I’ve become increasingly convinced that one of the biggest mistakes in marketing is creating too early. We open Canva, start writing captions, build content calendars and brainstorm offers before taking the time to understand what is already happening in the market.
When I work with a new client, I’m less interested in asking, “What should we create?” at the beginning and more interested in asking, “What is already working, who is making it work, and why?”
That question forces you to look beyond your own brand and study the environment your business is competing in. After all, your audience is already seeing other brands, responding to different messages, comparing offers and making decisions long before they encounter your marketing.
This is why I believe every marketer, founder and service provider should have an industry swipe file, especially if you are building your brand on Linkedin. The objective is not to copy your competitors. It is to become so familiar with your market that you can make creative and strategic decisions from a position of knowledge rather than guesswork.
And that distinction matters.
In this article, I’ll show you how I approach this research, from finding competitors and studying their advertisements to analyzing their landing pages, funnels, offers and positioning and turning those observations into useful marketing intelligence. This also works for when you have nothing to post.
What Is an Industry Swipe File for Content Creation?
An industry swipe file is a curated collection of marketing examples from businesses operating in your industry or targeting a similar audience. It can include advertisements, social media posts, headlines, offers, landing pages, sales pages, email campaigns, funnels, calls to action and positioning statements.
The important word is curated. You are not collecting random marketing materials simply because they look impressive; you are saving examples because they teach you something about how your market attracts attention, communicates value or encourages people to take action.
You can keep yours in a Google Drive folder, Notion workspace, spreadsheet or even a simple document. The tool matters less than the system: every example should have enough context for you to understand what you noticed and why it could be useful later.
Over time, your swipe file becomes a private research library. Instead of starting from a blank page every time you need to create an offer, write an ad or plan a campaign, you have real examples you can study before deciding what to do.
1. Start With a Fresh Social Media Environment
Once you understand why market research matters, the next step is to create an environment where you can actually observe what your target audience is being shown. For this, I recommend setting up fresh Instagram and Facebook accounts specifically for research.
The reason is simple: your existing accounts already reflect your personal interests, browsing habits and interactions. A fresh account gives you a cleaner starting point for training the platforms around the industry and audience you want to study.
Follow the Right People and Brands
Start by following the people and businesses your ideal customers are likely to encounter. Include industry influencers, major brands, established companies, relevant creators, publications and even public figures who have a strong connection to your niche.
For example, if you are researching the fitness industry, do not follow only fitness coaches. Follow fitness brands, equipment companies, nutrition businesses, creators, publications and other businesses competing for the same customer’s attention.
Then engage with relevant content. Watch videos, read posts, visit profiles and interact naturally with the accounts you followed because the goal is to give the platform enough signals to understand the market you are researching.
Give the Algorithm Time to Learn
Do not expect useful competitor ads to appear immediately. Spend some time interacting with relevant content and allow the platform to gradually adjust what it shows you.
2. Save the Ads That Catch Your Attention
Once you start discovering advertisers, do not trust yourself to remember the interesting ones. If an advertisement makes you stop scrolling, understand an offer quickly or makes you curious enough to click, save it immediately.
I usually recommend creating a simple folder called Ads inside your swipe file. Then create subfolders for different formats or purposes, such as video ads, static ads, carousel ads, lead-generation ads and sales ads.
Save More Than the Screenshot
A screenshot gives you the creative, but the creative alone does not tell you why the advertiser made that decision. Whenever possible, save the ad copy, advertiser name, date you found it and the link to the advertiser’s page or destination.
Then add one or two sentences explaining why you saved it. Maybe the hook is unusually specific, the offer is clearly communicated, the objection handling is strong or the CTA creates a natural next step.
For example, instead of naming a file ad-1.png, use something descriptive such as:
“Consulting ad — specific pain-point hook + free strategy call.”
That small habit makes your swipe file much easier to use later. When you eventually need ideas for an ad, you can search by the lesson you want rather than opening hundreds of screenshots hoping something inspires you.
