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SpyFu has proven to be an invaluable tool for conducting competitor research and analysis in the advertising industry. Users have praised …
Starting at $39 per month
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What is SpyFu?
SpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search…
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Popular Features
- Competitive analysis (50)9.191%
- SERP ranking tracking (43)8.181%
- Keyword analysis (51)6.969%
- Backlink management (39)5.959%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Basic
$39
Cloud
per month
Professional
$79
Cloud
per month
Team
$299
Cloud
per month
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Using Spyfu to Find Leads for a B2B Google Ads or SEO Agency - SpyFu Review and Demo For B2B Leads
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Jeff Demo 07 - Using SpyFu for Local SEO YouTube
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SpyFu Review Video Demo - Excellent or Scam?
YouTube
Domain Ad History Demo, Part 2 | SpyFu Domain Ad History
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Domain Ad History Demo, Part 1 | SpyFu Domain Ad History
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Spyfu Review: Pros, Cons, and Alternatives (+ Demo)
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What is SpyFu?
SpyFu Video
SpyFu Demo
SpyFu Competitors
SpyFu Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
SpyFu is the eponymous SEO and PPC research platform from the company in Scottsdale, Arizona focused on "spying" on competitors, or basically using their behaviors to refine your own through keyword and content analysis, and backlink poaching. This positional search engine optimization and paid listings management platform touts the ability to lower costs and raise rankings via a Kombat-oriented approach... basically a cute way of saying "it makes comparisons" of how well your site does in niche keyword areas vis-a-vis rival actors in the same or contiguous marketing space.
Published pricing starts at $79 per month with the Basic plan, for Google, Yahoo & Bing research, 6 years of historical access, unlimited access to SpyFu's tools, but somewhat limited access to leads and domain contacts keyword rank tracking. The $139 Professional plan gives full access to UK data and doubles the rank tracking of keywords from 400 to 800, and provides custom branded (white label) reports and API access. the $999 Agency plan gives team access (10 user logins) and unlimited tracking and reporting capabilities.
Moz Pro and RavenTools are common alternatives for SpyFu.
Reviewers rate Competitive analysis highest, with a score of 9.1.
The most common users of SpyFu are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
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SpyFu has proven to be an invaluable tool for conducting competitor research and analysis in the advertising industry. Users have praised its ability to provide strong directional insights for evaluating search advertisers, allowing them to understand their potential clients' past PPC efforts and identify opportunities for new campaigns. With its keyword research capabilities, users have been able to optimize their AdWords campaigns and allocate budgets effectively, ensuring that they are targeting the right keywords and avoiding spending on ineffective ad campaigns. SpyFu's SEO insights have also been highly beneficial for users, enabling them to assess the effectiveness of their SEO efforts and identify areas for improvement. By analyzing competitors' backlinks, users have been able to enhance their own backlink profiles, improving their website's authority in search engines.
The software has matured over time and added new elements, making it an integral part of users' arsenal for competitor research and baseline SEO analysis. Users have particularly praised SpyFu's ability to deliver a domain's ad history, which has helped them remain competitive in paid search. By identifying profitable keywords and uncovering low-hanging fruit through keyword tracking and competitor analysis features, users have been able to drive successful SEO campaigns. SpyFu's impact on search marketing ventures cannot be overstated, as it provides users with a powerful edge over their competitors in the search engine space.
In addition, SpyFu has become widely utilized for SEM and SEO business intelligence. Its comprehensive insights into competitors' monthly spending, ad copy, keywords, and SEO rankings allow users to gain valuable information for strategic decision-making. The tool has proven effective in pivoting campaign strategies quickly based on the insights provided by SpyFu. Users have found it instrumental in competitor analysis and strategizing marketing programs, helping them understand the competition landscape and assess viability within given budgets.
