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In digital marketing, understanding your competitors' advertising strategies can make the difference between an average campaign and a high-converting one.
If you've ever wondered where your competitors are advertising, how much they're spending, and which creatives perform best, Semrush AdClarity aims to provide those answers.
As part of the
This means you can reverse-engineer successful ad campaigns, refine your own strategy, and avoid costly trial-and-error mistakes.
But how accurate is the data? How much insight does it really provide? And most importantly, is it worth the price?
In this in-depth review, I'll break down AdClarity's features, usability, data accuracy, and value for money, while sharing my personal experience using the tool for competitor research.
To get the most out of this guide, sign up for a free 1-week trial of Semrush AdClarity and follow along as I explore its features.
Table of Contents
What is Semrush AdClarity?
AdClarity is a powerful competitive intelligence tool developed by BIScience.
It collects, analyzes, and aggregates real-time display, video, and social ad occurrences across 650,000 publishers in 51 global markets, including the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
As part of the
Who is AdClarity for?
- Marketers & Advertisers who need competitive insights to optimize ad campaigns
- Business Owners & E-commerce Brands looking to scale with data-driven ad strategies
- Agencies & Media Buyers handling multiple clients and wanting a clearer picture of market trends
- Competitive Intelligence Teams researching industry benchmarks for advertising.
What Does AdClarity Track?
AdClarity provides in-depth insights into:
- Ad spend & impressions – Estimated budgets and visibility of competitor campaigns
- Ad placements – Where and how ads are being displayed
- Buying methods – Direct buys vs. programmatic
- Ad formats – Image ads, animated ads, rich media ads, skin ads, video ads, and social ads
This data allows you to reverse-engineer your competitors' advertising strategies, uncover high-performing publishers, and refine your own ad placements for maximum ROI.
AdClarity Advertiser vs. Publisher Reports
AdClarity provides two core types of reports: Publisher Reports and Advertiser Reports, each offering distinct insights into ad performance and placement.
- Publisher Reports: These reports analyze where ads are placed and how they perform on specific domains or apps. They help you compare ad performance across multiple publishers, showing which advertisers are buying ad space on a given publisher's site or app.
- Advertiser Reports: These reports analyze an advertiser's ad performance across all publishers, helping you compare multiple advertisers and identify top-performing publishers for specific brands.
AdClarity's Two Core Packages
AdClarity offers two specialized packages based on the type of ad intelligence you need. You can subscribe to each separately or use them together for full coverage across all channels.
1. AdClarity Display – Display Advertising Insights
- Access to 50,000 display ad publishers
- Coverage across 30 countries
- 5 report exports per month
This package is perfect for analyzing display ad strategies, tracking banner ads, and understanding direct vs. programmatic ad buys across major publishers.
2. AdClarity Social & Video – Social & Video Advertising Insights
- Covers social media ads (Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn)
- Tracks video ads across 10,000 video publishers, including YouTube
- Coverage across 51 countries
- 15 report exports per month
This package is ideal for tracking social media campaigns, influencer marketing trends, and video ad performance.
By leveraging AdClarity Display and AdClarity Social & Video, you get a complete view of your competitors' advertising strategy, allowing you to optimize your own campaigns, uncover hidden opportunities, and increase your ad efficiency.
Key Features of AdClarity
1. Competitor Ad Research: See What Works for Others
AdClarity gives you a detailed breakdown of competitors' advertising strategies, showing:
Ad placements – Where competitors are running ads (display networks, social media, or video platforms.)
Ad creatives – Banners, video ads, and copy used in campaigns.
Top Campaigns – Best-performing ad campaigns from competitors.
Estimated Ad Spend – How much they are likely spending on each platform.
This kind of visibility into competitors' ad strategies helps you identify successful tactics and fine-tune your own campaigns accordingly.
2. Ad Creative Analysis: View & Analyze Ad Variations
One of the best features of AdClarity is the ability to view actual ads that your competitors are running.
With access to real competitor creative, you can:
- Craft better-performing ads by learning from top campaigns
- Identify which messaging and visuals resonate with audiences
- Avoid low-performing ad formats
To view your competitors' creatives and messaging strategies, simply scroll down to the "Top Social Ads" section.
From here, you can use AdClarity's advanced filters and sorting options to examine the exact types of ads you want to analyze.
You can filter these ads by:
- Ad Spend & Impressions – Identify the ads with the highest budget and reach
- Ad Duration – See which ads have been running the longest
- Newest Ads – Spot fresh creatives and emerging trends before they take off
- Ad Type – Filter by social images, social videos, and more
- Publisher – Analyze ads across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), and LinkedIn
By combining these filters, you can uncover which creatives, platforms, and strategies are driving the most engagement, giving you a competitive edge in your industry.
3. Ad Spend & Impression Data
AdClarity provides an estimate of how much competitors are spending on ads, along with impression data.
