heavily on competitive display intelligence: advertiser ads, publishers, ad networks, landing pages, ad formats and historical creative. Its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitials and other formats. Adbeat

Its strength isn't really "which keywords is the competitor bidding on?" It's more:

Where is this advertiser buying media, what are they running, and which publishers/placements appear important?

That's extremely useful for building a competitor placement strategy.

My agency-oriented shortlist

If I were evaluating these specifically for paid-search client management, I'd test them in this order:

1. Similarweb — best if you want one cross-channel intelligence layer.
2. Semrush + AdClarity — best if Search is your core competency but you also need Display/Video/Social.
3. Adbeat — best if Display/Video placement intelligence is the priority.
4. SpyFu — excellent supplementary tool for Search/PPC, but I wouldn't buy it specifically to solve your Display/Video requirement.
5. iSpionage — similarly useful for Search/landing-page intelligence, but not my first choice for cross-channel placement research.

One important caveat: these platforms generally provide competitive intelligence/estimates, not the competitor's actual Google Ads or DSP account data. Placement, spend, impressions and performance figures should therefore be treated as modeled intelligence rather than ground truth.

If you tell me roughly what your clients advertise (e.g. SaaS, ecommerce, local services, B2B) and whether you're more interested in "see their ads" vs. "see exactly where they're running", I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for.

Where is this advertiser buying media, what are they running, and which publishers/placements appear important?

That's extremely useful for building a competitor placement strategy.

My agency-oriented shortlist

If I were evaluating these specifically for paid-search client management, I'd test them in this order:

2. Semrush + AdClarity — very strong agency option

Semrush's normal Advertising Research is particularly good for Google Search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, landing pages and historical activity.

But the important distinction is AdClarity. Semrush says AdClarity covers display, video and social, including publisher sites and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

So the combination is compelling:

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google Search into display/video placements, there are a few strong options.

Best options

1. similarweb.com — probably the closest match to what you're asking for

Similarweb's current Ad Intelligence product covers search, display, social and GenAI, and supports text, banner, video and native formats. It also provides information about the publishers/platforms distributing the ads. Similarweb Similarweb

For an agency, that's useful because you can go from:

Competitor → channel → creative → campaign → publisher/platform → estimated spend/impressions

rather than just seeing which keywords they're bidding on.

I'd shortlist this first if you want one platform across Search + Display + Video.

2. semrush.com + AdClarity

Semrush is particularly strong for the search side: competitor paid keywords, ad copy, historical activity, estimated spend, etc. Semrush Semrush

For display/video, Semrush's AdClarity product fills the gap. Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as providing Display Ads and Video Ads competitor intelligence, including publisher sites and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok. Semrush Semrush

This is a compelling choice if your agency already lives in Semrush.

3. adbeat.com — best if placements are the priority

Adbeat is much more specialized around display/programmatic/native/video competitive intelligence.

It can show competitors':

• Ad creatives
• Publishers and placement URLs
• Ad networks
• Landing pages
• Estimated spend/share of voice
• Desktop vs. mobile activity
• Display, native and video ads
• Historical activity

Adbeat explicitly says its coverage includes standard display, native, video ads, interstitials and page takeovers, and its reporting can expose publisher placement URLs. Adbeat Adbeat

So if a client asks:

"Where is our competitor actually buying display inventory?"

Adbeat is one of the tools I'd look at first.

4. spyfu.com — excellent for Search, not the tool I'd buy for display/video

SpyFu is very good for traditional PPC competitive intelligence: paid keywords, ad history, ad variations, estimated spend, competitors, etc. SpyFu SpyFu

But if your requirement is specifically "show me the display/video ads AND where they're running", I'd put Similarweb/AdClarity/Adbeat ahead of it.

My agency-oriented recommendation

If you're building a competitive-research process for multiple clients, I'd think about it this way:

• Search-heavy clients: SpyFu or Semrush
• Search + Display + Video: Similarweb Ad Intelligence
• Already invested in Semrush: Semrush + AdClarity
• Programmatic/display-heavy clients: Adbeat
• Best two-tool combination: Semrush/SpyFu + Adbeat if you want particularly deep Search + placement intelligence.

One important caveat: these platforms are competitive-intelligence/estimated datasets, not a literal feed of every impression a competitor bought. Coverage and spend/placement estimates can vary by network, geography, device, and format.

If you tell me your typical client size (SMB, $10k/mo, $100k+/mo) and whether you care more about Google Display/YouTube vs. programmatic, I can narrow this down to the 3 tools I'd actually pay for, including approximate pricing and what each gives you that the others don't.

4. spyfu.com — excellent for Search, not the tool I'd buy for display/video

SpyFu is very good for traditional PPC competitive intelligence: paid keywords, ad history, ad variations, estimated spend, competitors, etc. spyfu.com spyfu.com

But if your requirement is specifically "show me the display/video ads AND where they're running", I'd put Similarweb/AdClarity/Adbeat ahead of it.

My agency-oriented recommendation

If you're building a competitive-research process for multiple clients, I'd think about it this way:

For display/video, Semrush's AdClarity product fills the gap. Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as providing Display Ads and Video Ads competitor intelligence, including publisher sites and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok.

This is a compelling choice if your agency already lives in Semrush.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across Search + Display + Video, I’d separate the tools into a few tiers because the traditional PPC tools are much stronger on Search than on placements.

Best options

1. similarweb.com — best cross-channel option

This is probably the closest match to what you're describing. Similarweb says its Ad Intelligence product covers display, video, social, and search, including competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends, and channel mix. Similarweb

For an agency, I'd look at it when you want to answer questions like:

• What channels is this competitor actually investing in?
• Which display/video creatives are they running?
• Where are their ads appearing?
• Which publishers/sites are important?
• What landing pages are they sending traffic to?
• How does their channel mix compare with my client's?

Best for: getting a high-level picture of a competitor's entire paid acquisition strategy.

2. semrush.com — best if you already use Semrush

Semrush's traditional Advertising Research is quite good for Search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, historical activity, etc. It has historical paid-search data going back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

The interesting part for your use case is AdClarity. Semrush describes AdClarity as covering display, video, and social advertising, including competitor creative strategy, ad formats, placement choices, and spend patterns. Semrush

Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush

So you could effectively have:

Search: Semrush Advertising Research
Shopping: Semrush PLA Research
Display/video/social: AdClarity

That's a particularly attractive setup for an agency because you're not maintaining several completely separate platforms.

3. adbeat.com — best for deep Display/Programmatic intelligence

If your priority is specifically "Where are my competitors' display ads actually running?", I'd put Adbeat near the top.

Adbeat covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and lets you investigate advertisers, ad networks, publishers and landing pages. Adbeat

Its placement information is particularly useful: its paid plans include publisher placement URLs, while higher tiers add things like direct publisher buys and competitor alerts. Adbeat

This is the type of tool I'd use for questions such as:

"Competitor X is spending heavily on display. Which sites are they buying, what creatives are they using, and which publishers appear repeatedly?"

Best for: media planners, programmatic teams, and agencies doing serious display competitive analysis.

4. spyfu.com — excellent Search complement

SpyFu is worth considering if the Search side is particularly important. But I wouldn't buy it specifically for your Display/Video-placement requirement.

Similarly, Semrush's own Advertising Research is fundamentally a paid-search product; its documentation focuses on keywords, rankings, ad copy, landing pages and historical Search activity. Semrush Semrush

So think of SpyFu/Semrush/other PPC suites as the Search intelligence layer, rather than your primary display-placement intelligence layer.

What I'd use for a paid-search agency

If I were building the stack for an agency, I'd shortlist it this way:

Best single broad platform:
Similarweb Ad Intelligence

Best Semrush ecosystem:
Semrush + AdClarity

Best specialist for Display/Programmatic:
Adbeat

Best Search-focused companion:
SpyFu or Semrush Advertising Research

The important distinction is that "can see competitor ads" isn't the same as "can see where those ads ran." For your particular requirement, I'd put much more weight on the latter. Adbeat and AdClarity are consequently more interesting than the conventional PPC spy tools.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly B2B, ecommerce, local services, or lead gen, I can also give you a 2026 agency-focused comparison of ~8–10 tools, including estimated pricing, Google Search/YouTube/Display coverage, placement-level visibility, historical depth, and which I'd actually pay for.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that covers Search + Display + Video, the market breaks down roughly like this:

My picks for an agency

1. Similarweb — best if you want one cross-channel intelligence platform.
Its Ad Intelligence product explicitly covers display, video, social, and search, including competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, publisher/inventory data, channel mix and spend trends. Similarweb

2. Semrush + AdClarity — probably the most practical agency combination.
Semrush's traditional Advertising Research is excellent for paid-search keywords, ads, competitors, landing pages and historical activity. Semrush Semrush
Then AdClarity adds display/video/social, including publishers, placements, formats, creatives and spend patterns. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush

3. Adbeat — use this when Display intelligence is the priority.
It's considerably more display-centric than SpyFu/Semrush. It tracks publisher relationships, creatives, landing pages and formats including standard display, native, video, interstitial and page-takeover ads. Adbeat

4. SpyFu — great complement, but not what I'd buy for your full requirement.
It's very good for identifying competitors' Google Ads keywords and historical ad tests, but its core strength is Search/PPC rather than Display and Video. SpyFu

If your actual goal is "show me where my competitors are advertising"

I'd narrow it to:

• Search: Semrush or SpyFu
• Display + Video placements: Adbeat or AdClarity
• Search + Display + Video in one competitive view: Similarweb
• Agency reporting/workflow: Semrush + AdClarity

One important distinction: "seeing the ad" and "seeing where the ad ran" are different capabilities. For your use case, I'd prioritize tools that expose the publisher/URL/channel, creative, format, estimated impressions/spend, and historical run dates, rather than just maintaining a swipe file.

If you tell me your approximate monthly tool budget (e.g. <$300, $300–$1k, $1k+) and whether your clients are mostly B2B, ecommerce, or local, I can give you a tighter 3-tool shortlist and explain which one I'd actually buy.

3. Adbeat — use this when Display intelligence is the priority.
It's considerably more display-centric than SpyFu/Semrush. It tracks publisher relationships, creatives, landing pages and formats including standard display, native, video, interstitial and page-takeover ads.

4. SpyFu — great complement, but not what I'd buy for your full requirement.
It's very good for identifying competitors' Google Ads keywords and historical ad tests, but its core strength is Search/PPC rather than Display and Video.

If your actual goal is "show me where my competitors are advertising"

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across Search + Display + Video, I’d look beyond the traditional PPC tools.

Best options

1. Similarweb — probably the closest fit to what you're describing

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence specifically covers search, display, social and video, and lets you investigate competitors' creatives, publishers, campaigns, keywords and estimated spend. Similarweb Similarweb

For an agency, that's particularly useful because you can go from:

"Who are my client's competitors bidding on?"

to:

"What are those competitors running on display/video, what publishers are carrying them, what creatives are they using, and approximately how much are they spending?"

Their current documentation says display data includes banner, native and video formats, including VAST video, and provides advertiser/publisher/campaign/creative information. Similarweb

I'd put this at #1 if you want one platform.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent agency combination

The normal Semrush Advertising Research product is very good for Google Search/PPC: competitor keywords, ads, positions, historical activity, landing pages, etc. Semrush Semrush

The important part for your question is AdClarity, which Semrush now incorporates into its ecosystem. It covers display, video and social, including competitor creatives, placement choices and estimated spend. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush

Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as letting you discover competitors advertising on the same publisher sites and YouTube channels, which makes it much more useful for your use case than standard Semrush PPC research alone. Semrush

If you're already a Semrush agency user, I'd investigate AdClarity before buying another platform.

