iSpionage Review: How Does This Service Serve Digital Marketers?

iSpionage Review: In-Depth

This review dives deep into the features of this software with the pros and cons as well as comparisons with rival software. iSpionage helps digital marketing professionals improve their performances by providing insights into industry trends with classic spy and analytics tools. They use it to get intelligence on their competitors’ campaigns presented in automatically ordered formats. 

Key Features

• Campaign Spying
• Competitor Investigation
• PPC Keyword Research
• Unlimited Keyword Classing
• Keyword History Analysis
• Page Performance Results
• Graphical Ranking
• Ads Performance Results
• Conversion Journey Report
• A/B Test Spying
• Landing Page Surveillance

iSpionage Review: Background Information

Founded in 2008 by developers from Silicon Valley, iSpionage inc. started out providing solutions for SEM professionals to help them gather intelligence about buyer behavior (SEM Watch) and their competitors. They expanded their services to include tools for SEO professionals to boost the search engine visibility of their clientele’s businesses.

In July 2019, TapClicks inc. acquired iSpionage for an undisclosed fee as part of their efforts to provide a complete marketing solution. Over 35,000 digital marketing professionals currently use the software to optimize their performances. 

Their headquarter is in the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, and the CE0 is Leon Krishnayana, who is also a founder. Two other key people are Jamie Smith, the VP of growth, and Anne Sutantyo, head of a digital strategy and customer success.

Features in Detail

The software provides many features that allow Digital Marketing professionals to gain some advantage over others with various analytics options. The tool is there to help them save time and money and deliver the best services in the industry.

Campaign Spying: Analyze Industry Trends

The tool has features to review what others are doing well in the industry and ranks one’s performance against the best. 

1. SEO Watch 

It has features for marketers to track their worldwide SEO rankings over time compared to competitors. It also helps to analyze content to pinpoint high performing pages and keywords and improve content for better ranking. 

The feature includes:

• SEO Snapshots
• Keyword Grouping 
• Content Gap Analysis 
• Keyword Trends and History 
• Page Performance
• Competitive Rank Tracking
• Interactive Voice Data Share

2. SEM Watch 

The tool reviews competitors’ marketing strategy compared to the users’. It also provides competitors’ split-testing results to save money they would use for theirs.

• SEM Performance Tracking
• Users’ Journey Report
• A/B Test Surveillance
• Landing Page Research Gallery
• Actionable Email Alerts
• SERP Snapshots

Competitor Investigation: Gather Intel on Rivals

It helps professionals learn from their best competitors by providing useful information on their top keywords and market strategy. 

The investigation comes with:

• Branded competitor report in PDF to impress clients.
• Get PPC strategy from top AdWords competitors and even their monthly budget.
• Proprietary Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) to get the most effective ones.
• Ad Effectiveness Index (AEI) algorithm to improve click-through rate and reduce cost per click.

PPC Keywords: Monitor the Hot Topics

It reveals organic and the PPC keywords used by competing businesses. The KEI ranks them in a descending ordered table. The two factors for calculating the KEI are the duration of use and the date of last use. Those with longer durations have likely been bringing in good traffic. The keywords cut across the top three search engines, which are Google, Bing, and Yahoo. 

Other information it reports include:

• Cost per click (CPC)
• Number of ads
• First seen date
• Last seen date
• Average position
• Average search volume

Keyword Classing: Create Groups

Users can categorize keywords into classes with similar ones going into custom groups to see their performances by groups. They can also gain targeted insights this way and compare with competition based on the groups.

Keyword History Analysis: Use Past to Predict the Future

It reviews up to 24 months of data to visualize SEO rankings and how they have changed over time. It also compares the history of both the customer and competing businesses. 

Page Results: Identify High Performing Pages

See how the pages are boosting the SEO rankings. Further investigation of the most successful pages reveals the specific keywords that are driving that performance.

Graphical Ranking: Big Picture Comparison

It provides visual reviews of performance through the graphical representation of key metrics. The graph shows both client and competitors’ information side by side for easy comparison at a glance.

Ads Results: Swipe the Best Campaigns

It allows customers to review the advertisement campaigns their rivals have been running so they can get ideas to run their own too. It shows the URL, headline, and description of the ads, and it shows them in a descending ordered table ranked by the AEI. It also reports the keywords used in promoting the ads. 

The information reported with the ads include:

• Average rank
• Monthly traffic
• First seen date 
• Last seen date

Conversion Journey Report: Swipe the Best Strategies

It allows users to peep into their rivals’ funnels and see the conversion strategies working for them. They can see the conversion path those rivals used, from keywords to ad copies to landing pages, and replicate it to boost their own conversion and gain more leads.

A/B Test Spying: Save Money on Testing

It reviews the results of A/B tests other competing businesses have already run for PPC ads and landing pages. Marketers can swipe this for themselves, thus saving money they would have used to run the tests themselves. 

Landing Page Surveillance: Track Competitors’ Strategy

Customers can create custom landing page galleries that feature the most significant competitors. This allows them to review them regularly to see what they are implementing to generate more leads and sales.

iSpionage Plans & Pricing

They provide plans for all levels of professionals that employ the software. The pricing ranges from $59/month to $299/month. Those that require only specific features and the bigger enterprises get the custom plan where the pricing is set based on the need.

