Research & insight
Know your market and your competitors before you spend a cent
A clear read on the market you're entering, the rivals already winning in it, and the gap you can take.
Gap: rivals outranking you on “injury lawyer”, fewer reviews than two of them.
Market and competitor research tells you what you're walking into: how big the real demand is, who is already serving it, what they charge, where they advertise, and where they are weak. Most businesses skip this and spend on ads, pages and sales effort against assumptions. When the assumptions are wrong, the money is gone before anyone notices.
I treat this as field work, not a slide deck. I read your competitors' actual ads, landing pages, pricing, reviews and search rankings the way a customer comparing options would, then I pull the demand data underneath it. You end up with a grounded picture of where the money is, who you're really up against, and the specific opening you can move into first.
What you get
- A sized view of real demand: search volume, seasonality and the terms people actually use to find what you sell
- A competitor teardown of your top rivals: their offers, pricing, ad messages, landing pages and where they rank
- A map of where your competitors spend, including the Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads they're running right now
- A review and reputation read across your category, surfacing the complaints and gaps customers keep raising
- A clear list of openings: the segments, messages and channels your competitors are leaving uncovered
- A short, plain-language brief with the findings and the three or four moves I'd make first
How I do it
- 01
Frame the question
We agree what decision this research needs to inform, whether that's a launch, a budget, a new market or a repositioning, so the work answers a real question rather than producing trivia.
- 02
Size the demand
I pull search and category data to find how many people are actually looking, what they search for, and how that demand moves through the year.
- 03
Take competitors apart
I go through your main rivals offer by offer: pricing, positioning, the live ads they run, their landing pages, their search rankings and what their reviews reveal.
- 04
Find the gap
I cross the demand data against what competitors are and aren't doing, then name the segments and messages that are underserved and reachable for you.
- 05
Turn it into a plan
I write up the findings in plain language with a short, prioritised set of moves, so the research leads straight into action instead of sitting in a folder.
A few tools I’ve already built
Quick examples you can try right now, to show the kind of thing I make. When your business needs something specific, I build it custom.
An app outage on payday drove this week's complaints.
Brand Monitor & Weekly Brief
Watches what people say about a brand, reads the sentiment including slang, flags the spikes, and writes the weekly brief with what to do next.
“Staff were lovely but check-in took forever.”
Insight Analyst
Paste survey answers or reviews and get back the themes, the sentiment, the quotes that prove each theme, and a written summary, in minutes.
Lead Qualifier Quiz
A short web quiz that scores each prospect on fit and readiness, then routes the strong ones to you while filtering out the rest.
What it does for the business
You stop guessing. You walk into the market knowing how much real demand exists, who is already winning it, what they charge and where they're vulnerable. That means your budget goes toward the customers and channels where demand is genuine and competitors are weak, instead of fighting head on where they're strongest. It also gives you a defensible answer when someone asks why you're spending where you're spending.
The stack I use here
- Google Ads
- Meta Ads Library
- GA4 (Google Analytics 4)
- Google Search Console
- Looker Studio
- Claude
Common questions
Off-the-shelf reports describe an industry in general. This is built around your business, your specific competitors and the decision in front of you. I look at the ads and pages your rivals are running this week, the terms your customers search, and the gap you in particular can move into, then I tell you what I'd do about it.
Not to the cent, and anyone who promises that is guessing. What I can show you reliably is where they advertise, the messages and offers they run, how they rank in search, and how customers rate them. Together that gives a clear read on their strategy and where it leaks, which is what actually informs your next move.
Most clients use it to set positioning and messaging, decide which channels to back, and brief the audience work. It pairs naturally with audience mapping and personas, positioning and messaging, and ongoing brand and review monitoring so the picture stays current as the market shifts.
Want this for your business?
Tell me where you want more customers. I read every message myself and come back to you, usually within a day.