Pay-per-click, also known as PPC, can be a powerful way to drive traffic to your website and capture attention from your target audience. However, it’s important to use it as one piece of your digital marketing puzzle. There are six key things that you should keep an eye on when you are taking a look at the PPC strategies that your competitors are using. They will teach you more about how your rivals are using Google Ads and how you might learn from their successes and their mistakes. Here are the six points you should always consider when you monitor the PPC strategies of your competitors.
Are They Using Organic or Paid Search?
Most businesses rely on a compelling combination of organic and paid search, or SEO and PPC, strategies to succeed. It can be difficult to decide what keywords to include in your paid search campaigns if you are already ranking high on the term organically. One way to help guide this decision is by looking at what your competitors are doing with their organic and paid search keywords. There are tools available that can compare the keywords that your rivals use through paid and organic search. This can show you whether they are paying to further boost keywords that they already rank first for or whether they put their efforts elsewhere. After you see what your competitors are doing, it can help you decide what strategy might be the best for you.
How Much Does It Cost to Do PPC in Your Area?
If you are planning your digital marketing campaign, you should always have a good idea of what is happening in the broader market. If you are a business that works nationally or even over a broad area, it’s a good idea to understand the success of PPC strategies in each area. Depending on where you are in the country, people might search for different things or even call your product something slightly different. We can use tools to show the CPC in different states and regions to give you insight into how your content might perform.
What Keywords Are Your Competitors Using?
Even if you do an exceptional job researching your keywords as part of your PPC strategies, you still might overlook a keyword with tremendous value for your industry. Looking at the broader landscape to see what your competitors are doing can help here. What keywords do they utilize as part of their PPC strategies? What terms are they bidding on the most? Doing this research can also help you understand the cost-efficiency of different keywords for both paid and organic search. When you enrich your keyword list with great keywords that your competitors are also using, you can increase your chances of a great search engine ranking and outshining your competition in search results.
Do Keywords Change During the Year?
One of the things that many businesses don’t consider when planning their PPC strategies is seasonality. Some keywords might be used more often during particular months or not at all during others. That’s because consumers are looking for different things during different times of the year. It’s also because some other advertisers might make bidding for a certain keyword financially challenging during the peak sales season. We can show you how to see data on past ads from brands in your industry to see how the keywords perform during different months of the year. It can also show you how keywords change over time. For example, landscaping services might push “spring clean-up services” during the spring months and not at all from May through January. They might shift their business entirely to something like “snow removal services” from November through March. Knowing what your competitors are doing can really help.
What Do the Ads Say?
Ad copy is a key component of getting clicks and conversions. Working with a professional digital marketing company like Gauge Digital Media is one way to get great copy that really works for your ads. It’s also a good idea to see what your competition is saying. You should never copy and paste their content or use it without alteration. However, there is nothing wrong with using their work as inspiration for your own. The things that work well for them might also work wonderfully for you.
Where Are They Advertising?
Finally, to round out your PPC strategies, it’s a great idea to see what devices the campaigns of your competitors are appealing to. Many people prefer multi-platform usage, as they move between their laptop, desktop and mobile phone over the course of the day. The keywords that work well on desktop are not always the same ones that work well on mobile, when someone could be on the go when searching. How do your competitors adjust for this difference? Many industries can be vastly different breakdowns of device types depending on what they are selling and who they are marketing to. Desktop is king for some industries like software or even B2B advertising. On the other hand, something like a mobile game might heavily target phone users or iPad users. Taking a peek at your competition and the devices that they are targeting can also give you ideas on what to do for your campaigns. How can you adjust your campaigns to target different devices? What devices are members of your target audience most likely to be using?
We Are Here to Help Grow Your Business Online and Through Google Search
Working with a professional digital marketing company is the best way to make the most of your website and all that Facebook Pixel, LinkedIn ads, Google Analytics and other digital advertising platforms have to offer. To learn more about the best digital marketing strategies for your company and reach a bigger audience than ever before, work with Gauge Digital Media. For a quote or to schedule a call, contact us at (443) 201-7709.