Organize Ads by What They Teach You
You can also categorize your collection according to the marketing element you want to study:
- Hooks — How brands capture attention
- Messaging — How they communicate the problem and solution
- Offers — What they are asking people to buy
- CTAs — How they encourage action
- Creative — How they present the message visually
- Proof — How they establish credibility
- Objections — How they address reasons people may hesitate
The objective is not to build the biggest swipe file. It is to build one that you can actually learn from.
A well-organized collection of 50 useful examples is more valuable than a folder containing 2,000 screenshots you will never revisit. Save selectively, document the lesson and make every example earn its place.
3. Use the Meta Ads Library to Go Deeper
Your social media feed can help you discover advertisers, but it should not be the end of your research. Once you find an interesting company, take the next step and search for its ads in the Meta Ads Library.
The library lets you investigate advertisements that businesses are running across Meta’s platforms. You can see active ads, examine different creative variations and, in many cases, see when particular ads started running.
Study Advertising Longevity Carefully
The length of time an advertisement has been active can also give you a useful research signal. If you find an ad that has remained active for months, it is worth asking why the business has continued using it.
However, do not make the mistake of treating longevity as proof that an ad is profitable. You cannot determine an advertiser’s actual return on investment from the Meta Ads Library alone, so use the running time as a clue for further research, not as a guarantee that the campaign is working.
For example, if a company has been running several variations of the same offer for six months, I would investigate the campaign more closely. I would compare the variations, study the messaging and then click through to see how the business converts that attention.
4. Study Their Landing Pages
An advertisement can tell you how a business gets attention, but the landing page tells you what happens after that attention is earned. That is why I never recommend stopping your research at the ad itself.
Click through to the destination and study the page as if you were a potential customer. What does the headline promise, how quickly do you understand the offer, what proof is provided and what action does the business want you to take.
Study the Structure
Pay attention to the sequence of information rather than individual design elements. A well-structured landing page usually has a deliberate flow that moves the visitor from understanding the problem to seeing the solution and eventually taking action.
Look for:
- Headline
- Subheadline
- Problem or pain point
- Benefits
- Features
- Social proof
- Testimonials
- Case studies
- Objection handling
- Pricing or offer details
- Call to action
You are trying to understand the argument the page is making. Every section should contribute to the visitor’s decision, so study why each section appears where it does.
Capture the Page for Your Swipe File
If a landing page teaches you something useful, save it. A full-page screenshot can help you revisit the structure later, especially when you are planning your own website, lead magnet or sales page.
Create a Landing Pages folder and record a short note alongside each example. For instance, you might write, “Strong problem-to-solution transition” or “Excellent use of case studies before the CTA.”
Do not copy the page word for word or reproduce its design. Instead, study the underlying principle and ask how you could apply the same principle to your own audience and offer.
The advertisement gets someone through the door; the landing page determines what happens once they arrive. If you only study the first step, you are missing half of the marketing system.
Yes. This fits naturally at the end of the section and makes the advice immediately usable.
Landing Page Evaluation Template
Use this template every time you study a competitor’s landing page. You can keep it in a Google Sheet, Notion database or document alongside your swipe file.
| What to Evaluate | Questions to Ask | Your Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Headline | Is the main promise clear within a few seconds? | |
| Target Audience | Can I tell who this page is specifically for? | |
| Problem | What pain point or need does the page address? | |
| Promise | What outcome is the visitor being promised? | |
| Offer | What exactly is being offered, and how is it packaged? | |
| Value Proposition | Why should someone choose this offer instead of another option? | |
| Benefits | Does the page explain what the customer gets or achieves? | |
| Proof | What evidence supports the claims—testimonials, results, case studies or credentials? | |
| Objections | What concerns might stop someone from buying, and does the page address them? | |
| CTA | Is the desired action obvious and compelling? | |
| Page Structure | Does the information flow logically from problem to solution to action? | |
| Trust | What elements make the business appear credible? | |
| Design | Does the visual design support the message or distract from it? | |
| Friction | What could make the visitor hesitate, get confused or abandon the page? | |
| Differentiation | What makes this offer or positioning different from competitors? | |
| Key Lesson | What is the single most useful thing I can learn from this page? |
After evaluating several pages, compare your notes rather than studying each one in isolation. The patterns that appear across multiple landing pages can tell you far more about the market than any single competitor can.