3. Adbeat — strongest specialist for Display/Video

If your question is specifically:

"Where exactly are my competitors' display ads appearing?"

I'd put Adbeat very high on the list.

It specializes in competitive display intelligence and provides competitor ads, ad networks, publishers and landing pages. Its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitial and other formats, including pre-roll video. Adbeat

This makes it particularly useful for building things like:

• Competitor publisher lists
• Display placement audits
• Competitor creative libraries
• Estimated spend comparisons
• Publisher overlap analysis
• "Where is Competitor X buying that my client isn't?"
• Display prospecting lists

Adbeat + a search-focused tool is a very strong agency stack.

4. SpyFu — still excellent, but mainly Search

SpyFu remains one of my picks for Google Search competitor research. It provides competitor paid keywords, ad history, tested ads and long-term PPC data. SpyFu

But I wouldn't buy it specifically for your Display/Video requirement. Its strength is answering:

"What is this competitor doing in Google Search?"

rather than:

"Which publishers and video environments are carrying this competitor's ads?"

What I'd choose for an agency

If I were setting this up for client competitive intelligence, I'd narrow it to:

Best single platform:
Similarweb Ad Intelligence — strongest fit for Search + Display + Video in one place. Similarweb

Best specialist stack:
Semrush Advertising Research + Adbeat — Semrush for Search, Adbeat for Display/Video placement depth.

Best if you're already heavily invested in Semrush:
Semrush + AdClarity — probably the least disruptive option because you get Search intelligence alongside Display/Video intelligence. Semrush

One important caveat: these platforms are competitive-intelligence estimates, not access to competitors' actual Google Ads/DV360 accounts. Spend, impressions, placements and even ad detection are modeled/observed data rather than first-party campaign data. Similarweb explicitly describes its spend/impression numbers as estimates based on traffic, CPM and CTR modeling. Similarweb

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly local SMB, ecommerce, B2B, or enterprise, I can also give you a 2026 agency-tool stack ranked by price, coverage, and usefulness for client reporting.

If your question is specifically:

"Where exactly are my competitors' display ads appearing?"

I'd put Adbeat very high on the list.

It specializes in competitive display intelligence and provides competitor ads, ad networks, publishers and landing pages. Its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitial and other formats, including pre-roll video.

This makes it particularly useful for building things like:

• Competitor publisher lists
• Display placement audits
• Competitor creative libraries
• Estimated spend comparisons
• Publisher overlap analysis
• "Where is Competitor X buying that my client isn't?"
• Display prospecting lists

Adbeat + a search-focused tool is a very strong agency stack.

Yes. If you manage paid search and want visibility into competitors’ display/video placements, creatives, publishers, and search ads, you’ll want an ad-intelligence platform rather than a traditional SEO/PPC tool alone.

Best options

1. Semrush — probably the most practical for an agency

Semrush is interesting because you can cover both sides in one ecosystem.

Its Advertising Research gives you competitor paid-search keywords, ads, positions, landing pages and historical activity. Semrush Semrush

More importantly for your question, its AdClarity product covers display, video and social, including competitor creatives, ad formats, placement choices and estimated spend. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush Semrush

So a fairly compelling agency workflow is:

Semrush Advertising Research → Search strategy
Semrush AdClarity → Display/video/social strategy

That makes Semrush my #1 choice if you want one platform for client competitive research.

2. Similarweb — strongest cross-channel view

Similarweb has an Ad Intelligence product that explicitly combines search, display, social and video. It can show competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends and channel mix. Similarweb

I would lean toward Similarweb when the question you're trying to answer is:

"How is this competitor allocating their entire digital advertising budget?"

rather than simply:

"What Google Ads keywords are they bidding on?"

Its strength is the broader competitive/market picture.

3. Adbeat — strongest if placements are the priority

Adbeat is particularly compelling for display and programmatic research.

It lets you investigate competitor ads, ad networks, publishers, landing pages and creative, with coverage of standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers. Adbeat

For example, you can use it to answer:

• Which publishers are carrying my competitor's ads?
• What creatives are they running?
• Which landing pages are they sending traffic to?
• Which ad networks are involved?
• How long has a creative been running?
• Where does their display strategy appear to be concentrated?

If placement intelligence is the thing you care about most, I'd put Adbeat ahead of Semrush.

4. SpyFu — great companion for search, not your answer for display/video

SpyFu is still useful for traditional PPC competitor research: keywords, ad copy, historical Google Ads activity, etc.

But I wouldn't buy it specifically for your stated requirement. You're looking for search + display + video + placement intelligence, and SpyFu is much more search-centric. AdSpyder

5. Pathmatics / Sensor Tower — enterprise option

If you're handling large national brands and want media-spend/share-of-voice intelligence across channels, Pathmatics (now under Sensor Tower) is worth evaluating.

It's more of an enterprise advertising intelligence proposition than a lightweight PPC research tool, so it makes more sense when you're doing substantial competitive/media analysis for clients.

What I'd choose for a paid-search agency

I'd narrow it to three:

Best single platform: Semrush + AdClarity
You get search PPC research plus display/video/social intelligence in one ecosystem. Semrush

Best for placement intelligence: Adbeat
Especially if your clients ask "Where exactly are competitors buying display/video inventory?"

Best for broader competitive intelligence: Similarweb
Best when you want to connect advertising with traffic, audience, market share and channel-level behavior.

One important caveat

None of these tools literally gives you a competitor's Google Ads account. The search data is modeled/observed intelligence, while display/video platforms generally derive their data from observed ad activity and publisher/network monitoring. So I'd treat spend, impressions, CPC, and "top-performing" estimates as directional, not as the client's actual account data.

For agency work, I actually like a Semrush + Adbeat combination: Semrush for search/Shopping + broader client reporting, and Adbeat for deep display/video placement and creative research. Adbeat Semrush

Yes. If you're managing paid search for clients, I’d separate the market into search intelligence and cross-channel ad intelligence. The tools that are excellent for Google Search are not necessarily good at showing actual display/video placements.

Best options

1. Similarweb — probably the closest to what you're describing

Similarweb has an Ad Intelligence product that explicitly covers display, video, social, and search. It lets you investigate competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends, and the channels they're using. Similarweb Similarweb

For an agency, that's attractive because you can go from:

Competitor → search ads → display campaigns → video → creative → landing page → estimated spend

rather than stitching several products together.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — strongest agency ecosystem

Semrush is particularly strong for the search side: competitor keywords, ad copy, historical activity, positions, competitors, etc. Its Advertising Research database goes back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity fills the display/video gap. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers and provides competitor creative, formats, placement choices and spend patterns across display, video and social. Semrush

That's a pretty compelling combination if you're doing this for multiple clients.

3. Adbeat — I'd look at this if placements are your priority

Adbeat is much more focused on display advertising intelligence than traditional SEO/PPC suites.

Its strength is answering questions like:

• Where is this competitor buying?
• Which publishers are carrying their ads?
• Which creatives are they running?
• What landing pages are they sending traffic to?
• Which publishers/ads appear to be working?
• How does their media buying change over time?

Adbeat specifically describes its product around discovering competitors' profitable publishers, ad copy and landing pages. Adbeat

If your definition of "competitor research" is "show me where they're actually buying media", I'd put Adbeat high on the list.

4. SpyFu — great companion for search, not the whole solution

SpyFu is excellent if the core question is:

"What keywords is my competitor buying and what Google ads have they been running?"

It provides paid keywords, estimated spend, historical ads and competitive PPC data. SpyFu SpyFu

But I wouldn't buy SpyFu as your primary tool if display/video placements are important.

What I'd actually recommend for a PPC agency

If you're managing a meaningful number of client accounts, I'd shortlist these three configurations:

Best single ecosystem:
Similarweb Ad Intelligence — broadest cross-channel view.

Best agency stack:
Semrush Advertising Research + AdClarity — particularly good if your team already lives in Semrush.

Best for serious media-buying/placement research:
Adbeat + Semrush/SpyFu — use Adbeat for display intelligence and the other tool for search.

One important distinction: "can see competitor display ads" doesn't necessarily mean "can tell you every placement." Coverage varies considerably by network, geography, publisher, device and ad format. For client work, I'd test each tool against 3–5 known competitors before committing.

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly B2B, ecommerce, local services, SaaS, etc., I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for, including approximate pricing and what each would let you put into a client competitive-analysis report.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients, I’d separate the market into search-intelligence tools and cross-channel ad-intelligence tools, because very few tools are equally good at Google/Bing search and display/video placement intelligence.

Best options

1. similarweb.com — probably the closest match to what you're describing

Similarweb specifically positions its Ad Intelligence product around seeing competitors' display, video, social, and search activity in one place. It includes creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends and channel-level competitive intelligence. Similarweb Similarweb

I'd consider this if your client reporting needs to answer:

• What competitors are running on Search?
• What display/video campaigns are they running?
• Where are they appearing?
• Which publishers/channels are they using?
• What creatives and landing pages are they using?
• How does their paid-media mix compare with ours?

2. semrush.com + AdClarity

This is particularly attractive for a PPC agency because Semrush's normal Advertising Research is very strong for paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages, etc. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity extends it into display/video/social. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers and lets you examine competitor creative strategy, formats, placements and spend patterns. Semrush

There's an especially useful distinction here:

Semrush = "What are they doing in search?"
AdClarity = "Where/how are they advertising outside search?"

Semrush explicitly describes AdClarity as providing competitor display, video and social campaigns, including publishers and YouTube channels. Semrush Semrush

3. adbeat.com — strongest if placements are the priority

If by "reveal display and video ad placements" you mean actual publisher/website placement intelligence, I'd put Adbeat very high on your list.

It tracks display, native, video and other formats and lets you investigate competitors' ad networks, publishers, landing pages and placements. Adbeat

Its paid plans specifically advertise publisher placement URLs, ad-network filtering and, on higher tiers, direct publisher buys. Adbeat

So for something like:

"Competitor X is spending heavily on these publishers, using these creatives, through these networks, and sending traffic to these landing pages."

Adbeat is particularly useful.

4. spyfu.com — keep it for search

I'd still consider SpyFu if your primary job is Google/Bing competitive PPC research, but I wouldn't buy it specifically to solve your display/video-placement requirement.

For search, the classic workflow is:

competitor → paid keywords → ad copy → historical ads → estimated traffic/spend → landing pages

That's complementary to Adbeat/AdClarity rather than a replacement for them.

5. Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

For larger agency or enterprise clients, Pathmatics is another serious option. It's geared more toward comprehensive advertising intelligence across display, video, social and mobile, with spend/share-of-voice type analysis.

I'd look at it if you're doing large-brand competitive media analysis, rather than simply trying to improve PPC campaigns.

What I'd actually recommend for a PPC agency

If you're managing multiple clients, I'd narrow it to three possible stacks:

💰 Best value / practical agency stack

Semrush + AdClarity

You get strong search intelligence plus display/video/social intelligence without having to maintain completely separate ecosystems. Semrush itself now positions the Advertising Toolkit as covering search, listings, display, video and social. Semrush

🎯 Best for serious placement intelligence

Semrush + Adbeat

This would be my choice if your clients frequently ask:

"Where exactly are our competitors buying ads?"

