Competitor analysis is an essential part of any business strategy. In fact, from the moment you decide to create a business to your latest marketing campaign – knowing what your competitors are doing matters so that you yourself can remain an attractive proposition for your customers.
In PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, competitor research can help you nail some of the tougher elements of PPC.
Namely, targeting your ads to the right people in the right places, since it’s not enough for someone to just click your ad if they aren’t likely to convert.
If you’ve yet to achieve success with PPC, here are our top tips for learning more about your competitors to improve your next campaign.
Starting from the top with PPC? Have a read throughout our beginner’s guide to find out everything you need to know about pay-per-click.
Identify Your Search Competitors
Before we can beat your competitors it’s always handy to know who they actually are where organic and paid search is concerned.
Any SEO software you have can be extremely helpful at identifying search competitors. Often, the data will also tell you the CPC (cost per click) for PPC purposes.
Google Ads Auction Insights is another useful tool, especially if you run your PPC campaigns through Google Ads. Here, you can see your bidding strategy and overall campaign performance compared with your competitors.
Keyword Research
Use your chosen SEO tools to look at the keyword search volume and CPC for the keywords your competitors are using.
This is an effective way to identify gaps in your PPC strategy, especially if your campaigns aren’t being phrased in the most search-friendly way.
Another similarity with SEO, is that PPC keyword research will also allow you to identify any low hanging fruit. The only difference is, instead of a low keyword difficulty, you’re on the lookout for any highly conversional words or phrases with a cheaper cost per click.
Look At Competitor Ad Placement
Where are your competitors displaying their PPC campaigns exactly?
Lots of PPC platforms exist such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other websites. Campaigns may also be texted based, or contain images and videos.
As they are your competitors, the platforms where you see their PPC campaigns have likely already been aligned with their (and therefore your) target audiences.
Take a look at the type of engagement your competitor’s campaigns are getting too. If they are getting lots of shares or comments from paid campaigns, there’s a winning formula to tap into.
Likewise, if their PPC campaigns aren’t performing well, you can also learn that a different strategy is needed to reach your target audience.
Analyse Competitor Ad Direction
What words, phrases, images, videos or clickable elements are working for your competitor’s PPC campaigns?
The success of any PPC campaign relies on targeting the right people with the right messaging. How your campaigns visuals look and written text read matters. Namely, the short and snappy content should immediately grab attention, and tap into the wants and needs of searchers.
For any PPC campaigns that appear on Google, these search results will appear above any organic results. So ask yourself, what is going to provide a relevant result that also gets people clicking on my advert?
Seeing what’s worked for your competitors in terms of tone and visual direction is a great place to start.
Identify Opportunities For Your USP
Ultimately, while competitor research is essential for your PPC campaigns, the aim is always to outshine the competition rather than become a carbon copy of them.
So now you know who your competitors are, what keywords they are using, low-hanging fruit keywords, optimum ad placement and design – use this information to elevate your PPC campaigns to new heights.
Over time, you’ll get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. The beauty of PPC is that you can pause campaigns at any time. So use this to your advantage to improve and optimise to maximise the number of relevant clicks your campaigns are generating.
When done right, the competition will be looking to emulate you and not the other way around!
Imaginaire – Pay Per Click Agency For Businesses
Are you wanting to succeed at PPC (pay per click) advertising?
Imaginaire is a digital marketing agency in Nottingham, and we help businesses across the UK with all things paid ads through the engineering, construction, jewellery, retail and luxury e-commerce sectors..
Check out our PPC service page to learn more about how we can help your business to reach more customers through paid search.
Or, to chat with us further please drop us a message or give us a call on 0115 697 1367.