Furthermore, SpyFu has been used for various purposes such as analyzing potential keywords, conducting SEO data research, gaining insights into how search engines perceive websites, establishing baselines, conducting competitive analysis, and performing marketing and brand audits. Its advanced competitive keyword research capabilities have allowed users to collect thousands of keywords for themselves and their competitors, providing a wealth of data for analysis and optimization. SpyFu's auto-generated SEO reports have also been vital to the success of SEO efforts, providing users with comprehensive insights into core keywords and identifying new opportunities or challenges. Additionally, the estimation of competitors' monthly AdWords spending by SpyFu has provided valuable information in highly competitive fields.
With its interface and growing catalog of advantages, SpyFu has met users' needs
Intuitive User Interface: Many users have praised SpyFu for its highly intuitive and easy-to-navigate user interface. They appreciate the straightforward design and layout, which allows them to quickly access the information they need. This user-friendly interface has been mentioned by several reviewers, making it accessible to employees of all experience levels and easy for anyone to use and navigate.
Competitor Analysis: The ability to analyze competitors' advertising strategies and tactics is highly valued by users. Several reviewers have expressed their appreciation for being able to see what advertising has been done in the past. This feature allows them to gain insights into their competition's strategies, stay informed about their industry, and make data-driven decisions for their own campaigns.
Keyword Insights: Users find the keyword tool within SpyFu to be a great resource for understanding their website's performance as well as comparing it to their competitors'. Many reviewers have highlighted how this tool helps them identify top-performing keywords and compare them against their competitors' keywords. By optimizing SEO strategies based on these insights, users are able to stay ahead of the competition in search engine rankings.
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Lack of Clarity in Explanations: Some users have found that certain aspects of SpyFu are not well explained, leading to confusion and difficulty in understanding their purpose.
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Irrelevant Keywords: Several reviewers have mentioned that the keywords provided by SpyFu can be irrelevant to the selected business, which compromises the accuracy of the data.
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Graphs Difficult to Work With: The graphs in SpyFu have been described as challenging to navigate at times, indicating that they may not be intuitive or user-friendly.
The user suggests trying the free trial of SpyFu first and utilizing the on-boarding support provided. They highly recommend using SpyFu for SEO and PPC, considering it a great tool for competitive keyword research. Utilizing the help section and video tutorials is recommended. SpyFu is seen as worth the money, offering numerous features at a reasonable price. It is suggested to use SpyFu to stay competitive in advertising and to target specific issues with the help of the provided videos. For small businesses unable to afford SEO and PPC agency prices, SpyFu is considered a great investment. Trying SpyFu and upgrading are recommended, as it is easy to use, particularly for SEO purposes. Tracking competitors' ads, keywords, and spending using SpyFu is also advised. To improve digital marketing efforts, it is suggested to take advantage of SpyFu's capabilities. The tutorial videos provided by SpyFu should be watched for better utilization of the tool. For PPC professionals, SpyFu is considered a must-have. Running reports often and leveraging the information provided by SpyFu for informed business decisions are recommended practices. Taking advantage of reduced pricing for the trial period and the guided tour offered by SpyFu are additional suggestions. SpyFu is highly regarded as a great tool for competitive research and SEO analysis in online marketing. Considering SpyFu for gaining valuable insights and ensuring competitiveness online is suggested. Reviewers find it fast, easy to work with, and reasonably priced. For paid search analysis, utilizing SpyFu is recommended. The competition section of SpyFu can also be used to expand prospect pipelines with more companies.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 38)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
September 01, 2023
Intuitive competitive research tool for advertisers
I used SpyFu to evaluate how competitors were advertising on Google Adwords. I used the text ad content, dynamic ad insertions, and display ads to create my own similar ads. I also used keyword targeting to create my own keywords to target based on competitors' keywords they use for bidding.
- Keyword research
- Text ad and display ad research
- Competitive analysis
- Keyword rank tracking
- Rank tracking does not work very well and doesn't provide as much information as competitors
- Backlink analysis is not very intutive
- Data isn't always accurate for some of my competitors
September 01, 2022
Smooth and Easy PPC Research Tool!
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use SpyFu for researching competitor PPC campaigns and keeping an eye on their strategies. I find it helpful to see what keywords they are targeting, what ads they are running, and the competition’s estimated traffic levels. This helps me plan my own PPC strategy accordingly. I started using it a few years back and found it an in budget and easy-to-use PPC analysis tool. It just lacks a lot of insights on Organic traffic, or else it would have been my lifesaver tool!
