Your competitors' moves, in Google ads and AI answers. One Monday brief.
Open your inbox Monday morning. See what your competitors changed in their Google ads last week, which of them Google's AI answers cited on your keywords, and the one specific test we'd run this week. Five-minute read. No dashboards.
The report you already check
Auction Insights tells you who. Not what. Not what to do.
Every Google Ads account ships with Auction Insights: impression share, overlap rate, outranking share. Percentages about who showed up in your auctions. It never shows the ads behind those percentages, what changed since last week, or the move to make. And it only covers auctions you were in. Edgebrief is the other half: the actual ads, the week-over-week change, one specific test every Monday.
By the numbers
Competitive intel is no longer optional. The data shows it.
of the average Google Ads budget is wasted on irrelevant or low-intent clicks.
Average Google Ads CPC rose 12.88% year over year to $5.26 in 2025 (WordStream). Every wasted click costs more than it did last year.
How it works
Tell us your keywords and competitors
10 to 30 search terms to track. 3 to 7 competitor domains. Two minutes.
First brief lands today
We capture every text ad, shopping listing, brand-name search, and AI Overview citation, then send a brief on today's landscape. Usually within the half hour.
Every Monday after: what changed
What changed since last week, what angles are emerging, one specific copy test to run. Five-minute read.
Sample brief output
Atlas Coffee Club started bidding on your brand-name search this week. Their text ad now sits above your organic listing with '$1 First Bag · Free Shipping · 50+ Roasters.' Last week your brand search was clean. This week it isn't.
Atlas Coffee Club: the conquest above, plus position 1 on shopping for 'single origin coffee subscription' at a $14.99 sample bundle. Trade Coffee: expanded copy on 'specialty coffee subscription' to include '50% off first month.' Stumptown: silent on category keywords, defensive shopping ads on own-brand only.
Your own brand search has zero defensive ads. You're letting Atlas's conquest run unopposed, even though defensive ads on your own name run at very low CPC.
Google's AI Overview on 'coffee subscription' cited Trade Coffee and Atlas Coffee Club as sources this week; your domain was not among the cited sources. Trade's $25 starter set shows in the AI answer's product cards. Shoppers who ask Google which subscription to pick are being pointed at both of them.
Run a defensive text ad on your brand name plus common misspellings. Headline structure: "[Your Brand] · Roaster Direct · Skip the Marketplace Markup." Reason: cheapest highest-ROI ad this week, drops Atlas below the fold for searchers who already meant you.
Three weeks ago this brief recommended a price-anchor headline on 'single origin coffee subscription.' The test ran; your ad now holds position 2 with the anchor live. Keep it. Six weeks ago we flagged an open slot on 'decaf coffee subscription.' Trade took it before you moved. That window is closed.
The brief compounds
Week one is a snapshot. Week twelve is a record.
Dashboards show you a live view and no memory. Edgebrief works the other way. Every weekly capture is stored, diffed against the last, and carried forward, so each brief is built on the record of the ones before it.
Your first brief maps the landscape: who runs what on your keywords, where your brand search stands, the first move.
The brief diffs this week against last week. New ads, dropped ads, price moves, citation changes.
Trend detection reads direction across the last eight weeks: which competitors are ramping, which angles are rising or fading, and how long a streak has run.
On Growth and Scale, a Follow-up section rechecks the brief's own past recommendations against the current results page. Did the test run? Did it hold?
When this week's pattern resembles one you have already been through, the brief names the week.
Every brief is stored, indexed by week. Look back at week 12, see what we recommended, check whether it landed.
Deltas, trends, and recall on every plan. Follow-up tracking on Growth and Scale.
How we compare
Synthesized intelligence vs raw data tables.
