If you have a business with the potential to disrupt the industry, you need to zoom out a little to see the bigger picture.
In this digital landscape, only having a good product or service is insufficient to make the cut.
You need to know the niceties of the industry. For that, you need Google Ads Competitor analysis.
When you find competitors’ Google ads, you get insights into their history and get to know the areas where they are succeeding or falling short.
In today’s blog, we will discuss Google Ads competitor analysis thoroughly.
Learn More: Local Service Ads Vs. Google Ads: Choosing the Right One
Google Ads Competitor Analysis: How to Find Competitors’ Google Ads
Whether you plan to launch your ad campaign or adjust the existing one, you can use Google Ads’ competitor analysis to learn what your rivals are doing.
Here is how you can find competitors’ Google ads:
1. Make a List of Competitors
For Google Ads’ competitor analysis, the first step is to make a list of competitors.
Most Google Ads advertisers employ a campaign with Branded keywords. Therefore, they place bids on their branded names and goods. This strategy guarantees the first position in Google’s search results, even if a user specifically looks for them.
In certain situations, your rivals could behave differently on Google Ads than they do in other domains.
The competitors bidding on the same keywords you intend to target can include competitors you’ve never heard of.
Start by searching for a few keywords that will work for your brand.
If your company, for instance, produces denim pants, search for that precise phrase on Google and see who else appears in sponsored ads. You may find something new in the Google Ads competitor analysis.
Related Blog: Long Tail vs. Short Tail Keywords: How to Find the Best Ones for Your Content Strategy
2. Use Google Ads Transparency Centre
The Google Ads Transparency Centre lets you quickly and easily discover more about the ads you see on search, YouTube, and display. This is a game-changer.
If you’ve used Meta’s Ad Library before, it’s fairly similar. So, you need to use the transparency centre to analyze competitors’ Google ads.
It will display a compilation of their most recent ads from Google-owned platforms, including text ads, Google Display, and YouTube.
You may also access the Google Ads Transparency Center if you notice a competitor’s ad in the search results.
You just have to write the name to review the business you want. Then, Google will show the ads that the company will be running.
You can use high-value keywords in your Google Ad headlines to boost the quality score. As a result, your rivals’ headlines are more likely to include the keywords for which they are paying.
Take notice of any terms that appear often in their ad content.
3. Determine Your Budget
The Keyword Planner is a free tool that is quite useful for Google Ads’ competitor analysis.
You can use it to determine the optimal spending relative to rivals.
In the Google Ads interface, go to Tools & Settings > Planning.
Click Discover new keywords and enter the terms you wish to add to your campaign.
At the top, ensure the area is correct for where you will target ads.
View the Competition column. The low-to-high ranges show if a term is difficult or expensive to rank.
View the top-of-page columns. This demonstrates the range of what other marketers have previously bid to get the top place for that term. To include that term in your plan, establish your objective cost-per-click to match the important elements. This allows you to bid competitively in that specific auction.
If you are new to the bidding game, make sure that it is competitive. Also, you get Google’s recommendations for your advertising and campaigns, so it is not as difficult as you think.
To outrank your rivals, pay attention to maintaining high optimization and ad quality scores.
4. Analyse Auction Insights with Google Ads Campaigns
The Google Ads Auction Insights report is a vital tool for Google Ads competitor analysis since it shows how other advertisers are bidding and how their bids compare to yours.
This report shows you who your competitors are in each auction and how their impression share, outranking share, and overlap rate compare to yours.
This report also displays how much each advertiser bids on certain keywords, allowing you to modify your bids accordingly to remain competitive.
5. Conduct Organic Research for Google Ads Competitor Analysis
Businesses may improve their grasp of their competitor’s strategies and tactics by combining organic research with competition analysis.
This may be utilized to guide your keyword strategy and create content that stands out. With organic research for Google Ads’ competitor analysis, you can track rivals’ actions, such as product launches and price adjustments.
Combining organic research with an advertising research tool like Ahrefs allows you to get a more complete view of the competitive environment.
This information may be utilized to make informed judgments about keyword research and ad strategies.
Organic research investigates rival websites, analyses their content and backlinks, and uses the findings to better understand the competition’s SEO strategy.
Furthermore, competition analysis may reveal which rivals outperform you regarding search engine rankings and ad success.
Organic research is an effective way to obtain more insight into competition strategy and find prospective possibilities.
For example, by conducting a Google search for your sector or product, you may learn about the sorts of content and keywords that rivals use.
6. Understand the Advertising Research Tool
Advertising research tools can provide important information for your competitors’ advertising strategy. Therefore, it is a crucial step in Google Ads competitor analysis.
These tools provide useful insights into your rivals’ ad text, UVPs (Unique Value Propositions), call-to-action phrases, target audiences, and more.
This data can help you design better tactics for your own campaigns.
These days, anyone can use the Google Ads competitor analysis system. Such systems allow you to analyze auction insights, which give you an idea of who is bidding on specific keywords and how much they are spending.
With this information, you may tweak your bids to guarantee cost-effectiveness and high-quality traffic.
7. Establish Benchmarking
To acquire a better knowledge of your competition, compare their performance to the industry.
Conducting a study with Google Ads competitor analysis will assist you in finding the channels with the biggest traffic share and assess the quality of your competitors’ strategy.