While these figures aren't 100% precise (since platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn don't publicly disclose exact ad spend), AdClarity's data still offers valuable benchmarks for:
- Understanding how aggressively competitors are advertising
- Identifying seasonal ad trends in your industry
- Finding the best-performing ad networks for your niche
The "Top Campaigns" report in AdClarity shows you exactly how much your competitors are spending on each campaign. You can also track impressions and CPM data to see how visible their ads are and whether they're getting the most out of their budget.
Want a bigger picture of their ad strategy? The "Social Networks" report gives you a breakdown of their ad spend across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter (X), so you can see which platforms they're prioritizing and where they're investing the most.
Caveat: Since this data is estimated, use it directionally rather than as an exact number. The spend trends are useful, but don't rely on exact figures for budget planning.
4. Ad Buying Methods: Direct vs. Programmatic
AdClarity helps you understand how your competitors are buying ad placements through the "Ad buying methods" report.
Ad buying methods are categorized into 3 categories:
- Programmatic – Track which brands use automated ad networks for placement.
- Direct – See which advertisers purchase ad space directly from publishers
- Ad Network – Identify top ad networks used by your competitors
When analyzing an advertiser, this report provides insights into all of their ads across every publisher they advertise on.
Conversely, when analyzing a publisher, it showcases all the ads displayed on that domain.
5. YouTube Channels: Discover Where Competitors Are Advertising
AdClarity's "YouTube Channels" widget provides a breakdown of where an advertiser is running video ads on YouTube. When analyzing your competitor within the Video channel, this widget highlights the top YouTube channels where their ads have appeared.
Alongside the top 5 YouTube channels, this report shows:
- Number of campaigns running on each channel
- Impression count and share of total impressions
- Estimated ad spend and share of the advertiser's total video ad budget
- Share of Voice breakdown, showing how much visibility the advertiser has compared to competitors.
You can click the "View all" link at the bottom to see a complete list of YouTube channels where the advertiser's ads have been spotted.
You can customize the report using the dropdown menu on the right, allowing you to filter and refine the data based on your specific needs.
By leveraging this data, you can identify high-performing YouTube placements, uncover competitor strategies, and optimize your own video advertising efforts.
AdClarity Pricing
AdClarity offers two main in-app packages, along with an all-in-one option if you need full advertising intelligence across multiple channels.
1. AdClarity Display – $169/month
This plan focuses on display advertising, giving you insights into your competitors' banner and programmatic ad strategies.
2. AdClarity Social & Video – $180/month
This package covers social media and video ads, letting you analyze competitor campaigns on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and YouTube.
3. All Advertising Channels (Full Suite) – $349/month
If you need the complete picture, this plan combines both Display and Social & Video, providing full access to all AdClarity features.
Semrush offers a 7-day free trial on all plans, so you can explore AdClarity's features risk-free.
Sign up for a free trial of AdClarity today
Want to compare AdClarity's pricing with other
Pros & Cons of Semrush AdClarity
AdClarity Pros
- Detailed competitor ad insights – See exactly where competitors are running ads, their creatives, and estimated budgets.
- Social & video ad tracking – Get insights beyond just display ads (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube).
- Top ad creative tracking – View and analyze real competitor ads.
- Great for agencies & advertisers – If you manage multiple clients, this tool is a goldmine for competitive research.
- Saves money on ad testing – Instead of wasting budget testing random creatives, you can leverage proven competitor strategies.
AdClarity Cons
- Pricing is high – The Social & Video add-on is $180/month, making it expensive for smaller businesses.
- Estimated spend data isn't always 100% accurate – Use it as a directional insight rather than an exact figure.
- Limited historical data – Would be useful to have longer ad history tracking.
My Experience Using AdClarity
I used AdClarity to analyze ad campaigns for a fast-growing e-commerce brand and was impressed with how much insight I could gather.
What stood out:
- I could see which competitors were increasing ad spend, allowing me to adjust bidding strategies proactively
- The ad creative insights were incredibly useful, helping us refine our own ad designs
- The tool helped identify top-performing ad networks, showing where we were missing opportunities
Key takeaway: If you're serious about data-driven advertising, AdClarity provides valuable insights—but you'll get the most benefit if you actively use the data to optimize your ad strategy rather than just passively tracking competitors.
Is AdClarity Worth It?
✅ Yes, if you:
- Manage paid ad campaigns and need competitor benchmarks
- Run multi-platform ads (social, display, video)
- Work for an agency or media-buying team handling multiple clients
- Want to optimize ad spend by leveraging proven competitor strategies
❌ No, if you:
- Only run small-scale, occasional ads
- Expect exact ad spend data (it's estimated, not 100% precise)
- Don't have the budget for a high-priced ad intelligence tool
Final Verdict: Powerful, But Best for Data-Driven Marketers
Semrush AdClarity is an excellent tool for anyone serious about competitive ad intelligence. It provides detailed insights into where, how, and what competitors are advertising, giving you a huge strategic advantage.
That said, it's not cheap—so if you're a small business or just running a few ads, you may not get full value from it. But if you manage multiple ad accounts and need data to drive decisions, AdClarity is a powerful asset worth considering.
Interested in testing it out? Sign up for a free 1-week trial of AdClarity here and see if it fits your ad strategy needs.
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