Here’s how to build and scale a competitor audit template that starts in Google Sheets or Excel and grows into a fully delegated workflow with an AI agent.Section 1: Manual methods (the starter playbook)1) Design your core template- In Google Sheets, create a new spreadsheet (see Google’s guide: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6000292). In Excel, create a new workbook (Microsoft guide: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-a-new-workbook-5f76e0d2-2a2c-4b3f-b0a4-97a10b44a1c2).- Add one row per competitor and columns like: Website URL, Product lines, Pricing model, Key features, Unique value prop, Target audience, Channels (SEO, paid, social, affiliates), Offers & promos, Reviews/ratings, Notes & opportunities.- Freeze header rows and enable filters so you can sort and slice (Sheets filters: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3540681; Excel tables & filters: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/create-and-format-tables-0b8a0b0a-8e5f-4a82-9b1a-3f5ae2c3f57e).2) Run a lightweight web sweep- List 3–10 direct competitors and 3–5 indirect ones.- For each, open their homepage, pricing page, and product/feature pages.- Manually capture: headline tagline, core promise, cheapest and most expensive plans, notable features, and any standout offer.- Drop short, consistent notes into your template (e.g., “Usage-based pricing, self-serve onboarding, heavy on integrations”). Consistency now makes analysis easier later.3) Add review and social proof signals- Visit review sites your buyers trust (G2, Capterra, Yelp, Google Reviews, industry-specific directories).- Capture average rating, review count, and 1–2 recurring pros/cons per competitor.- Add links to the review pages so you can revisit quickly.- This gives sales and marketing a quick sense of where competitors over- or under-deliver.4) Turn raw data into a basic SWOT- Add four extra columns: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.- Summarise what you see for each competitor in a sentence or two.- Later, you can filter by, say, “Strengths contains ‘enterprise’” to see which rivals own the top of the market.Pros of manual methods: maximum control, deep familiarity with competitors, no tooling overhead. Cons: highly time-consuming, easy to let it go stale, hard to repeat at scale for dozens of competitors or weekly refreshes.Section 2: No-code automation with common tools5) Use import functions in Google Sheets- If competitor pricing or feature tables are stable, try the IMPORTHTML function to pull them directly into Sheets (docs: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3093339).- Example: =IMPORTHTML("https://competitor.com/pricing","table",1) to pull the first table.- Pair with ARRAYFORMULA and FILTER to clean and restructure the imported data into your main audit tab.- Pros: low-code, auto-refreshes; cons: breaks if site structure changes, limited to clean HTML tables/lists.6) Connect Excel to web and other data sources- Use “Get & Transform Data” (Power Query) in Excel to connect to CSV exports, databases, or APIs your tools provide (guide: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-started-with-power-query-7104fbee-9e62-4cb9-a02e-5bfb1a6c536a).- For example, pull monthly ad spend reports, SEO keyword rankings, or CRM win/loss exports into separate sheets, then map them to your competitor matrix.- This gives you a richer view than website snapshots alone.7) Set up scheduled exports from your marketing stack- Many tools (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, SEO suites, CRMs) can email or push reports on a schedule.- Point those at a shared drive folder, then: - In Sheets, use the “Import” function or Apps Script to load them into your audit file. - In Excel, use Power Query to automatically refresh from that folder.- Pros: less manual downloading; cons: still requires some maintenance and scripting, data still fragmented across tabs.Section 3: Scaling with an AI agent (Simular) This is where you stop being the data entry clerk and become the strategist.8) Let an AI agent do full-funnel web research- With Simular Pro, you can configure an AI agent that behaves like a focused analyst at a computer.- Give it a prompt like: “For this list of competitors in column A of my Google Sheet, open each website, navigate to pricing, features, and case studies, then populate columns B–K with pricing tiers, key features, ICP, primary CTA, and any notable promos.”- The agent can: - Open the browser, search, click through pages. - Copy relevant text and paste it into Google Sheets or Excel. - Repeat this process on a schedule (e.g., weekly).- Pros: massive time savings, real browsing (not just API calls), works even on sites without clean HTML tables; cons: you need an initial configuration and clear instructions, plus a quick human review loop.9) Automate review and social monitoring- Configure another Simular AI agent focused on review platforms and social proof.- Workflow example: - Open your competitor list in Sheets/Excel. - For each competitor, search “[brand] reviews G2”, “[brand] reviews Capterra”, and “[brand] reviews Trustpilot”. - Extract overall rating, review count, and top 2 recurring pros/cons. - Write them into the appropriate columns of your template.- Over time, this becomes a living NPS-of-the-market dashboard your sales team can reference in every pitch.10) Build a repeatable, production-grade pipeline- Because Simular focuses on production-grade reliability and transparent execution, you can: - Inspect every step the agent takes (no black box). - Adjust workflows when a competitor redesigns their site. - Trigger runs via webhook from your existing stack (e.g., refresh the audit before a quarterly planning meeting or big pitch).- Pros: scales to dozens of competitors and thousands of actions with minimal human input; cons: needs an upfront design of your templates and prompts, plus occasional maintenance when the web changes.Stitching it all together, you start with a clean Google Sheets or Excel template, layer in a bit of no-code automation, and then hand off the repetitive research and data entry to a Simular AI agent. Your job shifts from copy-pasting to asking sharper questions and acting faster than your competitors.

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