Brand Radar is your competitive intelligence system. This module covers how to add competitors, choose the right mix of direct and aspirational competitors, and configure alerts that surface actionable insights.
Choosing competitors to track
Start with three categories of competitors. Direct competitors sell similar products to similar audiences at similar price points. These are the brands your customers also consider when evaluating your product. Track 3-5 direct competitors. They provide the most actionable intelligence because their wins and losses directly affect your market share.
Aspirational competitors are brands whose creative quality you admire, even if they operate in adjacent categories. A skincare brand might track Glossier not because they compete directly but because Glossier's creative approach is worth studying. Track 1-2 aspirational competitors. They expand your creative vocabulary and expose you to approaches you would not discover within your own category.
Disruptive newcomers are small or new brands entering your space with innovative positioning or creative approaches. They may be too small to threaten you today but their creative strategies often signal where the market is heading. Track 1-2 newcomers. They keep you alert to emerging trends.
Total recommended competitors: 5-9 depending on your plan (Starter: 5, Pro: 15, Studio: unlimited). Quality over quantity. Five well-chosen competitors provide better intelligence than fifteen random ones.
Adding a competitor
Go to Brand Radar and click Add Competitor. Enter the competitor's website URL or their Facebook Page name. If you enter a URL, Mani automatically finds their associated ad accounts across Meta, TikTok, and LinkedIn. The initial scan pulls the competitor's last 30 days of ad history, including: every active ad, run duration per ad, format distribution, and copy patterns.
The initial scan takes up to 24 hours to complete because it queries multiple ad libraries. After the initial scan, new ads are detected daily. You can check the scan status on each competitor's profile page in Brand Radar.
Configuring alerts
Brand Radar can send you notifications when something interesting happens in your competitive landscape. Configure alerts from Brand Radar Settings. Daily digest (all new competitor ads from the past 24 hours in one email). Weekly summary (a consolidated report of the week's competitive activity). Winner alerts (when a competitor ad has been running for 7+ days, indicating it is likely performing well). Format shift alerts (when a competitor launches ads in a format they have not used before, suggesting a strategy change).
For most brands, the weekly summary plus winner alerts is the right configuration. Daily digests create noise. Weekly summaries plus winner highlights give you the signal without the noise.
What to look for in the first 30 days
The first 30 days of tracking establish baselines. Note each competitor's: posting frequency (how many new ads per week), dominant formats (static vs video vs carousel), messaging themes (product-focused vs lifestyle vs testimonial), and seasonal patterns (do they increase activity around specific dates or events).
These baselines become your reference point for detecting changes. If a competitor who normally posts 5 ads per week suddenly posts 20, something has changed in their strategy. If a competitor who only runs static ads launches a video campaign, they are testing a new approach. Changes from the baseline are the insights worth acting on.
For the next module on reading patterns, continue to Reading competitor creative patterns. For help with setup, see Setting up Brand Radar in the help center.