For creative strategists and media buyers who study the ads of their competitors

Motion vs Playhead for competitor ad analysis

Motion and Playhead answer two different questions about video ads. Motion connects to your ad accounts and shows how your own ads perform: spend, ROAS, CPA and impressions beside every creative, with AI tags across the account. Playhead reads the video itself from a link, so it works on a competitor's ad as well as your own, and it reports how the ad is built with the second of every part: the hook, each beat with its start and length, every claim, the cuts and the pace. Motion starts at $750 a month for up to $50,000 of monthly ad spend, read on 23 September 2026. Playhead starts free with 50,000 credits a month, and the first paid plan is $19.

By The Playhead team

We build the video layer these numbers are measured on. Every figure about Playhead comes from the source file it lives in.

Published 23 September 202613 min read

The short version

Motion's sample report shows 4 numbers under each ad: spend, ROAS, CPA and impressions. None of the 4 says at which second the ad does anything.
All 3 Motion plans end in a Book a demo button, and the first published price is $750 a month for up to $50,000 of monthly ad spend.
One shared Playhead teardown of a 115.30 second competitor ad names 7 beats, 33 cuts, 6 quoted claims and the product on screen at 0:01.5.
Playhead needs no ad account, because it reads the video from its link. Motion reads the accounts you connect, with unlimited seats and unlimited ad accounts on every plan.
Playhead is free for 50,000 credits a month and the first paid plan is $19, which is 39 times less than Motion's first plan at $750.

What is on this page and on no other

Every page about these products carries the same prices and the same feature lists. These are the facts this one produced itself, and how each one was made.

Motion's public sample report shows 4 numbers under each of its ads, spend, ROAS, CPA and impressions, and not one second of any ad.
From the product A screenshot of the sample report their home page links to, taken on 23 September 2026 in a browser with no account.
All 3 Motion plans end in a Book a demo button, and the first price on the page is $750 a month for up to $50,000 of monthly ad spend.
Counted Their pricing page read on 23 September 2026, prices and buttons counted plan by plan.
A 115.30 second competitor ad, taken apart by Playhead, has 33 cuts at 0.29 a second, a median shot of 2.9 s, 7 beats and 6 quoted claims, with the product on screen at 0:01.5.
From a run A Playhead teardown read on 18 September 2026 and shared publicly at tryplayhead.com/ads/resilia-garlic-axbrfw. The figures are copied from that page.
The longest beat of that ad is the proof, 42.1 seconds from 0:37.5, which is 37 per cent of the runtime.
Measured The beat sheet of the same teardown: 42.1 divided by 115.30.

What Motion is better at

First, because a comparison that opens with our own advantages is an advertisement rather than a comparison.

Performance data beside every creative. Spend, ROAS, CPA and impressions come from your own ad accounts, and a video file holds none of those.
AI tags across the whole account: asset type, visual format, hook and creative angle, so trends show over weeks rather than ad by ad.
Unlimited seats and unlimited ad accounts on every plan, and attribution from Northbeam and Google Analytics on the Pro plan.
An agent that tracks the ads competitors launch and builds a plan to beat them, according to their home page.
Scale. Their home page says 2,100 teams use it and that customers analyse over $14 billion of media spend a year.