Adbeat's publisher/placement data is its major differentiator. Adbeat Adbeat

🏢 Best enterprise competitive-intelligence setup

Similarweb + Pathmatics/Adbeat

This is more appropriate when you're producing high-level competitive-media reports for larger advertisers and need spend, channel mix, publishers, creative and market-level benchmarking.

One important caveat

None of these tools should be treated as a literal view of a competitor's complete media-buying account. Spend numbers are estimates, and observed placements depend on the vendor's crawling/data-collection methodology. Adbeat, for example, describes its data as coming from crawlers across many data centers. Adbeat

For client work, I'd therefore use them primarily for directional competitive intelligence rather than saying "Competitor X spent exactly $143,217."

If you tell me your typical clients (e-commerce, SaaS, local businesses, B2B, etc.) and roughly how many accounts you manage, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for, including which one gives you the best Google Search + YouTube + GDN placement coverage.

Yes. If you manage paid search and want to see what competitors are doing in display/video, I’d look beyond traditional PPC tools. The strongest options fall into a few buckets:

1. semrush.com + AdClarity — probably the best fit for you

Since you're already managing paid search, this is probably the most convenient combination.

Semrush's Advertising Research shows competitor paid keywords, ads, ad history, landing pages, and search competitors. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity extends that into display, video, and social. It can show things like:

• Competitor display/video creatives
• Publishers and placements
• Campaigns
• Estimated spend
• Impressions/views
• Share of voice
• Buying methods
• Geography/device
• YouTube and social activity

Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as its deeper tool for display, video, and social competitive intelligence. Semrush Semrush

For an agency, I'd put this at #1 if you want one ecosystem covering search + broader digital advertising.

2. similarweb.com — strongest cross-channel alternative

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence is particularly interesting because it explicitly covers search, display, social and GenAI, with text, banner, video and native formats. It also provides publisher/platform information. Similarweb Similarweb

It's useful if your client reports need to answer:

"Where is this competitor putting their money across the entire digital ecosystem?"

rather than just:

"Which keywords are they bidding on?"

I'd seriously demo this against Semrush/AdClarity if you handle larger clients.

3. adbeat.com — excellent for actual display placements

If placement intelligence is the thing you care about most, Adbeat is one I'd definitely test.

It specializes in competitive display intelligence and can show competitor publishers, ad creatives, landing pages, networks, and placements. Its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitials and other formats. Adbeat Adbeat

One particularly useful capability is publisher placement URLs—so you're getting closer to answering "Where exactly are they buying?" rather than merely "Are they running display?" Adbeat

Adbeat's higher tier also includes direct publisher buys and pre-roll video data. Adbeat

If display prospecting/placement discovery is a major part of your job, I'd put Adbeat near the top of your shortlist.

4. sensortower.com — best for larger-scale media intelligence

Pathmatics is more of an enterprise advertising intelligence platform. It tracks estimated spend/impressions and creatives across social, display, video, mobile, OTT/CTV and other channels. Sensor Tower

It can give you:

• Competitor spend
• Impression estimates
• Creative-level analysis
• Site targeting
• Flighting
• Placement
• Share of voice
• Historical trends
• OTT/CTV activity

It also covers platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit and others. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

I'd lean toward this if you're doing serious competitive/media planning for enterprise clients, rather than just needing a PPC spy tool.

What I'd choose for an agency

My shortlist would be:

1. Semrush + AdClarity — best combination if search is your core business.
2. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best broad cross-channel view.
3. Adbeat — best if finding display publishers/placements is your priority.
4. Pathmatics — best if you need sophisticated spend, SOV, video/CTV and enterprise media intelligence.

One important distinction: none of these should be treated as a literal feed of every ad a competitor is running. Much of the underlying information is modeled/observed data, and coverage varies by network, geography, device and format. For example, Adbeat's own plans differentiate between display/native coverage and its higher-tier pre-roll video coverage. Adbeat

If your specific goal is "I enter a competitor domain and get their search keywords + actual display ads + exact websites/YouTube channels where the ads appeared + estimated spend", I can also give you a side-by-side of the 5–7 best tools for exactly that workflow, including approximate pricing and which one I'd buy for a PPC agency.

"Which keywords are they bidding on?"

I'd seriously demo this against Semrush/AdClarity if you handle larger clients.

3. adbeat.com — excellent for actual display placements

If placement intelligence is the thing you care about most, Adbeat is one I'd definitely test.

It specializes in competitive display intelligence and can show competitor publishers, ad creatives, landing pages, networks, and placements. Its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitials and other formats. adbeat.com adbeat.com

One particularly useful capability is publisher placement URLs—so you're getting closer to answering "Where exactly are they buying?" rather than merely "Are they running display?" adbeat.com

Adbeat's higher tier also includes direct publisher buys and pre-roll video data.

If display prospecting/placement discovery is a major part of your job, I'd put Adbeat near the top of your shortlist.

Yes. If your goal is true competitor ad intelligence across Search + Display + Video, rather than just SEO/PPC keyword research, there are a few tools I’d put at the top of the list.

Best options

1. Semrush + AdClarity — probably the strongest agency setup

semrush.com

This is particularly interesting for your use case because it's effectively two complementary intelligence layers.

Semrush Advertising Research gives you Search intelligence: competitor paid keywords, ad copy, positions, landing pages and historical activity. Semrush says its historical paid-search data goes back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity handles the part traditional PPC tools are weak at: display, video and social. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers, including display, video and social, and exposes competitor creatives, formats, placement choices and spend patterns. Semrush

That makes this combination particularly useful for an agency:

Search: keywords → ads → landing pages → competitors
Display/video: creative → publisher → placement → campaign → estimated spend

It can also identify competitors advertising on particular publisher sites and YouTube channels. Semrush

My pick if you want one primary platform for client competitive research.

2. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best cross-channel view

similarweb.com

Similarweb's current Ad Intelligence product explicitly covers display, video, social and search. It lets you look at competitors' creatives, landing pages, keywords and spend trends and compare channel mix/share of voice. Similarweb

I'd lean toward Similarweb when your client conversations are more strategic:

• "Where is this competitor putting its budget?"
• "Are they increasing video?"
• "What's their channel mix?"
• "Which competitors have the largest share of voice?"
• "How does our paid-media footprint compare with theirs?"

Semrush/AdClarity feels more ad-ops/creative/placement oriented, while Similarweb is particularly good for the market-level story.

3. Adbeat — excellent if Display/Video is the priority

adbeat.com

Adbeat is one I'd seriously consider if you manage clients with substantial programmatic, display, native or video spend.

It specifically exposes:

• Advertiser → publisher relationships
• Ad networks
• Publishers
• Ad creatives
• Landing pages
• Standard display
• Native
• Video
• Interstitials
• Page takeovers
• Mobile placements

Adbeat also provides estimated spend, share-of-voice comparisons, alerts and historical competitive data. Adbeat

So if the question is "Where exactly is my competitor buying media?", Adbeat is more compelling than a conventional SEO/PPC platform.

The major limitation is that I wouldn't buy Adbeat instead of a search-intelligence tool if Search is a major part of your work.

4. SpyFu — still useful for the Search side

spyfu.com

SpyFu is much more Search/PPC-centric. It's useful for:

• Competitor keywords
• Paid keywords
• Ad history
• Ad copy
• PPC competitors
• Keyword gaps
• SERP history

I'd consider it a Search specialist, rather than the answer to your Display + Video requirement.

5. Google Ads Transparency Center — don't overlook the free option

adstransparency.google.com

For Google specifically, this is extremely useful because you can research an advertiser's ads across Google's ecosystem, including Search, Display and YouTube. It's particularly valuable for understanding what competitors are actually running in Performance Max, where conventional keyword-based competitor tools have a blind spot. Semrush

The downside is that it isn't a substitute for something like AdClarity/Adbeat when you need publisher/placement intelligence, spend estimates, competitive comparisons and systematic monitoring.

What I'd actually use as a paid-search agency

I'd narrow it down to these three stacks:

Best all-around agency stack:
Semrush + AdClarity → Search + Display + Video + Social

Best for sophisticated media intelligence:
Similarweb + Adbeat → broader market intelligence + deep placement intelligence

Lean Search-focused stack:
Semrush or SpyFu + Google Ads Transparency Center → inexpensive way to cover Search and Google creative research

If your specific objective is "I want to enter a competitor's domain and get a list of the websites/apps/YouTube channels where their display and video ads appeared, alongside the actual creatives and estimated spend", I'd put Adbeat and AdClarity at the top of the shortlist. Adbeat is particularly explicit about publisher, network and placement intelligence, while AdClarity gives you broader display/video/social coverage. Adbeat Semrush

If you tell me your typical client size (SMB / $50k+/mo / enterprise) and whether you care more about Google, Meta, or programmatic, I can also narrow this to the 2–3 tools actually worth paying for, including approximate pricing and where their data tends to be strongest.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one layer beyond Google Search intelligence—specifically display/video placements, creatives, publishers, and spend estimates—there are a few tools worth separating by strength.

Best options

1. Similarweb — probably the closest to what you're describing

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence explicitly covers search, display, social and GenAI advertising, with ad formats including text, banners, video and native. It also surfaces publishers/platforms, campaigns, creatives, landing pages and estimated spend. Similarweb Similarweb

For an agency, that's attractive because you can go from:

Competitor → channel mix → campaigns → creatives → publishers/placements → landing pages → estimated spend

rather than stitching together several tools.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent if search is your core

Semrush is particularly strong for the search side: competitor keywords, paid positions, ad copy, historical activity and estimated spend. Its Advertising Research data goes back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

The important part for your question is AdClarity. Semrush says AdClarity covers display, video and social, including publisher sites and YouTube channels, and provides competitor ads, campaigns, creative strategies, placement choices and spend patterns. Its current coverage is stated as 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush Semrush

So if you're already paying for Semrush, I'd investigate AdClarity before buying another platform.

3. Adbeat — best specialist for display

Adbeat is the one I'd look at if your main question is:

"Where exactly is my competitor buying display inventory, what ads are they running, and what publishers/networks seem important?"

Adbeat covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and lets you investigate competitors' publishers, ad networks, ads, landing pages and estimated performance/spend. Adbeat Adbeat

It's less of an all-in-one PPC platform than Semrush/Similarweb, but arguably more useful when placement-level display intelligence is the priority.

4. SpyFu — keep it for search

SpyFu is still very useful for paid-search competitor research: purchased keywords, historical ads, PPC competition and ad testing history. SpyFu

I wouldn't choose it specifically for display/video placement intelligence.

What I'd recommend for a paid-search agency

If you're trying to build a competitor research stack for client accounts, I'd rank them:

1. Similarweb — best if you want search + display + video + publisher/placement intelligence in one system.
2. Semrush + AdClarity — best if you're already heavily invested in Semrush and want to extend search intelligence into display/video.
3. Adbeat — best specialist addition when display/programmatic placement intelligence is particularly important.
4. SpyFu — excellent complementary search tool, but not the one I'd buy for display/video.

One important distinction: these platforms are generally competitive-intelligence/estimation systems, not a literal view into a competitor's Google Ads account. Placement, spend and impression numbers are modeled/collected data rather than the competitor's actual account data. Similarweb, for example, describes its display data as combining multiple sources including ad collection, panels, partners and other measurement sources. Similarweb

If your actual goal is "I want to enter a competitor's domain and get a list of every site/YouTube channel where they're running ads, the creatives, dates, estimated spend, and then see their Search ads alongside it", Similarweb vs. AdClarity vs. Adbeat is the comparison I'd focus on.

