Hello, folks, and welcome to a new story in our “Learn from” series. Our guests today: SE Ranking, a very powerful SEO software, enjoyed by 500,000+ users. Irina from SE Ranking we’ll show us how to properly do competitors’ keywords and ads research, so that we can boost our paid ads strategy. Let’s roll!
The world of PPC marketing is a very competitive place. You need to stand out from the crowd in paid search if you want to be successful. The data you can get from competitor analysis will make your work a whole lot easier.
When you keep an eye on your competitor’s keywords and data, you can improve your own marketing strategies, increase your conversions, and avoid any possible problems presented by their experience.
You should understand that a PPC competitor analysis is not only about revealing new keywords, it also shows their target audience, content topics, website quality, conversions, and much more. It will give you a real insight into what works well and doesn’t right now in your market.
Analyzing your market with running a competitor analysis will allow you to evaluate your business against your main competitors and answer the following questions:
- Who is dominating your industry now?
- How can you improve your PPC strategy?
- Are your competitors bidding on your branded keywords?
- How do you measure up in the PPC battle?
Why Is PPC Competitor Analysis Important For Your Business?
How can you build a stable marketing strategy or create a better product if you don’t know what kind of strategies and products already use your competitors? That’s where a PPC competitor analysis comes into play. It will help not duplicate their efforts, but build marketing campaigns that are much better than the competition.
Here are some benefits you can get from a PPC competitor analysis for your business:
- Reveal and adapt to new trends, changes, and ideas;
- Adjust your marketing benchmarks;
- Spy on seasonal or industry trends;
- Waste money using snake oil marketing practices;
- Achieve your marketing and PPC goals;
- Find gaps in your PPC campaign.
Next, I want to share a step-by-step guide for an advanced PPC competitor and keyword research based on my experience and gain an advantage in the PPC advertising space.
#1. Identify Your Competitors in Paid Search
If you already know your competitors in paid search, you can skip this step. If you need help finding your rivals, you can use SE Ranking’s Competitive Research tool to find all the websites that compete with your marketing campaign for paid keyword rankings.
Just go to Competitive Research, enter your website, and get an exhaustive list of your main competitors in paid search sorted by the number of paid keywords you have in common with your website.
The best thing about the tool is the ability to compare your website to any of the listed paid competitors based on the number of keywords you rank for, the total website traffic, its traffic cost, and its backlinks. Moreover, you can choose a time period of up to 36 months to see the results.
Once you have created a list of paid competitors, you can go a step further and analyze in more detail your competitors’ strengths and take advantage of their best strategies.
# 2. Find Keywords Competitors Are Paying for That You Can Rank For
Figuring out how your competitors are performing in terms of paid search efforts and which keywords they are bidding that you can rank for will help you see opportunities in your market and improve your PPC campaign.
To find competitors’ keywords directly to yours, go to the Competitor Comparison section and enter two domains of your competitors next to yours. Here you can compare your website’s keywords to any of your rivals to find keywords where every rival’s site has a ranking, where you have a ranking but none of your competitors do, and where you aren’t targeting yet.
The section only shows data for the current month. But if you want to get historical data, you can do it separately for each competitor.
#3. Analyze search result ads, UVPs, and calls to action
Analyzing your competitors’ ad variations is an important step to know what you look like in the market and how you can use that to your advantage. Figure out what ad copy they are writing to stand out, which discounts or special offers they’re running to grab the attention of your users to click through.
It can take some time to review the SERPs and detect what it will take to create one of the most effective offers in the search. The best way to do it, go to the Ads History section and better understand what ad copy variations were used to get results.
Another important step is to analyze each competitor’s unique value proposition (UVP) to see how your website compares to the competition or create your own UVP. Visit your competitors’ websites in order to take notes of their UVPs. Once you do it, you can improve your value proposition and make your product valuable and unique.
#4. Dig into Google AdWords auction insights
Let’s say that you are already running your PPC campaign and bidding on AdWords terms, but you want to take a close look at details and track every little ad positioning change or impression share. You can go into Auction Insights to figure out where your competitors appear and what your impression share is.
Using a keyword tool, you can also evaluate each competitor from there and see all their profitable keywords, what landing pages are generating the most traffic, and what ads they are running. This is a great way to review beyond the ad campaign and figure out where you need to focus your optimization time.
#5: Deep dive into the conversion funnel
A lot of PPC marketers used to keep an eye on competitors’ keywords and ad copy variations. But I would love to take a close look at PPC competitors by comparing your conversion funnel to your rivals.
