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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)5.858%
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
YouTube
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
(26-50 of 61)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
- 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.
December 12, 2019
SpyFu is a lot of data for a great price.
- SEO Research.
- Keyword Research.
- The user interface could be more intuitive.
- There's so much information, the learning curve can be fairly big.
November 07, 2019
Accessible and easy to use
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
Spyfu Usage Benefits
- Excellent at KW usage, costs, & recommendations.
- Traffic estimates are helpful for showing how effective a general marketing plan pushes traffic in relation to competition.
- Backlink tracking is nice to use for third-party proof of link sharing.
- Estimates could be more accurate.
- KW groupings could be broken down further in the SEM overview with costs & click frequency.
- Sometimes data does not transfer from one tab to another when reviewing a particular domain.
December 21, 2018
Frictionless, affordable, and badass competitor intelligence you can act on right now!
- 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
- 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
- SEO Keywords
- PPC Keywords
- Look-a-Like Audience Development
- Accuracy
- Breadth of Research
December 17, 2018
SpyFu is a must-have for businesses!
- Easy to navigate. The user interface is pretty straightforward and easy to use.
- Projects: Create projects for your own company or for clients you are managing to track your efforts.
- Insights on ad spend, keywords and impression share.
- Price - I was a user for several years and trying out another platform, I canceled and was quickly offered the same platform I had used for years at half the price.
- I know the ad spend for Google Adwords is estimated - It would be helpful if it was a little more accurate - maybe not a doable feature of SpyFu, but would be helpful.
November 29, 2018
An SEO competitive analysis tool that drives action
- Extensive amounts of competitor data
- Touches on both paid and organic search opportunities
- Easy graphs to help illustrate competitive landscape
- Since this tool scrapes millions of keywords listings it does take some manual filtering via Excel to get to what is truly going on.
- It would be nice if they expanded into social as well to be able to have an all-in-one tool
- A themes breakdown would help to eliminate the need for manual sorting and filtering
September 27, 2018
Good SEM Competitor Tool
- Estimated cost per clicks by competitor. SpyFu provides deeper intel than the engines b/c the data is segmented by domain and is not masked
- Estimated monthly traffic volume & costs associated with higher spending competitors. SpyFu provides deeper intel than the engines b/c the data is segmented by domain and is not masked
- The cost per click information is not terribly accurate but can usually be used directionally. Obviously, with a paid product, people want exact data
- The free tool has limited data that mainly show vague feedback on your competitors. Def need paid version for any useful info.
August 20, 2018
SpyFu is great for keyword research
- Keyword research
- Reporting
- Online ad research
- Links are not as comprehensive as I would like
- More tools than I use, which really isn't a bad thing
June 04, 2018
SpyFu the best on competitor analysis.
- Gives you the most popular Ads for each month.
- Shows you the keywords your competitors are using.
- Spyfu will show you an estimate of what they believe your competitor is spending and this number is always low. They should evaluate the keyword prices more to give a more relevant estimate.
- Free version only gives you around 20 keywords for each competitor. I wish it was larger.
- Must sign in to see any SpyFu information even for the free version. This is a new thing and I liked it better when it was anonymous for free.
April 16, 2018
Perfect SEM/SEO/PPC Tool - No Agency Required
- Comparison tool of how our website compares to similar websites is helpful to understand where we are strong and where we have room to improve.
- Identifying backlinks
- Reviewing and recommendations for keywords
- None
February 28, 2018
SpyFu Is A Great Organic SEO & PPC Analysis/Research Tool
- SpyFu's competitor analysis tool is unparalleled. A detailed, strategic breakdown of how competitors do or don't spend their advertising budgets, and how organic SEO plays into their overall traffic.
- Researching new keywords has always been an important step when improving our organic SEO rank and SpyFu allows us to research keywords directly from the console.
- SpyFu's overall platform is wide-reaching, but could be better optimized by allowing customers to see the data broken down across the various web browser paltforms, e.g, Google, Bing, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.
August 25, 2017
Great Resource for Competitive Intelligence
- Easy to use
- Comprehensive
- Incredible Drill Down
- I have no complaints.
June 28, 2017
Sneak through your competition's...history
- Spyfu provides a very detailed snapshot of ad history for any competitor.
- The competitor discovery ability is great.
- Some of the graphs used to present data help to identify targets of opportunity.
- The backlink tool provides some pretty off topic links.
- The database doesn't seem to be as effective as others.
March 28, 2017
Kung Fu kick your KWs into shape with SpyFu
- International KW targeting
- Competitive intelligence / identifies competitors KWs and campaign spends
- Organic and paid search overall campaign health
- No API integrations with marketing automation platforms (that I am aware of)
- Reporting is a bit wonky
- Usability can use some improvements
March 14, 2017
SpyFu Helps To Make Spying Online Much Easier
- PPC reports for competition. SpyFu allows you to gain insight into possible budget spend as well as what their ads look like.
- The keyword tool within SpyFu is great for seeing what your web sites biggest hitters are as well as what your competition keywords stack against yours. If you share certain keywords, it ranks who has better traction.
- Reporting is a weakness with the platform. It is not the easiest process to implement and the information can be better organized.
- There are inaccuracies with the PPC reporting, especially for competitors. To our knowledge, the only way that PPC budgets are estimated is through ads that have already been clicked on the search network. This means that display, programmatic and other ad formats are not counted.
June 07, 2016
Spyfu is our go-to product for Competitive Intel
- This product links competitor data quite easily in the dashboard, from one domain to the next.
- The overviews for each domain are clear and comprehensive, making the birds-eye-view complete.
- The PPC vs. SEO views are clearly defined and easy to navigate.
- Some of the competitor results seem unrelated to the primary domain. Much more manual research is required to get the best possible data.
- Some keywords are completely unrelated. Again, manual research is required to get the best data.
- Exporting to a CSV/PDF does not include manually added information. This is particularly disappointing.
May 03, 2016
Great Competitive Analysis
- Competitor analysis
- PPC competition information
- PPC Ad copy research
- Better list of keywords when doing research
- More information on ppc spend of competition