For an agency, that's attractive because you can go from:

Competitor → channel mix → campaigns → creatives → publishers/placements → landing pages → estimated spend

rather than stitching together several tools.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent if search is your core

Semrush is particularly strong for the search side: competitor keywords, paid positions, ad copy, historical activity and estimated spend. Its Advertising Research data goes back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

The important part for your question is AdClarity. Semrush says AdClarity covers display, video and social, including publisher sites and YouTube channels, and provides competitor ads, campaigns, creative strategies, placement choices and spend patterns. Its current coverage is stated as 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush Semrush

So if you're already paying for Semrush, I'd investigate AdClarity before buying another platform.

3. Adbeat — best specialist for display

Adbeat is the one I'd look at if your main question is:

"Where exactly is my competitor buying display inventory, what ads are they running, and what publishers/networks seem important?"

Adbeat covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and lets you investigate competitors' publishers, ad networks, ads, landing pages and estimated performance/spend. adbeat.com beta.adbeat.com

It's less of an all-in-one PPC platform than Semrush/Similarweb, but arguably more useful when placement-level display intelligence is the priority.

4. SpyFu — keep it for search

SpyFu is still very useful for paid-search competitor research: purchased keywords, historical ads, PPC competition and ad testing history.

I wouldn't choose it specifically for display/video placement intelligence.

What I'd recommend for a paid-search agency

If you're trying to build a competitor research stack for client accounts, I'd rank them:

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across search + display + video, there are a few tools worth looking at. The big distinction is that many PPC tools are excellent at search but weak on display/video.

My shortlist

1. Similarweb — probably the best single platform

Similarweb is particularly interesting for what you're describing. Its current Ad Intelligence product covers search, display, social and GenAI, with text, banner, video and native formats. It can show advertisers, creatives, publishers, campaigns, estimated spend/impressions and performance over time. Similarweb Knowledge Center SimilarWeb

For an agency, I'd look closely at this if you want to answer questions like:

• What competitors are spending?
• Which publishers are carrying their display ads?
• What video creatives are they running?
• Which landing pages are they pushing?
• How does their search activity compare with display?
• Are they increasing/decreasing investment?

One caveat: Similarweb says some placement-position functionality is still coming, so "where on the page did the ad appear?" is not necessarily as granular as "which publisher/site carried it." Similarweb Knowledge Center

similarweb.com

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent agency combination

If you're already using Semrush, this is probably the easiest ecosystem to evaluate.

Semrush Advertising Research is strong for Google paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, landing pages, historical ads and estimated paid traffic/cost. Its historical data goes back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

Then AdClarity fills the display/video gap. Semrush says AdClarity covers display, video and social, including publisher sites and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. Semrush Semrush

That's a pretty compelling agency workflow:

Competitor → search keywords/ads → display creatives → video creatives → publishers/placements → estimated spend → landing pages

semrush.com

3. Adbeat — if display/programmatic is the priority

Adbeat is one I'd investigate if your clients spend substantially on programmatic/display.

It's more specialized than Semrush/SpyFu. The value proposition is essentially understanding which advertisers are running which creatives, on which publishers, and through what media-buying ecosystem.

This is the type of tool I'd favor when a client asks:

"Our competitor is everywhere. Where exactly are they buying inventory?"

rather than:

"What keywords are they bidding on?"

4. Pathmatics — enterprise-level media intelligence

Pathmatics is another serious option for larger agencies/brands. It's oriented toward competitive advertising spend, creative and channel intelligence rather than being primarily an SEO/PPC platform.

I'd put it in the enterprise/expensive bucket and evaluate it if you're managing sizeable clients where knowing competitors' broader media investment is strategically valuable.

5. SpyFu — great search tool, not the answer for display/video

SpyFu is worth considering if your main requirement is Google/Bing paid search competitor research.

But I wouldn't buy it specifically for your stated requirement. If display + video placements are essential, Similarweb, AdClarity, Adbeat or Pathmatics are much more appropriate.

What I'd choose for a PPC agency

If I were setting this up for an agency, I'd narrow it to:

Best single platform: Similarweb
→ Broadest combination of search + display + video + publishers + spend intelligence.

Best if you're already a Semrush shop: Semrush + AdClarity
→ Particularly attractive because you get the search/PPC workflow and then bolt on display/video intelligence. Semrush

Best for serious programmatic/display research: Adbeat
→ More specialized placement/creative intelligence.

Best enterprise option: Pathmatics
→ Worth evaluating when competitive media-spend intelligence is a major client deliverable.

One important caveat: none of these should be treated as a literal log of every ad impression your competitor bought. Spend, impressions, placements and "top ads" are modeled/collected intelligence, so I'd use them for competitive direction and trend analysis rather than claiming exact competitor spend to a client. Similarweb, for example, explicitly describes its spend/impression numbers as estimates based on traffic, CPM and CTR modeling. Similarweb Knowledge Center

If your main goal is "I want to enter a competitor domain and see their Google Search ads + display creatives + YouTube/video ads + the actual sites/channels where they're appearing," I'd start by comparing Similarweb vs. Semrush/AdClarity vs. Adbeat. Those three are the most relevant to that exact workflow.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond SERPs into display/video placements, the landscape looks roughly like this:

My shortlist

1. Similarweb — probably the closest match to what you're asking for.
Its current Ad Intelligence product explicitly covers search, display, social and GenAI, including text, banner, video and native formats, plus publishers/platforms. It can show competitor campaigns, creatives, landing pages, keywords and estimated spend. www.similarweb.com

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent if you're already a Semrush user.
Semrush's native Advertising Research is particularly strong for Google paid search: competitor keywords, ads, historical activity, positions and landing pages. www.semrush.com

For display/video, AdClarity is the important piece. Semrush says it covers display, video and social, including publisher sites and YouTube, and can expose competitor creatives, formats, placement choices and spend patterns. www.semrush.com

Semrush Advertising Toolkit

3. Adbeat — I'd look at this if display placement intelligence is the priority.
Adbeat is much more display-centric. It provides competitor ads, ad networks, publishers, landing pages and traffic sources, with coverage of standard display, native, video, interstitials and other formats. It also offers publisher/ad comparisons, spend/share estimates and alerts. www.adbeat.com

Adbeat

4. SpyFu — great companion for search, not the answer for display/video.
It's very useful for finding domains bidding on your clients' keywords, competitor ad copy and changes in estimated PPC spend. www.spyfu.com

SpyFu PPC Competitor Analysis

If I were building an agency stack

I'd probably choose:

Similarweb → broad cross-channel competitive picture
+ Adbeat → deeper display/programmatic placement intelligence
+ Semrush or SpyFu → granular search-keyword/ad research

If you want one subscription rather than a stack, I'd start by comparing Similarweb vs. Semrush + AdClarity. Similarweb appears to be the cleaner single-platform answer to "show me what competitors are doing across Search + Display + Video + where they're running it." www.similarweb.com

One important caveat: these platforms are competitive-intelligence estimates, not a literal feed of a competitor's Google Ads account. Placement, spend and impression figures should be treated as modeled/observed intelligence rather than exact campaign data.

If you tell me whether your clients are mainly B2B, ecommerce, local/service businesses, or lead gen, I can narrow this down to the 3 tools I'd actually pay for in 2026, including approximate pricing and which one gives the best placement-level data.

Yes. If you’re managing paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google/Bing search ads into display, video, publishers, placements, and creatives, there are a few strong options.

Best tools for your use case

1. Similarweb — probably the best fit for an agency

Similarweb has substantially expanded its Ad Intelligence product. It now covers search, display, video, native and social, with visibility into advertisers, creatives, publishers/platforms, campaigns and estimated spend. Similarweb Similarweb

The interesting part for a paid-search manager is that you can connect:

competitor → keywords → search ads → landing pages → display/video campaigns → publishers → estimated spend

That makes it particularly useful for client competitive audits.

similarweb.com

2. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent if you're already in Semrush

Semrush's normal Advertising Research is particularly good for paid search: competitor keywords, ads, historical trends, landing pages and search competitors. Its database goes back to 2012 for many search-ad reports. Semrush Semrush

Then there's AdClarity, which Semrush offers through its Advertising Toolkit. That's the piece I'd look at for your specific requirement: it covers display, video and social, including competitor creatives, campaigns, publishers and placement choices. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. Semrush Semrush

So you essentially get:

• Semrush Advertising Research → Google paid-search intelligence
• AdClarity → display/video/social intelligence
• Semrush PLA Research → Shopping intelligence

That's a pretty compelling agency stack.

3. Adbeat — if display placement intelligence is the priority

Adbeat is more specialized.

Its strength is answering questions like:

"Where exactly is this competitor buying display?"

It provides competitor creatives, publishers, ad networks, landing pages and media-buying information. It covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and other formats, with particular emphasis on display/programmatic. Adbeat

For an agency, I particularly like the ability to use it for publisher/placement research rather than merely looking at a competitor's ad library.

adbeat.com

4. Pathmatics / Sensor Tower — for serious spend intelligence

Sensor Tower is worth investigating if your clients are large enough that estimated media spend, share of voice and cross-channel investment matter more than just finding individual ads.

It's more of an enterprise competitive-intelligence solution than a pure PPC research tool.

What I'd use as an agency

If your primary workflow is paid search, I'd rank them:

Best overall: Similarweb
Best if already using Semrush: Semrush + AdClarity
Best for deep display placement research: Adbeat
Best for enterprise spend intelligence: Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

One important distinction: don't assume "competitor ad intelligence" means you can see every impression or placement a competitor bought. These platforms collect and model ad observations, so coverage, spend estimates and historical availability vary by market, publisher, device and format. Similarweb explicitly describes its display data as a combination of multiple sources including ad-industry partners, panels, direct measurement and broad ad collection. Similarweb

If you're building client-facing competitor reports, I'd lean toward Similarweb or Semrush + AdClarity. If you're trying to answer the much more tactical question "Which websites, apps/publishers and video environments are my competitor actually buying?", I'd put Adbeat much higher.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google/Bing search ads into display + video placements, the field narrows considerably.

Best options

1. similarweb.com — probably the closest match to what you're asking for

This is the one I'd investigate first if you want search + display + video in the same competitive workflow.

Similarweb says its Ad Intelligence covers paid search, display, social and GenAI, with text, banner, video and native formats. It also exposes publishers/platforms, creatives, campaigns, landing pages and estimated spend/impressions. Similarweb Similarweb

For video specifically, its Video Ad functionality lets you see the actual video creative, landing URL, campaign duration and associated networks, including YouTube pre/mid/post-roll campaigns. Similarweb

For search, it provides competitor keywords, ad position, estimated impressions, traffic share and the actual search creative. Similarweb

Agency use case:
Client → competitors → search terms/ads → display creatives → publishers → video creatives → landing pages → estimated spend

That's a much more complete competitive picture than a traditional PPC spy tool.

2. semrush.com + AdClarity — excellent if you're already in the Semrush ecosystem

Semrush's native Advertising Research is particularly strong for Google paid search: competitor keywords, positions, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages and estimated traffic/cost. Its historical database goes back to 2012. Semrush Semrush

The important part for your question is AdClarity. Semrush specifically positions AdClarity for discovering display and video advertising competitors, including ads running across publisher sites, YouTube and social platforms. Semrush

So I'd think of the combination as:

• Semrush Advertising Research → Google/search competitive intelligence
• AdClarity → display/video/media-buying intelligence

That can be particularly attractive for an agency because you can keep search research and broader media intelligence under one ecosystem.