- PPC research
- Historic traffic (I love this)
- Easy presentable report
- Keyword tracking
- Keywords database (very weak!)
- Backlink database
- Adding a site audit will be addition but not having it will be fine
June 01, 2022
A great SEO tool at an affordable price
I use SpyFu as part of my SEO work for both competitor research and keyword research to inform SEO strategies for my clients. I also use their reporting tool to provide monthly snapshots for my clients to show the progress we are making during the implementation phase of their campaign.
- The filtering options in the keyword tool are super helpful
- The multi-competitor keyword tool makes identifying keyword gaps so easy
- Their branded reports are easy to use and save us from having to pay for a different reporting service
- They provide real value at an affordable price
- I honestly can't think of anything I dislike or would change about SpyFu
May 26, 2022
Get Sneak-Peek of the Competition in one Click!
We use SpyFu mainly to find PPC keywords and keep tapping on our competitors. Though it offers SEO analytics and reports too in our company, we use it to find profitable keywords on which others are bidding/winning. Then, utilize them in our SEO campaigns to build organic traffic. Just plugin in the domain name (whether yours or competitor's) and you are done. It is a very straightforward tool!
- Competitor Analysis
- PPC Keyword Research
- SERP Rank Tracking
- Keyword Traffic and Volume Estimations are not precise.
- It would be nice if they made the results region / country specific.
- Report PDF takeout is not consistent. Misses out data points often.
May 19, 2022
SpyFu- give it a tru!
We are looking for help with ranking our website in both paid and organic searches. SEO keyword research can be overwhelming, and we did not want to spend hundreds of hours looking for the correct terms. We are a retail business primarily focused on the luxury space in the business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketplace.
- Scan competitors websites.
- Provide keyword recommendations.
- Provide SEO tips.
- Cost
- Heard to search competitor keywords.
- Monthly vs annual billing.
SpyFu has been very helpful for compiling competitor data and identifying opportunities with this research. The usefulness in regards to using it for Paid Search is great! Specifically, SpyFu's capability to deliver a particular domain's ad history is very helpful in seeing what changes were made and how we can remain competitive.
- Competitor Insights
- Paid Search Ad History
- SERP comparisons
- Organic search data
- Integrating more content-creation tools for ad copy
- Allowing more free features
May 18, 2022
SpyFu - A worthy competitor.
The main purpose of using SpyFu for our website was to understand who our competitors were, where they were and what they were doing. Not only were we able to keep a tab on the organic activities of our competitors but also paid activities. Additionally, we were able to identify other similar files which we could have missed had it not been for the SpyFu's feature that allows us to do so.
All this allowed us to form more compelling strategy and outrun our competitor.
All this allowed us to form more compelling strategy and outrun our competitor.
- Keeping a tab on competitors organic and inorganic activities
- Helps identify where the competitor is getting the backlinks from.
- Identify competitors top content and the keywords that's bringing them traffic
- Get proper information of their current and past ADS run on Google.
- SpyFu can only support and fetch data from limited countries.
- Certain glitches like page not connecting
- The information isn't always complete for some websites.
May 17, 2022
Great tools for a great price
We use SpyFu periodically to monitor our search ranking, organic / paid traffic, and what keywords we are currently utilizing through our website. We also use SpyFu to monitor our main competitor's search engine ranking and to identify new keywords or opportunities for paid search. The primary goal of using this program is to rank higher in search.
- Keyword tracking
- Competitor research
- paid SEO results
- Guides of product use for beginners
April 29, 2021
I am not an SEO expert, but I love SpyFu.
I use SpyFu mainly to look up keywords to use in my SEO for blogs and website[s]. I also use it to research competitors. [...]
- Keyword research
- Identifying questions people have
- Helping me see what my competitors are doing
- Training would be awesome
January 30, 2020
The Best Competitor Research Tool Out There
We use Spyfu to see what kind of competition our clients are facing and for what keywords their competition is targeting. It's also a good measure to see what our client's viability is with their given budget before we launch their campaign. We'll primarily use it to assess keyword rankings before we have enough data in Google Search Console.
