The Google Search results page is a highly competitive marketplace, and spying on your competitors’ Google Ads helps you to see precisely how they craft their pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and understand what they’re up to. Those insights are helpful when you build a campaign and are also useful as your campaign continues to run.
Plus, there’s nothing wrong with doing a little investigation of your competitors’ actions on different channels – in fact, it’s a “to-do” step on your plan before starting to create your business’ strategies.
Why is it important to monitor competitors?
When it comes to Google Ads, monitoring your competitors allows you to know when your direct competitors are launching a new Google Ads search campaign, so you’ll plan your further steps and respond to keep your ad and brand visible. Plus, by knowing how and when competitors plan and launch their Ads, you can gather valuable insights that will help you to build effective campaigns for your brand so that you can compete against rival businesses.
Spying on competitors’ Ads shouldn’t be a challenge or a time-consuming task. You can always use monitoring tools that automatically track competitors’ Ads for you so you can easily spot when competitors’ are launching new campaigns on Google when they are using new keywords or what their Ads’ message. Also, by tracking competitors’ Ads, you find out whether competitors are sending potential users/customers to a tailored landing page focusing on specific keywords.
But let’s dive deeper into the topic and see the top four reasons to monitor competitors’ Ads:
Reason 1: Monitoring competitors’ Ads helps you find new keywords
If you’re using the right keywords for your business, then your PPC campaigns will be successful. In fact, keywords are the solid foundation of each PPC campaign – so you need to make sure you’re using the good ones for your domain.
When building a new campaign from scratch, it can be a challenge to find an initial keyword list for your business, right? Automatically tracking competitors’ Ads gives you insights on their keywords, as well as details on their Google Ranking positions, so you’ll know exactly how to craft your campaign taking into account comparable data and having in mind what is your actual position on Google and what efforts can be done to overcome competitor’s positions and strategies.
Also, even if you have a list of keywords that you’re regularly using, you might be missing out on new keywords that did not come up into your mind the moment when you build your campaign – keywords that your competitors use at the moment. So you can get inspired by your competitor’s keywords that are relevant to your campaign and add them for your strategies.
Let’s take Asana’s Ads, for example. The brand is very active on Google Ads, with more than 20 Ads launched over the last week. Automatically tracking competitors’ activity on Google Ads gives you an insight into each competitor’s Ad – so you can discover the ad copy, the campaign’s keyword, and the current position on Google.
Reason 2: Monitoring competitors’ Ads helps you to write better ads
Keeping an eye on your competitors’ PPC campaigns helps you to write better Google Ads. We all know that a great ad copy can drive tons of traffic, so if the ads stand out and get clicked, then the campaign’s results will improve. Overall, a powerful ad copy will boost your ad click rates and conversion rates – that’s why you need to master your writing. One way to improve your copy performance is to spy on your competitor’s ad copies and see what works for them and how they write their ad copies.
Analyze all competitors’ Ads gathered on your timeline and answer a couple of questions to understand your business rivals tactics: Are your competitors using numbers? Are they offering discounts? Do they focus on the customer’s needs? Do they make things personal? Are the ad copies super specific?
For example, if a competitor mentions a lower price in their ad or a special offer, as seen below, then you may want to advertise a better offer to overcome his deal and to convince people to click through.
Also, you can discover if your competitors are using catchy words like “Free”; “Now” or if they use power words like “you” to enhance ad performance?
Regardless of the answer, you need to know what ad copy your competitors are using to write ad copy that stands out from the competition and convinces people to click on your ads. You can see what works for your competitors and get inspired by their ad copies and writing tactics.
Reason 3: Monitoring competitors’ Ads helps you to improve your landing pages
The third reason to automatically track your competitors’ Ads is to improve your conversion funnel. Spying on your competitors’ landing pages allows you to discover how they’re converting traffic, which in turn can help you improve your conversion funnel and effectively promote your business.
Also, you might want to know if your competitors are creating tailored landing pages for their leads, focusing on specific keywords. You can get inspired by your competitors’ efforts and see what could work for your case, so you can apply the same receipt for your strategy.
For example, a competitor can send directly to a product/service, after catching the customer’s attention with a powerful ad copy, underling the discounted price. Once the lead lands on the landing page directly from the Ads, there’s a high chance that he’ll make a purchase decision – so you need to understand where your competitors are directing their Ads.
In conclusion, it’s important to focus on your competitors’ Ads while researching your competitors. It’s useful to discover which relevant keywords they are using, how often they are launching new Ads and how they are crafting their ad copy, what information do they share, or what call to action that could trigger a lead’s interest.
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