WhatRunsWhere Review – Spy On Ads All Around The Web

whatrunswhere-review

This WhatRunsWhere review is based on the “Full Coverage” subscription of the service which includes mobile, desktop and native advertising platforms.

WhatRunsWhere is a marketing spy tool that allows you to uncover:

  • where your competitors are advertising and what kind of ads they are using
  • which advertisers and ads are running on a particular domain
  • which advertisers and ads are running for specific keywords

All of this data is available for 7 different countries and 500 ad networks.

The following countries are currently supported: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Brazil, France and Germany.

There are four ways to research ads: by advertiser domain, by publisher domain, by keyword (i.e. topics) and by searching for top ads. We will now discuss each of these features in detail below.

WhatRunsWhere Plans and Pricing

whatrunswhere-pricing

WhatRunsWhere offers a basic plan ($299/month) and a full coverage plan ($399/month). Enterprise plans are also available by contacting support.

The basic plan includes desktop and native advertising platforms. You can search for any advertiser, website, network or category. There is an option to filter results for affiliate campaigns. You can also track specific advertiser, site and network activity.

In addition to all of the basic plan features, the full coverage plan also offers mobile data for all advertiser, network, website and category profiles. You can filter between desktop, mobile and native data. This kind of data is especially helpful if you are buying a lot of mobile traffic or want to identify which device traffic is most popular in your industry.

All plans offer a 3-day refund policy, i.e. you can claim a refund within 3 days of the purchase date.

Let’s now take a closer look at the different features of WhatRunsWhere.

Where Does [Domain] Advertise?

whatrunswhere-advertiser

This feature allows you to find out where a specific advertiser is running his ads by searching for their domain name (e.g. www.amazon.com).

There are a few different typical use cases. You might want to know where your main competitors are advertising and what kind of ad creative they are using.

Or you might be preparing to enter a new market and you want to research where the main players are advertising and what their messaging is.

Lastly, the features is of course useful for affiliates who want to find out how a particular website is generating their traffic.

The screenshot above shows a search for the advertiser amazon.com.

In this case, I have narrowed down the search to the United States and the last 30 days.

You can see exactly where Amazon was advertising during this period, what text or banner ads they were using as well as the landing pages they were linking to.

What Ads Run on [Domain] ?

whatrunswhere-publisher

In order to find the publisher (i.e. network) Amazon, you would type “Amazon” in the search field and select “Amazon [network]” instead of “Amazon [advertiser]” from the options that pop up.

This feature is useful when you want to know who is advertising on a specific domain or network and what ads they are using.

You might consider promoting your product to Techcrunch readers. You could then check which ads and products are promoted heavily on Techcrunch.

If you are an affiliate you can pick domains that are known to feature a lot of affiliate ads in order to find out what offers your competition is currently promoting.

For each search you can check the ad creative (text or banner ads), ad network that was used, how long the ad was running, the landing page and other details.

What Ads Run For [Keyword]?

whatrunswhere-keyword

The keyword feature is used for researching ads on a specific topic.

The feature is helpful if you want to know which advertisers are active in a particular market. It’s also a great way to get ideas for the design and messaging of your banner ads.

In order to check the top ads for a specific keyword, click on “Top Ads / Keyword Search” and search for a keyword via the “filter by keyword” field.

The screenshot above shows ads which ran for the topic “weight loss” in the US in the last 30 days. I have also selected the option “Only Show Affiliate Ads” for this search.

By clicking on “More Filters” you can limit your search to one of the most popular banner sizes.

What Are The Top Ads In A Country?

whatrunswhere-top-ads

The top ads feature is great when you want to get an idea of which ads and products are promoted most heavily in a specific country.

This is an excellent way to spot trends in affiliate marketing and in the general online marketing space.

You can search for all popular banner sizes as well as text ads in any of the 7 supported countries.

You can also narrow down your search to specific networks, for example Google AdWords or AdRoll.

Custom Domain Tracking

whatrunswhere-domain-tracking

Sometimes there are cases when you want to know as much as possible about a specific competitor or advertiser.

In these cases you can use WhatRunsWhere domain tracking to add the advertiser’s URL to your tracking list. This will give you updates on the advertiser’s latest activity.

Here’s how to set it up: first you need to search for a domain. In the example above we searched for amazon.com. In order to add this domain to your tracking list, click on track at the top right. Whenever you go the homepage of the WhatRunsWhere app now, you will see your list of tracked domains.

This feature is especially useful for less popular domains that might not otherwise get picked up by WhatRunsWhere.

AdBeat vs WhatRunsWhere – Which Tool Is Best?

When it comes to ad spy tools, WhatRunsWhere and AdBeat are probably the two most well-known solutions.

So marketers often compare the two services and try to figure out which one is best for them. Here are my thoughts…

I’ve found that WhatRunsWhere has a strong edge when it comes to affiliate data. When I compared the services this was true for the US as well as internationally. On the other hand, I must say that I slightly prefer the AdBeat interface and how the information is displayed.

So here’s my recommendation:

If you are not an affiliate and are looking to spy on your competition’s advertising strategy I would recommend AdBeat. Especially if you just care about Google data, AdBeat offers a Google desktop + mobile plan for only $129 per month.

WhatRunsWhere Review – The Right Spy Tool For You?

WhatRunsWhere is a valuable research tool that is easily worth the monthly subscription fee if you know how to use it.

Affiliate marketers can use it to research what’s currently hot and uncover competitor strategies (for desktop, mobile web and mobile apps).

Small, medium and large businesses can use it improve their advertising strategy by monitoring competitor activity.

Similarly, marketing consultants and agencies can keep their clients up-to-date on their competition’s advertising strategy.

How To Advertise Like A Pro
The best marketing hacks learned from spending millions of advertising dollars online. Get free updates via email!
100% privacy. I hate spam just as much as you.

Like it? Share it!
No comments yet.

Leave a Reply

How To Advertise Like A Pro
How To Write Sticky Ads, Buy Visitors for Pennies and Turn Every $1 into $2-3 Profit.
We respect your privacy.
How To Advertise Like A Pro

How To Write Sticky Ads, Buy Visitors For Pennies and Turn Every $1 into $2-3 Profit.

100% Privacy. We don't spam.