You're on the right track, but there's a more systematic way to handle this. I've spent way too many hours scraping competitor intel for our FinTech clients, and here's what actually works when you're looking for prospects who run paid ads on Google.
1. use Ahrefs or SEMrush to audit competitor backlinks and ad copies - not just for keywords, but to see who's actively bidding on branded terms. if a company's buying "stripe alternative" or "merchant account comparison", they've got budget and conversion intent. Export that list of advertisers, then cross-reference with their website's traffic. High spend + low organic visibility usually means they're hooked on paid channels.
2. the pixel check is solid but automate it. Screaming Frog can crawl a list of URLs and flag any Google Ads conversion tracking tags or Facebook pixel fires. i scripted a simple Python scraper that hits the top 50 competitors' landing pages weekly - it catches new campaigns before they even show up in the ad library.
3. Facebook Ad Library is still useful, but only for social-first brands. For Google-focused prospects, look at their Google My Business profile - if they have call tracking or location extensions active, they're running local search ads. Also check their site's URL structure: /ppc/ or /landing-page/ subdirectories are a dead giveaway.
4. industry verticals matter. In FinTech, most prospects running Google Ads are either high-growth SaaS or legacy lenders trying to modernise. If you're in B2C fintech apps, the signals change - they'll lean into mobile app install campaigns. so tailor your scrape accordingly.
Honestly, the manual pixel check is still the most reliable since Google's keyword planner and third-party tools have been gutted. Takes about 15 minutes per competitor, but it surfaces prospects that aren't publicly biddable yet.
