Pay-per-click advertising is a competitive arena where visibility and clicks are competed for on the search engines and other platforms. To be ahead, you need to know what your competitors are doing: what keywords they bid on, how the ad copy looks, and how much they spend. This process, known as competitor analysis in PPC, allows you to optimize your campaigns by highlighting the gaps in the market and the areas where you will be able to outsmart your rivals. In this article, we'll talk about 8 must-have tools to conquer PPC competitor analysis, with a checklist that you can keep in mind.
SEMrush is a comprehensive tool for digital marketing and functions best for competitor analysis in PPC. With this, you'll know what your competitors are bidding on, see their ad copies, and their spend. You can also analyze the ads performing well for them and uncover their display ads strategies. The "Advertising Research" feature of the tool gives a detailed overview of competitor PPC strategies, helping you identify the best opportunities to target.
Key features
:- Keyword Analysis and Gap Identification
:- Ad Copy Analysis
:- How much competitors are spending for ads
SpyFu knows how to uncover the PPC and SEO strategies of your competitors. It will give you elaborative reports on the keywords which your competitors are targeting, along with the performance history of their ads. With SpyFu, you can download the best-performing ad copy from your competition for use in creating inspired campaigns. This is especially good for historical data, to understand how a competitor's strategy has changed in time.
Key Features
:- Keyword spying
:- Competitor ad copy analysis
:- Historical PPC data
Ahrefs is another powerful tool featuring PPC analysis while it's better known for their SEO. With the "Site Explorer," you get to view what paid search traffic of a competitor looks like, the keywords they bid on, and the amount spent. Ahrefs also gives insight into their top-performing pages for ideas on what could further enhance your content for a successful PPC campaign.
Key Features
:- Competitor Paid Traffic Analysis
:- Keyword analysis
:- Top performing page insights
iSpionage specializes in competitor intelligence for both PPC and SEO. It is designed for extensive keyword strategy, ad copy, and landing page analysis of your competitors. One of the more impressive capabilities of this tool is in real-time monitoring of competitor PPC campaigns. In this way, when something changes in the game, you can respond really fast.
Key Features
:- Realtime campaign monitoring
:- Keyword and ad copy analysis
:- Landing page insights
Google Ads Auction Insights is an in-built tool showing various valuable data on how your ads are performing relative to that of your competitors in the same auction. You can find impression share, average position, and overlap rate-all useful to understand your competitive landscape and adjust your bids and budgets accordingly.
Key Features
:- Impressions share analysis
:- Competitor positions insights
:- Auction performance metrics
Adbeat reports on display advertising and will give insight into your competitors' display ad strategy across a variety of networks. It gives insight into how and where your competitor is placing ads, what creatives are in use, and which networks they are targeting. Added value from Adbeat data is the capability to polish and perfect your display ad campaigns and unlock new ad networks.
Key Features
:- Display ad network analysis
:- Competitor creative insight
:- Network targeting data
WhatRunsWhere serves as yet another tool for display advertising analysis. With this tool, one can figure out where their competitors are advertising, the type of ads they are running, and how well those ads work. This tool is considered ideal in exposing new opportunities to advertise in and creative insight into what really works for your niche.
Key Features
:- Display ad placement analysis
:- Competitor creative strategies
:- New ad network discovery
KeywordSpy is also one of the great ways to get keyword-level intelligence on your competitors' pay-per-click campaigns. It allows you to identify the most profitable keywords that your competitors are bidding on, analyze ad copies, and even estimate what their daily budget is. And the tool also gives you the "PPC Competitor" feature that will enable you immediately to pinpoint exactly who the top dog is in your niche.
Key Features
:- Keyword profitability analysis
:- Competitor ad copy insights
:- Budget estimation
To make sure you run a comprehensive PPC competitor analysis, have the following checklist handy.
1. Identify Key Competitors
Use tools like SEMrush or SpyFu to find out who your major PPC competitors are.
2. Analyze Competitor Keywords
Look at the keywords your competitors are bidding on. Identify any gaps or opportunities for your own campaigns.
3. Ad Copy Analysis
Study ad copy used by your competitors. Pay critical attention to headlines, description, and CTA.
4. Analyze Display Ads Strategies
Employ the use of Adbeat or WhatRunsWhere to delve into comprehensive details of how your competitor displays ads.
5. Monitor Auction Insights
Periodical checking of Google Ads Auction Insights, which shows how your ads perform compared to other advertisers who are regularly participating in the same auctions.
6. Follow Spending by Competitors
Estimate the competitors' PPC budgets in order to understand the scope of investment that competitors make in their campaigns.
7. Analyze Landing Pages
Analyze the landing pages being utilized by your competitors to convert traffic; shorthand those aspects you can improve upon.
8. Stay Updated
Revisit the competitor analysis on a regular basis to stay ahead of any shifts in your competitors' strategies.
PPC competitor analysis requires the right tools and strategic approaches, which not only find out what the competitors do but also unlock opportunities to beat them. By using SEMrush, SpyFu, Ahrefs, and all the other tools mentioned above, you will gain a deep understanding of how your competitors drive their strategies and find opportunities for improvement in your campaigns. Make sure analysis is complete by following the checklist provided or hand over the task to the experts of Switch2us, and revisit your strategy from time to time to not fall behind in the eternal change of landscapes within PPC advertising.