AdBeat is an online marketing spy tool that allows you to uncover any advertiser’s ad strategy. AdBeat’s focus is on display advertising, not search engine advertising.

The tool covers 26 different countries, 90+ ad networks and five different device types (Desktop, iPhone, iPad, Android, Android Tablet).

Key features include:

• Uncover where a specific advertiser runs ads
• Find out an advertiser’s top ads
• Research advertisers that are similar to your competition
• Reveal who advertises on a specific domain
• Show the top ads for a specific domain

This AdBeat review is based on the AdBeat Pro Advanced plan.

AdBeat Plans, Pricing and Features

AdBeat offers three main plans: intro ($99/month), standard ($249/month) and advanced ($399/month).

The intro plan gives you access to all display, programmatic and native ads. It allows you to search for advertisers, ads and publishers by keyword and will show results from all 26 available countries. The data is limited to 500 results per search and the last 30 days.

The main difference compared to more expensive plans is that they offer more options to filter your results, more results per search and longer periods of data.

The standard plan offers 1,000 results per search and 90 days of data. The advanced plan offers unlimited results per search and one year worth of data.

In addition to the three main plans, there are two special plans which are less advertised: “Google only” ($79/month) and “Google + Mobile” ($129/month). These plans are very interesting options for advertisers who focus on the Google display network.

The “Google only” plan offers access to all desktop ads on the Google display network in all 26 countries. The “Google + Mobile” plan features all desktop and mobile ads on the Google display network and additional filter options.

Both of the special plans include unlimited results per search and two years of data. So if you don’t need access to all ad networks the Google only plans are a great value for money.

An Overview Of The AdBeat Interface and Features

The AdBeat interface is divided into six menu items: Search, Tools, Top Advertisers, Top Ads, Movers & Shakers and Reports.

Here’s an overview of each menu items and its functionality.

Search. The search feature allows you to search for any advertiser, publisher or keyword to look up advertising intel. Let’s take Amazon as an example (both an advertiser and a publisher of ads). You can search for “amazon.com” and select advertiser to find out which domains Amazon is advertising on. You can also search for “amazon.com” and select publisher to find out who is advertising on amazon.com.

Tools. As part of the advanced plan you get access to the “Advertiser Compare Tool”. This tool lets you compare two advertisers ad impact, ad creative and share of voice. You could for example compare amazon.com and walmart.com to get an overview of their advertising strategies.

Top Advertisers. This feature provides an overview of the top advertisers during a specific time frame across all ad networks or on a specific network. The enterprise plan also shows top advertisers in specific categories like for example “Health & Fitness”. The top advertisers feature is useful in order to get an overview of the biggest players to then dig deeper into their advertising strategy.

Top Ads. This feature shows the most seen ads during a specific time frame across all ad networks or on a specific network. This is especially useful to find high-performing banner ads. You can then use these top performing banner ads in order to improve your own banner designs.

Movers & Shakers. This tool shows advertisers and ads that have seen a large increase in ad impact recently.

Reports. This is where you can download reports that you have created from previous analyses. For example, when you are looking at amazon.com’s advertiser profile you can generate a report and download it from the menu item “Reports”.

How To Uncover Your Competition’s Ad Strategy

AdBeat is a great way to uncover your competition’s ad strategy and find profitable placements for your display campaigns.

Start by clicking on “Search” in the left-hand side menu. Then type in your competitor’s website URL. We will use “amazon.com” in this example.

Once you have selected the advertisers profile, there are four main reports to look at: Ad Impact, Creative, Publishers and Similar Profiles.

Ad Impact. This section provides an indication of the advertiser’s ad spend over time. It also shows the top ad networks in the ad strategy.

 Creative. This section shows which ad sizes the advertiser uses most. By clicking on “See All Top Ads” you get a detailed overview of the advertisers best performing banner ads.

Publishers. This section provides an overview of the number of publishers the advertiser uses. By clicking on “See All New Publishers” you get a detailed list of all placements where the advertiser runs ads. If the advertiser is a direct competitor, this is very useful intel for expanding your own campaigns.

Similar and Recommended Profiles. This section shows you other advertisers that are similar to the one you searched for. This is great in order to find other competitors and ad strategies similar to your own.

Who Is Advertising On A Specific Domain?

AdBeat provides another way to research new placements for your display campaigns via publisher profiles.

This feature is also available via the AdBeat search function. In this case we searched for “amazon.com” and selected its publisher profile (in the example above we looked at Amazon’s advertiser profile).

Once you have selected the publisher profile, there are three main reports: Ad Impact, Creative and Similar and Recommended Profiles.

Ad Impact. This section provides an overview of the ad inventory of the publisher. On the right-hand side it also shows which ad networks the publisher uses. As an advertiser this helps you figure out which ad network serves the most impressions for a specific publisher.

Creative. This section shows you which ad formats are the most common on the publisher’s website. By clicking on “See All Top Ads” you get an overview of the most served ads on the website. This is where you can research whether your advertising strategy is a good match for the publisher.

Similar and Recommended Profiles. This section will show other publishers that are similar or related, yet another way to find new placements for your campaigns.

Is AdBeat Right For You?

Optimizing display network campaigns can be challenging. AdBeat is a great shortcut for anyone who is running display campaigns on AdWords and/or other networks.

It allows you to spy on your competition’s ad strategy and thereby find new profitable placements for you own campaign. Furthermore, it can help you with your banner designs by allowing you to research your competitor’s top ads.

Overall, AdBeat is a great display spy tool for individual marketers, consultants and agencies. The ideal plan for you depends on your needs. The advanced plan ($399/month) gets you access to all features (except enterprise level features).

If that’s not within your budget, the special plans “Google only” ($79/month) and “Google + Mobile” ($129/month) are much more affordable options.

Adbeat doesn’t offer a free trial anymore. However, each plan comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Click here to signup for an AdBeat plan.