3. adbeat.com — consider this if display is the priority

Adbeat is worth looking at if your real question is less "what keywords are competitors bidding on?" and more:

"Where are competitors buying media, what creatives are they running, and which publishers/networks appear important?"

It's traditionally been much more oriented toward display/programmatic competitive intelligence than tools such as SpyFu.

I'd put it behind Similarweb for your particular requirement if you want one cross-channel platform, but ahead of search-centric tools if display media intelligence is the main thing you're selling clients.

What I wouldn't use as the primary tool

SpyFu is very good for traditional PPC competitor research—keywords, ads, historical search activity, etc.—but I wouldn't buy it specifically to answer "where are my competitors running display and video?"

Likewise, Semrush by itself shouldn't be evaluated solely on its core Advertising Research product for this requirement. The display/video piece is really where AdClarity becomes relevant. Semrush

My shortlist for an agency

If I were evaluating these for client work, I'd demo them in this order:

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best candidate for a single cross-channel competitive intelligence platform.
2. Semrush + AdClarity — particularly compelling if you already use Semrush for SEO/PPC.
3. Adbeat — strongest candidate to investigate if display/programmatic placement intelligence is the differentiator.
4. SpyFu / iSpionage — use primarily when your competitive research is overwhelmingly search/PPC.

One important distinction: these tools generally provide observed/inferred competitive intelligence, not a perfect real-time dump of every impression a competitor bought. Similarweb, for example, describes its display data as being assembled from multiple sources including ad-industry partners, contributory networks, panels, direct measurement and broad ad collection. Similarweb

If you're evaluating this specifically for an agency, I can also break down Similarweb vs Adbeat vs AdClarity by actual data you'll get: publisher/placement visibility, YouTube, creative history, spend estimates, geographic targeting, search keywords, exports/API, and approximate pricing.

It's traditionally been much more oriented toward display/programmatic competitive intelligence than tools such as SpyFu.

I'd put it behind Similarweb for your particular requirement if you want one cross-channel platform, but ahead of search-centric tools if display media intelligence is the main thing you're selling clients.

What I wouldn't use as the primary tool

SpyFu is very good for traditional PPC competitor research—keywords, ads, historical search activity, etc.—but I wouldn't buy it specifically to answer "where are my competitors running display and video?"

Likewise, Semrush by itself shouldn't be evaluated solely on its core Advertising Research product for this requirement. The display/video piece is really where AdClarity becomes relevant.

Semrush's native Advertising Research is particularly strong for Google paid search: competitor keywords, positions, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages and estimated traffic/cost. Its historical database goes back to 2012.

The important part for your question is AdClarity. Semrush specifically positions AdClarity for discovering display and video advertising competitors, including ads running across publisher sites, YouTube and social platforms.

If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across search ads + display + video placements, you’ll usually need a combination of tools. No single platform has perfect visibility into every channel, but these are the main players:

support.similarweb.comwww.semrush.comwww.adbeat.com

My shortlist for a paid search agency

1. Best all-around agency stack

• Semrush + AdClarity
  • Search competitors, keywords, ad copy
  • Display/video creatives
  • Publisher and YouTube placement insights via AdClarity
  • Good for client audits and pitch decks

www.semrush.com

2. Best for seeing where competitors actually run display/video

• Adbeat
  • Shows competitor creatives
  • Publisher sites
  • Ad networks
  • Landing pages
  • Native/display/video campaigns
  • Particularly strong for industries with heavy programmatic spend

www.adbeat.comsupport.similarweb.com

3. Best executive/client reporting tool

• Similarweb
  • Useful for saying things like:
    • "Competitor A is increasing paid media investment"
    • "Competitor B relies heavily on display"
    • "These publishers overlap with your audience"
  • Less granular than Adbeat for individual placements

support.similarweb.com

4. Best inexpensive search-only tools

• SpyFu
• iSpionage

These are good for:

• competitor keywords
• historical ad copy
• estimated PPC activity
• identifying gaps in Google Ads coverage

www.spyfu.com

If your goal is specifically "show me where competitors' ads appear"

Prioritize:

1. Adbeat → display/native/video placements
2. AdClarity (inside Semrush) → cross-channel ad intelligence
3. Similarweb Ad Intelligence → broader paid media mapping
4. Pathmatics → enterprise-level spend and media intelligence

support.similarweb.comwww.semrush.comwww.adbeat.com

For an agency managing multiple clients, a common workflow is:

• Semrush / SpyFu → paid search competitor keyword + copy research
• Adbeat / AdClarity → display/video creative and placement research
• Similarweb → market-level story and client reporting

The big caveat: these tools generally provide modeled intelligence, not the exact Google Ads auction data competitors see internally. Use them for directional strategy, creative inspiration, placement discovery, and benchmarking rather than exact spend/bid reconstruction. www.adbeat.comsupport.similarweb.com

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google/Bing search ads into display + video placements, these are the main tools I'd evaluate:

My shortlist

1. Similarweb — best all-around option

Similarweb's current Ad Intelligence covers paid search, display, social and video, including creatives, publishers/platforms, campaigns and estimated spend. Its display coverage includes banner, native, in-banner video and VAST video. support.similarweb.com

For an agency, this is probably the first one I'd demo if your goal is to answer:

"Where is this competitor advertising across the entire paid-media ecosystem?"

See Similarweb Ad Intelligence

2. Semrush + AdClarity — probably the most convenient if you're already a Semrush user

Semrush's regular Advertising Research is particularly strong for paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, positions, historical activity and competitors. www.semrush.com

The interesting piece for your use case is AdClarity. It adds competitor intelligence for display, video and social, including creatives, placements, publishers, buying methods and spend. Semrush says AdClarity covers 650,000+ publishers across 50+ markets. www.semrush.com

So you can essentially have:

Search → Advertising Research
Display/video → AdClarity
Shopping → PLA Research

That's a pretty compelling agency workflow.

See Semrush Advertising Toolkit

3. Adbeat — best if display/video placement intelligence is the priority

I'd take a serious look at Adbeat if your clients are doing meaningful programmatic/display/video.

It specifically exposes competitor publishers, ad networks, placements, creatives, landing pages and media-buying information, with coverage of standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers. www.adbeat.com

Its placement data is particularly interesting for an agency because it can show the actual publisher placement URLs and, on higher tiers, direct publisher buys. www.adbeat.com

See Adbeat

One important caveat

None of these should be treated as a literal mirror of a competitor's Google Ads account. Competitive-intelligence platforms observe/sample ads and model things like spend, impressions and traffic. Semrush explicitly notes that its search data can miss local-only campaigns, time-specific ads, keywords outside its database and highly targeted audience campaigns. www.semrush.com

What I'd buy for an agency

If I were building a competitive research stack for client PPC:

• Mostly Google/Bing search: Semrush or SpyFu
• Search + display/video: Similarweb or Semrush + AdClarity
• Clients spending heavily on programmatic: Adbeat + your existing search tool
• Want the fewest separate platforms: Similarweb
• Already deeply invested in Semrush: Semrush + AdClarity is likely the easiest upgrade

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly B2B, ecommerce, local, or lead-gen, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that are actually worth paying for, including approximate agency pricing and what each can/can't reveal about Google Display Network, YouTube, Meta, programmatic and publisher-level placements.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that covers search + display + video placements, I’d look at these:

My picks for an agency

1. Similarweb — probably the closest match to what you're describing.

Its Ad Intelligence covers search, display and social, with formats including text, banners, video and native, and provides publisher/platform information. support.similarweb.com

It also specifically exposes competitor video campaigns, including the actual video ads, target URLs, campaign duration and associated networks/ad networks. support.similarweb.com

So you can go from:

"Who are my client's competitors?"

to:

"What are they advertising?"

to:

"Where are those ads appearing?"

That's particularly useful for client competitive-audit decks.

2. Adbeat — strongest if display/video placement intelligence is the priority.

Adbeat is much more specialized around display. It says it covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and lets you identify competitors' ad networks, publishers, landing pages and creatives. www.adbeat.com

Its placement-oriented functionality is particularly interesting: you can discover publishers where competitors are spending and compare publishers, creatives and landing pages. www.adbeat.com

I'd choose Adbeat over a general PPC tool if your question is:

"Where is Competitor X actually buying display/video inventory?"

3. Semrush + AdClarity — excellent if you're already a Semrush shop.

Semrush's native Advertising Research is very strong for paid search: competitor keywords, positions, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages, etc. www.semrush.com

For display/video, Semrush now points users toward AdClarity, which can identify display and video competitors across publisher sites, YouTube and social platforms. www.semrush.com

So the combination is pretty compelling:

Semrush Advertising Research → Google/search competitive intelligence
AdClarity → display/video/social competitive intelligence

If I were building your agency stack

I'd narrow it to:

• Mostly Google Ads / PPC: Semrush
• PPC + display + video: Similarweb
• Heavy display/video/media buying: Adbeat
• Enterprise-level media intelligence: Pathmatics/Sensor Tower or MediaRadar

One important distinction: "seeing a competitor's ad" and "knowing where they bought it" are not the same capability. For your use case, I'd put much more weight on publisher/placement, network, campaign and historical creative data than simply having an ad-spy gallery.

If you tell me your typical client size/verticals and approximate monthly ad spend, I can also compare Similarweb vs Adbeat vs Semrush/AdClarity vs Pathmatics specifically for an agency workflow, including which ones are best for client reporting, historical data, Google Ads intelligence, YouTube, programmatic placements, and estimated spend.

Yes. If you manage paid search across clients, I’d separate these into cross-channel ad intelligence platforms versus search/PPC-focused tools.

Best fits for seeing Search + Display + Video

1. Similarweb — probably the closest match to what you're describing

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence covers paid search, display, social and GenAI, with text, banner, video and native formats. It also provides visibility into publishers and platforms, along with competitor creatives, campaigns and estimated spend. support.similarweb.com

For an agency, this is attractive because you can go from:

Competitor → channel mix → campaigns → creatives → publishers/placements → spend trends

rather than having to stitch together separate tools.

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

2. Semrush + AdClarity — particularly compelling for PPC managers

Semrush's normal Advertising Research is strong for Google paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, ad history, positions and paid competitors. www.semrush.com

Its AdClarity product adds competitor intelligence for display, video and social, including creatives, placements and spend. Semrush currently says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. www.semrush.com

So if your workflow is already heavily Google Ads/search-oriented, I'd seriously consider Semrush + AdClarity rather than buying a separate search tool and display tool.

Semrush Advertising Toolkit

3. Adbeat — particularly good for where competitors are buying

Adbeat is more specialized. Its strength is answering:

"What sites/publishers are carrying my competitor's display and video ads?"

It covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and other formats, and exposes publishers, ad networks, landing pages and placements. www.adbeat.com

Its current plans specifically include publisher placement URLs, with higher tiers adding direct publisher buys and competitor alerts. www.adbeat.com

For media-planning work, I would put Adbeat very high on the list.

4. SpyFu — still excellent, but don't buy it for display

SpyFu is very good at competitive PPC/search intelligence: paid keywords, estimated spend, ad history, current ads and PPC competitors. www.spyfu.com

But if your requirement is specifically "show me my competitor's display/video placements", I'd choose Similarweb, AdClarity or Adbeat instead.

