Audience research
Part of How do video marketing agencies carry out audience research?
Nine checks for video marketing agencies competitor research
Most teams compare showreels and stop there. These nine checks turn video marketing agencies competitor research into evidence you can defend when budgets are set.
What to take away
- The commonest mistake is judging rivals on showreels alone, with no view of who their work actually reaches.
- Nine checks cover audience data, interviews, compliance records, creative standards and pricing signals.
- Pair desk research with direct questions, using our guide to video marketing agencies customer interviews so findings are comparable across suppliers.
- Record a date and source for every figure, because audience evidence ages quickly.
- Revisit the checklist each quarter rather than once at pitch stage.
What should competitor research answer before you start?
Write your question down first. Useful competitor research answers who a rival reaches, what that audience needs and what the work costs to run. If a check does not serve one of those, drop it.
Scope before you start
- Write the question down first
- Answer who, what, cost to run
- Drop checks that serve none
- Pick three to five rivals
- Agree the decision it informs
Set a scope too. Three to five rivals is usually enough for a mid-sized brief. More than that and the comparison becomes noise.
Agree the decision it will inform. A shortlist decision, a budget benchmark and a creative approach call for different evidence, and mixing them wastes time. Keep the question narrow enough to answer with the time you have.
How do you check who a rival actually reaches?
1. Map audiences against published data
Start with sector data rather than platform vanity metrics. ONS education and childcare statistics show how audiences split by age and region. That helps when a rival claims a broad reach.
Checking who a rival reaches
- Start with sector data, not vanity metrics
- Read comments for unmet needs
- Sort comments newest first
- Compare methods with a structured guide
2. Read the comment sections
Comments reveal unmet needs faster than view counts. Note repeated complaints and requests, then check whether the rival has answered them in later work. Sort by newest first, because old threads describe an audience that may have moved on.
3. Check the audience research guide
Methods vary, so compare your rival's approach with a structured one. Our video marketing agencies audience research guide sets out sampling and question design you can hold suppliers to. A shared method also keeps your notes comparable if you swap suppliers partway through.
Which creative and compliance signals matter?
4. Score creative against published principles
Use the IAB UK digital video creative best practice principles to judge pacing, sound-off legibility and calls to action. Scores beat gut feel when you present findings, and a colleague can repeat them six months later.
5. Search the advertising rulings
The ASA publishes advertising rulings on complaints it has resolved. A pattern of upheld complaints against a rival is a compliance signal worth raising before you brief anyone. One ruling on its own proves little.
6. Note production values that repeat
Look for repeated choices: presenter type, location, edit pace. Repetition usually means the format works for that audience, not that the agency lacks ideas. If nothing repeats, ask at pitch stage why the work keeps changing.
How do you compare price and process fairly?
7. Build a like-for-like cost sheet
Ask each supplier for the same deliverables. For example, a team paying £400 a month for social edits should expect a stated number of cuts, revisions and usage rights. Without that, quotes are not comparable.
8. Track turnaround claims
Note promised timelines and check them against published case dates where you can. Vague promises are a warning sign, and so is a timeline that holds for one campaign only.
9. Log who owns the footage
Licence terms decide what you can reuse. Record them for every rival you assess, because ownership disputes surface months later.
What should you do with the findings?
Turn the nine checks into a one-page summary per rival. Keep the same order every time so gaps are obvious, and date each entry.
Share it with the people who sign off budgets. A short evidence pack carries more weight than a slide of showreel clips. Flag any check you could not complete, so the gap is visible rather than hidden.
Send it before the pitch, not after, so the questions shape the conversation rather than trail it.
Common questions
How many competitors should a small team track?
Three is a workable starting point for most briefs. Add more only when each extra rival answers a question your current set cannot.
Can I run this research without paid tools?
Yes. Published statistics, platform comment sections and regulator rulings cover most of the checks. Paid tools speed up collection rather than change the method.
How often should the checklist be repeated?
Quarterly suits most campaign cycles. Re-run a single check sooner if a rival launches a format that changes your audience's expectations.
What if a rival publishes no audience data?
Infer carefully and label it as inference. Ask direct questions at pitch stage instead, and treat silence as a gap in the evidence.
