It’s attainable to get an correct estimate of your opponents’ advert spend. You don’t must guess.
Past satisfying your curiosity, figuring out how a lot your rivals spend on advertisements helps you make higher choices about your price range allocation to maintain your advertising efforts efficient.
This information reveals tips on how to estimate competitor advert spend throughout show, social, video, and paid search advertisements. And what you are able to do with that data.
Find out how to See Rivals’ Estimated Advert Spend with AdClarity
The AdClarity app helps you to estimate opponents’ digital ad spend, see the place their advertisements seem, and consider how their investments change over time.
AdClarity offers data on advert spend throughout show, social, and video advertisements. And you’ll see outcomes by advertiser, writer, marketing campaign, and key phrase.
With AdClarity, you possibly can:
- Examine a number of opponents to see variations in estimated spend, impressions, and advert placement in a single dashboard
- Monitor spending developments over time utilizing quite a lot of filters
- Analyze advert spend distribution throughout placements and programmatic vs. direct shopping for
- Determine top-performing advertisements and campaigns based mostly on impression quantity
- Export stories for stakeholders to evaluate
While you enter an advertiser’s area into AdClarity, you’ll see a report that reveals an total view of advert spend throughout all units and channels.
Right here’s how to use AdClarity to estimate advert spend on every foremost channel:
Estimate Show Advert Spend
Use AdClarity to estimate how a lot your opponents are spending on their display ads by coming into a rival area within the search bar with the “Advertisers” tab chosen, clicking the “All channels” drop-down, and choosing “Show.”
This filtered Advertiser report reveals that Costco spent $489,100 for 162.1 million impressions on show advertisements within the final three months. The report additionally reveals that Costco’s show advertisements common 12.5 million weekly impressions, value $37,400 per week, and seem throughout 287 publishers per week.
Additional down within the Advertiser report, you possibly can see that Costco’s prime advert by impressions is an advert for a Lenovo PC.
While you click on on any advert within the “Prime advertisements” part, you possibly can entry extra particulars in regards to the advert, together with the advert kind (e.g., banner) and dimensions, when the advert ran, the advert’s CPM, and extra.
AdClarity additionally provides you the choice to go from a person advert to a full marketing campaign report and the marketing campaign’s touchdown web page. And you’ll export data from AdClarity for displays and inside notes.
Again in the primary Advertiser report, scroll right down to see that Costco’s prime marketing campaign accounts for 18.95% of the corporate’s whole show advert impressions. And that they spent $87,360 on this marketing campaign, which is 17.86% of their whole show advert price range.
Even additional down within the Advertiser report, you see which publishers account for many of Costco’s advert placements and Costco’s advert shopping for strategies for show advertisements.
Beneath, you possibly can see that Costco spent $187,510 by means of advert networks, totaling 38.34% of their show advert price range throughout this era.
Estimate Social Media Advert Spend
Select “Social” from the channels drop-down on the prime of the Advertiser report back to see details about the entered competitor’s advert spend on social.
Within the first row of widgets, you’ll see estimated expenditure, social advert placement, and social advert sorts.
You can too see that Costco averaged 10.6 million weekly common impressions for social advertisements, spent a median of $66,900 per week on social advertisements, and appeared throughout a median of 4 publishers. This is smart given social advertisements solely seem on social media platforms.
Scrolling down the Advertisers report reveals that Costco’s prime advert on social media within the final three months was for MegaFood nutritional vitamins, which value them $250,500 to run and earned 45.7 million impressions.
While you click on on the advert, AdClarity reveals that it was revealed on Fb. You can too view different metrics in regards to the advert and the marketing campaign it was part of.
The underside of the Advertiser report reveals particulars about Costco’s prime social media campaigns and distribution throughout platforms.
Estimate Video Advert Spend
To make use of AdClarity to estimate how a lot your opponents are spending on their video advertisements, choose “Video” from the channels drop-down.
The Advertiser report will then present estimated expenditure, video advert placement, and video advert shopping for strategies. Right here, we will see that Costco spent $685,600 for 77.eight million impressions during the last three months and relied totally on programmatic as their advert shopping for methodology.
As with the earlier two sections, the “Advertiser expenditure developments” part reveals developments and averages associated to Costco’s advert impressions, spend, and so forth.
Additional down within the Advertiser report, you possibly can see the highest video advertisements for Costco. And you’ll click on into any advert to see extra particulars about it and the bigger marketing campaign it belongs to.
