We’re sure you can think of a number of reasons why paid search is so important to your business goals, but are you curious to know how important it is to your competitors’ business as well. Paid search’s ability to provide immediate visibility, targeted reach and measurable results in a cost-effective manner to intent-driven audiences is quite honestly the best bang for your marketing buck.
Paid Search advertising is not just about throwing money at search engines and hoping for the best. It’s a strategic game where you need to outsmart your competitors to win those coveted top spots. But, like everything in digital marketing, it’s crucial to keep an eye on the competition. Competitive analysis in Paid Search gives you guidance or an orientation into what they’re doing so you can learn from their successes and failures and possibly uncover hidden opportunities to make your own campaigns even better. We always caution that any data received on a competitor should be used directionally as it is not always accurate, but gives enough intelligence to make informed decisions.

Understanding Paid Search Competitive Analysis 

A Paid Search Competitive Analysis provides a comprehensive look into your competitors’ campaigns and examines their strategies, tactics and performance across different Search platforms. This involves scrutinizing every aspect of their campaigns, from the keywords they’re targeting to the ad copy they’re using and even how they’re bidding against you.To achieve these objectives effectively, you should consider a range of key metrics, including but not limited to:

• Competitor keywords
• Ad copy variations
• Bidding strategies
• Ad positions
• Click-through rates (CTR)
• Conversion rates
• Overall campaign performance metrics
• Seasonality

By piecing together this puzzle of information, you’ll gain a panoramic view of the competitive landscape, uncovering valuable insights that can give your own Paid Search campaigns a serious boost.

Collect → Evaluate → Implement 

Like most of the things we do at Cordelia Labs, we always start with collecting data. This involves scrutinizing competitor keywords, ad copy, landing pages and bidding strategies. With that data, we create a SWOT analysis. This helps us to understand areas where your brand can outperform competitors and identify potential risks. Finally, the analysis is put into action.
This iterative process ensures that Paid Search campaigns remain optimized and competitive.

Step 1:  Collect Data 

One key aspect in the data collection step is to identify competitor’s keywords. Utilizing various tools for keyword research such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush or SpyFu allows advertisers to uncover the keywords their competitors are targeting.
Analyzing keyword performance metrics such as search volume, competition level, and cost-per-click (CPC) can provide valuable insights into which keywords are driving traffic for your competitors.
Another critical component of Paid Search competitive analysis is assessing ad copy and creative assets. Techniques for ad copy analysis involve examining factors such as messaging, tone, call-to-action (CTA) and formatting. By analyzing competitors’ ad copy, advertisers can identify successful messaging strategies and incorporate similar elements into their own ads. Evaluating creative elements such as imagery, colors and ad extensions provides further insights into competitors’ approaches to ad design and presentation. Understanding which creative elements resonate with the target audience can inform the development of more compelling and engaging ad creatives for improved campaign performance.
The last bit of data we collect surrounds competitors’ bidding strategies. Analyzing bid prices and positions allows advertisers to assess how competitors are bidding on keywords and positioning their ads within search engine results pages (SERPs). What they’re bidding on can help inform your own bid adjustments and budget allocations. Analyzing this over time, you should be able to identify bidding patterns such as bid fluctuations or bid adjustments in response to market conditions or seasonality.
Overall, thorough data collection across these key areas enable advertisers to gain a deeper understanding of a competitors’ tactics and performances.

Step 2: Analyze Data 

Now you have all this data, what do you do with it?
We truly believe that analyzing data is the key to success for any digital marketing campaign. For Paid Search specifically, we like to create a SWOT analysis to help our Brands understand the best way to set up or optimize their own campaigns.
Breaking out the SWOT analysis for Paid Search helps;

1. Understand what YOUR competitive advantages & disadvantages are
2. Find areas to improve your search structure based on what your competitors are doing
3. And face if there are any challenges within your own organization that may need to improve.

Strengths: Analyzing competitors’ strengths involves identifying their advantages and unique selling propositions in Paid Search campaigns. This may include factors such as strong brand recognition, high-quality ad creatives, extensive keyword coverage or effective targeting strategies. By recognizing competitors’ strengths, advertisers can gain insights into areas where they excel and understand potential challenges in competing against them.

