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Google Ads Competitor Analysis: Everything You Need to Know!

Advice - Dealing with Google Ads Competitors: Prevention is Better Than Cure

Often, we get so caught up in our own advertising efforts that we overlook what our competitors are doing. It’s not until later that we realize the impact their actions have had on our advertising performance.

Part 1: Pay Attention to Impression Share and Top of Page Rate

I often find myself overly focused on our own ads, neglecting the fact that competitors might quietly increase their budgets, enter the market forcefully, or even mimic our landing pages without us noticing any anomalies.

Both Impression Share and Absolute Top of Page Rate in the Auction Insights need special attention.

Decrease in Impression Share

It indicates that your keywords are appearing less frequently compared to your competitors (meaning your competitor’s ads are more likely to be displayed when customers search those keywords). In this case, your Search Lost (Rank) usually increases, indicating missed opportunities due to lower rankings. This is often caused by low ad relevance.

Low Ad Relevance

It’s possible that our ad groups have a narrower keyword coverage compared to similar competitors (like having a smaller fishing net, making it harder to catch fish).
It’s possible that your ad copy doesn’t include enough keywords (some keywords you bid on may not be included in your headlines and descriptions).

Decrease in the Absolute Top of Page Rate

The frequency of ranking first (Absolute Top of Page Rate) has decreased, indicating a reduction in the number of times your ad is shown at the top of search results. It could be due to competitors increasing their budget, coupled with our ad copy not being sufficiently relevant. If the absolute top of page rate drops, the first thing to check is your search lost rate (budget). If search lost rate (budget) increases, it means your competitors’ budget is higher than yours, resulting in opportunities that should belong to you being taken away. In this case, the only solution is to increase the budget, and the amount of increase needs to be determined gradually through testing.

Considerations Regarding Budget and Bidding

Only when we ensure that our ad relevance is good enough should we consider whether our budget is being exceeded by competitors. Otherwise, blindly increasing the budget can also lead to loss in Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Conversion Rate.

Part 2: Keep a Close Eye on Competitor Social Dynamics

Social media and PR teams should regularly monitor competitors’ social media for any new developments, such as promotions or participation in events. Although information posted on social media is generally outdated, these insights can provide a safety net for Google Ads optimizers, offering a chance for recovery when detected in time.

My Experience and Lesson

Recently, a brand I’m in charge of informed me of a decline in sales for the month. Their main customer acquisition channels were word of mouth and Google Ads.

I noticed a decline in performance for branded keywords, which was surprising because our word of mouth referrals had been consistently positive, and our landing pages remained unchanged.

The search lost rate (budget) is not abnormal, so the ads are not failing to show due to budget issues. However, I noticed that the impression share of our biggest competitor is increasing. Although it’s not a rise in the absolute top of page rate, their impression share has increased, indicating that they may not have increased their budget but rather added more keywords or ads.

I searched for our branded keywords and found our ad ranking first, with the competitor ranking second.

I began to suspect that they might be bidding more aggressively on our branded keywords than before, a common practice in the industry, especially among well-known brands. While their approach might push them to second place, it effectively disrupts our audience, resulting in a decrease in our Click-Through Rate (CTR) and Conversion Rate.

I further checked their social media and homepage and found that they recently held a 45th-anniversary promotion, with some ad copy changed to promotional ads. That solved the mystery.

Part 3: Make Good Use of Tools to Investigate Competitors

Utilize various tools, both official Google ones and third-party options, to discover changes in competitor dynamics.

Some useful tools to share

1. Google Ads Auction Insights

Helps understand competitors’ recent performance in Google Ads and compare key metrics in bidding activities, such as Impression Share and Absolute Top of Page Rate. This allows us to detect competitor changes promptly and make appropriate judgments and strategy adjustments.

2. Google Data Studio

Visualizes data from Google Ads, helping us analyze competitor ad performance more intuitively. Through custom reports and dashboards, we can monitor competitor ad activities in real-time and adjust our strategies promptly.

3. Google Ads Keyword Planner

A powerful keyword research tool that helps discover potential competitor keywords and analyze their search volume and competitiveness. By understanding competitor keyword choices, we can better optimize ad content, improving ad relevance and click-through rates.

4. Google Ads Transparency Center

Allows you to view competitors’ entire ad content, placement, and recent placement dates. By understanding competitors’ ad strategies and positioning, we can adjust our ad content and placement promptly to improve ad effectiveness and exposure. Moreover, you can also see the marketing agency they’ve commissioned.

5. SEMrush

A comprehensive competitive intelligence tool that helps analyze competitor ad performance, keyword selection, traffic sources, etc. By gaining in-depth insights into competitor ad strategies and market dynamics, we can better formulate our own ad strategies, improving ad effectiveness and competitiveness.

In Conclusion

Regularly analyzing competitors is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Through proactive strategies and timely adjustments, we can better seize market opportunities and maximize advertising effectiveness.

How Can I Help You?

With over 3500 hours invested in Google search engine marketing, managing Google Ads for 10+ brands, and familiarity with various industries in Singapore and Malaysia I have launched a Google Ads + ChatGPT course, which, in 9 lessons, helps beginners master Google Ads more easily and efficiently.