How they compare

Playhead compared with Motion, capability by capability
What you want	Motion	Playhead
Spend, ROAS and CPA beside every ad	YesThe sample report shows spend, ROAS, CPA and impressions under each creative, pulled from the connected ad account. ^[3]	NoPlayhead reads the video, and a video file holds no spend and no ROAS. Paste your numbers and they are quoted beside the analysis. They are never invented.
Works with no ad account connected	NoEvery plan is sized by the monthly ad spend of your connected accounts: up to $50,000 on Starter, over $50,000 on Pro. ^[2]	YesA link is enough. A Meta Ad Library entry, a reel, a TikTok, a YouTube video or a file on your disk reads the same way.
A competitor's ad taken apart, beat by beat	In partTheir agent tracks the ads competitors launch and builds a plan to beat them. What a single competitor ad is broken into is not published. ^[1]	YesPaste the competitor's ad. The teardown below names 7 beats of a 115.30 second ad, each with its start and its length.
Every beat with its start and length in seconds	Not documentedTheir home page says Motion analyzes videos frame by frame. The fields that analysis returns, and whether a beat carries a second, are not published. ^[1]	YesHook at 0:00 for 5.3 s, proof at 0:37.5 for 42.1 s, the ask at 1:39.4 for 15.7 s, in the teardown below.
Every claim quoted, with the second it is legible	Not documentedNot described on their home page or their pricing page. ^[1]	Yes6 claims in the teardown below, each quoted word for word, from 0:13.8 to 1:53.9. A price or a percentage is read at full resolution before it is quoted.
Cuts counted, with the median shot	Not documentedNot described on their home page or their pricing page. ^[1]	Yes33 cuts, 0.29 a second, shortest shot 0.5 s, median 2.9 s, longest 9.6 s. Counted off the file, never estimated by a model.
Trends across your account, week over week	YesReports show if top performers gain or lose momentum week to week, and AI tags group creatives by format, hook and angle. ^[1]	In partUp to 10 ads in one set, read against one another, and the rows where they do not agree are marked. There is no weekly report of an account.
Use it from an AI assistant	YesFull data and MCP access on every plan, and questions in Slack. ^[2]	YesA hosted MCP server that works in Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor on every plan, the free one included.
Start without a sales call	In partAll 3 plans end in Book a demo. Their sample report offers an account with a 14-day free trial. ^[2]	YesThe first analyses need no account. A free account holds 50,000 credits a month and needs no card.
The price of the first plan	Yes$750 a month for up to $50,000 of monthly ad spend. $1,200 a month above that. The Growth plan has no published price. ^[2]	YesFree with 50,000 credits a month. Creator $19, Pro $39, Studio $109 a month with 5 seats.

Two tools, two different questions

Motion answers which of your ads earn their spend. Playhead answers how an ad is built, whoever made it.

Motion is creative analytics. You connect your ad accounts, and Motion pulls in every creative you have run with the numbers beside it. Its public sample report is the clearest picture of what that means: a grid of ads, and under each one the spend, the ROAS, the CPA and the impressions.

Playhead is competitor ad analysis. You paste a link to any video ad, and Playhead watches it and writes down how it is built. The hook and how it reaches a viewer. Every beat, with its start and its length. Every claim, quoted at the second it is legible. The cuts and the pace, counted off the file.

The difference decides which ads each one can read. Motion reads the ads in accounts you connect. A competitor does not connect their account to your workspace, so their ads reach you as links, and a link is what Playhead reads.

Motion's public sample report, titled What's Working. Four sunscreen and skincare ads in a row, each with spend, ROAS, CPA and impressions under it. — Motion's sample report, from the link on their home page, 23 September 2026. Every number under an ad comes from the connected ad account.

A Playhead teardown of a 115 second garlic supplement ad. Six frames across the runtime, and under them a timeline with the beats Hook, Demonstration, Turn, Proof, Demonstration, Proof and Ask. — A Playhead teardown of a competitor ad, shared publicly on 18 September 2026. The frames are the ones Playhead read, and the band under them is the beats in seconds.

One competitor ad, taken apart

A 115.30 second direct response ad for a garlic supplement, read from its link with no account behind it.

The whole teardown is public at tryplayhead.com/ads/resilia-garlic-axbrfw, so every number below can be checked against the page it came from. Every other shared teardown is listed under ad teardowns.

Runtime: 115.30 s360 by 640, vertical, with a voiceover and burned-in captions.
Cuts: 33, 0.29 a secondShortest shot 0.5 s, median 2.9 s, longest 9.6 s.
Product on screen: 0:01.5Named at 0:01.8, and the brand appears at 0:01.8.
Beats: 7The longest is the proof, 42.1 s from 0:37.5.
Claims: 6The first one at 0:13.8, the last one at 1:53.9.
Works with the sound off: YesFull captions and graphics carry every claim.

A row of six measured values from the teardown: works muted yes, 33 cuts at 0.29 a second, product on screen at 0:01.5, first face at 0:01.5, 6 claims, and a call to action legible for 3.5 seconds. — The numbers Playhead counts rather than reads, for the same ad.

The first three seconds of the ad. The hook type is Claim, on three channels: visual, spoken and on-screen text. The text on screen is listed with its seconds, from 0:00.5 to 0:03. — The first three seconds: what a viewer meets before they decide to keep watching.

