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Competitor research

How can I see what Google ads my competitors are running, and is there a tool that shows their keywords?

By The Tofu team ·

Start with Google's free Ads Transparency Center: search a competitor's name or website to see the ads it has run on Search, Display, Gmail and YouTube, filtered by region and date. It doesn't show keywords, bids or spend. Auction insights in your own Google Ads account shows which advertisers enter your auctions and how often they outrank you. Google's tools don't show which keywords a competitor bids on. SpyFu, Semrush's Advertising Toolkit and Ahrefs collect search results to estimate them, and spend too, so treat those numbers as estimates.

As of October 2026.

Your options at a glance

OptionWhat it doesCostMain limit
Google Ads Transparency CenterAds an advertiser has served on Search, Display, Gmail and YouTube, by region and dateFreeNo keywords, bids or spend
Auction insights (your Google Ads account)Who enters your auctions, and how often they show with or above youFreeOnly your auctions; nothing under 10% impression share
Keyword Planner, "Start with a website"Keyword ideas from any site's contentFree (billing details required)Not the keywords the site bids on
SpyFuPaid keywords, ads and estimated spendMembership from $33 a monthHistory needs a higher plan; figures are estimates
Semrush Advertising ToolkitPaid keywords, ad copy, landing pages and history back to 2012$99 (Base) or $220 (Pro) a month; 7-day free trialTop 8 paid ads per keyword, at national level
AhrefsPaid keywords, ad copy, landing pages and paid traffic$29 (Starter) to $1,499 (Enterprise) a monthOnly ads in the results it collects
AdbeatDisplay, programmatic and native ads across 151 networks$249 or $399 a month; Enterprise on requestNo search keywords; video and spend estimates on Enterprise

1. Google Ads Transparency Center

Google says its Ads Transparency Center (adstransparency.google.com) covers ads on platforms such as Search, Display, Gmail and YouTube, and that you can "search by advertiser name or website name and filter their search results by serving region and date."

For each advertiser you see its name and location with a verified or unverified badge, the entity that pays when it differs, and the ads it has served over a period. For ads served in certain countries or regions, Google adds targeting information, the total number of recipients for each ad and a subject label. Google says it "provides API access to data about ads served in the EEA," and may give regulators API access to data on ads served elsewhere.

Search works by advertiser or website name, not by keyword, so you can't type a search term and see who advertises on it, and Google's help doesn't mention keywords, bids, spend or results. Search each competitor's website as well as its name, set the region to your market, and log each ad's offer, headline and landing page. Google describes no alerts, so check on a schedule.

2. Auction insights in your own account

Auction insights compares your performance with "other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions that you are," in Google's words.

For Search campaigns it shows six metrics for you and each competitor: impression share, overlap rate (how often their ad showed when yours did), outranking share, position above rate, top of page rate and absolute top of page rate. Shopping campaigns get the first three, and Performance Max gets a report split by Search and Shopping.

To open it, go to Campaigns, Ad groups or Search keywords within the Campaigns menu, check the boxes next to the items you want, then select Auction insights. Keyword-level reports are for Search campaigns only.

Limits: only items with enough activity get a report, "The auction insights report doesn't show insights when impression share is less than 10%," and Search partners aren't included. It shows no competitor keywords, bids or spend, but it tells you whose names to look up.

3. Keyword Planner with a competitor's website

In Keyword Planner, choose Discover new keywords, then Start with a website, and enter a competitor's URL. Google says it will "look for keywords related to the content on that site." Keyword Planner is free, but you must finish account setup with billing details first.

These are keywords Google matches to the site's content, not the keywords the competitor buys. For building your own list when volumes are tiny, see keyword research tools for low-volume B2B Google Ads.

4. SpyFu

SpyFu's home page says you can "See every keyword they've ever bought on Google and every ad test they've run" and claims 18+ years of historical data. Its PPC page says you can "Find any site's paid keywords and estimated ad spend" and "Track a site's PPC budget, clicks, and number of ads over time."