Building points of reference can help you measure growth. To establish a benchmark, you should note the metrics for the important factors and work towards surpassing them.
The important factors include social media engagement, reach, and impressions.
Importance of Google Ads Competitor Analysis
The competitor Google Ads analysis highlights market gaps and improves ad campaigns.
Knowing your competition will help you create unique ad text, improve landing pages, and make well-informed decisions that will result in successful campaigns and a higher return on investment.
Moreover, copying is not the goal of competition analysis in Google Ads. It involves learning, gaining insights, and designing a path that complements your brand.
This is why it’s critical to analyze Google Ads competitors:
1. Helps Plan Out Efforts
It’s helpful to know what your rivals are doing so that you may make wise selections. For instance, understanding the keywords your campaigns target and the ad content they employ will help you better plan out your efforts.
2. Ensures Efficiency of Advertising Budget
If you have a clearer picture of other successful businesses in the industry, you can avoid bidding wars on extremely competitive keywords.
3. Helps Find Fresh Advertising Possibilities
A competitive PPC analysis may highlight market gaps. For instance, it’s possible that one of your rivals missed a term or audience niche. You have the chance to seize that audience with this opportunity.
4. Improves the Content of Your Ad
You may write content that stands out by looking at the content format of your competitors.
When you analyze competitors’ Google ads, you learn how to convince people by writing attractive ad copies.
Related Blog: Content that Converts: How SEO Article Writing Services Drive Engagement and Conversions
5. Enhances the Experience on Landing Pages
The user experience or design of your competitors’ landing pages may be the reason for their greater conversion rates. Getting a preview can motivate you to make changes.
If you want to improve the design of the landing page, here are 5 Best Practices to Boost Organic Traffic.
6. Maintains Your Competitiveness
The internet market is dynamic. Regularly monitor your rivals’ ads and conduct Google Ads competitor analysis to stay on top. Next, modify your advertising strategies in light of new competitors or changes in their strategies.
Google Ads Competitor Analysis Tools: Top 5 Options
To help you with Google Ads competitor analysis, the following are five excellent tools for you:
1. Google Ads Keyword Planner
Use Google Ads’ Keyword Planner tool to estimate keyword search volume and bid range.
Enter a term that is important to your business, and you will receive statistics to help you understand search patterns and how much you should spend to have your advertisements appear.
A Google Ads Keyword Planner report for a specific keyword includes average monthly searches, competition, ad impression share, top-of-page bid (low range), top-of-page bid (high range), account status, and competition (indexed value).
So, while this information may be useful, do not take the report at face value. Instead, experiment with your bids to determine what works best for your campaigns.
2. SEMrush
One Google Ads competitor analysis tool is SEMrush’s PPC Toolkit. Market analysis, keyword research, and ad monitoring allow you to monitor your competitors’ top ad placements, positioning in the market, sample text and display ad copy, and so much more.
The SEMrush Advertising Research dashboard displays findings for Keywords, traffic, traffic cost, and paid search traffic, which are among the data points collected throughout the year.
However, this tool cannot tell you how much your competitors bid on advertisements, but you may use the data to identify trends and tactics.
3. Auction Insights
The Auction Insights report lets you see who else is bidding on your keywords.
You may check each competitor’s impression share, average position, overlap rate, position above rate, and top-of-page rate for a certain term.
With this information, you can efficiently manage your own bids in relation to your top competitors.
4. Google Ad Grader
This free application instantly audits your account and delivers a report card showing how you compare to industry benchmarks and best practices. You’ll gain insight into your wasted spending and quality score.
You can also get insights on key metrics like impression share, account activity, and click-through rate. By scrolling through the report, you will get a lot of hints on your performance.
5. Ahrefs’ Site Explorer
Ahrefs is popular among SEO marketers worldwide, but it also provides tools for paid search marketers, as does Semrush.
You may utilize Ahrefs’ Site Explorer feature to assess a competitor’s sponsored search efforts. Add the relevant rival domain, go to “Paid search,” and then utilize Ahrefs data to determine which PPC keywords a competition ranks for, their top ads, and which sites provide the most paid search traffic.
FAQs
How frequently should I perform Google Ads competitor analysis?
Regular analysis is required to remain competitive. Consider doing a complete competition study quarterly and monitoring important rivals regularly to be informed of any significant changes in their strategy.
Can I use competition analysis to directly replicate their strategies?
While you may learn from rivals, simply duplicating their techniques may not be helpful. Use competition study to inspire and educate your own distinct strategy, concentrating on what distinguishes your brand.
How do I keep track of several rivals efficiently with Google Ads competitor analysis?
Make a systematic competition analysis framework, including tools and spreadsheets to organize data. Adjust your plan based on the information you’ve learned. If you want, you can automate tracking using tools such as SEMrush or Ahrefs.
Summary
This is how you can use Google Ads competitor analysis to know the moves of your rivals and play the game more skillfully.
By doing organic research, you can get information about their goods, sales, and marketing.
You may increase your overall ad performance in Google advertising by comparing competitors and watching their search advertising for fresh keyword opportunities.
If you don’t have the skills and resources to find competitors’ Google Ads, you can get assistance from The Dreams Agency.