As soon as once more, the “Prime campaigns” part reveals Costco’s highest-performing advert campaigns—this time particularly for video advert campaigns. And the “Prime publishers” part confirms that Costco’s highest advert spend and impression depend got here from YouTube video advertisements.
When you click on on the “YouTube” row within the “Prime campaigns” part, you’ll see YouTube-specific data. The “YouTube channels” part reveals which YouTube channels Costco’s video advertisements appeared on. Which is beneficial for making a competitive ad strategy.
Examine Advert Spend Throughout Channels
Now, you possibly can see that Costco’s advert spend on every channel during the last three months is as follows:
- Show advertisements: $489,100 for 162.1 million impressions
- Social advertisements: $880,400 for 139.6 million impressions
- Video advertisements: $685,600 for 77.eight million impressions
Use this breakdown to match your personal advert channel distribution in opposition to your opponents’. And make choices about the place chances are you’ll wish to make investments and the place chances are you’ll wish to pull again.
Evaluation your present price range break up and regulate based mostly in your targets, competitor insights, and accessible sources.
Find out how to See Rivals’ Estimated Paid Search Advert Spend with Promoting Analysis
Estimate opponents’ paid search advert spend utilizing Semrush’s Advertising Research instrument, which additionally reveals the key phrases your rivals’ advertisements seem for.
Enter a competitor’s area and go to the “Positions” tab in Promoting Analysis. This report reveals particulars in regards to the competitor’s paid key phrases, estimated visitors, value per click on, paid search positions, and extra.
The “Site visitors Price” metric is the estimated common month-to-month value to indicate in Google for the listed key phrases based mostly on cost per click (CPC) and place knowledge. It provides you a sensible estimate of what a competitor could also be spending on paid search.
Understanding what a competitor is paying for search advertisements provides you a benchmark in your pay-per-click (PPC) price range. To provide you concepts on tips on how to regulate your PPC strategy.
Within the instance under, the Promoting Analysis instrument estimates that Costco must spend $140,100 to indicate for all its listed key phrases.
If we multiply $140,100 by three, we will estimate that Costco spent about $420,300 on Google search advertisements throughout the identical three-month interval we analyzed in AdClarity.
Use Competitor Advert Spend Information to Refine Your Technique
Use competitor ad spend knowledge to:
- Benchmark your advert spend: Examine whole spend to see how a lot opponents are investing and whether or not you should regulate to compete
- Discover channel alternatives: Analyze how opponents distribute their advert budgets amongst channels to determine the place competitors is strongest or the place there could also be alternatives
- Monitor spending developments over time: View knowledge over time to identify seasonal spikes or sustained will increase in funding that could be price addressing
- Decide keyword-level competitors: Search for excessive prices that point out extremely aggressive phrases. And determine whether or not it’s extra advantageous to compete straight or pursue much less aggressive alternatives.
Take into account that AI-powered search experiences like Google’s AI Overviews can affect click on conduct. Our own research reveals that the variety of search engine outcomes pages (SERPs) containing each advertisements and AI Overviews grew dramatically in 2025.
Whereas some entrepreneurs fear that AI Overviews might reduce visibility for and clicks on advertisements, extra alternatives for paid search are rising. Google is already testing advertisements straight inside AI Overviews.
FAQs About Doing a Competitor Advert Spend Evaluation
How Correct Are Semrush’s Competitor Advert Spend Estimates?
The AdClarity app and Advertising Research instrument present extremely correct estimates based mostly on advert placements, impressions, CPC knowledge, and place monitoring. These figures aren’t actual budgets, however they provide dependable estimates for benchmarking and development evaluation.
Can I See My Rivals’ Precise Advertisements in Semrush?
Sure, AdClarity reveals show, social, and video advertisements, together with details about placements and efficiency. And Advertising Research reveals a competitor’s precise search advertisements within the “Advertisements Copies” tab.
What’s a Good Advert Spend Benchmark for My Business?
There’s no common benchmark for advert spend—it varies by trade, development stage, and aggressive strain. Analyze opponents in your trade to determine a baseline, then regulate based mostly in your targets and sources.
How Usually Ought to I Monitor Competitor Advert Spend?
Month-to-month monitoring of opponents’ advert spend is adequate for many companies, although chances are you’ll wish to do it extra incessantly throughout necessary occasions like product launches and seasonal peaks.