For that, I recommend using Finteza to track conversions not only by separate ads and keywords, but you can also look at their landing pages. It tracks all the actions taken by users before making a purchase and creates histograms to visualize tracked events. It will automatically generate funnels and save the data in the form of a report for further analysis.
You can easily find out how they are converting their traffic and what they are offering (a discount or a free guide) to make people click through from Google. Take notes on what you need to improve on your landing page or any ideas to test new ad copy variations.
#6. Analyze the seasonal fluctuation
One more important step to the success of your PPC campaign is the analysis of seasonality to better understand what keywords are taken most frequently by competitors during these months. This data can help you make informed decisions to achieve great triumphs.
The Competitor research section in SE Ranking is the perfect place to see all the seasonal fluctuations of your competitors and reveal what specific keywords perform in paid search. It shows you which months are the busiest in your industry regarding online advertising. It is a great way to plan your PPC campaign ahead of time-based on your competitors’ experience.
#7. Improve your multi-device strategy
According to Smart Insights, users prefer multi-device usage, not simply a mobile-first website. It is important to build effective strategies to engage the multichannel switching behavior for your brand. People used to switch between desktop and mobile. So, if you want to stay ahead of the PPC competition in 2021, you should find out what works well and what doesn’t for mobile and desktop paid search.
Make sure that the keywords you target for mobile searchers may distinguish from the keywords used for your desktop searchers. Once you reveal the best strategies of your competitors, you can improve your marketing efforts and build a successful PPC strategy.
In Google Search Console you can look at your search analytics using the filter by comparing mobile and desktop. It will display a list of mobile keywords that trigger ads for the competitor’s website and compare it to those for desktop.
If you create both desktop and mobile ads, make sure that you need to tailor them to specific audiences. Because mobile and desktop users are two different personas.
Once you define what keywords you are going to use for mobile and desktop paid search, you need to create an effective Google Ads campaign. With Depositphotos, you can use or download royalty-free stock photos and pictures that will help your clients find more content options and quickly find exactly what they’re looking for.
#8: Continue to spy on your competitors
It is important to go on monitoring the competition in order not to miss anything of what they are doing in paid search. Whether they will launch a new product or service, update their unique propositions, or change prices, you should be the first to know what the changes have happened.
To automate the process, it is better to use competitor research tools like SE Ranking to instantly see how their ads look in the SERPS from different locations and times.
Wrapping up
If you are stuck in planning your PPC strategy, doing a competitor analysis will allow you to go a long way by providing you a real insight into what performs well and doesn’t in your niche. Your priority is to achieve great results for your campaign, and competitors can rock your boat and direct you in the right direction. I hope this guide will help you audit the competition and gain a competitive advantage.
Irina Weber
+ posts
Irina Weber is a passionate Content Strategist. She worked for enterprises and startups for more than 8 years, writing about online marketing, social media, conversion optimization, and business development. You can reach out to her via Twitter @irinaweber048.
FAQs
How do I find PPC competitors keywords? ›
iSpionage gives you access to SEO and PPC keyword data from Bing, Yahoo, and Google. Results from these three search engines can help you analyze your PPC competitor's keyword ranking on different search engines.
How do you write a competition analysis for a blog? ›- Determine who your competitors are.
- Determine what products your competitors offer.
- Research your competitors' sales tactics and results.
- Take a look at your competitors' pricing, as well as any perks they offer.
- Ensure you're meeting competitive shipping costs.
- Ahrefs.
- SEMrush.
- Page Optimizer Pro.
- Alexa Traffic Rank.
10-20 Keywords per ad group will work for 50% of advertisers. You will hear this at our AdWords training days as well, because it's a great place to start! Newcomers to PPC often fill ad groups with +100 keywords, but this doesn't work very well.
What is the best keyword tool for SEO and PPC Why? ›After trying out all the popular keyword research tools, we believe that SEMRush is the best keyword research tool and the #1 SEO toolkit in the market. If you're looking for a free keyword research tool, then try out AnswerthePublic or Google Trends.
What should a competitor analysis look like? ›A competitive analysis should examine your competitors' features, market share, pricing, marketing, differentiators, strengths, weaknesses, geography, culture and customer reviews.
How do I create a competitor analysis template? ›- Create a competitor overview. In step one, select between five and 10 competitors to compare against your company. ...
- Conduct market research. ...
- Compare product features. ...
- Compare product marketing. ...
- Use a SWOT analysis. ...
