Rival Ads

Alerts & weekly digest

Rival Ads uses two workspace email types for competitive updates. Owners and admins review them on Alerts.

Instant new-ad alerts

Instant new-ad alerts are sent when a source check discovers ads that were not present before. The message includes the new creative and goes to everyone who can access that monitor.

Important behavior:

  • The first check for a new monitor never alerts because it establishes the starting set.
  • Alerts can be enabled or disabled separately for each monitor under Instant alerts per monitor.
  • The same setting is available when you Edit a monitor.
  • A member without access to the monitor does not receive its alert.

Alert rules: proven creatives, pulled winners, launch bursts

Beyond "new ad", three alert rules cover the moves between launches. Owners and admins configure them on Alerts; each can be switched off independently.

  • Proven creative - fires once when an ad is still running after your chosen mark (7, 15, 30 or 90 days; default 30). A competitor paying to run the same creative for a month is the strongest public signal it works.
  • Winner pulled - fires when an ad that ran past that same mark stops. A proven creative retiring usually means the offer, the season or the performance changed.
  • Launch burst - when a chosen number of ads (3, 5 or 10; default 5) go live in one sweep, the new-ad alert is reframed as a burst - one message, never a second ping. A burst of relaunched creatives with nothing new in it gets its own message.

Rules to know:

  • Every rule is a fact read from the ad library - a run length, a stop, a count. Rival Ads never predicts fatigue or decline.
  • Each crossing fires exactly once per ad. Turning a rule on later never floods you with the back catalogue: ads already past the mark are noted silently, and only future crossings alert.
  • Rules follow each monitor's alert switch, and reach email plus every connected destination below.
  • A monitor whose source check failed never produces a "stopped" alert - a failed read proves nothing.

Alerts in Slack, Teams, Discord and webhooks

Instant new-ad alerts can also be delivered outside email. Owners and admins connect destinations on Alerts.

  • Slack — press Add to Slack. Slack's own screen asks which channel to post in, and Rival Ads receives an incoming webhook scoped to that one channel. Rival Ads cannot read messages, list channels or see members. See the Slack integration page.
  • Any webhook URL — paste the HTTPS URL that Microsoft Teams, Discord, n8n, Zapier or your own service gives you. The payload includes both text and content fields so Teams and Discord render it as-is.

Every new-ad alert goes to every connected destination. Which competitors alert is still controlled per monitor above.

Access works differently here. Rival Ads scopes access per monitor, but a Slack channel's audience is its members — everyone in a connected channel sees every alert posted there, regardless of their Rival Ads access. Choose the channel accordingly.

A workspace can connect up to 10 destinations. A destination that keeps refusing delivery is paused until it is reconnected; that is a notification problem and never counts as a sync error. Disconnect on Alerts, or remove the app in Slack under Settings & administration → Manage apps.

Connecting a destination adds to email delivery; it does not replace alert emails or the weekly digest.

Weekly digest

The Weekly digest is sent every Monday at 07:00 UTC. It summarizes Started, Stopped and Continued counts and the latest strategy information for monitors the recipient can see. A competitor whose only move was an ad crossing your proven-creative mark also earns its section - the crossing is news even when nothing launched.

The digest is always on. There is no per-user digest switch. A recipient’s project and monitor access determines which competitors are included.

Each recipient’s personal Language controls their alert and digest wording. A recipient using Workspace default follows the current workspace Language, so one send can reach teammates using different supported languages. See Languages & translated content.

Unread indicators in the product

When new ads have not been reviewed:

  • The monitor can rise in the list with a “new” count.
  • Individual ads display New.
  • Visiting the monitor advances your own read position; it does not mark the ads as read for teammates.

Agency scenario

When a monitor’s instant alerts are enabled, an agency admin can receive its alert. A client Member with Whole project access to Client A receives only Client A alerts and digest entries. Another client’s new ads do not appear in that member’s dashboard, Library or email.

If an expected email does not arrive

  1. Confirm the user has accepted the workspace invitation.
  2. Confirm they can open the monitor.
  3. Open Alerts and confirm instant alerts are enabled for that monitor.
  4. Remember that a first sync does not alert.
  5. Check spam and email filtering.

For access changes, see Manage client access. For source problems, see Troubleshoot a sync.