PPC competitor analysis: how to read competitors' ads
·4 min read
PPC competitor analysis is reading a rival's ads to learn what they offer, which buyer they are chasing and where you meet them in the auction. Collecting the ads is the easy part. The value comes from pulling the offer and angle out of each headline, following the click to the landing page, checking where your keywords overlap in auction insights, and turning what you find into tests for your own campaigns.
This post covers the reading. To find the ads, see our guides to finding a competitor's Google ads and the Google Ads Transparency Center, or the Meta Ad Library for Facebook and Instagram.
Read competitor ads for the offer and the angle
Every search ad makes one offer and argues it from one angle.
The offer is what the searcher gets for clicking. A trial, a demo, a discount, a quote within an hour. Headlines that all lead with "14-day trial, no card" mean the advertiser thinks the card form stops signups.
The angle is why the ad says you should pick them. "Built for dental clinics" is a specialist angle. "Set up in 5 minutes" is ease. Most advertisers repeat one angle across every ad, and that tells you what they think wins.
Then check how long each ad has run. Google publishes no clicks or spend for other advertisers' ads, so run length is your best signal. An ad running for eight months is one somebody keeps paying for. One that started last week is a test. Weight the old ones.
Follow the click to the landing page
The landing page shows whether the competitor delivers what the ad promised. Open the final URL of each ad you study and check these.
- Message match. Does the page headline repeat the ad's promise? If the ad says "same-day quotes" and the page opens with a slogan, they lose people you could catch.
- The form. Count the fields and note whether they ask for a phone number, a card or a work email.
- Pricing and guarantees. Is the price on the page, behind a "contact sales" button, or missing? Look for money-back guarantees and cancel-anytime lines. A guarantee in the ad that the page does not repeat is a weak spot.
Which keywords competitors bid on, and what is only an estimate
Google does not publish the keywords another advertiser bids on. Any tool that lists a rival's paid keywords is estimating from sampled searches, so treat those lists as hints.
You can get closer two ways. Headlines usually echo the keyword, so the copy names the theme. And the searches a competitor ranks for organically overlap with what it advertises on. Competitor Keywords lists the Google searches a site ranks for, with search volume and cost per click, so you can see which of their topics are pricey enough to buy.
Use auction insights for overlap on your own keywords
The auction insights report is the one source of competitor data that comes from Google's real auctions, and it only covers auctions you entered. You open it from Campaigns, Ad groups or Search keywords in Google Ads, select the items, and choose Auction insights, per Google's help page.
For Search campaigns it reports impression share, overlap rate, position above rate, top of page rate, absolute top of page rate and outranking share. Overlap rate is how often another advertiser's ad showed when yours did. Position above rate is how often theirs sat higher when both showed. Google hides the report when your impression share is below 10%, and items need a minimum amount of activity in the date range.
Read it per keyword. A rival with a 70% overlap rate on your best keywords is your real competitor there, whoever leads at account level. Our share of voice post turns impression share into a trend.
Turn competitor ads into tests for your own
A PPC competitor analysis should end in a short list of ad tests. Fill one row per competitor, then write a test that answers it.
| Competitor | Longest-running offer | Angle | Landing page | Overlap on your keywords | Your test |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rival A | 14-day trial, no card | Ease | Dedicated page, 3 fields | High on "invoice software" | Lead with your no-card trial and test a 2-field form |
| Rival B | 20% off first year | Price | Home page | Medium | Test a price-led headline sending people to your pricing page |
| Rival C | Migration included | Switching | Pricing hidden | Low | Show your prices in the ad and on the page |
The rows are illustrative. Borrow a promise you can match, then beat it on a detail they leave out. Never copy wording. Run your version against your current ad and wait for enough impressions before you call a winner.
Redo the table each quarter. Ads that vanished tell you as much as new ones.
See a competitor's Google ads and their longest-running copy
Competitor Google Ads takes a competitor's website and lists up to 100 of the most recently shown Google ads that send people to that domain, in every country or one you choose. For each ad it shows the format (text, image or video), the advertiser account, the first and last shown dates and how many days it has run. It reads the headlines, descriptions and landing pages of up to 10 text ads, putting ads that are running now and have run longest first. It also counts live ads and ads started in the last 30 days, and lists every advertiser account behind them.
It does not show the keywords a competitor bids on, its spend or how its ads perform, because Google does not publish them. A run costs 15 credits. A run that finds no ads is refunded.