Competitive intelligence glossary

A B C D F G O P R S W

Ad library: A public database of ads a company is running, such as the Meta Ad Library or Google Ads Transparency Center.
Backlink: A link from another website to a company's site. Backlink growth is a sign of SEO or PR activity.
Battlecard: A one-page sales document comparing your product with one competitor, used to handle objections.
Change monitoring: Re-checking web pages on a schedule and comparing each version with the last to detect edits.
Competitive intelligence: Collecting and analysing information about competitors' products, pricing and marketing to inform decisions.
Competitor set: The list of companies a business tracks as direct or indirect competitors.
CTA: Call to action. The button or link a page asks visitors to click, such as 'Start free trial' or 'Book a demo'.
Diff: The set of differences between two versions of a page.
Domain rating: A 0 to 100 score from Ahrefs estimating the strength of a site's backlink profile.
Founder-led marketing: A company's founder building an audience on LinkedIn, X or podcasts as a growth channel.
Free tier: A plan with no charge, usually limited in usage or features.
Go-to-market motion: The main way a company acquires customers, such as outbound sales, SEO, paid ads or partnerships.
Growth channel: A source of new customers or traffic: SEO, paid ads, outbound, PR, reviews, social, referrals.
Outbound: Contacting prospects directly by cold email, calls or LinkedIn messages.
Positioning: How a company describes what it sells and for whom, usually visible in the homepage headline.
Price change: A change to a plan's price, limits, or the set of plans offered.
Review site: A site where buyers rate software, such as G2, Capterra or Trustpilot.
Share of voice: A company's share of mentions, ads or search visibility compared with its competitors.
Snapshot: A stored copy of a page as it looked on a given day.
Win/loss analysis: Interviewing buyers after a deal to learn why they chose you or a competitor.