5. Follow the Entire Funnel
Once you have studied the landing page, keep going. The real marketing lesson often appears in what happens after someone submits a form, downloads a resource or clicks the next button. Follow the customer journey as far as you reasonably can and document each stage.
Pay particular attention to how one stage leads into the next. A strong funnel rarely feels like a collection of unrelated marketing assets; each step gives the customer a reason to take the next one.
For example, an advertisement might highlight a specific problem, the landing page might offer a free guide to solve part of that problem, and the follow-up emails might introduce a paid solution. The individual pieces become much easier to understand when you see how they work together.
Document the Funnel
Create a Funnels folder inside your swipe file and save examples of interesting customer journeys. You can even create a simple diagram showing the path from the first touchpoint to the final offer.
Do not worry about making the diagram visually impressive. A basic flow such as Ad → Landing Page → Lead Magnet → Email → Call is enough to capture the strategy.
The goal is not to reproduce another company’s funnel. It is to understand how businesses turn attention into leads and leads into customers, then use those observations to question and improve your own customer journey.
Once you start looking at marketing this way, you stop evaluating content as isolated posts and start seeing the system behind it.
Funnel Evaluation Template
A funnel should be evaluated as a journey, not a collection of individual pages. Follow the customer from the first interaction to the final conversion and document what happens at every stage.
| Funnel Stage | What to Evaluate | Questions to Ask | Your Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traffic Source | Where the journey begins | Is the person coming from an ad, search, social media, referral or email? | |
| Hook | The initial message | What grabs attention and creates enough interest to continue? | |
| Entry Offer | What the visitor receives first | Is it a free resource, discount, consultation, demo or direct purchase? | |
| Landing Page | The conversion page | Is the promise from the ad carried through clearly? | |
| CTA | The requested action | What does the visitor need to do next, and is it obvious? | |
| Lead Capture | How information is collected | What information is requested, and does the value justify giving it? | |
| Thank-You Page | What happens immediately after conversion | Does the business reinforce the decision or introduce the next step? | |
| Nurture | Follow-up communication | Does the business use email, SMS, WhatsApp or another channel to continue the conversation? | |
| Offer Introduction | When the paid offer appears | How quickly does the business transition from free value to a paid solution? | |
| Sales Page | How the offer is presented | What problem, outcome, benefits, proof and objections are addressed? | |
| Conversion Mechanism | How the sale happens | Is the customer asked to book, buy, apply, call or start a trial? | |
| Objection Handling | Barriers to purchase | What concerns does the funnel anticipate and answer? | |
| Trust & Proof | Evidence supporting the offer | Where does the business use testimonials, results, case studies or credentials? | |
| Follow-Up | What happens if the person doesn’t convert | Is there retargeting, email follow-up or another recovery mechanism? | |
| Upsell/Cross-Sell | What happens after the initial purchase | Does the business introduce another relevant product or service? | |
| Overall Flow | The complete customer journey | Does every stage naturally lead to the next one? | |
| Key Lesson | The biggest strategic insight | What does this funnel teach me about customer acquisition or conversion? |
Funnel Research Questions
After mapping the funnel, step back and ask:
- What is the business trying to achieve at each stage?
- What does the customer need to believe before moving forward?
- Where does the business build trust?
- Where does it create urgency or motivation?
- What objections does it address before asking for the sale?
- How does the funnel turn a stranger into a lead and eventually a customer?
- Where does the experience feel unnecessarily complicated?
- What could I learn from this funnel without copying its execution?
The goal is not to recreate someone else’s funnel. You are reverse-engineering the thinking behind it so you can make better decisions about your own customer journey.
6. Create a Competitor Research Database
Your swipe file shows you what competitors are doing; a competitor research database helps you understand who they are and how they operate. Without a system for organizing what you discover, your research can quickly become a pile of screenshots, links and half-remembered observations.
I recommend creating a simple Google Sheet, Notion database or document where you record every relevant competitor you discover. You do not need an elaborate research system; you need one that makes it easy to compare businesses and spot patterns.
