Guides · Method
How to find out how a competitor gets its customers
Last updated November 11, 20269 stepsWorked example: RottenBy Every Signal
Read the evidence of what the company pays for. Its live ads are public in Meta's Ad Library, Google's Ads Transparency Center and TikTok's ad library. Its page source shows which pixels, attribution and affiliate tags it runs. Its app store listings show prices and review themes, the Wayback Machine shows when the offer changed, and company filings and job posts show what it is funding and hiring for. None of this needs an account or a purchase.
Every Signal teardowns follow this method, with every figure tagged verified, estimate, inferred or rumour. Below: the nine steps with times, how it played out on Rotten, a candy brand from a public report, and the paid shortcut.
The sources
Which free sources show how a competitor gets customers?
Times are Every Signal's own estimate for a first pass on one company estimate; examples are from public reports with the record's tag.
| Source | What it tells you | Time | Example from a public report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Ad Library | Active ads across all Pages, start dates, versions, platforms, landing URLs | 20 to 40 min | Shortical: 3,651 active ads across 21 Pages shortical verified |
| Google Ads Transparency Center | Search, display and YouTube ads by advertiser, with formats and dates | 10 min | FashionPass 62 ads against roughly 500 for Nuuly fashionpass verified |
| TikTok ad library, Creative Center, TikTok Shop | Ads shown in Europe, top ads, and the creator layer selling the product | 10 min | Comfrt: about 9,393 creators posted it in 30 days comfrt estimate |
| Landing pages and funnel | The offer paid visitors see, trial, card, default plan, prices | 30 to 60 min | Calm: 480 of 575 ads to a quiz with no trial; calm.com offers 14 days free calm verified |
| Page source and network panel | Ad pixels, analytics, attribution, affiliate networks, funnel platform | 15 min | Nuuly 11 pixels and Rakuten; Rent the Runway 9 plus Northbeam and Impact fashionpass verified |
| Wayback Machine | When the price, offer, channels or positioning changed | 15 min | Rent the Runway: 10-item plan from $144 to $164 plus shipping fashionpass verified |
| App Store and Google Play | Rating counts, in-app purchase names and prices, review themes | 10 min | FashionPass iOS 3.1 stars (90 ratings) against Nuuly 4.9 (30.9K) fashionpass verified |
| Company records and job posts | Funding, credit lines, trademarks, press, roles being hired | 20 min | Shortical: $100M credit line from PvX Partners to fund ad spend shortical verified |
| Traffic estimate tools | Visits, trend and channel mix, as a range | 10 min | IDRlabs: 4.5M to 8.9M visits depending on tool idrlabs estimate |
The steps
Nine steps, in the order that saves the most time
1. Count its Meta ads across every Page (20 to 40 minutes)
Open facebook.com/ads/library, set the country, choose All ads and active status, and search the brand name and the domain. Record the count, the start dates, the versions and the URL each ad sends to. Brands run ads from partner and creator Pages too: FashionPass had 21 on its own Page and 4 on a partner Page fashionpass verified. The Meta ads guide covers the detail. The count alone places the company: Polymarket ran about 100, Kalshi about 1,100 kalshi verified.
2. Check Google's Ads Transparency Center (10 minutes)
At adstransparency.google.com, search the advertiser and the domain. It shows the ads served for a verified advertiser, with format and date range, but no spend. Many Meta ads and none on Google is a channel mix: Rotten had about 110 on Meta and zero on Google or TikTok rotten verified.
3. Check TikTok, ads and creators (10 minutes)
TikTok's ad library covers ads shown in Europe, so a TikTok pixel on the site with nothing in the library usually means US-only ads or retargeting. Then search the brand's name on TikTok to see whether creators sell it. For Comfrt the creator layer was the engine: about 9,393 TikTok Shop sellers posted in one 30-day window, about $9.4M in sales comfrt estimate.
4. Walk the landing pages and the funnel (30 to 60 minutes)
Open each landing URL from step 1 in a fresh private window and go to the paywall without paying. Record the offer, where the price first appears, the trial, the card, the default plan and the renewal line; the paywall and funnel guide has the fields. The paid funnel is often not the home page: Calm's ads sent 480 of 575 to a quiz with different prices and no trial calm verified.
5. Read the page source for pixels and tools (15 minutes)
Open the network panel, reload, and list what loads: Meta and TikTok pixels, GA4 and Tag Manager IDs, attribution (Northbeam), affiliate networks (Rakuten, Impact, CJ), funnel platforms. BuiltWith or Wappalyzer is quicker but less complete. Each is a channel the company pays for: Nuuly fired 11 pixels plus Rakuten; Rent the Runway 9 plus Northbeam and Impact; FashionPass 7 and no affiliate network fashionpass verified. Comfrt had 50 tools firing comfrt verified. Absence is also an answer: High Purity Labs carries no ad pixels at all high-purity-labs verified.
6. Use the Wayback Machine for history (15 minutes)
At web.archive.org, compare archived copies of the home page and pricing page a few months apart: when the price changed, when a trial appeared or disappeared, when a creator program or affiliate sign-up page was added. Rent the Runway's move from $144 to $164 plus shipping is the kind of change that shows up this way, and that its filings then confirm fashionpass verified.