Most competitive ad tools hand you a dashboard and a million rows. We hand you a paragraph and a copy test. Different products for different jobs.
| Edgebrief | Other competitive tools | |
|---|---|---|
| Output format | 300 to 700 word synthesized weekly brief | Raw data tables, dashboards, exports |
| Time to act on it | 5 minute Monday read, then test | Hours of analysis to find the signal |
| Setup | 2 minutes: 3 to 7 competitors, 10 to 30 keywords | Hours to build dashboards and saved views |
| Surfaces tracked | Text ads, shopping ads, brand-name searches, Google AI Overviews | Often only text ads (modern shopping carousel missed) |
| AI answers on Google | AI Overview citations on your keywords, narrated weekly | Separate AI-visibility tools, typically $250+/mo |
| Brand-defense + conquest | Tracked weekly, called out by name in the brief | You configure and check it yourself |
| What you do next | One specific copy test with the keyword and the reason | You decide what to test from the data |
| Starting price | $49/mo (or $470/yr) | $100 to $500/mo |
Built by an operator
We built this for our partners first.
I'm Tou. Edgebrief started as an internal tool at Pactx. We were tired of spending hours in dashboards for every partner, trying to glean what their competitors had changed that week. So we built a brief that did the digging: what moved on Google, and the one thing worth doing about it.
It saved us hours, and it kept the facts straight. What other tools have indexed and what is actually on the results page are not always the same thing, so we capture the live page every week. It never fully replaced those tools. It replaced the hours spent in them to answer one question: who is competing against you, with what, and where.
No brand has an unlimited budget, no matter how big the company. A clear read on your competitors' moves is an advantage you normally only get from inside their building. We felt it was time to make that available to everyone.
Tou, founder, Edgebrief
Pricing
Three plans. Cancel any time.
All plans include the weekly brief, brand-defense and brand-conquest tracking, shopping-ad coverage, and AI Overview citation tracking. Growth adds the deeper signal layer.
Starter
The brief, every Monday.
Or $470/yr (save 20%).
Brands monitoring direct competition in one core category.
- 3 tracked competitors
- 10 tracked keywords
- Weekly brief, every Monday
- Brand defense and conquest tracking
- Shopping ad coverage
- AI answers: Google AI Overview citations on your keywords
- 8-week trend detection: rising and falling angles across your keywords
Growth
Wider tracking, deeper signal.
Or $950/yr (save 20%).
Brands tracking multiple product lines or competitive categories.
- 5 tracked competitors
- 20 tracked keywords
- Everything in Starter
- Follow-up tracking: rechecks its own recommendations at 3, 6, and 13 weeks
- Brand-defense risk score, 0 to 100, every week
- Shopping feed depth: SKU counts and price moves per competitor
- Whitespace heatmap across your top keywords and competitors
- Custom buttons in your brief email
Scale
Full coverage for brands and agencies.
Or $1910/yr (save 20%).
Established brands and agencies managing wider competitive landscapes.
- 7 tracked competitors
- 30 tracked keywords
- Everything in Growth
- Deepest weekly brief (550 to 700 words)
- Widest tracking for multi-line brands and agencies
Frequently asked
What is Edgebrief?
Edgebrief watches your competitors' Google ads every week and emails you a short, synthesized brief every Monday morning. It tells you what changed, what new angles your competitors are testing, and one specific thing to try this week. No dashboard to log into, no data tables to dig through. The email is the product.
How is this different from other competitive tools?
Most competitive ad tools give you raw data tables (millions of keywords, every metric, every ad) and leave it to you to find the signal. We flip that. Edgebrief synthesizes what changed this week into one short read so you can act on it Monday morning instead of spending two hours building a report.
How is this different from Google's Auction Insights report?
Auction Insights is the report inside Google Ads that shows which domains entered the same auctions as you, with metrics like impression share, overlap rate, and outranking share. It answers who. It does not show the ads those competitors ran, the copy or prices they tested, their shopping presence, whether Google's AI answers cite them, what changed week to week, or what to run in response. And it only covers auctions you were in. Edgebrief covers that other half: we capture the actual ads and AI Overview citations on your keywords every week, narrate what changed, and end with one specific test. Read both. Auction Insights for auction share, Edgebrief for the moves behind it.
What does the weekly brief actually look like?
The same tight structure every week. Headline Shift names the single biggest competitive change. Competitor Breakdown summarizes each tracked competitor's activity. Whitespace identifies one gap nobody is owning. AI Answers appears in weeks where Google's AI Overview cited a competitor on your keywords. This Week's Action gives you one specific copy or angle to test, with the keyword and the reason. Length scales with your plan.