• Areas where you excel: Identify your strong points in Paid Search, such as high-quality ad copy, effective landing pages or well-structured campaigns. These strengths can be leveraged to gain a competitive advantage.
• Unique selling propositions: Pinpoint what sets you apart from competitors in your Paid Search efforts. This could be a unique product offering, exceptional customer service, or a specific targeting strategy.
• Internal resources and capabilities: Evaluate your team’s expertise, budget allocation, and available tools for Paid Search. This helps you understand your internal strengths and any potential areas for improvement.

Weaknesses: On the other hand, may look something like low ad relevance, poor ad copy, limited keyword targeting, or ineffective bidding strategies. These are the things that could pinpoint opportunities to capitalize on gaps in competitors’ strategies and differentiate yourself in the market.

• Areas for improvement: Identify any shortcomings in your Paid Search campaigns, such as low click-through rates, high cost-per-click, or poor conversion rates. Addressing these weaknesses is crucial for maximizing ROI.
• Resource limitations: Determine if you have any constraints in terms of budget, personnel, or technology that might be hindering your Paid Search performance.
• Internal challenges: Consider any internal factors that might be impacting your Paid Search efforts, such as lack of clear goals, inefficient processes, or inadequate tracking and measurement.

Opportunities: Opportunities may arise from emerging trends, changes in consumer behavior, or gaps in the market that competitors have yet to exploit. By exploring opportunities, advertisers can identify strategic initiatives to enhance their own Paid Search campaigns, such as targeting new keywords, expanding into new markets, or introducing innovative ad formats.

• Market trends: Stay updated on the latest Paid Search trends and emerging platforms to identify new opportunities for growth.
• Competitor gaps: Analyze your competitors’ Paid Search strategies to identify any areas where they are underperforming. This can present opportunities for you to gain market share.
• New technologies: Explore new Paid Search tools and technologies that can help you optimize your campaigns and achieve better results.

Threats: Recognizing threats involves identifying external factors that may pose risks to not only your competitors’ Paid Search success but also your own. Threats may include a new competitor in the market, changes in search engine algorithms, shifts in consumer preferences, or economic factors.

• Competitive landscape: Assess the level of competition in your industry and identify any major threats posed by competitors.
• Algorithm changes: Stay informed about any changes in search engine algorithms or advertising platform policies that might impact your Paid Search performance.
• Economic factors: Consider any economic downturns or fluctuations that could affect your advertising budget or consumer spending.

Overall, conducting a SWOT analysis enables advertisers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the competitive landscape, identify strategic opportunities, and mitigate potential risks to drive success in your Paid Search campaigns. These informed Insights should be the cornerstone of your Paid Search Strategy.

Step 3: Implement Findings 

The last step in a good Paid Search Strategy involves leveraging the insights gleaned from the competitive analysis to refine and enhance overall campaign strategy. This may include adjusting targeting parameters, refining messaging and positioning, or optimizing bidding strategies to better align with competitor tactics and market dynamics.
By testing different variables such as ad copy variations, landing page designs, or bidding strategies, advertisers can identify which tactics are most effective in driving desired outcomes and iteratively optimize your campaigns for better performance. This is the test, learn, deploy and then test again method.
We know that implementing findings from a competitive analysis is hard work. But we know the importance of making informed decisions that lead to great insights that can set you apart from the competition. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

No time, Let us dig in!

Our Paid Search competitive analysis is your secret weapon for success. Here at Cordelia Labs our systematic approach to a competitive analysis dives deep into your competitors’ strategies, uncovering their strengths and weaknesses, and identifying hidden opportunities for your campaigns. With our experts in analytics and data-driven insights, you can make informed decisions to optimize your Paid Search campaigns, outperform your rivals, and achieve your business goals. Don’t let your competitors have all the fun! We love this stuff! And If that is not enough, we also can implement the findings and continue to update the data to continue to create change and new opportunities. Let’s chat today!!