Audience research
Part of Run B2B demand generation audience research: a practical guide
How to run B2B demand generation competitor research
B2B demand generation competitor research works best as a fixed checklist: pick rivals buyers meet, log their claims and turn the gaps into your own messaging.
What to take away
B2B demand generation competitor research is the routine of recording what rival vendors claim, where they appear and how buyers describe them, then turning that record into your own messaging and channel choices.
- Run the exercise every quarter and date every entry.
- Score six to eight rivals drawn from lost deals and paid search.
- Keep claims, proof, price signals and ad copy in one shared table.
- Check comparative claims against the CAP Code and applicable business advertising law.
- Give the finished file to whoever writes your ads and landing pages.
Start with the buyer question
Begin with the question a buyer actually types or asks a salesperson: who else does this, and what does it cost. That produces sharper research than a list of brands someone remembers.
Put the question at the top of the file. Every row you add should answer it.
Write it in the buyer's words rather than your product terms. A phrase like "who else does this" works as both a search string and a prompt for sales calls.
Choose rivals the way buyers do
Ask the sales team which names appear in lost deals and in late-stage comparisons. Then add the vendors that rank on your main commercial search terms.
CAP the list at eight. Longer lists get read once and abandoned.
Ask two people who handle different territories, because one person's list reflects only their own patch.
If you need the wider audience picture first, the B2B demand generation audience research guide for England explains how to define segments before you name competitors.
Build the evidence file
Use Google Ads Auction Insights to see which advertisers overlap in your search auctions, and Google Ads Transparency Center to inspect their ads. Semrush, Ahrefs and Similarweb can help identify search visibility and traffic patterns; treat estimates as leads to verify against public pages.
For buyer reviews, scan G2 and Capterra, then capture the page and date in the evidence file.
Each rival gets one row. Record the claim in their own words, the page it came from, the date you saw it, the proof offered and whether you can match it.
Scoring the evidence file
- 1 to 5score per column
- Totalshows rival strength and your gap
- Next quarterre-score and note what moved
What to record for each rival
Record these five fields for every rival:
- Exact claim or ad copy, copied in the rival’s own words.
- Where it appearedpage, channel or search term, with the source URL.
- Date captured.
- Proof offered, such as a case study or customer review, with its source.
- Price or packaging signal, and whether you can substantiate a comparable claim.
What to record for each rival
- Headline claim and exact wording
- Page URL and capture date
- Proof typecustomer, number, certification
- Pricing signalband or enquiry page
- Best performing paid search headline
How to score what you find
Score these columns from one to five: buyer relevance, claim clarity, evidence strength, search or ad visibility, and differentiation. Use the same criteria for each rival so the scores can be compared.
Give each column a simple score from one to five. The total tells you where a rival is strong and where the gap is yours to take. Re-score next quarter and note what moved.
Illustrative example only — this is not a real supplier or research finding.
| Rival | Claim or ad copy | Source | Proof | Buyer relevance | Claim clarity | Evidence strength | Visibility | Differentiation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example rival | “Automate follow-up” | Product page; captured during review | Case study listed on page | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
Keep every cell to a short phrase. Long notes are hard to compare and get skipped when the file is read at speed.
One file per market, not per product, keeps it readable.
Check claims against the advertising codes
For non-broadcast ads, check the CAP Code, administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Comparative claims in business-to-business advertising must also comply with the Business Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008: comparisons must not mislead or confuse, and should compare services meeting the same needs on material, relevant, verifiable and representative features. Trading Standards is responsible for enforcing those Regulations.
Keep the source URL next to every claim you log. It saves an argument later.
Watch paid search and landing pages
Search is where competitor research shows its value fastest, because ad copy and landing pages change without warning.
The search principles for creative best practice from IAB UK describe how ad text and landing pages should line up, which gives you a fair test for rivals' pages.
Note where rivals automate outreach
Some competitors now run prospecting and follow-up through AI sales agents rather than manual sequences. Salesforce’s Agentforce platform includes AI sales agents for prospecting and outreach automation, so you can judge whether a rival’s response speed comes from headcount or software.
Turn the file into a before and after plan
A messy first pass is normal. The table below shows what changes once the research runs to a fixed checklist.
Before and after plan
Before
- Rival list
- Names the sales team remembers
- Claims
- Screenshots in a shared folder
- Rules check
- Skipped
- Ad copy
- Reviewed once a year
- Handover
- Nobody owns it
After
- Rival list
- Eight rivals drawn from lost deals
- Claims
- One row per claim with source and date
- Rules check
- CAP Code checked before any copy
- Ad copy
- Captured each quarter with dates
- Handover
- One named owner and a review date
Set the next review date in the calendar before you close the file. Research with no owner drifts within two quarters.
For example, a team paying £1,500 a month on paid search can compare its ad copy against three rivals each quarter without buying new tooling.
Common questions
How many competitors should I track?
Six to eight. Fewer misses the market and more becomes unmanageable.
How often should the research be repeated?
Quarterly suits most B2B cycles. Repeat sooner if a rival changes pricing or launches a campaign that keeps appearing on your terms.
Can I reuse a rival's claim wording?
Rarely. Wording can be protected and claims must be substantiated. Write your own line and check it against the advertising codes before it goes live.
What if I have no budget for research tools?
Use your website analytics, search results and public pages. A survey tool is optional at the start; the B2B demand generation survey tools in England article covers paid options when you need them.