Starter Plan

The Starter plan is specifically designed for small business owners and digital marketers. It can be of great value for these professionals as it has almost the same features as the bigger plans. Although some of them are watered down, it can still serve the needs of a small business.

Pros:

• Budget plan
• Has most of the features
• Fit for small businesses and standalone marketers
• Functional on all platforms

Cons:

• Low priority Email support
• Weak functionality

Professional Plan

It is the recommended plan on the site as it is expected to serve most of their customers. It is the package for small agencies, consultants, and in-house PPC managers. The support is a high priority, which serves better than that of the starter plan.

Pros:

• Fit for the majority of professionals
• High priority Email support
• Has most of the tools
• Functional on all platforms

Cons:

• Some features might be weak
• Doesn’t have an account set-up assistance

Advanced Plan

It is a plan for bigger customers, like growing agencies and digital marketing teams. They have access to customer success reps for support.

Pros:

• Customer success rep support
• Multiple (3) users allowed
• Unlimited daily data exports
• Powerful features

Cons:

• Quite pricey
• Not suitable for smaller agencies

Enterprise Plan

This one is best for businesses and agencies with specific marketing needs. They get to customize their plan based on demand, and the pricing is custom-based as well. It also comes with a dedicated customer success rep for support. 

Pros: 

• Custom solution
• Multiple users allowed
• Account set-up assistance and training
• Competitive intelligence dashboard
• A/B test monitoring

Cons:

• Very pricy
• Data could be more accurate

Price & Key Features Comparison Table

The table shows and compares the features available on all the plans and can be consulted before choosing a suitable package.

Terms and Conditions

This is a summary of the terms and conditions as seen on their website.

• Subscription fees are automatically billed in advance for each cycle.
• Customers must agree to provide accurate information about themselves and to update it whenever necessary.
• They may access the account or use any information provided by the customer for maintenance, security, or any other business reason at their own discretion.

Information:

Subscribers may cancel their subscription at any time by submitting a cancellation form from their account or sending an email to [email protected].

Privacy Policy

This is a summary of their privacy policy, as seen on their website.

• Users are mandated to provide information such as name, email address, postal address, telephone numbers, and social media usernames before using the software.
• iSpionage passively collects information such as IP address, browser, and device characteristics.
• They may collect limited information about users from outside sources like public databases, marketing partners, etc.
• The company only shares information about users to comply with laws, protect their rights, or for business purposes.
• All website visitors agree to their use of cookies and other technologies to collect and store users’ information.

Refund Policy

The scenarios where subscribers can get a refund or not are outlined below. Refer to the website for more information.

• 30-day money-back guarantee for new users who don’t want to continue with the service.
• Only first-time users who have downloaded no more than 1,000 keywords or ad copy data qualify for the money-back guarantee.
• In the event of cancellation, there will be no refunds or credits for partially or fully unused months.

Customer Support

iSpionage has professional customer support personnel to answer queries from users and prospects. They also provide customer success reps for customers on the bigger plans. 

Email

The company representatives can be reached at [email protected]. This is the support channel for subscribers on the starter and professional plans, although professional subscribers’ queries are a higher priority than those on the Starter plan. 

Attention:

Non-subscribers can also send queries to this Email, but they are the lowest priority.

Support Center

Advanced and enterprise subscribers get direct support from iSpionage in customer success agents. Enterprise customers even get dedicated agents and support and training during account set-up.

Quality of Service

iSpionage’s services are quite reasonable, according to many customer reviews. The customer support is very responsive, friendly, and helpful. The site looks good, and the user interface is easy to navigate and well coded. All the functionalities promised are present in the software.

However, one thing to point out is that their 30-day money-back guarantee is not risk-free. There are caveats that users sometimes find out too late. Their free trial also offers very limited features, so people cannot get a good feel.

iSpionage Alternatives

There is much rival software on the market with different functionalities. iSpionage has more tools focused on competitive intelligence, and it has direct competitors like SpyFu. However, many other software providers offer different unique selling points. 

Here are short reviews of some alternatives marketers can consider.

SEMrush: The Complete Marketing Tool

SEMrush is a bigger SEO and digital marketing tool in terms of the range of functionalities it offers. The cheapest plan costs $99.95, and the priciest is $399.95/month. This is one of the few software that has tools for social media marketing, but users have to buy a Competitive Intelligence add-on, which costs $200/month.

SpyFu: Competitor Research Marketing Tool

SpyFu is also a marketing suite focusing on competitor research, so it is often compared directly to iSpionage. SpyFu offers three plans between $39/month and $299/month.  

Serpstat: All-in-one SEO Toolkit

Serpstat is a growth hacking tool for professionals to boost their SEO, PPC, content marketing with their spy and analytics tools. They offer four plans ranging from $69 to $499/month.

KeywordSpy: Specialist Keyword Research Tool

KeywordSpy is a research toolkit to reveal competitors’ most profitable keywords and ad copies. It has two plans, which are priced at $89.95/month and $139.95. 

FAQ Section

Closing Curtain on This Review

Indeed, it never hurts to gain an unfair advantage over competitors, given if they have the chance, they would take it too. Having a tool like iSpionage to spy on competitors is a sure-fire way to get this advantage. One would even expect the software to pay for itself in no time.

If you are looking to get one of these services, please let us know what you have decided after reading this. If you also have any more questions, reviews, or additions, do let us hear you in the comments!