Do higher plans get longer briefs?
Yes. Higher plans track more competitors and keywords, so the brief draws on a wider data pool and gets more room to give each competitor a real breakdown. Starter targets 300 to 400 words, Growth 400 to 550, and Scale 550 to 700. Every plan keeps the same structure and the same synthesis-first style.
Does the brief get better over time?
It compounds. Day zero maps your landscape. From the first Monday, every brief diffs against the previous week. Once enough weeks accumulate, the brief reads direction across an 8-week window: which competitors are ramping, which angles are rising or fading, and how long a streak has run. When a week resembles one you have already been through, the brief names the week. On Growth and Scale, a Follow-up section also rechecks the brief's own past recommendations at 3, 6, and 13 weeks against the current results page. Every brief is stored and indexed by week, so the record is yours to check.
How much does it cost?
Three plans, billed monthly or annually. Starter at $49/mo or $470/yr covers 3 competitors and 10 keywords. Growth at $99/mo or $950/yr covers 5 competitors and 20 keywords. Scale at $199/mo or $1,910/yr covers 7 competitors and 30 keywords. Annual saves 20% compared to paying monthly.
How does annual billing work?
Annual subscriptions are billed once upfront for a full 12-month term and renew automatically each year on the anniversary of your purchase. You save 20% compared to paying month-to-month. You can cancel any time, but cancellation only stops the next renewal. We do not refund unused months on annual subscriptions, so please choose annual only if you are confident you want a 12-month commitment.
Can I cancel any time?
Yes. Monthly subscriptions cancel at the end of the current month. Annual subscriptions cancel at the end of the current 12-month term. In both cases you keep access through the period you have already paid for, then service ends. You can cancel from the Settings page or by replying to any brief email.
Can I switch plans or change billing cycle?
Yes, any time. From the Settings page you can upgrade, downgrade, or switch between monthly and annual. Upgrades are prorated and billed immediately. Downgrades keep your current capacity until the end of the billing period, then renew at the new price.
What categories does Edgebrief work for?
Edgebrief works for any brand running Google Search and Shopping ads with active paid competition in their category. Common fits include food, supplements, apparel, beauty, home goods, software, and professional services. The brief gets thinner in very niche markets where few competitors run paid ads, but most categories with weekly buying intent have signal worth tracking.
When does my first brief arrive?
Minutes after signup, usually within the half hour. Your first brief maps today's landscape: what each competitor is running on your keywords right now, where your brand-name search stands, any AI Overview citations we captured, and the first move we would make. That capture doubles as your baseline, so your first week-over-week brief lands the following Monday, and every Monday after that.
Where does the data come from?
We capture Google search results for your tracked keywords every week, including text ads (Sponsored slots), shopping/product ads, and AI Overview citations. We also run brand-name searches on each tracked competitor to detect brand-defense and brand-conquest activity. Everything is processed weekly into a synthesized brief; you receive the analysis, not the raw data dump.
Does Edgebrief track Google AI Overviews?
Yes. Every weekly capture records whether Google showed an AI Overview on your tracked keywords and which sources it cited. When a tracked competitor is cited and your domain is not among that week's cited sources, the brief names the keyword, the competitor, and any products the AI answer showed. Coverage is Google's AI surfaces; the brief reports what was cited in that week's capture rather than making blanket claims about your overall AI visibility. We also publish a free monthly public sample, the AI Overview Citation Watch, at edgebrief.io/data/ai-overviews.
Does Edgebrief track Google AI Max for Search?
Yes. We capture whatever Google serves on your tracked keywords, including ads chosen by AI Max. AI Max rotates headlines per query and expands matching beyond explicit keywords, so the same competitor can show different headlines week to week. Our brief reads that variation honestly: when copy rotates without a clear thematic shift we attribute it to AI Max, not a strategic test, so you do not act on noise. Brand defense gets more important under AI Max because competitor ads can match your brand search even when nobody bids your name explicitly. The brief flags those events when we see them.