7. Read the app store listings (10 minutes)
Note the rating count, a rough size signal, the in-app purchase list, and the review themes. SKU names reveal structure the website hides: Hily's App Store SKUs name 3-day and 7-day trials, and Canary Mail lists a Yearly Bundle Trial
hily verified. Review themes say where a competitor's churn comes from.
8. Check company records and job posts (20 minutes)
Search SEC EDGAR for a Form D, the trademark office for marks, and the press for financing. A credit line for ad spend is the clearest signal of paid acquisition: Shortical took $100M from PvX Partners in July 2026 shortical verified. Absence matters too: Rotten has no priced round or Form D, only a roughly $38K Kickstarter from 2021 rotten verified. Open roles name the channel being built.
9. Add traffic estimates, tagged as estimates (10 minutes)
Similarweb and Semrush give visits and a channel split for most domains, but they are models and can disagree by about 2x: the IDRlabs record shows 4.5M to 8.9M September 2026 visits depending on the tool idrlabs estimate. Use them for size and trend, as a range, never overruling steps 1 to 8; the Similarweb comparison explains the split.
Worked example
How did this play out on Rotten?
One paid channel feeding three funnels
Rotten is a better-for-you candy brand; its public report (October 19, 2026) used only the sources above. rotten
- Meta Ad Library: about 110 active ads from one Page, all started between June 25 and September 29, 2026. verified
- Google and TikTok: zero ads. Meta is the only paid channel. verified
- Landing pages: advertorial pages on shop.eatrotten.com, not the home page. verified
- Where it sells: its own Shopify store, an Amazon store whose
bought past month
badges sum to roughly 2,950 units a month verified, and retail that the brand says reaches 6,000+ doors (Sprouts, Kroger, Costco). - Traffic tools: about 33K visits in September 2026, down 33% month on month, even as the ad count rose. estimate
- Company records: no priced round, no SEC Form D, a roughly $38K Kickstarter in 2021; a 2026 NCA Most Innovative New Product Award. verified
The answer: one paid channel, Meta, feeding three places to buy, grown without visible venture money. What the sources cannot settle is margin: traffic is falling while ad count climbs, which the report flags, not resolves inferred.
The opposite case: High Purity Labs, a research peptide store, runs no ads and no pixels; its customers come through a private affiliate program on hidden subdomains, a small Instagram account and a wholesale tier high-purity-labs verified, found mostly by noticing what was missing.
The shortcut
What does it cost to have this done for you?
Every Signal runs this method and a person reads the result
If the company is in the library, the summary is free and the full report is $149. If not, a snapshot ($495) captures its stack, Meta ads and pricing page as data, no write-up. A quick teardown ($1,500) is the full method in this guide plus competitors, a revenue sanity check and the rules worth copying, read by a person before it ships. A deep teardown ($4,000) adds the app teardown and live ad-click tracing. For an AI agent, the automated intel_report job (490 credits, $49) returns the stack, live Meta ads, search footprint and homepage in minutes, unreviewed. Prices are on /pricing/.
Questions
FAQ
How can I see where a competitor's traffic comes from for free?
Not directly: traffic data is private. What is public is the evidence of what the company pays for. Meta's Ad Library, Google's Ads Transparency Center and TikTok's ad library show its live ads, the page source shows which pixels and affiliate tools it runs, app stores show its ratings and in-app prices, and the Wayback Machine shows how its pages changed. Together they tell you which channels it buys and where they land.
How long does a competitor analysis take?
A first pass with the nine free sources in this guide takes about three to four hours for one company, by Every Signal's own estimate: 20 to 40 minutes on the Meta Ad Library, 10 minutes each on Google and TikTok, 30 to 60 minutes walking the funnel, and 10 to 20 minutes on each of the page source, Wayback, app stores, company records and traffic tools.
Can I find out how much a competitor spends on ads?
Not from public data for ordinary US ads. Meta publishes spend only for ads about social issues, elections or politics. The practical proxies are the number of active ads, how long each has run and in how many versions, how many Pages run them, and whether the company has disclosed financing for ad spend, such as Shortical's $100M credit line in July 2026.
What does the tracking code on a competitor's site tell me?
Which channels it pays for and measures. A Meta or TikTok pixel means it buys or retargets there, an attribution tool such as Northbeam means it spends enough to need one, an affiliate network tag such as Rakuten or Impact means it pays partners, and no pixels at all, as at High Purity Labs, means the company is not buying ads and cannot attribute anything.
Can Every Signal do this for me?
Yes. A snapshot ($495) captures one company's tracking stack, Meta ads and pricing page as data. A quick teardown ($1,500) is the full method in this guide plus a revenue sanity check, read by a person before it ships. The automated intel_report job ($49) returns the stack, live Meta ads, search footprint and homepage to your AI agent in minutes, with no analyst review.
Order it
Name the company and get the teardown
Read any summary in the library free. For a company not covered, choose a snapshot, quick or deep teardown on /pricing/, or let your agent order an intel_report through the API and MCP server.