Competitor Intelligence

Analyze competitors using Apify Actors to extract data from multiple platforms.

Prerequisites

(No need to check it upfront)

• .env file with APIFY_TOKEN
• Node.js 20.6+ (for native --env-file support)

Workflow

Copy this checklist and track progress:

Task Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Identify competitor analysis type (select Actor)
- [ ] Step 2: Fetch Actor schema
- [ ] Step 3: Ask user preferences (format, filename)
- [ ] Step 4: Run the analysis script
- [ ] Step 5: Summarize findings

Step 1: Identify Competitor Analysis Type

Select the appropriate Actor based on analysis needs:

User Need	Actor ID	Best For
Competitor business data	compass/crawler-google-places	Location analysis
Competitor contact discovery	poidata/google-maps-email-extractor	Email extraction
Feature benchmarking	compass/google-maps-extractor	Detailed business data
Competitor review analysis	compass/Google-Maps-Reviews-Scraper	Review comparison
Hotel competitor data	voyager/booking-scraper	Hotel benchmarking
Hotel review comparison	voyager/booking-reviews-scraper	Review analysis
Competitor ad strategies	apify/facebook-ads-scraper	Ad creative analysis
Competitor page metrics	apify/facebook-pages-scraper	Page performance
Competitor content analysis	apify/facebook-posts-scraper	Post strategies
Competitor reels performance	apify/facebook-reels-scraper	Reels analysis
Competitor audience analysis	apify/facebook-comments-scraper	Comment sentiment
Competitor event monitoring	apify/facebook-events-scraper	Event tracking
Competitor audience overlap	apify/facebook-followers-following-scraper	Follower analysis
Competitor review benchmarking	apify/facebook-reviews-scraper	Review comparison
Competitor ad monitoring	apify/facebook-search-scraper	Ad discovery
Competitor profile metrics	apify/instagram-profile-scraper	Profile analysis
Competitor content monitoring	apify/instagram-post-scraper	Post tracking
Competitor engagement analysis	apify/instagram-comment-scraper	Comment analysis
Competitor reel performance	apify/instagram-reel-scraper	Reel metrics
Competitor growth tracking	apify/instagram-followers-count-scraper	Follower tracking
Comprehensive competitor data	apify/instagram-scraper	Full analysis
API-based competitor analysis	apify/instagram-api-scraper	API access
Competitor video analysis	streamers/youtube-scraper	Video metrics
Competitor sentiment analysis	streamers/youtube-comments-scraper	Comment sentiment
Competitor channel metrics	streamers/youtube-channel-scraper	Channel analysis
TikTok competitor analysis	clockworks/tiktok-scraper	TikTok data
Competitor video strategies	clockworks/tiktok-video-scraper	Video analysis
Competitor TikTok profiles	clockworks/tiktok-profile-scraper	Profile data

Step 2: Fetch Actor Schema

Fetch the Actor's input schema and details:

node --env-file=.env ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/scripts/fetch_actor_details.js --actor "ACTOR_ID"

Replace ACTOR_ID with the selected Actor (e.g., compass/crawler-google-places).

This returns:

• Actor info (title, description, URL, categories, stats, rating)
• README summary
• Input schema (required and optional parameters)

Step 3: Ask User Preferences

Skip this step for simple lookups (e.g., "what's Nike's follower count?", "find me 5 coffee shops in Prague") — just use quick answer mode and move to Step 4.

For larger scraping tasks, ask:

1. Output format:
   • Quick answer - Display top few results in chat (no file saved)
   • CSV - Full export with all fields
   • JSON - Full export in JSON format
2. Number of results: Based on character of use case

Cost safety: Always set a sensible result limit in the Actor input (e.g., maxResults, resultsLimit, maxCrawledPages, or equivalent field from the input schema). Default to 100 results unless the user explicitly asks for more. Warn the user before running large scrapes (1000+ results) as they consume more Apify credits.

Step 4: Run the Script

Quick answer (display in chat, no file):

node --env-file=.env ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "ACTOR_ID" \
  --input 'JSON_INPUT'

CSV:

node --env-file=.env ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "ACTOR_ID" \
  --input 'JSON_INPUT' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_OUTPUT_FILE.csv \
  --format csv

JSON:

node --env-file=.env ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/scripts/run_actor.js \
  --actor "ACTOR_ID" \
  --input 'JSON_INPUT' \
  --output YYYY-MM-DD_OUTPUT_FILE.json \
  --format json

Step 5: Summarize Findings

After completion, report:

• Number of competitors analyzed
• File location and name
• Key competitive insights
• Suggested next steps (deeper analysis, benchmarking)

Error Handling

APIFY_TOKEN not found - Ask user to create .env with APIFY_TOKEN=your_token Actor not found - Check Actor ID spelling Run FAILED - Ask user to check Apify console link in error output Timeout - Reduce input size or increase --timeout