What I'd shortlist for an agency

If I were evaluating these for client work:

Best single platform: Similarweb Ad Intelligence
Best search + display combination: Semrush + AdClarity
Best display/programmatic placement intelligence: Adbeat
Best inexpensive/straightforward search competitor research: SpyFu

One important caveat: none of these should be treated as a literal record of every ad a competitor has run. Competitive ad databases rely on observed/crawled/impression data, and search results in particular can vary by geography, audience, time and query. Semrush explicitly notes that its search data won't capture every locally targeted or highly audience/time-specific ad. www.semrush.com

If your main use case is "I have 20–100 clients and want to routinely produce competitor ad/placement reports for each one," I can also compare these on pricing, API/export capabilities, historical lookback, geographic coverage, and agency reporting—that's where the differences become much more important.

If you manage paid search for clients and want competitor visibility across search ads + display/video placements, you’ll usually need a combination of tools. No single platform is perfect because search intelligence and programmatic/display intelligence are collected differently.

Here are the main competitors I’d evaluate:

support.similarweb.com

My shortlist for a paid search agency

1. Best all-around client reporting stack

• Semrush + Similarweb
• Semrush gives you:
  • competitor keywords
  • paid search copy
  • historical ads
  • landing pages
  • auction competitors
• Similarweb adds:
  • channel mix
  • display/video intelligence
  • estimated spend trends
  • competitor media strategy

www.similarweb.com

2. Best for “where are competitors actually running ads?”

• Adbeat
• Strong for:
  • publisher/domain placements
  • banner creatives
  • native ads
  • video placements
  • landing page paths
  • seeing which publishers competitors buy on

support.similarweb.comwww.adbeat.com

3. Best budget PPC competitor research

• SpyFu
• Useful for:
  • Google Ads keywords
  • ad history
  • competitor messaging
  • identifying missed keyword opportunities

www.spyfu.com

If your goal is specifically “show my client where competitors advertise”

I’d rank them:

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — broadest cross-channel view (search/display/video/social) support.similarweb.com
2. Adbeat — deepest display placement intelligence support.similarweb.comwww.adbeat.com
3. Semrush + AdClarity — good agency workflow combining PPC and display/video research www.semrush.com
4. SpyFu / iSpionage — search-only competitor work www.spyfu.com

For most PPC agencies, the practical setup is:

• Semrush or SpyFu → search competitor keywords/copy
• Adbeat or Similarweb → display/video placements and creative intelligence
• Google Ads Transparency Center + Meta Ad Library → free validation sources

The main caveat: these tools estimate spend, impressions, and activity from observed data; they are best used for directional competitor analysis rather than exact competitor budgets. support.similarweb.comwww.adbeat.com

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google search ads into display/video placements, I’d look at these:

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — probably the closest match

Similarweb's current Ad Intelligence product covers search, display, social and GenAI, with formats including text, banner, video and native. It can show competitor campaigns, creatives, publishers/platforms, landing pages and estimated spend. support.similarweb.com

For an agency, that's particularly useful because you can answer questions like:

• Which competitors are advertising on the same publishers?
• What display/video creatives are they running?
• Where are their campaigns appearing?
• Which landing pages are they sending traffic to?
• How does their spend mix compare with the client's?
• What are they doing in search vs. display/video?

Similarweb also specifically provides actual competitor video ads, target URLs, campaign duration and associated networks. support.similarweb.com

My pick if you want one platform for cross-channel competitive research.

2. Semrush + AdClarity

This is an especially compelling agency setup.

Semrush's Advertising Research is strong for traditional PPC: competitor keywords, paid positions, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages and estimated spend. Its database can go back to 2012. www.semrush.com

Then AdClarity fills the display/video gap. Semrush says AdClarity covers display, video and social, including competitor creatives, placement choices and spend patterns, across 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. www.semrush.com

It can also identify competitors advertising on the same publisher sites, social platforms and YouTube channels as the business you're researching. www.semrush.com

So the workflow becomes:

Semrush Advertising Research → Search
AdClarity → Display + Video + Social

If you're already paying for Semrush, I'd investigate this before adding another standalone tool.

3. Adbeat — best if placements are the priority

Adbeat is much more specialized. It's built around display advertising competitive intelligence, and its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers. www.adbeat.com

The interesting part for a paid-media manager is the placement intelligence:

• Publishers competitors buy from
• Specific publisher placement URLs
• Ad networks
• Creative/ad copy
• Landing pages
• Direct publisher buys
• Estimated spend
• Alerts when competitors launch new ads/publishers

Its higher tiers explicitly provide publisher placement URLs and, on Advanced, direct buys from publisher sites; Enterprise adds estimated advertiser spend and campaign-level analysis. www.adbeat.com

So if the question is:

"Where exactly are my competitors buying display inventory?"

I'd put Adbeat ahead of Semrush.

4. SpyFu — excellent search complement

SpyFu is worth considering if your primary need remains Google/Bing paid-search competitive intelligence—keywords, ads, historical PPC activity, competitors, etc.

But I wouldn't choose it specifically for your stated requirement of display + video placements. That's where Similarweb, AdClarity and Adbeat are substantially more relevant.

What I'd use for an agency

If you're doing this across multiple clients, I'd rank the setups:

Best single platform:
Similarweb Ad Intelligence

Best agency stack:
Semrush + AdClarity → search + display/video/social

Best deep-dive stack:
Semrush/SpyFu + Adbeat → excellent search intelligence + very deep display placement intelligence

Best if display/video is becoming a major service:
Similarweb + Adbeat

One important caveat: these platforms are competitive-intelligence estimates, not a literal feed of every impression a competitor purchased. Coverage varies by country, device, publisher, network and ad format. For example, Similarweb says its display data combines multiple sources including panels, contributory networks, direct measurement and ad collection. support.similarweb.com

If you tell me your typical client verticals (e.g. SaaS, ecommerce, local services, B2B) and roughly how many client accounts you manage, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for, including pricing/value and which one gives the best placement-level visibility.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that covers Search + Display + Video, there are a few strong options—but they have different strengths.

1. Semrush + AdClarity — probably the best fit for an agency

Semrush's Advertising Research is strong for Google Search: competitor keywords, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages, estimated spend and paid-search competitors. www.semrush.com

The important part for your question is AdClarity. Semrush says it covers display, video and social, including publisher/placement choices, creative strategy and spend patterns, across 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. www.semrush.com

It can also identify competitors advertising on particular publisher sites and YouTube channels, then show top ads, advertisers and campaigns. www.semrush.com

I'd choose this if: you want a client-friendly platform where Search intelligence is the core and Display/Video is an increasingly important second layer.

2. Adbeat — best for seeing where competitors are buying

This is the one I'd look at most closely if your clients are asking:

"Where exactly are our competitors running display/video?"

Adbeat is much more specialized in display advertising intelligence. It tracks standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and exposes advertisers, ad networks, publishers, creatives and landing pages. www.adbeat.com

Its particularly useful features include:

• Publisher placement URLs
• Ad creative history
• Ad networks
• Competitor publishers
• Video/pre-roll coverage
• Estimated spend on higher tiers
• Alerts when competitors launch new ads/networks/publishers
• Direct publisher buys
• Ad paths and campaign-level analysis

Its Advanced plan currently lists publisher placement URLs, country filtering, alerts and one year of data; Enterprise adds estimated advertiser spend and additional campaign/path intelligence. www.adbeat.com

I'd choose this if: Display/programmatic competitive research is a serious part of your client offering.

3. Similarweb — best for putting ads into the broader media picture

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence combines paid-search and display data, including competitor CPMs, creatives and media mix. www.similarweb.com

The advantage is that you can move from:

"What ads are they running?" → "Where are they spending?" → "How does that relate to their overall traffic/channel strategy?"

That's useful for strategy decks because you're not just showing a swipe file—you can contextualize the competitor's paid media footprint.

I'd choose this if: you're doing broader market/competitor analysis in addition to PPC.

4. SpyFu — excellent Search complement

SpyFu remains very useful for Google Search competitor research, particularly keywords, ad history, competitors and PPC-focused intelligence.

But I wouldn't buy it specifically for your Display/Video requirement. That's not where its comparative advantage lies.

What I'd actually recommend for an agency

If you're managing multiple clients, I'd narrow it to two stacks:

Option A — one primary platform:
Semrush + AdClarity

Best balance of Search + Display + Video + reporting.

Option B — deeper competitive-media intelligence:
Semrush + Adbeat

This is probably the more powerful combination if your clients care about actual placements, publishers, ad networks, creatives and programmatic strategy.

In other words:

Semrush = "What are they doing in Search?"
Adbeat = "Where and how are they buying Display/Video?"
AdClarity = "Give me broader Display/Video/Social intelligence inside the Semrush ecosystem."

One caveat: none of these should be interpreted as a literal, complete view of a competitor's ad account. The data is inferred/observed from their respective datasets, so estimated spend, impressions, placements and campaign activity aren't equivalent to first-party Google Ads/CM360 data.

If you tell me whether your clients are mostly B2B, ecommerce, local services, SaaS, or lead gen, I can also rank these specifically for agency use and client reporting, including which ones give you the best actual creative/placement examples rather than just estimated spend.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond SERPs into display/video placements, I’d look at these:

My top picks

1. Similarweb — best all-around competitor intelligence

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

This is probably the closest match to what you're describing. Similarweb says its Ad Intelligence covers search, display, social and video, with visibility into advertisers, publishers/platforms, creatives, landing pages, campaigns and estimated spend. www.similarweb.com

For an agency, the interesting part is that you can go from:

Competitor → channel → campaign → creative → publisher/placement → landing page

rather than just seeing which keywords they're bidding on.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — best if search is still your core workflow

Semrush Advertising Toolkit

Semrush's regular Advertising Research is very strong for paid search: competitor keywords, ad copy, historical activity, landing pages, paid competitors, etc. www.semrush.com

Then AdClarity adds the display/video side. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers, including display, video and social, and lets you investigate creative strategy, formats, placement choices and spend patterns. www.semrush.com

This is an especially attractive agency setup because you can use one broader platform for client competitive reports rather than maintaining completely separate search and display intelligence systems.

3. Adbeat — best if placement intelligence is the priority

Adbeat

Adbeat is much more focused on display/programmatic intelligence. It covers standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers, and lets you investigate competitors' publishers, ad creatives and landing pages. www.adbeat.com

I'd consider Adbeat if your question is specifically:

"Where exactly is this competitor buying display/video inventory, what creatives are they running, and which publishers appear important?"

rather than:

"Give me a complete picture of their paid marketing."

What I'd choose for a paid-search agency

If you want one platform: Similarweb

If Google Ads/search is your primary service and you want to add display/video intelligence: Semrush + AdClarity

If you have sophisticated programmatic/display clients: Adbeat + your existing search tool

If you're primarily doing PPC audits and competitor keyword research: Semrush or SpyFu, without necessarily paying for a display-intelligence platform.

One important distinction: these platforms generally provide competitive estimates/observed ad intelligence, not the competitor's actual Google Ads account data. So "placement" can mean observed publisher/channel/creative activity rather than a guaranteed complete list of every impression.

If you tell me whether you're mostly managing Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or both, I can also give you a 5–7 tool comparison specifically for agency use, including approximate pricing, geographic coverage, placement granularity, historical lookback, and which ones are actually worth paying for.

Yes. If you manage paid search but want to extend competitor intelligence into display + video + search, there are a few tools worth separating by what they actually reveal.

My picks for an agency

1. Adbeat — probably the closest match to what you're asking for.

Adbeat

Adbeat is specifically built around display advertising intelligence. It can show competitor display, native, video and interstitial creatives, along with the publishers/sites where ads appeared and how the media was purchased. www.adbeat.com

That's substantially different from a typical SEO/PPC platform. If your question is:

"Where is this competitor actually buying media, what ads are they running, and which publishers seem important?"

