Winning in online marketing doesn’t happen automatically. Instead, it is something companies must work on for months or years before getting it right.
This statement is especially true in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Most brands never outperform their competition and waste tens of thousands of pounds trying to do so.
If that scenario sounds familiar, this post can help. It shows how brands can use PPC analysis to outperform the competition.
Find Out Who The Competition Is
The first step is to find out who the brand’s competitors are. Companies must know their rivals’ identities before ploughing funds into PPC ads.
This task is surprisingly challenging. Many companies don’t know who their direct rivals are, mistakenly believing they are competing against other firms.
The trick to discovering competitors is to use the proper tools. These reveal companies targeting the same audiences (the only real factor that matters in online marketing).
Analyse PPC Strategies
The next step is to analyse their PPC strategies to see what works. Again, competitor research tools can help with this task.
For example, brands can use these to:
- Analyse ad copy and see rivals’ most successful messaging (i.e. the phrasing and calls-to-action (CTAs) that work best)
- Find their landing pages linked to their ads and view their design and conversion elements to see what works (and what doesn’t)
- Look for the keywords competitors use to determine whether they compete directly
- Find ad variations used for A/B testing and how rivals change their phrasing, messaging or writing style over time
While analysing rivals’ strategies, brands often find gaps in their approach. For example, they might discover new keywords to target (because they relate to a competitor’s products) or realise existing keyword targeting is outdated.
Find Out Where Competitors Are Succeeding And Failing
After looking at rivals’ strategies, brands can determine where competitors’ PPC efforts are succeeding and failing. These insights pave the way to improving their existing endeavours.
For many UK brands, this step is the most challenging. It involves identifying strengths and weaknesses and looking for opportunities to generate more conversions, which may be hard to discern. For this reason, using a PPC advertising agency in London or elsewhere can be helpful. Professionals use advanced strategies to delve into rivals’ strategies to unearth winning approaches for their clients.
These can include:
- Exploring the journey prospects take after clicking rivals’ ads
- Seeing which landing pages have the highest conversion potential
- Using various auction insight tools to search for the main competitors of client firms by keyword
- Discovering rivals’ budget and ad rank distribution to optimise clients’ bidding strategies
- Using quality scoring tools to determine whether rivals’ PPC marketing represents value-for-money
- Leveraging social media analytics tools to see the content type rivals share and other factors, such as engagement levels
Once this understanding is in place, brands can better determine an optimal PPC strategy. In some cases, it’s not worth competing, while it is in others. Only an in-depth investigation can reveal which approach to take.
Furthermore, companies can identify their weaknesses. These might include failing to optimise landing pages (relative to the competition), using weak ad copy, or targeting the wrong people.
Understand Rivals’ Target Audience
Understanding rivals’ target audiences is another way PPC competitor analysis can help firms outperform the competition. Delving into who they are trying to reach can avoid wasting ad budgets.
Research begins with analysing their content and landing pages to see who they want to target. Collecting information from numerous domains builds a clearer picture of their buyer persona and audience.
Next, investigations move onto rival audiences’ pain points and needs. Brands try to determine why their rivals’ ads and hooks are so effective.
This exploration can be revealing. Many companies discover the truth about what their customers want during these exercises. Knowing how rivals are tickling audiences emotionally can help inform the brand’s strategy.
The last step is to define competitors’ buyer personas using the gleaned information. Companies can build a picture of who rivals’ marketing is targeting to determine if and how they can compete.
Probe Their Budget
Finally, brands sometimes probe their rivals’ budgets using analytics tools to determine their ad spend. Understanding this can help firms determine whether direct competition for ad space is viable.
For smaller enterprises, full-frontal assaults don’t work. Instead, firms must think strategically about which keywords to target and how to win.
By following these steps, brands increase the likelihood of outperforming the competition. PPC competitor analysis lets firms monitor and adjust their campaigns if external circumstances change.
