How do I compare comment sentiment across competitors?

Comparing your comments with a rival’s is easy to do badly. Different audiences, platforms and spam levels make raw scores misleading. Here is how to make the comparison fair, and what to look at instead of one number.

The short answer.

To compare comment sentiment across competitors fairly, use the same platforms, time window and type of content for each, remove spam first, classify comments by topic, and compare sentiment topic by topic, not as one overall score. Noodle4 monitors competitors alongside your brand and classifies comments into the same taxonomy, so the comparison is like for like.

Last updated 19 October 2026.

By the numbers

Audiences differ by platform, so comparisons must match platform and period.

84%: of US adults say they use YouTube, against 50% Instagram, 37% TikTok, 26% Reddit, 21% X (Pew Research, 2025)
85%: of brands use Instagram for creator marketing; 29% say it gives the best ROI, against 27% for TikTok (CreatorIQ, via IMH)

Figures are as reported by each source. Sample sizes and dates are listed under Sources.

Why raw scores mislead

Different audiences. A brand with a loyal community scores higher whatever the product.
Different spam levels. Giveaway comments inflate positive scores.
Different content. A comedy video and a product review attract different comments.
Different volumes. Fifty comments against five thousand.

Making it fair

Match the platform and period. TikTok with TikTok, the same month.
Match the content type. Product reviews with product reviews.
Remove noise. Spam, bots and giveaways, for everyone.
Use one taxonomy. Classify every brand’s comments with the same categories.
Check the base. Do not compare very different volumes without saying so.

What to compare

Sentiment by topic. Price, quality, results, delivery, customer service.
Share of questions. Which brand’s audience is more confused?
Complaint causes. What people complain about in each.
Advocacy. How many commenters defend the product.
Purchase intent. Who is generating buying questions.

An example layout

An example layout for comparing two brands by topic (invented data layout, not real results).
Topic	Your brand	Competitor
Quality	Mostly positive, a few durability complaints	Mixed, repeated complaints about packaging
Price	Often called expensive	Often called good value
Results	Strong praise for results	Questions about whether it works
Questions	Where to buy, how to use	Compatibility

Layout only. The cells are invented to show the format.

Reading the result

A comparison is a starting point. If a rival’s audience praises its price, ask whether the product is really cheaper or the message is better. Open the comments and the videos behind it.

Noodle4 classifies comments using the video as context. It can tell whether a commenter is an advocate, an existing customer or a potential customer, spot sarcasm, separate relevant positive and negative comments from spam, toxicity and hate speech, and find brand and product issues or praise even when the comment never mentions them.

What Noodle4 includes

Noodle4 is a full social intelligence platform, not only a video tool. It reviews text as well as video and images, and it includes:

Text, video and image review. Reads captions, on-screen text, spoken words, images and comments, so the whole piece of content is understood.
Taxonomies. Organise content and comments into your own categories, so results match how your team thinks.
Visual-level SKU tracking. Spot products and SKUs as they appear in videos and images, not only when they are named in text.
Classifications. Every piece of content and every comment is classified by topic, type and relevance.
Anomaly detection. Flags unusual spikes and shifts, so you see what is trending before it spreads.
Slack and Slack Connect. Reviews, risks and reports go to your team’s channels, and to shared channels with partners.
MCP. Ask about your creators, campaigns and social intelligence from Claude, Cursor or any MCP client.
API. Send content in and get structured results back from your own systems.

That covers social listening, brand monitoring, influencer screening and monitoring, content review and reporting in one place. It is priced on usage, not seats, from £99 a month.

Sources

Checked 19 October 2026. Figures are quoted as the sources report them, with the survey and sample size where given.

Pew Research Center: Social media fact sheet. Share of US adults who use each platform. Survey 5 Feb to 18 Jun 2025, 5,022 US adults.
Influencer Marketing Hub: influencer marketing statistics. A compilation of figures from Linqia 2026 (200+ enterprise marketers), CreatorIQ, the IMH 2026 Benchmark Report, Aspire and BBB National Programs. Most sample sizes are not stated.

How we know this

These notes come from building Noodle4’s review and listening pipelines, not from a published academic sample. Cost curves, intent splits, and ASR collisions are from internal R&D and client-shaped tests. They will not match every category. We include them because the failure mode is structural — not because one campaign is universal.

Alex Gray-Johnson is Co-Founder at noodle4, with 8 years in AI classification models and marketing.

Frequently asked questions

Can Noodle4 monitor competitors’ comments?

Yes. Public comments on competitors’ content can be monitored and classified with the same taxonomy as your own.

Is it allowed?

Monitoring public content is common practice. Follow platform terms and local law.

Can I get the data into a report?

Yes, through the API, and you can ask questions through MCP.