Daily competitor research automation using SerpAPI, Google Sheets & Airtable

How it works This workflow automatically collects a list of companies from Google Sheets, searches for their competitors using SerpAPI, extracts up to 10 relevant competitor names with source links, and logs the results into both Google Sheets and Airtable. It runs on a set schedule, cleans and formats the company list, processes each entry individually, checks if competitors exist, and separates results into successful and “no competitors found” lists for organized tracking.

Step-by-step 1. Trigger & Input - Auto Run (Scheduled) – Executes every day at the set time (e.g., 9 AM).

- Read Companies Sheet – Pulls the list of companies from a Google Sheet (List column).

- Clean & Format Company List – Removes empty rows, trims names, and attaches row numbers for tracking.

- Loop Over Companies – Processes each company one at a time in batches.

2. Competitor Search - Search Company Competitors (SerpAPI) – Sends a query like "{Company} competitors" to SerpAPI, retrieving structured search results in JSON format.

3. Data Extraction & Validation - Extract Competitor Data from Search – Parses SerpAPI results to:

- Identify the company name