- Identify your place in the market landscape.
- Identify competitors. Find out how much you're spending on monthly biz app subscriptions. ...
- Analyze competitors' online presence. ...
- Check online reviews. ...
- Talk to competitors' customers. ...
- Identify their strengths and weaknesses. ...
- Use research tools.
- Uncovering Relevant Questions: The Key to a Great Q&A Blog. ...
- Hooking Your Readers: How to Make Your Question Relevant. ...
- Quick Answer, Big Impact: Summarize Your Point in One Paragraph. ...
- Going the Extra Mile: Elaborating and Illustrating Your Answer.
For your first step, research your competitors to better understand them. Your competition is any business or individual with a similar product or service. Your direct competitors probably serve the same target market you do. Stick to two or three competitors for the competitive analysis.
What are the three 3 most important SEO and website metrics? ›
These SEO metrics help measure whether your current strategies are working, how effective they are, and where there's room for improvement. Some of the most common SEO KPIs include rankings, organic traffic, backlinks, and pages indexed.
How do I spy on competitors SEO? ›- Semrush. Semrush is one of the best SEO and marketing tools out there. ...
- Ahrefs. Ahrefs is another popular tool among SEO professionals, and it can provide detailed information about your website and your competitors. ...
- Google Keyword Planner.
No, Google Analytics does not track if your users visit your competitor's websites after visiting your website. Google Analytics shows only your website's bounce rate and click-through rate. However, you can compare your results with a competitor using other third-party tools like SemRush.
What is an effective PPC keyword? ›Keywords are the foundation for everything in PPC. Keywords are what you use to define where your ads should appear. Without a solid understanding of what keywords are and how to use them effectively, you'll never be successful with PPC.
What is a good amount of keywords? ›It's easier for pages to rank if they focus on one topic, so you should focus on two or three primary keywords per page that are reworded variations. Targeting four or more keywords is difficult because there is limited space in the title and meta description tags to target them.
What are the 4 types of keywords? ›There are 4 types of keywords: short-tail, long-tail, questions, and intent targeting keywords.
What is an effective PPC keyword should be like? ›You can check our full guide to keyword research here, but in short, an effective PPC keyword list should be: Relevant: Of course, you don't want to be paying for clicks that aren't going to convert. That means the keywords you bid on should be closely related to the offerings you sell.
Which is harder SEO or PPC? ›While it can take months to see results from your SEO strategy, it can take just a few hours to see results from your PPC campaign.
What are the 3 basic competitive strategies? ›According to Porter's Generic Strategies model, there are three basic strategic options available to organizations for gaining competitive advantage. These are: Cost Leadership, Differentiation and Focus.
What are the 4 major competitive strategies? ›- Cost leadership strategy. ...
- Differentiation leadership strategy. ...
- Cost focus strategy. ...
- Differentiation focus strategy.
What are the 3 variables of analyzing competitors? ›
Three additional variables that every firm should monitor with respect to competitors are: share of market (competitor's sales' share in the target market), share of mind (percentage of customers who name the competitor when asked which firm first comes to mind in an industry) and share of heart (percentage of ...
What are the four key aspect in competitor analysis? ›Competitor Analysis Framework
This framework is based on the following four key aspects of a competitor: Competitor's objectives. Competitor's assumptions. Competitor's strategy.
There are four diagnostic components: future goals, current strategy, assumptions, and capabilities. ...
What are the 4 key factors for competitive success? ›- Knowing Customer Needs. ...
- Understanding Competitors' Strengths and Weaknesses. ...
- Finding Markets That Are Large or Growing.
They are: location, selection, service, quality, price, speed, and turnaround.
How do you write a perfect answer? ›- Read all questions carefully. ...
- Good handwriting. ...
- Structure your answer. ...
- Use simple language. ...
- Don't write everything you know. ...
- Review your answers thoroughly. ...
- Choose questions wisely. ...
- Attempt all the questions.
- Brainstorm blog topics.
- Refine your topic with keyword research.
- Define your audience.
- Create an organized outline.
- Write engaging content.
- Craft an irresistible headline.
- Choose a blog template.
- Select a blog domain name.
- Step One: Choose Your Topic. ...
- Step Two: Choose a Domain Name. ...
- Step Three: Choose a Blogging Platform. ...
- Step Four: Choose Your Hosting and Theme. ...
- Step Five: Plan and Write Your Content.
But a good general rule is six to seven weeks to analyze one competitor, and seven to eight weeks to analyze multiple companies.
