How to Use TrendTrack to Watch Competitors' Ads Every Day

The short answer: take the Pro plan, which is the first with the ad library and API access, resolve each competitor with a Lookup, add them to Brandtracker in folders, read their new and long-running ads in the drawer and save the useful ones, then let an n8n workflow or Claude post a daily digest to Slack that a person reads before anything turns into a brief.

Disclosure: I may earn a commission through some links on this site. It does not change what this page says.

Competitor research often starts when a campaign is already failing: someone opens the Meta Ad Library, scrolls for an hour and screenshots three ads. A watchlist turns that into a habit that costs minutes a day. For what TrendTrack includes and costs, see the TrendTrack glossary entry.

What to prepare:

1. The credit cost of a daily digest. The API charges per returned row, 1.5 credits for each Meta ad, and every active plan includes 10,000 recurring credits a month (credits and billing). For example, a digest of 20 ads a day is 20 x 1.5 = 30 credits, so 30 x 30 = 900 credits a month, and a Lookup costs nothing.
2. The list you already keep. Many teams already have a spreadsheet of competitor domains. Pro follows 10 brands at once, so pick the 10 that most often take your customers, and sort the rest for later.
3. A tally sheet. One line per saved ad that became a test in your own account. After a month, that count says whether the watchlist earns its place.

Step 1: Choose Pro and switch on API access

Starter does not include the ad library or API access; Pro does, with 30 Lookups a week and 10 tracked brands, at $89 a month on monthly billing or $62 a month billed yearly (pricing, checked on 26 October 2026). If you plan the daily digest, ask a workspace admin to enable Public API access explicitly, then create a workspace-scoped API key; until then calls return a workspace_public_api_disabled error (getting started).

Step 2: Resolve each competitor with a Lookup

Search for each shop by name, or open it from the Shops library (Brandtracker). A Lookup opens one brand for 24 hours, with its shop analytics, ads, landing pages and emails, so use it to confirm you have the right store before you track it (pricing). Through the API, resolving a brand, domain or handle with the lookup endpoint comes first and costs no credits (agent guide).

Step 3: Add them to Brandtracker in folders

Add each confirmed shop to Brandtracker; it then appears on the tracking dashboard with its metrics. Move the shops into folders, for example direct rivals, adjacent brands and brands you admire for their creative. A brand followed here stays open without using a Lookup, so the weekly Lookups stay free for new names (Brandtracker, pricing).

Step 4: Read the dashboard for movement

The dashboard shows each tracked shop's active ads, ad activity, email campaigns, traffic trend, product updates and social growth, and you can sort by activity level. Look for change rather than totals: a competitor that launched many ads this week, or one whose emails suddenly name a new product, has started something.

Step 5: Open the ads and save what teaches you something

In the ad library, filter by date, format, engagement and target country, open each ad in the drawer for its data, audience, timing and message, and read its Ad Rank, TrendTrack's measure of where the ad stands (ads library). An ad that has run for months on a competitor's own money is a stronger signal than one with a burst of reach. Save the useful ones to a folder per theme, such as offers, hooks or formats.

Treat spend with care. TrendTrack's EU reach and budget figures are estimates built from Meta's transparency data and exist only for ads shown in the EU and the UK, as its pricing page and homepage explain. Ads outside those markets carry no reach at all.

Step 6: Let an agent write the morning digest

TrendTrack documents two agent routes. The first is n8n: import the TrendTrack template, paste your API key into the credential node, and wire the output to Slack; the docs' first suggested workflow runs at 9am, pulls yesterday's scaling ads and posts them to a market-intel channel (n8n guide). Inside an n8n AI Agent, the MCP Client Tool node connects to the same server with your key as a bearer token.

The second is Claude. Add a custom connector named Trendtrack with the address https://api.trendtrack.io/v1/mcp, allow access in TrendTrack, and ask for something like "Show my workspace's fastest scaling ads this week" (Claude guide). The guide lists write scopes for tracked brands and favourites, while the MCP page calls the connector read-only. Approve the write scopes only if you want the agent editing the watchlist; destructive tools ask for an explicit confirmation either way.

The agent gathers; a person judges. Each morning, someone opens every ad the digest names before it enters a brief, discards those that only spent heavily for a few days, and writes the brief in your own words and claims.

What the documentation warns about

• Broad queries. Cost is charged per returned row, so start with a limit of 10 to 50 while you build (getting started). Billing by the row means a broad query earns the vendor more than a narrow one; write the narrow one.
• Skipping the Lookup. The agent guide's first rule is to resolve a named brand with the free lookup endpoint before calling anything that costs credits.
• Running out mid-loop. A request that exceeds the balance fails with insufficient_credits; long-running agents should read the balance at start-up, which costs nothing (credits and billing).

FAQ

What do API and MCP calls cost?

Per returned row: 4 credits for a shop or product, 3 for an advertiser, 2 for an email, 1.5 for a Meta ad and 1 for most other things, with lookups free. Top-ups are $1 for 1,000 credits, from $10 (credits and billing).

Why do some ads show no reach or spend?

Meta publishes reach only for ads shown in the EU and the UK, so ads elsewhere have none, and spend is estimated from that reach (homepage, pricing).

Can I track more than 10 competitors?

On Business, which follows 20 brands and adds unlimited Lookups and 3 seats (pricing). Pro stops at 10 tracked brands, so the eleventh rival is the moment TrendTrack bills you for Business; drop a brand that has gone quiet before you upgrade for a new one.