The beat sheet of the ad. Seven rows, each with a frame, the beat name, its start and length, what is on screen and what is said. — The beat sheet. Each beat carries its start and its length, and each row shows a frame from that beat.

The beat sheet as text, from the same teardown

Hook, 0:00, 5.3 s. Here's what happens to your arteries if you take two soft gels of aged odorless garlic every day for four weeks. Demonstration, 0:05.6, 12.2 s. Minutes after taking the first softgels, tight heavy feeling in chest eases as S-allylcysteine breaks down buildup. Turn, 0:18, 19.5 s. Brain fog lifts within hours and week two brings back youthful energy and end to exhaustion. Proof, 0:37.5, 42.1 s. Blood pressure drops toward 120 over 80 by week three without strict diet or cardio, restoring full cardiovascular vitality by week four. Demonstration, 1:19.6, 15.4 s. 20-month aging converts allicin into S-allylcysteine which cleans arteries and keeps vessels flexible. Proof, 1:35.2, 3.7 s. Over 50,000 people have experienced this transformation. Ask, 1:39.4, 15.7 s. Claim yours today with free shipping and 30-day guarantee before limited batch sells out at 70% off.

Copied from the public teardown at tryplayhead.com/ads/resilia-garlic-axbrfw, read on 18 September 2026. The claims are the advertiser's, quoted, and Playhead does not check them.

The list of claims in the ad. Six claims quoted word for word, each with the second it is legible, from 0:13.8 to 1:53.9, and a frame beside each one. — Every claim, quoted at the second it is legible. The teardown lists the proof beside them, 5 pieces of 4 kinds.

What each one costs

Both price pages read on 23 September 2026.

The published plans of Motion and Playhead, per month
	Motion	Playhead
Free	A 14-day trial	50,000 credits a month, no card
First paid plan	$750, up to $50,000 ad spend	$19, Creator
Second plan	$1,200, over $50,000 ad spend	$39, Pro
Largest plan	Growth, no published price	$109, Studio, 5 seats
Seats	Unlimited on every plan	3 on Creator and Pro, 5 on Studio, then $29 each
How to start	Book a demo	Paste an ad, no account

The two prices follow two different things. Motion is sized by the ad spend of the accounts you connect. Playhead is sized by the video you read: an analysis costs credits, and the four ads on our home page cost 5,710 credits together as one set.

Take apart a competitor's ad yourself

Paste one ad from the Meta Ad Library, TikTok or Instagram. The first analyses need no account.

When to choose Motion instead

Choose Motion when your brand spends $50,000 or more a month on paid social and the question is which of your own ads earn their spend. Reports of your own account with ROAS beside every creative are the job it is built for, and Playhead does not do that job.

The verdict

Choose Motion when you spend $50,000 or more a month on paid social and need reports of your own accounts with ROAS beside every creative. Choose Playhead when the ads you study are not yours: a competitor's reel, a Meta Ad Library entry, a TikTok. Playhead takes each one apart with the second of every beat and claim, starts at $0, and asks for no ad account and no demo.

Common questions

Is Playhead an alternative to Motion?

Playhead replaces Motion for one job and not for the other. For taking apart a video ad, a competitor's included, with the second of every beat and claim, Playhead does the job from $0. For reports of your own ad accounts with spend and ROAS beside each ad, Motion does the job and Playhead does not.

Can Motion analyse a competitor's ads?

Motion's home page, read on 23 September 2026, says its AI agent tracks the ads your biggest rivals launch and builds a plan to beat them. What a single competitor ad is broken into, and whether each part carries a second, is not published on their home page or their pricing page.

Does Playhead need access to my ad account?

No. Playhead reads the video from its link or from a file you upload, so no ad account is connected. That is also why Playhead cannot show spend, ROAS or CPA: a video file holds none of those numbers.

How much does Motion cost compared with Playhead?

Motion starts at $750 a month for up to $50,000 of monthly ad spend and costs $1,200 a month above that, read on 23 September 2026. Playhead is free for 50,000 credits a month, and the paid plans are $19, $39 and $109 a month.

Can I use both?

Yes, and the two do not overlap much. Motion tells you which of your own ads earn their spend. Playhead takes apart the competitor ads you find, in the Meta Ad Library or on TikTok, so a brief for the next ad can name the hook, the beat order and the pace it borrows.