Prompt Playbook: Leapfrogging Competitors using AI PART 3

In the last Part we ripped the offer from our competitor’s sales page.

Now, of course, the sale culminates at the sales page.

But (if they are doing the right thing!) sale begins far earlier than this!

In reality an online sale is a multitouch journey. It’ll be a combination of advertising, organic content, marketing automation and so much more.

All combining to finally bring the prospect to a sale page to seal the deal.

In this Part I'll show you how to extract the offer at source —every email, every ad, every psychological trigger your competitor uses to turn cold traffic into eager buyers.

Let’s get started

The Invisible Selling System

While everyone obsesses over sales pages, the real money is made in the marketing that happens before anyone lands there. By the time someone lands on a sales page (ie. one that has a BUY NOW button) they should already be close to buying.

The sales page acts as the final nudge (or shove, depending on how heavy handed!)

But it’s prior to the sales page where trust is built, objections are handled, and desire is cultivated. All the good stuff.

Think about it: would you drop £2,000 on something from a cold sales page? Probably not. But after receiving two weeks of valuable emails that solve real problems? After seeing testimonials in your Facebook feed from people just like you? That's when credit cards come out.

Don’t believe me? Trying running cold traffic ads to a £2,000 offer sales page. I’ll wait. Tell me how it goes! 😛 

Email Sequences

Email sequences are where competitors reveal their true persuasion strategy. This is their chance to build a relationship over time, and how they do it tells you everything.

Getting Their Emails

The easiest method? Just sign up.

Worried about competitor seeing you snooping? Create a dedicated email address and opt in for their lead magnet.

Then tag/filter their emails in your inbox so you can easily collect them all up together.

Alternative approach: Search "[competitor name] email swipe file" or check copywriting forums. Marketers love sharing successful sequences.

What to Capture

Screenshot every single email. Don't just save the text—the design, formatting, and visual hierarchy matter too.

Add it all into your Project. Make sure the date is visible in the screenshot or add it in the file name so your AI knows the order.

Then let’s pull a report on the sequence

I've collected a complete email sequence from a successful competitor. Analyse the psychological journey they create and extract their persuasion architecture.

For each email, identify:

1. Primary Purpose
- Value delivery, relationship building, or selling
- Emotional state they're creating
- Specific action they want

2. Persuasion Elements
- Stories used and why
- Social proof placement
- Authority building tactics
- Objection handling method

3. Sequence Strategy
- How each email builds on the previous
- When they shift from value to selling
- How they escalate urgency
- Where they position bonuses

4. Psychological Triggers
- Pain points emphasised
- Desires amplified
- Fears addressed
- Identity statements used

Map out their complete email strategy as a journey from subscriber to buyer. Note what's notably missing or different from their sales page messaging.

Use this in the same Project so you can start comparing to the sales page.

Reviewing the Ads

While emails show their nurture strategy, ads reveal what actually stops the scroll and gets clicks. This is pure, expensive market feedback.

Often these ads are what runs into the email sequence we just looked at. So it’s an earlier touchpoint.

The Facebook Ad Library Gold Mine

We’ll start with Facebook ads because there is an open library. Horray!

Go to facebook.com/ads/library. Search for their page. Every active ad is right there, free to analyse.

Pay careful attention to run dates. Ads running for months? Those are the winners and the targets for analysis. If the ads don’t work they get stopped - they are too expensive to allow to run without some return on ad spend (ROAS).

Conversely new ads appearing and disappearing? Those are tests that failed.

Advanced Ad Intelligence

For deeper insights, premium tools like SpyFu (for Google Ads) or AdSpy (for Facebook and Instagram) show additional data like estimated spend and audience targeting. But honestly? If they are active on Meta then the free Facebook library gives you 90% of what you need.

Screenshot the winners and throw them into your Project as before. Give supplementary info if required.

What we’re going to extract from Ads

• Which pain points they lead with

• What promises get repeated

• Visual styles that persist (what resonates)

• Call-to-action variations

• How they pre-frame the offer

The Pattern Recognition Prompt

Once you've collected ads, use this analysis prompt

I've collected multiple Facebook ads for the same offer. Help me identify what messages and angles consistently convert.

Analyse across all ads:

1. Message Patterns
- What pain points appear most frequently?
- Which promises are in every ad?
- What words/phrases repeat?
- How do they describe the transformation?

2. Angle Variations
- Different ways they position the same offer
- Which demographics get which message
- Emotional triggers by audience
- Authority vs empathy positioning

3. Visual Intelligence
- What types of images/videos persist
- Color schemes and design patterns
- Text overlay strategies
- Social proof presentation

4. Pre-Frame Analysis
- How do they set expectations?
- What beliefs do they challenge?
- How do they qualify prospects?
- What do they promise before the click?

Identify their "control" - the core message that appears across variations. Then show how they adapt it for different angles.

Message Evolution

We’ve been working backwards up until now. Now let’s flip it and reverse it. (Ti esrever dna ti pilf nwod gnaht ym tup i)

Pay special attention to how messaging evolves

Ads (attention) → Emails (trust) → Sales Page (conversion)

Each stage has different psychological objectives. Ads need to stop scrolls. Emails need to build relationships. Sales pages need to close deals.

Each (should!) be focused on one goal and one goal only.

If their ads scream "LOSE 30 POUNDS IN 30 DAYS" but their emails teach sustainable lifestyle changes, that tells you something important about what actually converts vs what actually delivers…

We’ll be pulling all this together in Part 5 once we’ve collected our last vital set of competitive data.

What's Next?

Next we go straight to the source—actual customers. We'll mine reviews, testimonials, and feedback to understand what people really value versus what marketers think they want.

This is where you'll discover the gaps between what's promised and what's delivered—and those gaps are where your opportunity lives.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle