If you want to stay ahead of the curve, it's important to understand how your brand compares to others in the same industry.

That’s where competitive benchmarking comes into play. By using benchmarking metrics to compare performance, marketing strategies, and internal processes against direct competitors, you can make better decisions and gain a competitive edge.

In this article, we’ll explore how conducting competitive benchmarking can boost your company’s performance.

We’ll walk through different types of competitive benchmarking, key steps in the benchmarking process, and how to understand the data that comes from competitive analysis.

We’ll also detail how to strengthen your overall business strategy, all while respecting brand guidelines, ethical constraints around private data, and the importance of a user-friendly tone.

Why competitive benchmarking matters

Every organization wants to grow and thrive, but in 2025, knowing where you stand compared to everyone else can be tricky.

Competitive benchmarking is the practice of taking a good look your own performance data and understanding how you stack up against top competitors.

But it's not only about focusing on comparison – it's also about spotting opportunities for growth.

From tracking web traffic to analyzing customer satisfaction scores, benchmarking helps you identify opportunities for expansion, refine your marketing strategies, and keep pace with changing industry standards.

By looking closely at what direct competitors or key rivals are doing, you can pinpoint gaps and chances for improvement. This approach ultimately supports your overall business strategy – from product development to marketing activities – and uncovers the data needed for making better decisions.

In short, competitive benchmarking is a must-have for brands who want to stay agile, identify opportunities, and maintain a competitive advantage.

What is competitive benchmarking?

In this case, competitive benchmarking refers to measuring your company’s performance against direct competitors and industry leaders when it comes to social key performance indicators (KPIs).

This can include comparing common social media metrics and monitoring changes in customer feedback.

By gathering and analyzing competitor data, you can establish which best practices to adopt and where to optimize your own processes.

When done well, competitive benchmarking analysis points to things that aren't working – and things you could do better. Whether it’s improving your marketing efforts on social media or enhancing customer support workflows, it provides valuable insights to refine your business goals.

In essence, benchmarking is a reality check – are you meeting or exceeding industry standards, and how does your performance relative to competitors shape your next strategic move?

Benefits of competitive benchmarking

Let's get specific – benchmarking isn't just about finding out how you measure up against others.

There are lots of other little benefits too, which makes the practice a bit of a no-brainer.

Identifying opportunities for innovation

Benchmarking is great for unearthing fresh approaches to product design and marketing.

Whether it’s discovering an untapped customer segment or a new promotional channel, these breakthroughs can differentiate you from the crowd.

Improving customer satisfaction

If you have a competitor who's outshining your efforts in after-sales support, take this as your cue to study and borrow from their best approaches. 

Responsive and caring customer interaction often leads to positive word-of-mouth and a sense of brand loyalty that can't be bought.

Optimizing resource allocation

Data from benchmarking analysis can give you really obvious clues about where to invest time, budget, and people.

If your analysis shows that certain marketing tactics are leading to better results compared to others in your sector, you can decide to prioritize on those areas in the future.

Driving long-term success

If you're using competitive benchmarking insights to guide your overall business strategy, you're more likely to create a culture of constant improvement.

This helps your brand pivot quickly whenever consumer preferences, market regulations, or competitor tactics change.

How to do competitive benchmarking effectively

The competitive benchmarking process is pretty straightforward when you break it down.

Ideally, your competitive benchmarking strategy should follow this step-by-step process.

Step 1: Set clear business objectives

Begin by clarifying your business objectives.

Do you want to expand your market share, boost brand visibility on social media, or improve customer satisfaction?

Defining your goals means that your benchmarking process focuses on the key metrics that matter most, whether it’s growing social media followers or optimizing for higher revenue growth.

Step 2: Identify your direct competitors

Pinpoint your key rivals. 

These can be organizations offering similar products or targeting a similar target audience. By knowing exactly who your top competitors are, you can prioritize the areas where your company’s performance might be lagging.

This step also sets a strong foundation for further competitive research.

Step 3: Gather data from credible sources

You’ll want to gather data from reputable outlets – industry reports, market research studies, and recognized third-party platforms.

Tools like Brandwatch Consumer Research can streamline this data collection and reveal insights about market position, share of voice, and competitors' performance.

Remember to avoid digging into private data or unethical channels. Focus on what is publicly accessible, such as social media metrics, press releases, and neutral government or academic sources.

Step 4: Analyze data carefully

Analyze data through charts, comparisons, and historical trends. Identify patterns in web traffic, user engagement, or performance metrics.

Ask yourself: Which competitor consistently drives robust customer satisfaction? Why is their churn rate lower?

By mapping out success stories, you can adapt the elements that make sense for your business models.