Adbeat is one of the strongest options.

2. Similarweb — best if you want one broader intelligence platform.

Similarweb

I'd look at Similarweb if you're trying to combine paid search + display + video + traffic sources + competitor benchmarking rather than going deep on display placements alone. It's more of a market/traffic intelligence platform than a pure ad-spy database.

3. Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — best for serious enterprise competitive media analysis.

Sensor Tower

Pathmatics is now part of Sensor Tower and is aimed much more at enterprise competitive intelligence. It tracks display, video, social and mobile advertising, with estimated spend and creative intelligence. adlibrary.com

If you're managing large client accounts and need something you can use for media planning, competitive spend analysis and executive reporting, I'd put this near the top.

4. Semrush — keep it for the search side.

Semrush Advertising Research

Semrush's Advertising Research is very good for competitor paid-search keywords, ads, landing pages, competitors and historical PPC activity. www.semrush.com

But I wouldn't buy Semrush specifically expecting it to answer "where is this competitor's display/video inventory?"

5. SpyFu — excellent complement for PPC.

SpyFu

SpyFu is particularly useful for Google/Bing PPC keyword intelligence, historical ads and competitor search strategy. www.spyfu.com

It's much less useful for the display/video-placement question.

The stack I'd consider for your use case

If you're an agency managing multiple clients, I'd probably structure it as:

Semrush or SpyFu → Search intelligence
+ Adbeat → Display/video/placement intelligence
+ Google Ads Transparency Center → Google's own advertiser/creative source

That gives you a much more complete picture than trying to force one SEO tool to cover everything.

One important caveat: no competitor tool gives you a perfect real-time view of another advertiser's media buying. Search tools generally infer activity from observed SERPs, while display intelligence is based on observed/crawled ads and modeled data. So I would treat spend, impression and placement estimates as directional rather than audited numbers. www.reddit.com

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and whether they're mostly B2B, ecommerce, local/service, or enterprise, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and compare their agency pricing, data coverage, exports/API, and white-label reporting.

Yes. If your goal is competitor paid-media intelligence across search + display + video, I’d separate the market into a few categories because no tool is equally strong at all three.

My shortlist for a paid-search agency

1. Similarweb — best single-platform option

Similarweb's Ad Intelligence explicitly covers display, video, social and search, including competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords, spend trends and where competitors are investing. www.similarweb.com

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

If you're trying to answer a client's question like "What are our top 5 competitors doing across the entire paid funnel?", this is probably the first platform I'd demo.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — strongest agency stack

Semrush's traditional Advertising Research is particularly good for paid search: competitor keywords, ads, historical trends and landing pages. www.semrush.com

Its AdClarity product extends that into display, video and social, with publisher/placement information, creative strategy and spend patterns. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. www.semrush.com

Semrush Advertising Research

This is attractive if you're already using Semrush for keyword/SEO work and want one client-reporting ecosystem.

3. Adbeat — best for actually understanding display placements

Adbeat is much more specialized. It can show display, native and video ads, publishers, placement URLs, ad networks and direct publisher buys. www.adbeat.com

Its paid plans specifically include publisher placement URLs, date/network filtering, alerts and direct-buy placement data. www.adbeat.comwww.adbeat.com

Adbeat

For an agency, I'd seriously consider Adbeat alongside a search-focused tool rather than expecting one platform to do everything.

4. SpyFu — best search-focused complement

SpyFu is excellent when the question is "What Google Ads keywords and ads are my competitor buying?" It provides competitor keywords, ad history/current ads, estimated clicks and budgets. help.spyfu.com

SpyFu

But I wouldn't buy SpyFu specifically for display/video intelligence.

What I'd use depending on your workflow

If you want one tool:
→ Similarweb

If search is your core business and display/video is increasingly important:
→ Semrush + AdClarity

If you're doing serious media-planning/placement research:
→ Adbeat + SpyFu/Semrush

If you're primarily doing Google Ads competitor research:
→ SpyFu or Semrush

If you're doing competitor creative audits:
→ Similarweb/AdClarity + the free Google/Meta transparency libraries.

One important distinction: "seeing a competitor's ad" and "seeing where they bought it" are different capabilities. Adbeat is particularly compelling for the latter because it exposes publisher/placement URLs and direct buys. www.adbeat.comwww.adbeat.com

If you tell me roughly how many client accounts you manage and whether they're B2B, ecommerce, local, or mixed, I can narrow this to a 3-tool agency stack with approximate pricing and exactly what each tool gives you that the others don't.

Yes. If you’re managing paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across search + display + video, I’d look beyond the traditional SEO/PPC tools.

Best options

1. Similarweb — probably the closest to what you're describing

Its Ad Intelligence product covers paid search, display, social and GenAI, with formats including text, banners, video and native. It also provides information about publishers/platforms, campaigns, estimated spend/impressions and competitor advertising activity. support.similarweb.com

Similarweb Ad Intelligence

I'd shortlist this if your agency wants one platform for:
Google/Bing search → display → video → social → publisher/channel analysis.

2. Semrush + AdClarity — very strong agency combination

Semrush's standard Advertising Research is primarily excellent for paid search: competitor keywords, ads, landing pages, historical activity, estimated spend, etc. www.semrush.com

But the interesting part for your use case is AdClarity. Semrush specifically describes AdClarity as providing display and video competitor intelligence, including ads across publisher websites and platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. www.semrush.com

Semrush Advertising Toolkit

This is probably the option I'd investigate first if you're already doing a lot of PPC work. You get search intelligence from Semrush + broader creative/display/video intelligence through AdClarity.

3. Adbeat — if display is particularly important

Adbeat is much more specialized around display advertising intelligence. It's worth considering if the question you frequently get from clients is:

"Where are our competitors running display ads, what creatives are they using, and what publishers are they appearing on?"

I'd put Adbeat ahead of SpyFu/Ahrefs for that particular job.

Adbeat

4. SpyFu — excellent for the search side

SpyFu remains useful when the objective is essentially:

"What is this competitor doing in Google Ads?"

It can identify competitors based on shared paid keywords/ads and provides historical PPC information. help.spyfu.com

SpyFu

I wouldn't buy SpyFu specifically to solve display/video intelligence, though.

My agency-oriented ranking

If your requirement is all three — search + display + video:

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence → best single-platform fit
2. Semrush + AdClarity → arguably best if search/PPC is your core workflow
3. Adbeat → best if display/native/video intelligence is disproportionately important
4. SpyFu → best inexpensive complement for search/PPC
5. Ahrefs → not something I'd choose primarily for this use case

One important caveat: competitor-ad platforms are generally estimation/observation systems, not access to the competitor's actual Google Ads account. Search data can be modeled from observed SERPs, while display/video data is generally collected from observed ad inventory. So I'd use spend, impressions and "top ads" as directional competitive intelligence, not as audited numbers.

If you tell me your typical clients (e-commerce, SaaS, local services, B2B, etc.) and whether you care more about actual creatives, placements, spend estimates, or targeting, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for as a PPC agency.

Yes. If you're managing paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across search + display + video, I’d look beyond the traditional PPC-only tools.

Best options

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — probably the closest fit

Similarweb's current Ad Intelligence product covers search, display, social and GenAI, with text, banner, video and native formats, plus publisher/platform information. It is specifically designed to compare competitors' paid marketing mix, creatives, landing pages, keywords and spend trends. support.similarweb.com

For an agency, this is attractive because you can move from:

"Who are my client's competitors?" → "What are they advertising?" → "Where are they running?" → "What creative/landing pages are they using?"

I'd put this at the top if you want one platform rather than stitching several tools together.

2. Semrush + AdClarity

Semrush's core Advertising Research is particularly good for paid search: competitor keywords, ads, historical trends, landing pages and estimated paid traffic/spend. www.semrush.com

The interesting part for your question is AdClarity – Advertising Intelligence, available through the Semrush App Center. Semrush says AdClarity can identify display and video competitors across publisher sites and social platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok. www.semrush.com

So if you're already using Semrush for client PPC/SEO, this is worth investigating before buying another platform.

3. Adbeat — particularly good for placements

This is the one I'd look at if your real question is:

"Where is my competitor actually buying display/video inventory?"

Adbeat focuses heavily on display advertising intelligence. It reports advertisers, ad networks, publishers, landing pages and creatives, and its coverage includes standard display, native, video, interstitials and page takeovers. www.adbeat.com

It also offers things that are useful for client reporting—competitive comparisons, estimated spend/share-of-voice data, alerts and exportable reports. www.adbeat.com

For a PPC agency, I'd consider Adbeat complementary to Semrush/SpyFu rather than a replacement.

4. SpyFu — search specialist

SpyFu remains useful when the core question is Google paid search: competitor keywords, PPC history, ad copy, etc.

But I wouldn't buy it specifically for your display/video requirement. The major advantage of SpyFu is the search/PPC intelligence, not comprehensive placement-level display/video intelligence.

5. Google Ads Transparency Center — free supplement

Don't overlook Google's own Ads Transparency Center. It's particularly useful for checking actual Google advertiser creatives rather than relying entirely on third-party estimates.

The important distinction is that tools such as Semrush, SpyFu and Similarweb are generally competitive-intelligence/estimated datasets, so I wouldn't treat their spend, impressions or exact auction participation as ground truth. Even PPC practitioners point out that third-party tools can miss advertisers because search ads rotate by geography, time, audience and impression share. www.reddit.com

What I'd use in an agency

If I were building a competitive-intelligence stack for client PPC:

Budget-conscious
→ Semrush/SpyFu + Google Ads Transparency Center

Best cross-channel
→ Similarweb Ad Intelligence

Search + serious display/video placement research
→ Semrush + Adbeat

Heavy enterprise competitive intelligence
→ Similarweb + Adbeat

The key distinction I'd make is "show me their ad" vs. "show me where they're placing the ad." Adbeat is particularly compelling for the latter, while Similarweb is stronger if you want the broader search + display + video + social picture. support.similarweb.comwww.adbeat.com

If you tell me roughly how many clients you manage and your monthly tool budget (e.g. <$300, $500–1k, $2k+), I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and compare their agency pricing/features.

Yes. If you manage paid search for clients and want one competitive-intelligence stack that goes beyond Google/Bing search ads into display + video placements, I’d shortlist these:

My take for an agency

1. Similarweb — probably the closest match to what you're describing.
Its current Ad Intelligence product covers paid search, display, social and GenAI, and specifically supports text, banner, video and native formats. It also reports publishers/platforms, campaigns, creatives, estimated spend and impressions. support.similarweb.com

That's useful when you want to answer a client question like:

"Where are our three biggest competitors actually buying media?"

rather than just:

"What keywords are they bidding on?"

2. Semrush + AdClarity — very compelling if search is your core workflow.
Semrush's normal Advertising Research is strong for competitor paid-search keywords, ads, positions and historical activity. www.semrush.com

The important part for your use case is AdClarity, which Semrush now offers through its App Center. It adds display and video competitor intelligence, including publishers, YouTube channels, social platforms, creatives, placements and campaigns. www.semrush.com

In fact, Semrush's current Advertising Toolkit Pro specifically lists competitor insights for display, video and social ads, including creatives, placements and spend. www.semrush.com

3. Adbeat — I'd look at this if display is particularly important.
Adbeat is much more display-centric. It can show competitor ads, publishers, traffic sources and how media was purchased, with coverage of standard display, native, video, interstitial and page-takeover formats. www.adbeat.com

It also has particularly useful publisher placement URLs, direct-buy information and advertiser/publisher comparisons. www.adbeat.com

So if you're doing media-planning-level competitive analysis, I'd put Adbeat high on the list.

