If you are evaluating Ad Radar scan frequency or wondering how often competitor ad monitoring updates, the short answer is this: Ad Radar, the competitor ad monitoring feature built into Adsroid, scans on a three times per week default cadence on the Scale plan. Daily scanning is available as an optional add-on. Monitoring is scheduled, not continuous real-time streaming.
That distinction matters more than it might seem. Most advertisers asking this question are either trying to catch a competitor launch quickly or trying to track copy changes over time. The right scan frequency depends entirely on which of those situations you are in.
What Scheduled Scanning Actually Means
When a monitoring tool uses scheduled scanning, it means the system runs checks at defined intervals rather than watching every auction continuously. For Ad Radar, that means keyword SERPs and competitor domains are checked at set points during the week, not every hour or every minute.
This is a deliberate architecture choice. Live SERP scanning at scale, across Google Search, Bing, and display placements, requires significant infrastructure. Running it continuously for every monitored keyword would be both technically costly and unnecessary for most competitive monitoring use cases.
Three scans per week is frequent enough to catch most competitor campaign changes, seasonal pushes, and new ad launches within a reasonable detection window. For aggressive competitive markets where hours matter, daily scanning closes that gap substantially.
The Default Scan Cadence on the Scale Plan
On Adsroid’s Scale plan, Ad Radar runs competitor ad scans three times per week by default. This applies to both keyword-based Search monitoring and domain-based Display monitoring.
What that looks like in practice:
- Your defined keywords are checked against live Google Search and Bing SERPs three times per week
- Competitor domains you are monitoring for Display ads are scanned on the same cadence
- Any new ad creative, copy change, or competitor appearance found during a scan triggers an alert
- Alerts land both in your Adsroid dashboard and by email
For most advertisers monitoring five to twenty competitors across a set of commercial keywords, three scans per week is enough to stay informed without alert fatigue. You are not receiving a notification every few hours, but you are not waiting a full week either.
Daily Scanning and the Custom Add-On Option
For teams where timing matters more, Ad Radar offers a daily scan option available as an add-on. This increases the check frequency to once per day rather than three times per week.
Daily scanning is worth considering if:
- You are in a highly competitive vertical where competitors launch and pause ads frequently
- You are monitoring your own brand keyword and want faster detection of competitor bidding
- You manage paid search for clients and need to report on competitor activity with tighter time windows
- You are running a short-term campaign and want to know quickly if a competitor responds
The add-on applies to your existing monitored keywords and domains, so the setup process does not change. You configure what to monitor the same way, and the system simply checks more frequently.
For context on how Ad Radar fits within Adsroid’s broader pricing, the Ad Radar pricing breakdown explains what is included in the Scale plan versus what requires the daily scanning add-on.
Is Competitor Ad Monitoring Ever Real-Time?
This is one of the most common questions about competitor ad tools, and it is worth addressing directly. True real-time ad monitoring does not exist in the way most people imagine it.
Google and Bing run billions of auctions daily, each personalized by location, device, audience, and bid strategy. No monitoring tool captures every impression continuously for every keyword. What tools like Ad Radar do is run systematic, live SERP scans at defined intervals. The word