Step 5: Adapt your benchmarking process

Armed with actionable findings, refine your workflows, adjust your marketing strategies, or revamp your benchmarking process if you need to dig deeper.

This might include adopting new channels to expand web traffic or focusing on new products in response to competitor moves.

Even small changes, like more frequent posting on social media or new designs, can drive noticeable improvement over time.

Step 6: Maintain an ongoing process

A one-off snapshot of your competitive landscape won’t suffice.

Make strategic benchmarking a cycle. Revisit benchmarking metrics periodically to spot progress and new opportunities.

This ongoing process ensures your organization remains agile, responding quickly when new industry trends or competitor shifts surface.

Key metrics for success

In this section, we'll take a closer look at what you want to see as you move through the benchmarking process.

Market share

Understanding your slice of the market is essential.

If you notice a competitor’s market share creeping up, check if there's a reason. Maybe they’re offering better prices, more appealing marketing, or unique product features.

Customer satisfaction

Customer loyalty can make or break a brand. You can get a feel for customer satisfaction through surveys, social reviews, and support interactions.

High satisfaction is great for retention and can give your brand reputation a nice little lift.

Share of voice

This metric measures how frequently people mention your brand compared to competitors.

Monitoring your share of voice – especially on social media – shows how much people are talking about your brand.

If your share shrinks, you’ll know it’s time to ramp up content efforts or refine your communications.

Of course, you'll want to make sure that what people are saying about your brand is positive. Looking at sentiment as well as volume of mentions is a good way to keep track of this.

Web traffic

By monitoring web traffic, you can see how your website fares compared to industry norms.

Taking notes from competitors who constantly drive traffic can offer clues about new channels, partnerships, or site improvements.

Social media engagement

With so many consumers active online, social media is a goldmine for spotting real-time trends and feedback. The trick is to keep an eye on social media metrics such as likes, comments, and shares.

Tracking engagement not only reveals brand awareness levels but can also guide how you plan your next campaign.

Best practices for data analysis and competitor research

If you want to do competitive benchmarking, do it properly. Let's look at some golden rules.

1. Use ethical sources

Steer clear of methods that pry into private data.

Rely on publicly available and legally and compliantly acquired information. Ensure any sources your use (like industry reports) are reputable.

2. Focus on relevant metrics

While it can be tempting to track everything, you'll probably get completely overwhelmed trying to keep all those plates spinning.

Instead, focus in on specific metrics linked to your business goals. This keeps competitive analysis manageable and actionable.

3. Use the best technology

Tools like Benchmark within Brandwatch Social Media Management streamline the process of collecting engagement data and uncovering patterns in real time.

Meanwhile, you can conduct in-depth social listening to see how competitors are talked about more broadly using a platform like Brandwatch Consumer Research.

4. Document and share findings

Make sure teams and stakeholders know the results of your competitive benchmarking analysis.

This transparency helps everyone understand the rationale behind new initiatives and fosters support for changes.

Don't be afraid to share beyond your own team – all sorts of functions across the business can benefit from competitor insights.

How Brandwatch solutions elevate your benchmarking

A major part of competitive research is having tools that simplify data analysis. With Brandwatch Consumer Research, you can gather data from real-time conversations, spot changes in sentiment, and track performance metrics.

If, for example, you want to see why a competitor gets more brand mentions, you can examine social media metrics and keywords to see what's driving those discussions.

Meanwhile, Brandwatch Social Media Management provides insights on where your brand stands in relation to others when it comes to your social channels themselves.

By monitoring social media activity and share of voice, you can develop an evidence-based approach to shaping new campaigns. This way, you can tweak your marketing strategies to match actual consumer feedback.

Using competitive benchmarking for positive change

These days, focusing on what you've done well in the past doesn't always lead to more wins in the future – you have to look at how other brands are getting ahead, too.

Competitive benchmarking is a great way to check how your business is performing and adjust your sails when required. By comparing your own performance data to direct competitors, focusing on specific competitive benchmarking metrics, and making data-driven changes, you can craft an overall business strategy that’s going to set you up for success.

No matter the size of your organization, the benefits of competitive benchmarking are worth shouting about: clearer priorities, stronger customer satisfaction, and confident adaptation to market shifts.

Once you’re ready to take the next step, Brandwatch Consumer Research can help you uncover deeper insights about your market and your direct competitors. For those looking to imrove social media engagement specifically, requesting a demo of Brandwatch Social Media Management will help you on your journey.

However you tackle the task, remember that competitive benchmarking is all about navigating market changes. With the right data and the best tools, you’ll be able to spot shortcuts to success.