Appearance
Add, remove and refresh competitors
You choose which brands Nexus watches. This page covers how to add, remove and refresh competitors. Everything happens on Insights > Competitors > Competitor Library.
Problem and intended user
This page is for the creative strategist (the person who plans and makes ad creatives), the media buyer (the person who runs your paid ads) and the ecommerce manager (the person who runs the store).
The problem arises when you want to follow other brands but have no fixed list. You then look at whichever brand comes to mind, and you can miss a rival that has started to advertise heavily. Competitor Library and Competitor Synthesis, and the competitor side of Creative Radar, read the brands on this list.
Current workflow
Many merchants keep a list of rival brands in a spreadsheet. They look up each brand in the public ad libraries that Meta and Google publish, and repeat the search for a fresh look. Some ask an agency to pick the brands and report on them.
Prerequisites
- Installed store. You need an installed store. Nothing else is required to open the page.
- A free slot. You can track up to 10 competitors.
How Nexus works
Nexus collects the public ads of each advertiser you pick. It also syncs tracked competitors in the background. Nexus then uses AI to analyse the new ads.
Nexus does not guess an advertiser for a brand. You pick the advertiser, or you approve an AI suggestion that has one picked. Nexus adds a brand only after you click Add Competitor or Add N Competitors. After you add a competitor, Nexus starts fetching its ads by itself. To fetch the ads again later, click Sync Ads or Refresh Ads.
Add a competitor by hand
- Click Add competitor.
- In the Add Competitor dialog, type the Brand name. This field is required.
- Type the Website domain if you want to. This field is optional.
- Under Pick the advertiser, type in the Meta field, the Google field or both. Select the matching advertiser from the results.
- Click Add Competitor.
The button stays disabled until you set a name and at least one advertiser. After you add the competitor, Nexus starts fetching its ads.
Add competitors with AI
Suggest with AI proposes brands from your market.
As soon as the dialog opens, Nexus starts a Meta search and a Google search for every suggested brand, with the brand name in each advertiser field. You still pick the advertiser.
- Click Suggest with AI. The AI Competitor Suggestions dialog opens.
- Read each suggestion. It shows a confidence label (High, Medium or Low), a reason, category tags and an Ad Spend level.
- For each brand you want, pick its Meta advertiser, its Google advertiser or both.
- Optional: type a topic in Refine suggestions and click Refine. Click the refresh icon to get a new list.
- Click Add N Competitors. N is the number of brands you picked an advertiser for. If you pick more brands than there are free slots under the limit, Nexus adds only as many as fit.
The footer counts "N of M ready to add". After you add the brands, Nexus starts fetching their ads.
The competitor limit
A counter above the cards reads "N of 10 competitors tracked". At the limit, Add competitor and Suggest with AI are disabled. The tooltip reads "Maximum 10 competitors reached". A card with an EB badge is a benchmark competitor. Nexus allocated it to you from its own benchmark data. It is read-only and does not count toward the limit.
Remove a competitor
- Point at the competitor card. A small X appears in the top-right corner.
- Click the X. Its tooltip reads Remove competitor. On a benchmark competitor it reads Detach benchmark competitor.
Nexus removes the card and clears it from your selection. Removing one of your own competitors frees a slot under the limit.
Refresh a competitor's ads
Sync Ads and Refresh Ads do not use your credits, but limits apply.
- Click one competitor card. The refresh buttons are hidden when you select several cards.
- If the competitor has no ads yet, click Sync Ads.
- If it already has ads, click Refresh Ads above the gallery.
While the sync runs, the button reads Syncing... and a progress bar shows the current step. Ads appear as Nexus processes them.
Nexus limits how many competitor ads it analyses. Some new ads can show without analysis until the limit allows more. The Not decomposed filter shows these ads. It appears in the toolbar only while some ads wait for analysis.
Exact output
You get a row of competitor cards on the Competitor Library tab. Above the cards sit the "N of 10 competitors tracked" counter, Add competitor and Suggest with AI. Select a card to see its ads. For one selected competitor, the result line reads "N ads active between" two dates, with Sync Ads or Refresh Ads.
What to do with it
| What you see | Decision or action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| A rival brand missing from the cards | Click Add competitor and pick its Meta or Google advertiser. | ecommerce manager |
| An AI Competitor Suggestions list | Keep the brands that truly compete with you. Then click Add N Competitors. | ecommerce manager |
| "N of 10 competitors tracked" at the limit | Remove a brand that no longer matters. | ecommerce manager |
| A card whose ads look old | Select the card and click Refresh Ads. | media buyer |
Expected value and measurement
This page can help you keep a relevant list of rivals, so the other Competitors tabs read ads you care about. It does not change your own ad results on its own.
To check it, open Insights > Competitors > Competitor Library. Compare the cards with your own list of rivals and check that each brand shows ads. Other changes to your ads can run at the same time, so you cannot isolate the effect of the list.
Limitations and exceptions
- Advertiser match. You cannot add a brand when the search finds no matching Meta page or Google advertiser.
- AI suggestions can be wrong. Check each reason and advertiser before you add. Nexus skips a suggestion with no advertiser picked.
- Platforms. Competitors come from Meta and Google. TikTok shows as Coming soon.
- Analysis limit. Nexus limits how many new competitor ads it analyses. Ads over the limit stay without labels until the limit allows more.
- No competitors yet. The tab reads "No competitors tracked yet". Click Add competitor.
- Add failures. If an add fails, a banner reads "Failed to add:" followed by the brand names. Try again, or pick another advertiser.
- Empty gallery. While a sync runs for a competitor with no ads, the gallery reads "Fetching ads... they will appear here as they are processed." If it has no ads and no sync runs, it reads "No ads found for this competitor." Click Sync Ads.
- Ads fail to load. The gallery reads "Failed to load ads." Click Retry.
- Demo Mode. Add competitor, Suggest with AI and the remove button are hidden. Refresh Ads runs a simulated sync that fetches nothing. See Demo Mode and sample data.