Start With the Basic Information
For every competitor, record information such as:
| Information | What to Record |
|---|---|
| Company | Business or brand name |
| Website | Main website |
| Industry | Their market or category |
| Target Audience | Who they appear to serve |
| Location | Primary market or markets |
| Founder | Founder or key leadership |
| Main Offer | Product or service they sell |
| Positioning | How they describe their value |
| Pricing | Publicly available pricing |
| Acquisition Channels | Ads, SEO, social media, referrals, etc. |
| Lead Magnet | Free resource or entry offer |
| Content Strategy | Main topics and formats |
| Ads | Notable campaigns or recurring themes |
| Landing Pages | Important pages you’ve analyzed |
| Funnel | Main customer journey |
| Key Observations | What stands out |
You can expand the database as your research becomes more sophisticated, but this is enough to get started.
Don’t Research Every Competitor Equally
Not every company deserves hours of your attention. Prioritize businesses that are relevant to your target market, have strong positioning, advertise consistently or demonstrate a marketing approach you want to understand. The point is not to chase companies simply because they are large. Relevance matters more than size.
Compare Competitors Side by Side
Once you have researched several companies, stop looking at them individually and start comparing them.
You might discover that five competitors all target the same customer but describe the problem differently. Or perhaps most of them sell high-ticket services through consultations while one competitor uses a low-cost product to bring prospects into its ecosystem.
These differences can reveal opportunities.
Keep the Database Updated
Competitor research is not something you complete once and forget. Markets change, businesses launch new offers, messaging evolves and companies enter or leave your category.
Set aside a small amount of time each month to review your database and update notable changes. Your goal is to maintain a living picture of your market, not create a research document that becomes outdated after three months.
Look for the Gaps Too
Patterns are useful, but absence can be just as revealing.
Suppose every competitor speaks to experienced business owners, but none appears to address beginners. Or perhaps everyone emphasizes speed while nobody talks about quality, support or long-term results.
These gaps do not automatically represent profitable opportunities, but they give you something worth testing.
Instead of asking, “What are my competitors doing that I should also do?” ask two questions:
“What are they all doing?”
“What are they all overlooking?”
The first helps you understand the category. The second can help you find room to differentiate.
7. Turn Your Research Into Better Marketing Decisions
Research only becomes valuable when it changes what you do. Your swipe file should not become a digital museum of clever ads and beautiful landing pages; it should help you make better decisions about your own marketing.
After studying your competitors, review your notes and ask, “What does this change about my strategy?” That question forces you to move from collecting information to applying it.
Improve Your Content Strategy
Use your research to identify the topics, problems and questions that matter in your market. If you notice several businesses repeatedly creating content around a particular customer problem, investigate why that topic receives so much attention.
Then look for ways to contribute something more useful. You might approach the problem from a different perspective, go deeper than existing content or address a specific audience that competitors are ignoring.
Strengthen Your Positioning
Your competitors can also show you how crowded your current positioning is. If everyone describes themselves using the same broad promises, you have a reason to become more specific.
For example, “I help businesses grow online” is difficult to distinguish from dozens of similar claims. Your research might reveal an opportunity to narrow your audience, focus on a particular problem or emphasize a more specific outcome.
Improve Your Offers
Sometimes competitor research reveals that your content is not the real problem. Your offer may be.
Study how businesses package their services, structure their deliverables, create entry-level offers and communicate value, then compare those approaches with your own.
You might discover that your service is too broad, your entry point is unclear or your offer does not communicate a strong enough reason to act. Research gives you evidence to reconsider those decisions rather than changing them based purely on instinct.
Build Better Funnels
Your swipe file can also expose weaknesses in your customer journey. If competitors consistently move prospects through a lead magnet, nurture sequence and consultation while you simply publish content and wait for enquiries, the difference is not necessarily your posting frequency.
It may be the system behind the content.
Map what you have observed and compare it with your own journey from attention to conversion. Then identify the missing step that could make it easier for the right person to move forward.
Create With More Context
This is ultimately what I want an industry swipe file to accomplish. It should make you a more informed creator and strategist, not a better imitator.
Before creating your next campaign, return to your research and ask:
- What does my audience already know?
- What messages are everywhere in this market?
- What opportunities appear underused?
- What objections keep coming up?
- What can I explain or demonstrate better?
