Google Maps Competitor Location Analyzer

Compare current and previous Google Maps business snapshots to identify competitor openings, closures, rating changes, brand location share and local expansion signals. Get clear city and brand reports as structured data for recurring market research and AI workflows. Bring your own business data.

Who this helps

For retail expansion teams, franchise analysts and local SEO agencies comparing competitors across cities. Bring a current business-location snapshot and, for change detection, a prior one. The Actor identifies openings and closures, relative brand share and city-level density. It does not claim to measure customer demand or collect Google Maps pages itself.

Example request for an AI agent

Using these current and previous Google Maps business snapshots, identify competitor openings, closures and city-level brand-share changes. Run the Google Maps Competitor Location Analyzer and summarize the main findings with supporting records.

Use currentBusinesses for the current snapshot and previousBusinesses for the earlier snapshot. Structured outputs can feed a report, alert or downstream decision workflow.

Quick start

Start with this working example and replace the target values with your own:

{
  "currentBusinesses": [
    {
      "placeId": "a1",
      "name": "Alpha Coffee",
      "brand": "Alpha",
      "city": "Austin",
      "category": "Coffee shop",
      "rating": 4.5,
      "reviewsCount": 120,
      "lat": 30.2672,
      "lng": -97.7431
    },
    {
      "placeId": "b1",
      "name": "Beta Coffee",
      "brand": "Beta",
      "city": "Austin",
      "category": "Coffee shop",
      "rating": 4.2,
      "reviewsCount": 80,
      "lat": 30.271,
      "lng": -97.75
    }
  ],
  "previousBusinesses": [
    {
      "placeId": "a1",
      "name": "Alpha Coffee",
      "brand": "Alpha",
      "city": "Austin",
      "category": "Coffee shop",
      "rating": 4.3,
      "reviewsCount": 100,
      "lat": 30.2672,
      "lng": -97.7431
    },
    {
      "placeId": "c1",
      "name": "Gamma Coffee",
      "brand": "Gamma",
      "city": "Dallas",
      "category": "Coffee shop",
      "rating": 4.0,
      "reviewsCount": 40,
      "lat": 32.7767,
      "lng": -96.797
    }
  ]
}

The Actor writes structured results to the default Apify Dataset and can be used from the Store, API, schedules, Tasks, automations and MCP-compatible AI workflows.

Input

• currentBusinesses — Current business snapshot: Current Google Maps business rows. placeId is preferred; name/url can be used as fallback keys. Include brand/competitor, city, category, rating, reviewsCount and coordinates when available.
• previousBusinesses — Previous business snapshot: Optional prior snapshot for opening, closure, rating, review and market-share change detection.

All integration and advanced analysis fields are optional. The default example is intentionally runnable without configuring MCP or a previous-run baseline.

Output

The Dataset exposes predictable machine-readable output. Representative fields include dataset, summary.

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay Per Event. The current factory base price is $0.003500 per result event. The Apify Store remains the source of truth for the price and plan/tier details shown to the buyer.

Use cases

• Run the buyer-ready workflows exposed as Apify Tasks without preparing a custom integration first.
• Use the Actor from API or schedules for recurring collection, comparison or monitoring.
• Feed the structured Dataset output into spreadsheets, databases, automations or AI agents.
• Compare repeat runs when the product supports snapshots or previous-run inputs.

Automation and AI

Use the same Actor through Apify API, schedules, public Tasks and the Apify MCP server. Outputs are structured for downstream workflows and AI agents rather than requiring manual copy/paste.

Limitations

• Public websites and upstream APIs can change markup, access rules, rate limits or field availability without notice.
• Fields that are not publicly available are returned as unavailable or omitted rather than fabricated.
• Analytical outputs depend on the quality and coverage of the supplied or collected source data.
• Treat marketplace, reputation, workforce, safety or commercial signals as decision support and validate material decisions against the underlying source evidence.

Detailed documentation

Turn recurring Google Maps business snapshots into expansion, closure, brand-share, rating/review and geographic opportunity intelligence.

Why use this Actor

Raw Google Maps business data answers what exists now. Competitive strategy usually needs a different question: what changed, which brand is expanding, where locations disappeared, how concentrated is a city, and where is relative whitespace? This Actor is the downstream intelligence layer for those recurring decisions.

It accepts business rows from your preferred Google Maps collection workflow and compares the current portfolio with an optional previous snapshot. That separation is deliberate: customers can keep the scraper they already trust while using this Actor to create repeatable competitor intelligence.