- Free feature
- Accurate data
- Paid portion may seem a bit steep.
- Free version is very limited with what you're able to see.
January 30, 2020
Why I love SpyFu and you will too.
SpyFu is used primarily by me. Although my marketing team has access to it, I tend to be the one that uses it the most. We use it to find good keywords to use for our clients, as well as checking out what competitors are using and looking at their ads. Being able to see what ads specific competitors have been running, when they run them and their budget is a tremendous advantage for us in putting together plans for our clients.
- Gets info on competitor's websites. Simply putting in a domain name allows us to see what keywords they rank for organically, how much they spend on PPC and what their ads look like.
- Finds the best keywords for our clients. By showing what keywords are going to cost, how many searches per month, etc. it allows us to plan budgets more accurately.
- Obviously, not every website can be tracked. They add as many as they can, but sometimes a keyword or specific site just isn't being tracked yet.
January 28, 2020
SpyFu comes through
SpyFu allows us to get insights into the terms used by competitors and helps us build a planned budget for paid search spend for new clients. It also now gives us insights into how our SEO efforts are faring. We can see what terms - either paid or organic - should be given attention. The information on the backlinks of competitors helps us discover places we should add to our client's backlink profiles. All in all this tool is an important part of our arsenal. I have been using it since the early days and am impressed with how the tool has matured and added elements.
- Paid keyword research.
- Insights into organic keyword positions.
- Recommendations of terms to concentrate attention.
- Impact of brand terms.
- Levels of impressions - local, national, global.
- Exporting of competitor ad copy.
January 24, 2020
SpyFu- Under the mask
SpyFu, along with other tools, allows us to see how people are accessing a potential client's website. We see a sample of what people have done in the past recent months — an example of organic terms that are puling up search results as well as some keyword research.
- Paid search keywords
- Organic keywords
- Accuracy- any product like this can only be about 40% accurate.
- Their account building tool could be more expansive, and not so 'set in stone'.
January 24, 2020
SpyFu Review
I use SpyFu to see what my competitors are using as some of their keywords. Competitive analysis. I use it to analyze potential keywords that I may want to add to our campaigns. On many occasions, I also use it to see SEO data. Most importantly is the SEM Keyword analysis, which also shows spent data.
- Shows Our Competitors in regards to PPC
- Keyword Analysis
- Doesn't differentiate between Google and other search engines.
- Has no Bing Data
January 24, 2020
SpyFu is a great tool for agencies and marketing teams
We use SpyFu for PPC and SEO research. As an agency, we use it for our own purposes and for that of our clients. It's easy to by people on our team to quickly understand the cost of PPC terms and run competitive reports. We will run reports and send them to clients.
- PPC Research
- Competitive Research
- Setting up Projects within SpyFu could be easier
I use SpyFu to do keyword and competitor research. I need to know the search volume of keywords and which keywords competitors are bidding on so that I may optimize my marketing strategies.
- SpyFu shows keyword search volumes and related keywords which I struggle to find elsewhere.
- SpyFu shows details about any website's organic traffic.
- I would like to be able to see keyword search volumes for more countries.
November 07, 2019
Accessible and easy to use
SpyFu is mainly used by our paid media department and SEO department for competitive research. However, it is also a great tool for us to better understand how search engines are perceiving our clients' sites and marketing initiatives and allows us to have a better understanding of the digital marketing landscape.
- Affordable price point compared to other similar tools.
- An easy-to-use interface that makes it accessible to most of our employees regardless of experience level.
- Strong information for us to reference in our marketing research.
- SpyFu's data could possibly be a little more specific; compared to some other similar platforms, it's slightly simplistic.
- SpyFu could consider providing more competitor information outside of search, and delve into other platforms like social, as this data is becoming more widely available.
- SpyFu's user interface - while easy to navigate - also takes away a lot of customizations and levers you might be able to pull in other platforms.
August 27, 2019
I like SpyFu. You will too.
