Severity tier.

Severity tier is the classification SpotRivals applies to every detected competitor change, ranking it as Critical, Important, or Worth noting. The tag drives two things: how the change appears in the weekly brief (top, middle, bottom) and whether it triggers an instant email regardless of the day. Severity is not just a sorting mechanism; it is the brand’s vocabulary for naming what matters.

How the three tiers actually map

A pricing-page edit that changes a tier price from $49 to $39 is Critical: it triggers an instant email and leads the Monday brief. A new feature appearing on the rival’s Growth tier is Important: it shows up in Monday’s brief in the second slot. Four new posts on enterprise security in two weeks is Worth noting: it tells you something about positioning but does not need a same-day response. A copyright-year update or a tracking-pixel swap does not earn a tier at all; it is filtered out before reaching you.

Why the tiers matter

Without severity, every competitor change is the same size in your inbox. Three weeks in, you stop reading them. With severity, the three or four moves a week that genuinely require action get the attention; the rest get filed. The SpotRivals AI analyst assigns the tier automatically based on category and magnitude. Pricing changes and plan removals default to Critical; feature launches typically Important; content moves typically Worth noting. The user does not need to configure thresholds or train rules; the classification is built into the analyst layer.