How to use InstantMarkets award data to research which government contracts your competitors are winning and with which agencies.

Researching competitor awards and contracts

Understanding which contracts your competitors are winning — and with which agencies — gives you actionable intelligence for your own bid strategy. InstantMarkets' award and contract data makes this research straightforward.

What you can find

For any vendor that has won publicly disclosed government contracts, you can see:

Which agencies awarded them contracts
What categories of work they were awarded
Contract values (where disclosed)
Award dates and contract terms
The original solicitations they responded to

How to research a competitor's awards

Search by vendor name

Go to the main search bar and search for your competitor's company name.
In the Opportunity type filter, select Award or Contract.
Review the results to see which agencies have awarded them contracts and in what categories.

From an agency profile

If you know which agencies your competitor serves:

Go to Agencies and open the agency's profile.
Click the Awards tab.
Scan award records for your competitor's name in the vendor column.

From a specific opportunity

When viewing any open solicitation, scroll to the Similar past awards section. If a competitor has won a similar bid at that agency before, they may appear here — giving you advance intelligence before you decide whether to respond.

What to do with competitor intelligence

Identify their stronghold agencies — if a competitor has won multiple contracts with the same agency, they have an incumbent advantage there. Factor that into your decision to bid.
Spot gaps in their coverage — agencies your competitor doesn't appear to serve may be more receptive to a new vendor.
Benchmark their contract values — if you can see what they were awarded, you have a pricing reference point.
Understand their scope — the solicitation documents linked to their awards reveal what they committed to deliver, which can inform how you differentiate your own proposal.

A note on data completeness

Not all contract awards are publicly disclosed, and vendor names in award records may not always exactly match the legal entity name you know. Try variations of the company name (parent company, subsidiary, DBA) if initial searches return limited results.