What I'd buy for a paid-search agency

If your clients are primarily Google Ads accounts, I'd rank the options:

Best single platform: Similarweb
Best search + display/video combination: Semrush + AdClarity
Best for digging into display placements: Adbeat
Best inexpensive/search-focused complement: SpyFu

SpyFu remains very useful for identifying paid-search competitors and keyword overlap, but I wouldn't choose it for your stated requirement because its strength is fundamentally PPC/search rather than display/video placement intelligence. help.spyfu.com

One important caveat: none of these tools should be treated as the competitor's actual account data. They're third-party intelligence/estimates, so spend, impressions, placements and historical coverage can differ from what the advertiser actually bought. For Google specifically, I'd supplement them with Google's own Ads Transparency Center when you're trying to verify actual creatives.

If you tell me roughly how many client accounts you manage and your monthly tool budget (e.g. $200, $500, $1k+), I can narrow this down to the best agency stack, including which tools overlap and which are actually worth paying for.

Yes. If you're managing paid search for clients and want competitor intelligence across search + display + video, I'd look at these:

My picks for an agency

1. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best overall fit

This is probably the closest match to what you're describing. Similarweb says its Ad Intelligence product covers display, video, social, and search, including competitor creatives, landing pages, keywords and estimated spend trends. www.similarweb.com

I'd use it when you want a client-level answer like:

"Where is Competitor X spending, what ads are they running, what publishers/channels are they using, and how has that changed?"

2. Adbeat — best for display/video placement depth

Adbeat is particularly interesting if placements are the priority. It reports the ad networks, publishers and landing pages competitors use, and covers standard display, native, video, interstitial and other formats. It also offers publisher-level analysis, spend/share-of-voice comparisons and alerts for new campaigns. www.adbeat.com

For a PPC agency, I'd consider Adbeat complementary to rather than a replacement for a search-focused tool.

3. AdClarity — very good for display + video

AdClarity is available through the Semrush App Center and specifically covers display and video competitors, including ads appearing on publisher sites, social platforms and YouTube. You can investigate top ads, advertisers and campaigns, including competitors advertising on the same publishers or YouTube channels. www.semrush.com

This is especially useful if your clients are asking:

"Which sites and YouTube channels are our competitors buying?"

For the search side

Semrush Advertising Research is one of the stronger choices. It gives you competitor keywords, search ads, historical ad activity and competing advertisers. www.semrush.com

SpyFu is another good search-focused option, particularly for historical PPC keyword/ad research. It lets you examine competitors' Google Ads keywords and historical ad tests. www.spyfu.com

If I were building an agency stack

I'd probably structure it:

Semrush + Adbeat
→ excellent combination for Google search + display/video intelligence

or

Similarweb Ad Intelligence
→ if you want one broader cross-channel platform and care about client-level competitive reporting.

One important caveat: none of these should be treated as a literal real-time view of every competitor impression. Search tools such as Semrush/SpyFu infer activity from observed SERPs and historical data, while display/video intelligence is based on the inventory their crawlers/data partners can observe. So "competitor is spending $X" should generally be presented to clients as an estimate, not a fact.

If your specific goal is "I want to enter a competitor and see the actual display/video creatives + every publisher/site/YouTube placement + estimated spend + search ads", I can narrow this down to the 3 best tools for exactly that workflow, including current pricing and agency/multi-client considerations.

If your goal is to uncover where competitors are advertising across Search, Display, YouTube/CTV, and programmatic, you'll likely need more than one tool. No single platform has complete visibility, but a few come close.

Best tools for each use case

1. Search ads (keywords, copy, budgets)

• Semrush – Best overall
  • Competitor keywords
  • Estimated CPCs
  • Ad copy history
  • Position changes
  • Landing pages
• SpyFu
  • Historical Google Ads
  • Keyword overlap
  • Estimated spend
  • Long-term PPC trends

2. Display ad placements

If you're trying to answer:

• Which websites run my competitor's banners?
• Which publishers are they buying?
• What DSPs are they using?

The strongest tools are:

Adbeat

• Publisher/domain list
• Estimated spend by publisher
• Display network detection
• Native vs banner
• Programmatic exchanges
• Creative history

This is one of the best dedicated display intelligence tools.

Similarweb

Excellent for:

• Top publisher placements
• Display traffic sources
• Audience overlap
• Programmatic partnerships
• Media mix
• Channel allocation

Especially useful when pitching PPC accounts.

3. YouTube & video ads

Pathmatics

One of the industry leaders for:

• YouTube campaigns
• CTV
• Connected TV
• Online video
• Video creatives
• Estimated impressions
• Spend trends

Many agencies use Pathmatics instead of relying only on Semrush.

4. Creative library

If you mostly want to see ad creatives:

• MOAT
• Google Ads Transparency Center
• Semrush Ad Copies
• Pathmatics

These let you browse historical creatives without necessarily exposing all placements.

5. Publisher-level placement intelligence

For questions like:

• "Where is Nike advertising?"
• "Which news sites is HubSpot buying?"
• "What blogs display Salesforce banners?"

The leaders are:

1. Adbeat
2. Similarweb
3. Pathmatics

These provide the strongest publisher visibility.

Agency stack (recommended)

If I were managing multiple paid search clients, I'd use:

• Semrush → Search competitors, keywords, ad copy, landing pages
• Similarweb → Overall digital strategy and media mix
• Adbeat → Display placements and publishers
• Google Ads Transparency Center → Verify active Google display, search, and YouTube creatives
• Pathmatics (if budget allows) → Enterprise-level display and video intelligence

That combination gives a much more complete view than any one tool alone.

Budget recommendations

• Under $300/month: Semrush + Google Ads Transparency Center
• $300–$800/month: Semrush + Similarweb
• $1,000+/month: Semrush + Similarweb + Adbeat
• Enterprise agencies: Semrush + Similarweb + Pathmatics + Adbeat

For agencies focused on Google Ads, Semrush + Adbeat is often the most practical pairing: Semrush covers search keywords and copy, while Adbeat fills the gap on display publishers and video placements.

If you're managing paid search across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, no single platform gives a complete picture of competitors' search, display, YouTube/video, and programmatic placements. The best approach is to combine a few tools.

Here's how the major platforms compare:

My top recommendations

1. Similarweb (Best all-around)
If you can only justify one premium tool, this is usually the strongest choice.

It shows:

• Paid search keywords
• Display publishers
• Referral traffic
• YouTube advertising activity
• Audience overlap
• Channel mix
• Landing pages

Best for agencies because you can quickly benchmark multiple competitors.

2. Adbeat (Best for display)

Adbeat specializes in:

• Which websites competitors advertise on
• Estimated display spend
• Ad networks used
• Native vs display mix
• Banner sizes
• Historical creatives

It excels if clients spend heavily on Google Display Network, DV360, or programmatic.

3. Pathmatics

Probably the strongest enterprise competitive intelligence platform.

It tracks:

• Search
• Display
• Connected TV
• Online video
• YouTube
• Social
• Creative assets
• Publisher-level placements
• Estimated spend

Agencies working with national brands often rely on this.

4. Semrush + Adbeat

This combination covers most agency needs:

Semrush

• Search keywords
• Ad copy
• Position history
• Competitor overlap

Adbeat

• Display placements
• Publisher inventory
• Creative
• Networks
• Spend estimates

Together they provide a fairly complete picture.

5. Similarweb + Semrush (my favorite combination)

These complement each other well.

Semrush

• PPC keywords
• Search ad copy
• Historical search data

Similarweb

• Display
• Video
• Channel mix
• Audience insights
• Competitor discovery

Free resources worth using

Google Ads Transparency Center

• Current Google Search ads
• Display ads
• YouTube ads
• Advertiser identity
• Active creatives

It's useful for seeing actual creative, though it doesn't provide placement or spend data.

Google Ads Auction Insights

• Impression share
• Overlap rate
• Position metrics

Limited to advertisers competing in your own auctions.

If your goal is "Where are my competitors advertising?"

Use:

1. Adbeat
2. Similarweb
3. Pathmatics

These are the strongest for publisher and placement intelligence.

If your goal is "What search keywords are they buying?"

Use:

1. Semrush
2. SpyFu
3. Similarweb

If your goal is "Show me every ad they run"

Use:

1. Pathmatics
2. Moat
3. Google Ads Transparency Center
4. BigSpy (for broader creative discovery)

For a mid-sized PPC agency, I'd generally recommend:

• Budget-conscious: Semrush + SpyFu
• Growth stage: Semrush + Similarweb
• Enterprise: Similarweb + Pathmatics + Semrush

That combination gives visibility into search ads, display placements, video advertising, estimated spend, creatives, and landing pages without relying on a single source.

For paid search competitor intelligence, you’ll usually need a combination of tools because no single platform has perfect visibility across Google/Bing search ads + display placements + YouTube/video ads. The strongest options are:

Best stack for a PPC agency managing clients

For Google Search Ads

• Semrush — competitor keywords, ad history, landing pages, PLA/PPC insights
• SpyFu — historical ads and keyword overlap
• iSpionage — PPC-focused monitoring

For Display + YouTube/video placements

• Adbeat — one of the most PPC-agency-friendly options for seeing:
  • publishers where competitors advertise
  • creatives
  • ad formats
  • estimated spend
  • messaging trends

• Pathmatics — stronger for enterprise clients needing:
  • estimated media spend
  • impression estimates
  • creative history
  • advertiser benchmarking

For an all-around competitive picture

• Similarweb + Semrush is a common agency combination:
  • Similarweb → where traffic comes from and channel mix
  • Semrush → search terms and paid search activity

Free/low-cost options worth using

• Google Ads Transparency Center — Google’s own searchable database for advertisers’ ads, including many display and YouTube placements.
• Meta Ad Library — useful for competitor social/display creative research.
• Microsoft Advertising Ad Preview and Diagnosis Tool — useful for Bing/Yahoo search visibility.

For a paid search manager specifically, I’d typically rank them:

1. Semrush → daily PPC competitor workflow
2. Adbeat → display/video competitor intelligence
3. Pathmatics → enterprise reporting and spend analysis
4. SpyFu/iSpionage → deeper search-only analysis
5. Similarweb → strategic market context

One caveat: competitor tools are estimates. They generally cannot see every impression, placement, audience, or spend number because platforms like Google Ads and YouTube do not expose complete auction data.

If you're managing PPC across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, there isn't one platform that reliably exposes search ads + display placements + YouTube/video placements at the same depth. Most tools specialize. Here's how the leading competitors compare.

Best options by use case

1. Semrush (best all-around PPC platform)

• Search keyword intelligence
• Competitor ad copy history
• Landing pages
• Limited display creative database
• Good for agencies managing Google Ads

Strength: Excellent search intelligence, but display placement data is relatively limited.

2. Similarweb (best cross-channel view)
Shows:

• Google Search
• Display
• Social
• Native
• Video
• Traffic sources
• Publisher relationships

Useful if you want to answer:

"Where else is this advertiser spending besides Google Search?"

3. Adbeat (best display placement intelligence)

This is probably closest to what you're describing.

It reveals:

• Websites where display ads appeared
• Estimated impressions
• Networks used (Google Display Network, programmatic exchanges, etc.)
• Banner sizes
• Creative history
• Landing pages
• Spend estimates