  • Cost: its home page says "Membership starts at just $33/month," with "Unlimited data and downloads" and a "30-day, no questions-asked, money back guarantee." SpyFu's help center (February 12, 2026) says a domain's spending over time and past ads come with the Pro + AI and Team/Agency plans, while Basic shows current snapshots, so check which plan the $33 buys.
  • How it gets the data: SpyFu says it keeps "cached pages of every Google SERP we capture," records the ads on page one with screenshots, and that "The figures like costs, search volume and number of clicks are estimates that come from other sources" (help article, June 3, 2026).
  • Limits: a keyword or ad it never captured won't appear, and spend is modeled.

5. Semrush Advertising Toolkit

Semrush's Advertising Research tool sits in its Advertising Toolkit, which you can use alone or with its SEO toolkit. It shows the keywords a domain bids on and its ad positions, new and lost paid keywords, competing domains with a "price estimate," ad copy, landing pages and ad history "as far back as 2012."

  • Cost: Base $99 a month or Pro $220 a month, each with a 7-day free trial. Pro adds AdClarity for competitors' display, video and social ads.
  • Limits: Semrush says it "reliably tracks the top 8 paid ads per keyword," that its metrics "are based on national-level averages and top paid ad positions," and that "Local, time-specific, or niche-targeted ads may not be captured." It calls its numbers "benchmark estimates."

6. Ahrefs

Ahrefs' PPC page says you can "Discover which keywords competitors target, their CPCs, ad positions," see the landing pages that get paid traffic, and "See how much competitors invest on Google Ads," with paid keywords and ad copy "across 200+ countries."

  • Cost: Starter $29 a month, Lite $129, Standard $249, Advanced $449 and Enterprise $1,499 (annual commitment). Paying yearly saves up to 17%. The pricing page doesn't say which plans include the paid search reports.
  • How it gets the data, and its limits: Ahrefs finds the keywords where a site shows an ad in the results it collects, then estimates traffic from ad position, search volume and click-through rate. "Traffic coming from display ads, video ads, and other non-search ad types are not captured," and if Google didn't show Ahrefs the ad when it pulled the results, the keyword is missing. Ahrefs itself says "the most accurate paid keywords data you can ever get are directly from Google Ads itself."

7. Adbeat, for competitors' display ads

If you want a competitor's banner ads rather than search ads, Adbeat covers display, programmatic and native ads across 151 display networks, DSPs and exchanges.

  • Cost: Standard $249 a month (35 countries, 90 days of data), Advanced $399 (1 year, new-ad alerts, direct buys), Enterprise on request (3 years, estimated ad spend, pre-roll video ads). Adbeat Basic is free.
  • Limits: it describes its coverage as display networks, not the keywords a competitor bids on in Google Search. For a free look at display ads, use the Transparency Center.

What happened to iSpionage?

If an older list recommends iSpionage, note that its page now says it "has officially shut down as of 07/09/2025," and its tools are no longer available.

Can I see how much a competitor spends on Google Ads?

Not from Google: neither the Transparency Center nor auction insights shows spend. Every figure you find comes from a tool's model, built from the ads it captured plus estimated volumes, clicks and costs, as SpyFu, Semrush and Ahrefs each say above. Use them to compare competitors and spot changes over time, not as the real budget. Calibrate first, as SpyFu suggests: look up your own domain and compare the estimate with what you spent.

How to choose

  • A quick look at what a competitor is running: the Ads Transparency Center, free.
  • Who you really compete with in your auctions: auction insights.
  • The keywords behind their search ads: SpyFu or Semrush's Advertising Toolkit (Pro adds display, video and social); Ahrefs if you already use it for SEO.
  • Their display and native ads across networks: Adbeat.
  • Whether to bid on their names: see should you bid on competitor brand names in Google Ads. For LinkedIn, see how to see competitors' LinkedIn ads.

Sources

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