The marketing department at ClientHub uses SpyFu to research keywords and ad campaigns for our paid search initiatives. There are many tools out there to do this, but SpyFu is pretty straightforward. In addition, you can see what your competition is doing for keywords and ads. Without proper keyword research, a company can find themselves spending quite a bit on ineffective ad campaigns.
- Educational resources
- Competitor information
- Intuitive interface
- Affordable price
- I can't think of anything in particular that needs room for improvement.
February 04, 2019
Discover profitable keywords
I use Spyfu to discover new profitable keywords for Google Ads and for SEO. It is also great to look at competitors' keywords and ads.
- Discover profitable keywords.
- Review competitor's well-performing ads.
- Track your status on Google search results.
- The best feature of Spyfu is called "Kombat," where you compare the keywords used by you and your competitors and can see which ones generate a lot of results for them, and which you're not currently using.
- It is overwhelming first to navigate through all the available reports, but it's great that you can have a live orientation with one of their team members.
January 30, 2019
SpyFu is the spy that You Need.
Spyfu is one of the most useful tools for digital marketers out in the market right now. We use it for the obvious PPC keyword research, but the real value is at looking at competitors and figuring out their digital marketing strategy by looking at the keywords and budgets they have (or don't have).
- The best tool for keyword research based on close competitors.
- The best tool for discovering what PPC strategy and budget your competitors are using.
- You can also use it for ad copy ideas.
- It would be great if it expanded to Facebook.
January 09, 2019
SpyFu makes a great resource for competitor keyword research
We use SpyFu to help our customers gain insight into their competitor's most important keywords and what they are spending money on. It also gave us valuable keyword research for new markets and looking for new niches our customers require.
- Great for keyword research.
- Gain insights into what competitors are doing and ranking for.
- Allow multiple profiles for customers so I can have a client website and then it's competitors on a dashboard.
December 27, 2018
Get competitive data easily with SpyFu
The Marketing and Sales team of my company find SpyFu very helpful to check on our clients' websites, their competitors', and potential new customers.
- Compare ranking versus competitor sites
- Look up keywords relevant to site
- See PPC ads
- Get traffic data on competitor sites without needed their Google Analytics access
- Would be nice to do more customization to the competitive ranking graph
December 21, 2018
Frictionless, affordable, and badass competitor intelligence you can act on right now!
I use it to provide competitive analysis for clients, specifically when I am performing a marketing and brand audit. This helps me to establish a baseline with the client on what they are up against, so we can attack with intention. :)
- The domain overview is extremely helpful - for CEOs, this dashboard is exactly the kind of quick hit, at-a-glance experience they want to see.
- Worst performing and top performing keywords for paid search - this is an invaluable tool to determine how to approach paid against a competitor.
- To adwords to buy - this is obviously a wonderful bit of intelligence for testing, and for the most part, holds up in battle testing.
- Reporting is terrible - meaning, the PDF feature does not lay out correctly.
December 21, 2018
A Comprehensive Competitive Analysis in One Place
As a primarily entrepreneur company, we are constantly looking to optimize our own campaigns—but in optimization comes beating out our competitors. We use SpyFu currently to look into exactly what our competitors are doing. Based on what they are doing we are able to tweet our own campaigns so that we can maintain competitiveness in the market.
- Showing exactly what keywords our competitors are targeting, shows which ones we should target ourselves.
- When determining a marketing budget for a new project, we are able to project how much SEO would cost based on what our competitors are doing.
- Looking at what the competitors have in their backlinks helps us with optimizing our own website and landing pages.
- Some of the smaller websites that don't receive much traffic are often hard to complete competitive analyses for.
December 19, 2018
SpyFu for Competitive Intelligence
We use SpyFu to help us formulate our initial SEO and PPC keyword strategy for our clients by looking at their competitor's websites. Instead of starting from scratch, we find it useful to look at the keywords that are already performing for the competition to identify opportunities and as well as areas that have been ignored.
- SEO Keywords
- PPC Keywords
- Look-a-Like Audience Development
- Accuracy
- Breadth of Research