Key features

• Detect openings and closures using placeId, URL or name fallback identity.
• Calculate brand location counts, share of observed locations and period-over-period deltas.
• Aggregate average rating, total reviews, city coverage and category coverage by brand.
• Detect rating, review-count, category and city changes for persistent locations.
• Rank cities by competitor density and report the observed market leader.
• Generate geographic density cells from latitude/longitude coordinates.
• Produce a transparent relative whitespace score for less crowded observed cities.
• Emit an agent-ready market summary with expansion/contraction action.

Input

Provide currentBusinesses as an array of Google Maps business rows. placeId is the preferred stable key. Include brand or competitor, city, category, rating, reviewsCount, latitude and longitude when available. Add previousBusinesses to activate opening, closure and change intelligence.

Output

The default Dataset contains multiple normalized record types: market_summary, brand_intelligence, city_intelligence, opening, closure, location_change and density_cell. The key-value store also receives COMPETITOR_SUMMARY with compact brand, city, category and density intelligence for downstream automation.

Use cases

Use this Actor for retail and franchise expansion, local SEO competitive monitoring, commercial-real-estate prospecting, territory planning, competitor footprint tracking, market-entry research, agency reporting and location-strategy agents. A recurring workflow can scrape or import locations, run this Actor with the previous snapshot, and alert only when meaningful expansion or contraction appears.

Example

Provide two current Austin coffee locations and a previous snapshot containing one Austin location plus a now-missing Dallas competitor. The output will identify the Dallas closure, rating/review changes on persistent locations, current brand share, city density and the net location-change action.

Pricing

Pricing is pay per intelligence row, not per scraped Google Maps request. This reflects the product's actual customer outcome: decision-ready brand, city and change records. Tiered PPE is applied only when measured margin remains positive.

Limitations

This Actor consumes supplied business rows and does not itself bypass Google Maps access controls. The whitespace score is a relative density heuristic over the observed dataset, not a population, demand or revenue forecast. Missing place IDs reduce identity precision because URL or name fallbacks can change. Coordinates are required for density-cell output.

Reliability and interpretation

All rankings and deltas are deterministic from the supplied snapshots. The Actor does not invent demand estimates. A city with low observed density is a research lead, not proof that a new store should be opened there. Customers should combine these signals with demographic, mobility, property and unit-economics data before capital decisions.

Data quality and interpretation (October 2026)

Google Maps Competitor Location Analyzer analyzes data provided by you. It does not promise real-time access to third-party data sources.

• Inputs: currentBusinesses and previousBusinesses. See the Input tab and provide lawful and properly sourced data.
• Comparable snapshots: if no previous snapshot exists, baselineAvailable is false and the Actor must not claim measured openings, losses or movement. Use a prior snapshot for change metrics.
• Data caveats: duplicate identity keys are reported. Non-finite numbers are sanitized for machine-readable output, not proof that the source contained a real zero.
• Pricing and limits: check Apify's live Pricing tab for events and discounts, test with a small sample, and set the platform max-charge limit. Abort handling is implemented.
• Verification: check consequential business, legal, employment, financial or medical conclusions against primary sources.

Agent execution and AI discovery (October 2026)

Use this Actor when: Compare current and previous Google Maps business snapshots to identify competitor openings, closures, rating changes, brand location share and local expansion signals. Get clear city and brand reports as structured data for recurring...

For AI agents and automations:

• Find this Actor in Apify Store by its use case and verify its actual input and pricing through Apify MCP (search-actors and fetch-actor-details). Availability and ranking in Apify AI are controlled by Apify; discovery is not guaranteed.
• Read the Input tab or input schema. Recognized fields include currentBusinesses, previousBusinesses, mcpConnectors, mcpToolName, mcpToolArguments, mcpFailOnError, mcpActionPreset. Required fields: currentBusinesses. Do not invent records or credentials.
• Supply a small representative input first. Use Apify API, Tasks, or MCP to run and retrieve the structured dataset; inspect the output schema rather than assuming all inputs produce the same rows.
• For programmatic calls, set timeouts and maxTotalChargeUsd in run options to limit exposure. Check the Apify Pricing tab for billable events and discounts.
• Payment compatibility: this Actor is published with limited permissions and pay-per-event pricing. Apify AGI prepaid x402 tokens can execute limited-permission Actors. Direct per-request payment is a separate, conditional feature that may require additional eligibility checks and creator verification. Do not interpret this paragraph as proof of approved KYC or guaranteed payment acceptance.
• This Actor does not independently guarantee real-time access to a third-party source. Verify input provenance and important conclusions, and do not supply confidential personal data unnecessarily.