In this article we will discuss one of my favorite topics, how to conduct a competitor analysis for PPC.
If you are just starting or an already existing business this is a very important topic.
Who should run a competitor analysis?
Any business that is struggling to compete, stay on top of the trends and or competition should be always comparing their strategies, keywords and budgets to their most relevant competitors. Given we wouldn’t know what their strategies are per se, but with the use of various online tools, one can get some insight into what they are doing, keywords they are targeting and or budget they might be spending on google ads. This can allow a business owner to make various strategic decisions into what they might need to change. Either you could pay for those services yourself for using the tools, or hire an agency to run the audit for you. This will help whoever manages your ads to optimize the campaigns according to who your competition is. Just knowing the domains of your local competitors is a great first step so if you haven’t made a list yet, make one. Then reach out to an agency like PositiveDigitalFootprint.com to have some useful information for us to leverage to supplement your online digital marketing strategy when it comes to Google ads and more.
What to use in a competitor analysis?
This answer can vary but here we go. My personal opinion is to use as many tools as possible, including but not limited to Spyfu.com, Ahrefs.com, SEMRush.com. They are all paid third party tools and give some insights into the topics, keywords that they are bidding online to reach their customers at the right time and place. ads.Google.com with custom segments on certain campaign types has become very good at also helping running campaigns based on their domains by using their domains, Google can collect data based on those users online trends and profiles to target them while they are online, but not on those competitor domains. This also helps if you can get as specific as possible with the sub pages. If you are already running ads, taking a look at the auction insights can also give you an idea on how the landscape is changing overtime. It won’t give you keywords, but can show you things like impression share overlap, top ranking position to name a few that overtime, might indicate if they have shifted their strategy or budget or both perhaps. Look for costs per click as cheaper clicks might be important to you if your budget focused, could lead to lower cost per customer acquisition, but if you have a high budget consider the expensive keywords as high competition and probably high drivers of end desired result.
Where to look for a competitor analysis?
At PostitiveDigitalFootprint.com we have been running competitor campaigns for many many years now and can help you navigate the complex landscape as not all keywords are as valuable and nor can we see how they are doing for the competition but any good agency should test variations of keywords overtime. There are many agencies to choose from, but in our experience, larger agencies don’t tend to have the best people or potentially keep them long for various reasons. Agencies sometimes want attrition as they think they can get a cheaper PPC specialist that could potentially do the same job without considering the long term cost of that lost valuable experienced employee. One can always ask for an audit and or proposal to compare and that is where we would suggest starting the process to see if we might be a good fit for your company needs.
When to get a competitor analysis?
As mentioned above, if you notice any dramatic change in your traffic leads then it might be time to revisit your strategy with a competitor analysis to see what is missing in the gaps as there could be room to improve upon your strategy on PPC ads. They might have an edge, custom offering or something else that is giving them some edge and stealing your traffic and leads away from your website. So in short, anytime is a good time to start doing the analysis. Just use a good agency that knows what to look for and how to use that data after the analysis.
There could also be other economic factors to consider if all boats are being impacted by the changing landscape. Sometimes it’s also Google or the ads platforms making dramatic changes but not usually this one. If you are noticing a year over year decline, its for sure time to look and ask for a competitor analysis, or try to get the data yourself but a marketing agency can for sure assist you get ontop of the data and what to do with it after running one.
Why do a competitor analysis?
Any good agency will suggest taking a look at who your competition is online. Those other competitors could have an edge on your business either via offers, keywords, or budget with seasonality. It’s important to know what your competitors are constantly doing and targeting as there could be gaps you can leverage without having to recreate the wheel on marketing efforts. There could be keywords that are highly relevant to leads that aren’t being targeted but this could lead to missed opportunity on running your google ads campaigns so choose a good Google ads management company wisely. Certain businesses high very high competition, certain businesses have a frugal budget. All points are things to consider when one gets the competitor data to structure campaigns carefully as to not blow through your ads spend.
In summary, reach out today to get an PPC audit started and if your in a highly competitive business vertical like many businesses are becoming now a days then it might be time to layer this strategy into your Google ads playbook today!