Do you need to analyze all your competitors? ›The purpose of a competitor analysis is to understand your competitors' strengths and weaknesses in comparison to your own and to find a gap in the market. A competitor analysis is important because: It will help you recognise how you can enhance your own business strategy.
What is the most important KPI in SEO? ›
The most important SEO KPI is organic conversions, whether they're sales, leads, subscriptions, or any other action that makes money for your business. Measuring and tracking organic conversions is the most straightforward way to demonstrate the success of your SEO efforts.
What are the 4 important stages in SEO? ›- Get your technicals right.
- Find a keyword to target.
- Create an optimized page.
- Build links to it.
Ahrefs: SEO Keyword Tool
Ahrefs is one of the most recommended SEO tools online. It's only second to Google when it comes to being the largest website crawlers. SEO experts can't get enough of Ahrefs' Site Audit feature as it's the best SEO analysis tool around.
- Target their keywords.
- Increase your domain authority.
- Take some of the high-quality links from your competitor.
- Become more influential.
- Use paid promotion tactics.
This SEO cheat sheet summarizes the essential on-page SEO practices that make it easier for search engines to read and index your site. Your web and SEO developer can reference this guide and integrate these practices into their cross-functional workflow to improve site performance and user experience.
Which is a form of cheating in SEO? ›Copy cloaking
Even though they can't be seen, the keywords are very much present and will be picked up by website crawlers. This is a manipulative tactic and a blatant act of cheating Google SEO, because it shows users something other than what the search engines get to see.
A competitor SWOT analysis is simply a way to assess your competitor's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats so that you can better understand their business and, in turn, your own.
Is there anything better than Google Analytics? ›Clicky is a privacy-friendly analytics tool often preferred over Google Analytics due to its ease of use and straightforward installation. The tool is known for its real-time traffic analytics and heatmap tracking, which allows you to visualize the user's journey on your site.
How do I target competitors keywords on Google Ads? ›Go to Tools & Settings > Shared Library > Audience Manager to create your custom audience. Choose the option to target “People who searched for any of these terms on Google. “
How do I spy on competitors keywords? ›- Subscribe to Newsletter and Social Media. This is where you should start. ...
- Track Brands. ...
- Find out What Technologies They Use. ...
- Check Popularity. ...
- Check Paid Keywords. ...
- Check SEO. ...
- Check Display Ads. ...
- Check Backlinks.
How do I check my competitors Google Ads strategy? ›
Google Ads Competitive Analysis
Look at their headlines and descriptions for insight into their positioning. You can also use the search bar to filter for ads that include a word or phrase. Use the Advertising Research Pages report to identify the landing pages on their site that they're driving their ad traffic to.
Evaluate competition by looking at search engine results (SERPs) to determine how many sites are competing for the exact keyword phrase and if these sites are well optimized and have link authority. In Google, search for the keyword phrase in quotes to find the number of indexed pages for the exact phrase.
How do I find the best keywords for ads? ›- Think like a customer when you create your list. ...
- Select specific keywords to target specific customers. ...
- Select general keywords to reach more people. ...
- Group similar keywords into ad groups.
Keyword Planner helps you research keywords for your Search campaigns. You can use this free tool to discover new keywords related to your business and see estimates of the searches they receive and the cost to target them.
How do you find the target audience of a competitor? ›One of the easiest ways to get a quick understanding of the type of customers your competitors are targeting is by checking out their customer list. Since customer logos equals company credibility, your competitors will often list many of their customers on the homepage.
How do I make keywords searchable? ›- Make a list of broad topics relevant to your topic. ...
- Expand each topic with a list of phrases you think your customers use. ...
- Find related search terms. ...
- Analyze the strength of your keywords. ...
- Determine how you rank in your industry. ...
- Verify search intent.
Targeting competitor keywords helps you appear on the same SERPs (search engine results pages) as your competitors. You can also use competitor keyword research to reveal weaknesses, such as valuable keywords they have yet to target.
How do I monitor my competitors for SEO? ›- What keywords should I consider in my competitor analysis? ...
- Focus on search intent instead of search volume. ...
- Explore long-tail keywords opportunities in your keyword competitor analysis. ...
- Keep an eye on your SEO competitors' paid listings. ...
- Monitor your keyword rankings.
Contrary to what most people may think, bidding on a competitor's branded keywords is completely legal, but there are restrictions on its practice. clearly lay out that bidding on competitor's keywords is acceptable, so long as: Ad text does not include a competitor's trademarked terms.