How long should the competitor section of a client report be?

One page. 3 to 6 changes and 1 to 3 recommendations. Longer sections get skimmed.

How many competitors should the report cover?

The 3 to 5 direct competitors you track for that client. Name the quiet ones in a single line.

What if nothing changed this month?

Say so in one line. "No pricing, offer or service changes from our tracked competitors" is still useful, and it shows you checked.

Should I include screenshots?

Yes. A before and after screenshot is the proof that turns a claim into evidence. Pair each one with a sentence.

Can clients open a Tonic report without an account?

Yes. Send the report as a share link and the client opens it in the browser. You can also send a PDF or copy the text.

How to Add a Competitor Section to Client Reports

Short answer

Keep it to one page. List 3 to 6 competitor changes from the month, each with a date, a before and after screenshot and one sentence on what changed. Add one line on why each matters, then 1 to 3 recommended actions tied to those changes. Say in one line which competitors did nothing.

Why the competitor section earns its place

Rankings and traffic tell a client how they are doing. The competitor section tells them what the market is doing. It is the part they repeat in their own meetings, because "our main rival just cut prices" is easier to act on than a traffic chart.

It is also the section that most often goes thin when a month gets busy. A fixed template fixes that. You fill in the same boxes every month, and the client learns where to look.

The template

Headline. Two or three sentences: the biggest move, why it matters, what you recommend. Write it last.
What changed. 3 to 6 items. For each: competitor, page, date found and one sentence on what changed.
Proof. A before and after screenshot for each item. This is what makes the section credible.
Why it matters. One sentence per item, in the client's terms. Leads, bookings, price objections.
What we recommend. 1 to 3 actions, each tied to an item above. Include "no action" when that is the right call.
Quiet competitors. One line naming the competitors with no pricing, offer or service changes this month.

That is the whole section. If it runs past one page, cut items, not sentences.

A filled-in example

Here is the template filled in for a roofing client. The businesses are illustrative, taken from the demo data in Tonic.

Headline

Two competitors expanded this month. Evergreen Roofing now sells storm damage restoration, and Peak Exteriors serves two more neighboring towns. We recommend putting your own storm damage service front and center before winter.

What changed

Evergreen Roofing, services page. Added storm damage restoration with insurance claim support.
Peak Exteriors, service area page. Two neighboring towns were added to the areas served.

Why it matters

Storm damage jobs are high value, and Evergreen now competes for them directly.
Peak Exteriors will start showing up for leads in towns you serve.

What we recommend

Give your storm damage service its own landing page and a clear call to action.
Watch Peak Exteriors' offers in the two new towns next month.

Quiet competitors

No pricing, offer or service changes from RoofPro or ABC Roofing.

A client report in Tonic for Summit Roofing, September 2026, listing the competitor moves included and an editable summary of what changed this month — The same report in Tonic: the included moves, an editable summary, and a copy button. Tonic dashboard, example data.

What to leave out

Raw diffs. A highlighted block of changed HTML means nothing to a client.
Screenshots without a sentence. If you cannot say what changed in one line, it probably does not belong.
Low-signal pages. Blog posts, job listings and legal pages, unless they reveal a real move.
Every tiny edit. A reworded button is not news. A new guarantee is.

How to collect it without a month-end scramble

Do not build the section on the last day of the month. Keep a running log per client and review it once a week. When a change is worth reporting, mark it right away, with the screenshot and the sentence. At month end, you only pick the top items and write the headline.

If you track the changes by hand, our guide on how to track competitor price changes for your clients covers the log and the baseline screenshots.

Common mistakes

Changing the format every month, so the client cannot find anything.
Missing dates. A change without a date cannot be acted on.
Recommendations that have nothing to do with the changes listed.
Reporting an offer after it already ended. Check often enough to catch it while it runs.

Doing it in Tonic

Tonic builds most of this section for you. It checks each client's competitors every Monday and Thursday, ignores noise like dates and ads, and saves each change with before and after proof and a plain-words summary, ranked by importance. You review a change and add it to the client's report.

A promotion detected by Tonic: ABC Roofing replaced its free inspection offer with 20% off roof replacements, with before and after, why it matters and an Add to report button — A detected promotion in Tonic, ready to add to the client report. Tonic dashboard, example data.

The report collects the moves you approved and an editable summary. Send it as a share link that the client opens without an account, as a PDF, or copy the text into the report you already send.

See how website change tracking with screenshot proof works, or compare plans and per-client pricing.

How to add a competitor section to your monthly client report