Analyzing your competitors in Google Ads is essential to understanding their tactics and enhancing the performance of your own advertisements. You can find new keyword chances, comprehend the ad copy of competitors, locate distinctive value propositions, and pinpoint target consumers by keeping an eye on their advertisements. This kind of analysis aids in the creation of campaigns with optimal ad effectiveness.

The Significance of Analyzing Google Ads Competitors

An essential component of any digital strategy is understanding your opponents. Gaining a deeper comprehension of the successful and unsuccessful strategies in your sector will serve as a foundation for reviewing current performance and making well-informed strategic decisions.

We used to place more weight on competition analysis, but because Google has started limiting important metrics, it has been increasingly difficult to snoop on rivals' Google Ads. For this reason, we now support the macro approach.

How to Perform a Google Ads Competitor Analysis

Google has restricted the amount of data that is available, but as anyone who works with Google AdWords is likely most familiar with their tools, we'll start there.

1. Search on Google

• Go to Google, and confirm that your ad blocker is turned off.
• Enter a search term.
• Check to see if anything shows up under the category "Sponsored."

It's beneficial as it provides high-level details about who appears in advertisements for particular search terms. 

Take note: less and fewer searches are yielding traditional sponsored advertising. Frequently, local listings, infoboxes, or other customized SERPs will greet you. 

2. Ads Auction Insights Report for Google

• Open Google Ads.
• Click the sidebar's "Campaigns" button.
• Look at the column marked "Impression Share."

While there aren't any hard statistics provided, you can gain an understanding of how you're doing in comparison to competitors by tracking Impression Share over time. You can also gain insights that could provide insight into their strategies. For example:

An abrupt rise or fall in Impression Share may be a sign of a change in (a) competitor's spending.

Changes in Impression Share following budget adjustments on your part may reflect improved or worse performance in comparison to rivals.

3. Keyword Planner for Google Ads

• Open Google Ads.
• Select 'Tools and settings' from the menu at the top.
• Select "Keyword Planner" from the "Planning" menu.
• Select "Find new keywords."
• Enter a pertinent keyword in the box.
• Select "Get Results."
• Examine the columns labeled "Top of page bid."

You can get a sense of what your competitors could be spending on certain terms by looking at top-of-page bid amounts. You can also learn more about overall budgets by gathering this data for a number of phrases. 

The possible large range of differences in the figures makes this data not very accurate. However, providing ballpark figures can be helpful.

How to View Google Ads Information of Rivals - Outside Resources

Additionally, we use a variety of third-party platforms to collect data that helps inform the campaigns we manage on behalf of our clients. These are helpful in completing the gaps left by Google's constraints and expanding the collection of information you have to support your campaign.

1. Ahrefs: Paid Search Terms

Note: To use these tools for domains you do not control or are not responsible for, you will require a membership.

• Log in to Ahrefs
• Go to the "Site Explorer" menu item.
• Put a URL in here.
• Select "Paid keywords" from the side menu.

This report provides various data regarding advertisements on a website. We've utilized the Halfords website as an example, and you can see how paid and organic performance compares, along with volume, keyword difficulty, and cost per click (CPC).

Although Ahrefs cautions that their CPC data should be regarded with caution, you can gain further insights by cross-referencing these terms with the Google Ads Keyword Planner's top of page bid information.

2. Ahrefs - Advertisements

Note: To use these tools for domains you do not control or are not responsible for, you will require a membership.

• Repetition of steps 1-3 is necessary.
• Select "Ads" from the sidebar.

This report provides a quick overview of the content and continuous performance of particular advertisements. One helpful component of competition analysis is observing the performance of competitor ads over time; we suggest devoting some time to reviewing this data.

In order to assess the effectiveness of your own advertisements, you can also track their success. If you choose to create reports for clients using Ahrefs, you can effortlessly incorporate this data into these reports.