After analysis Top5 competitors of AI ads

For clearer thinking about Flowtra AI’s future SEO strategy, I followed Backlinko’s traffic analysis tutorial for competitors.[1]

To begin, I identified the main competitors for the keyword “ai ads” on Google after excluding paid results. The top five are:

1. adcreative
2. arcads
3. creatify
4. zeely
5. quickads

To quickly compare traffic, I activated a Semrush account and prepared an analysis spreadsheet to guide a step‑by‑step deep dive. I spent two days completing the table. Below are highlights that stood out to me, followed by key takeaways from the analysis.

Expensive subscription costs

The table records monthly subscription prices for the five platforms. If you run a small business, like selling candles or clothes on Etsy or Shopify, these costs add up quickly. AI promises to boost sales and be cost‑effective, but in reality the lowest tiers still start around $20 and often only include basic features like images (not videos). On Reddit, some users also complain about poor AI output quality. Yet you still need to spend credits up front. I’ll cover these downsides in the final section.

Many small businesses are struggling with sales and can’t allocate more budget to advertising, even if AI could save time and money overall. As a result, AI advertising tools tend to serve larger brands better than small businesses.

The gap between Flowtra AI and competitors

1. adcreative

A few things impressed me:

• Lots of video guides in their academy
• A very detailed brand design process that prioritizes brand concept
• A smooth, beginner‑friendly signup flow
• Every generated image receives a score, though I’m not sure how useful it is
• Editing support if you’re not satisfied with an image, similar to traditional image software

Beyond these strengths, it offers many features for different business sizes.

2. arcads

What stood out most is the variety of characters, and that its target industries include SaaS and apps.

3. creatify

It brings competitor tracking and market trends into the dashboard. The most exciting feature is one‑click image generation from a store URL.

4. zeely

There’s no free trial, so I only saw part of the setup. The onboarding is quite complex and asks many questions about your ad buddy and sales goals. It can suggest a strategy, though I’m not sure how well it works.

5. quickads

The most notable feature is a Discovery area similar to TikTok, where you can search for ideas. There’s also a live chat widget in the bottom‑right corner, which is a thoughtful touch.

What advantages does Flowtra AI have?

First, our target customer is different. The competitors try to cover every industry, while Flowtra AI focuses on small businesses such as Etsy and Shopify sellers.

Second, our pricing strategy is credit‑based and pay‑once. You buy only the credits you need, which minimizes budget waste. No expensive recurring plans. Flowtra AI’s most affordable package is just $9.

Image generation and downloads are free. Credits are only deducted for video downloads.

Traffic overview

Combining organic and paid traffic shows creatify as the leader, with roughly 40% of total coming from organic and a large absolute volume. adcreative follows, but relies heavily on paid traffic. What I find most interesting is that zeely and quickads spend very little on paid yet still show strong organic performance with a growing trend. Data from Semrush.

Social media

Before analyzing social performance, I noticed most competitors were inactive on their blogs over the past three months, likely because blogs take time to impact SEO.

Next, I manually collected social metrics across major platforms. I couldn’t access Facebook due to signup issues, so those entries are blank. Data collection window: September 5 to October 5, 2025.

Instagram appears to be the top priority, with Twitter second. Combined with the traffic section, adcreative seems to spend the most aggressively on ads. No single competitor is active across all platforms, whereas I post on almost all of them, except Facebook.

LLM visibility analysis

In the AI era, I asked Perplexity for the “best AI ads” tools, and only adcreative was mentioned. This shows that LLM discovery is still a blue‑ocean channel and works differently from traditional search. I also asked Perplexity to summarize community impressions from places like Reddit, which produced a helpful summary of positives and negatives.

Competitive intelligence summary

Comparing Flowtra AI to competitors, their weaknesses include inconsistent social activity and limited blog publishing. Their target industries and user groups are also very broad. Most products aren’t designed with a specific platform or niche in mind.

Conclusion

I’m excited to have completed my first full competitive analysis at this level of thoroughness. I’m grateful for Backlinko’s free tutorials. I’m Lantian Laoli, founder of Flowtra AI. See you next time.