- How can I make my offer more relevant?
- What can I test based on what I have learned?
The answers should influence your next move, but they should not dictate it. Your competitors provide data points; you still have to use your own judgment, audience knowledge and business goals to decide what to do with them.
What Not to Do With an Industry Swipe File
A swipe file can become one of your most useful marketing resources, but only if you use it correctly. Without a clear purpose, it can easily turn into a folder of copied ideas that makes your marketing look more like everyone else’s.
Don’t Copy Your Competitors
The purpose of a swipe file is to understand why something works, not reproduce exactly what someone else created. Copying their headlines, designs, offers or messaging can weaken your brand and create unnecessary legal and ethical problems.
Instead, extract the principle behind the example. If a competitor uses a strong pain-point hook, study how the hook creates relevance and then develop your own angle for your audience.
Don’t Assume Popular Means Effective
A post with thousands of likes is not automatically good marketing. Engagement can indicate attention, but it does not tell you whether the content generated leads, sales or meaningful business results.
Look beyond vanity metrics. Study the offer, audience, message, conversion path and business model before deciding that something is worth learning from.
Don’t Assume Every Long-Running Ad Is Profitable
An advertisement that has been active for months is worth investigating, but you cannot know its actual profitability from its running time alone. Businesses may keep campaigns active for many reasons, including testing, brand awareness or acceptable performance that you cannot see publicly.
Treat longevity as a signal, not proof. Then investigate the rest of the campaign before drawing conclusions.
Don’t Save Everything
A swipe file becomes less useful when you save every advertisement, post and landing page you encounter. If everything is important, nothing is.
Be selective. Save examples that teach you something specific and add a short note explaining the lesson so you can understand its value later.
Don’t Research Forever
Research can feel productive because you are constantly finding something new. However, at some point, another competitor analysis will teach you less than actually creating and testing your own marketing.
Set a clear research window, extract the most useful insights and put them into practice. The swipe file should support execution, not become a sophisticated way to avoid it.
Don’t Lose Your Own Perspective
Your competitors can show you what is happening in the market, but they cannot decide what your brand should become. Your audience, expertise, experience, goals and point of view still matter.
Use your swipe file as a compass, not a blueprint. Let it help you understand the terrain, but choose your own route.
14. How to Organize Your Industry Swipe File
A swipe file becomes more useful as it grows, but only if you can find what you need when you need it. I recommend keeping the structure simple enough that adding a new example takes less than a minute.
You can use Google Drive, Notion, Google Sheets or any other tool you already use comfortably. The platform is not the strategy; the organization is what makes the research useful.
Create a Simple Folder Structure
Start with six core folders:
01 — Ads
Save Meta ads, video ads, static creatives, carousel ads and other advertisements that teach you something useful.
02 — Messaging
Collect strong hooks, headlines, value propositions, positioning statements, CTAs and recurring phrases.
03 — Offers
Save interesting service packages, lead magnets, promotions, pricing structures and other ways businesses package their solutions.
04 — Landing Pages
Store screenshots and notes from lead-generation pages, sales pages, booking pages, webinar pages and other conversion-focused pages.
05 — Funnels
Document customer journeys from the first interaction through lead capture, nurture, sales and follow-up.
06 — Competitors
Keep your competitor database, company notes, websites, social profiles and links to the examples you have collected from each business.
Name Your Files Properly
Avoid filenames like screenshot123.png. They might make sense today, but they will be almost impossible to search six months from now.
Instead, use descriptive names such as:
“Consulting Ad — Pain Point Hook — Free Audit” or “SaaS Landing Page — Strong Social Proof — Demo CTA”
The name should tell you what the example contains and why it matters.
Add a Lesson to Every Example
This is one of the simplest habits that can dramatically improve your swipe file.
Whenever you save something, answer:
What am I learning from this?
It could be as simple as:
“Specific outcomes make the offer easier to understand.”
or:
“The landing page addresses price objections before introducing the CTA.”
That note turns a screenshot into a piece of strategic knowledge.
Keep It Small Enough to Use
You do not need thousands of examples. A smaller collection of highly relevant advertisements, offers, landing pages and funnels that you regularly review will be far more useful than an enormous archive you never open.
