The Google Ads Transparency Center is the perfect starting point for gathering insights into your competitors’ ad strategies, and the best part is, it’s completely free.
This tool offers a clear view of the ads that any advertiser is running across Google’s inventory. You can access ads across Google including search, display and video.
Simply plug in the advertiser or their website to view their ads.
Keyword Hints:
The great thing about best practices is that behavior is often uniform. You can usually identify which keywords your competitors are bidding on by observing the headlines. Conduct a live search to gather more details (more on this in the next section).
Creative Ideas:
This may seem obvious, but you can gather text and graphic ideas from your competitors. A more tedious yet effective approach is to map out all the different headlines and descriptions into an Excel document, then use word cloud software to identify key themes or common occurrences.
This method is also free and the “og” method to competitor research. Use the keywords from your exploration of the Google Ads Transparency Center to view how competitor ads appear in real time. Remember to use a VPN to observe international activity or location-specific messaging if it’s relevant to your business.
Here, we love to take things to the next level. You can often find UTMs and other parameters attached to live URLs, which can provide insights into how competitors have structured their campaigns. For example, consider the following UTM from a live ad I discovered.
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These observations already provide insights into possible campaign structures you could leverage
Tip: It helps to get familiar with advertising technologies before reviewing the website tech stack. Each identified technology can provide insight into the campaign strategy. For instance, the use of Bing tags indicates they are also running ads on Microsoft Ads. DoubleClick tags suggest potential use of advanced search management tools, while programmatic tags signal multi-channel initiatives.
For instance, an enterprise solution such as Adthena automatically scrapes searches to give you competitor insights from brand monitoring to whole market overview.
Many SEO tools also feature competitor analysis capabilities that allow for easy comparisons. However, keep in mind that the data isn’t always 100% accurate and should be interpreted with a grain of salt.
Spying on your competitors’ Google Ads can transform your marketing strategy. Start with free resources like the Google Ads Transparency Center to understand their approach, then run live searches and analyze landing page tech stacks for deeper insights. Investing in paid tools can further enhance your understanding of their keyword strategies and ad performance.
Remember to use these insights to innovate and differentiate your campaigns. For more advanced techniques, check out our Google Ads Lead Generation Course.
I’m a seasoned Digital Marketing Consultant with over 11,700 hours of hands-on platform experience. Let’s discuss how I can help you unlock the full potential of your digital marketing.
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