Your swipe file should feel like a working marketing library, not a storage unit. If you can quickly find examples when planning content, refining an offer or building a funnel, the system is doing its job.
A Simple Weekly Swipe File Routine
You do not need to spend hours every day researching competitors. A small, consistent routine is enough to keep your swipe file useful and your understanding of the market current.
I recommend setting aside 30–60 minutes once a week to review new examples and update your research. The goal is not to collect as much as possible; it is to notice what has changed and what is worth learning from.
Spend 10 Minutes Finding New Examples
Start by checking your research accounts and looking for new advertisements, competitors, offers or content that stand out.
Save only the examples that give you a useful question, idea or insight. If you cannot explain why you are saving something, you probably do not need it.
Spend 15 Minutes Studying One Competitor
Choose one company from your database and look at its current marketing. Review its advertisements, website, offers, landing pages and social content.
You do not need to analyze the entire business every week. Focus on one area and document anything that has changed or deserves further investigation.
Spend 15 Minutes Looking for Patterns
Now compare what you found with the examples already in your swipe file.
Ask:
- What messages keep appearing?
- Are competitors changing their offers?
- Are new hooks becoming common?
- Which problems are businesses emphasizing?
- Are there gaps that several competitors are leaving untouched?
- Has anyone changed how they move prospects toward a sale?
This is where individual examples start becoming market intelligence.
Spend 10 Minutes Applying What You Learned
Finally, connect your research to your own marketing.
Ask yourself:
“What, if anything, should I change, test or improve because of what I just learned?”
Maybe you need to clarify an offer, create content around an overlooked problem, improve a landing page or test a different way of communicating your value.
If your research never influences your decisions, it is probably becoming procrastination disguised as strategy.
Review Your Swipe File Regularly
Once a month, go through your collection and remove examples that are no longer useful. Then highlight the three to five insights that have appeared most consistently during your research.
You should eventually be able to summarize your market in a few sentences: what competitors are emphasizing, what customers appear to care about, what offers dominate the category and where opportunities may exist.
That is the real payoff of the routine. You are not simply building a bigger swipe file; you are developing a sharper understanding of the market you are trying to win.
Here’s a practical checklist you can place at the end of the section as a quick implementation tool.
Weekly Swipe File Checklist
Use this once a week to keep your research consistent without letting it become a time-consuming task.
| Task | Done |
|---|---|
| Check your research Instagram and Facebook accounts for new advertisers | ☐ |
| Save 3–5 relevant advertisements | ☐ |
| Record the advertiser and what they are selling | ☐ |
| Note why each saved ad caught your attention | ☐ |
| Check the Meta Ads Library for 1–2 interesting competitors | ☐ |
| Review at least one competitor’s current offer | ☐ |
| Study one landing page | ☐ |
| Map one customer journey or funnel | ☐ |
| Add new competitors to your research database | ☐ |
| Review your existing swipe file for recurring patterns | ☐ |
| Identify one messaging or positioning pattern | ☐ |
| Identify one potential market gap | ☐ |
| Write down 1–3 useful marketing lessons | ☐ |
| Decide whether anything you learned should influence your own marketing | ☐ |
| Remove irrelevant or outdated examples | ☐ |
The final question is the most important:
What will I do differently because of what I learned this week?
If you cannot answer that question, you may be collecting information without turning it into strategy.
Research First. Create Second.
You do not need to reinvent marketing every time you sit down to create a post, write an offer or plan a campaign. There is already a wealth of information in your market, you just need to learn how to observe it, organize it and interpret it.
That is what an industry swipe file gives you. It helps you see what businesses are saying, what they are selling, how they attract attention and how they move potential customers toward action.
But the value is not in having the biggest collection. The value comes from being able to look at those examples and ask better questions: Why does this work? What pattern am I seeing? What is missing? What could I approach differently?
I have found that this kind of research makes content creation much easier because I am no longer starting from a blank page. I have context, references and a clearer understanding of the market I am creating for.
So before you create another 30-day content calendar, launch another campaign or spend hours trying to come up with the perfect post, take a step back and study your market.
Your competitors are already showing you what they are testing. Pay attention.
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