by 
Creating a shiny ad copy feels great. Isn’t it?
You have spend a lot of time researching your potential customers and their interests to create an ad copy that will hopefully perform well.
You feel great! (at least for a couple of hours).
But soon disappointment creeps in.
The analytics reveal your campaign is not generating leads and conversions.
Worse, your ad budget seems to be over soon.
You have read everything to create the best PPC campaign. What did you miss then?
Maybe tracking competitors Adwords?
Yes, it’s proven that in PPC marketing, competitor research can get you a high number of clicks and impressions. You can get all this with some excellent PPC tools.
Wondering how? Read below to know further.
Find what your Adwords competitors are doing
If you are new to the world of PPC marketing, competitors analysis would rarely come to your mind.
But don’t forget PPC marketing is a highly competitive landscape. Without spying your competitors’ campaign you can’t get ahead of them.
Competitor analysis is the process of identifying your competitors, assessing their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses to create an even better strategy for your campaign.
It is a very integral part of your PPC campaigns because your competitors can provide you with a plethora of information that will not only upgrade your PPC campaigns but will also increase sales and leads for you.
If you have just started with PPC marketing, competitor analysis optimizes your strategies and enhances your profitability.
A solid competitor analysis will give you answers for these following questions
- Who are your competitors?
- What products/services do they sell.
- The strategies of your competitors.
- Strengths and weaknesses of your competitors.
- The kind of threat that you have from your competitors.
You can collect information about your competitors and start developing your strategies accordingly.
This can be a big advantage to your campaign!
So aren’t you eager to know what your competitors are doing?
If yes, then read about top PPC spy tools that can help you to have a deeper insight into your competitor’s strategies.
1. iSpionage
iSpionage is an advanced and paid keyword research tool that allows keyword management and competitive analysis features.
A useful tool for those PPC marketers who are looking to get competitive intelligence data to optimize their PPC campaigns. It also lessens the time that is required to create campaigns especially when it comes to keyword research and launching of campaigns.
Also, it gives you an insight of the competitors’ keywords, ad copy, and budget. It basically provides a little bit of information for free and more information is available with a paid version.
What’s more?
Well, you can also find out how much competitors spend on Adwords! If you have used PPC before, you know how this can help your ad copy outsmart your competitor’s one.
Use the tool and check out your how much competitors spend on the ad copy. ( organic and paid both)
Plus, if you get an upgraded version, build new campaigns with the information you get.
The best use of iSpionage is that it has the ability to find out what your competitors are doing, giving you a high comparative advantage.
Here’s how to make the most of this tool:
- Find out your competitors’ most performing organic keyword, in Google and Bing.
- Know how much competitors’spend every month on the Adwords
- Check your competitors’ most successful ad copy
- Analyze the data in the graph and compare it with your ad copy
- Now create an even better ad copy, offers, and landing pages.
With this tool, you know why your competitor ad copy is getting more clicks than your ad copy. Great! You know where to work know.
Check out how much you need to spend to get all this information.
-
Basic:
Monthly Package= $29 per month. 6-Month Package= $24 per month.
-
Starter:
Month Package= $59 per month. 6-Month Package= $49 per month.
-
Professional:
Month Package= $99 per month. 6-Month Package= $74 per month.
-
Advanced:
Month Package= $299 per month. 6-Month Package= $149 per month.
Hand Picked Related Content:
The Beginner’s Guide to Using iSpionage Keyword Monitoring
2. SEMrush
SEMrush is another PPC tool that provides top information about your competitors.
It quickly allows you to find out your advertising competitors based on the keywords you plan to target.
It takes a different route to PPC strategies than iSpionage.
Within the free version of SEMrush, you can type in your competitor’s website and view their ad text, the average position of keywords, the percentage of total keywords and their competitors.
With the paid version, all these statistics are increased and you are entitled to get more data as compared to the free version.
The best use of SEMrush is that you can have a look at the top organic and paid competitors for a particular keyword in Google and Bing.
SEMrush also allows you to track information for your competitor’s Facebook and Bing accounts.
It has an easy-to-use graphical interface and can keep a track of your competitors.
Pricing for this tool is based on 3 modules:
-
Pro:
$99.95 per month.
-
Guru:
$199.95 per month.
-
Business:
$399.95 per month
Hand Picked Articles:
Learn How to Use SEMrush: New Quick Tips and Tutorial Videos
SEMrush in 2018: Greater Plans for Your Greater Success
3. Keyword Spy
With Keyword Spy, you can literally spy on the keywords of your competitors.
It allows you to discover the competitive perspective by showing your competitors’ PPC campaign strategy and exposing the most profitable keywords and ad copy that they use.
Keyword Spy gives you the access to your competitors’ PPC ads and all the metrics that come under it like the ad copy, keywords, search volume etc.
Keyword Spy uses a unique ROI indicator to see the value of the keywords.
It provides extensive data on competitors’ keywords and also offers detailed information for PPC associated marketers.
Keyword Spy has 3 different accounts i.e. research, tracking and professional.
Research
The research section extensively focuses on competitors and general market research. It’s recommended users are individual marketers and PPC researchers. It is used for researching competitor’s keywords and understanding their strategy. The pricing for this module is $89.95 per month.
Tracking
Tracking is a comparatively different process. Once you have collected the keywords using the research tools, you master the keywords that you are about to target. It’s recommended users are mid-level PPC companies and individual. It is used for tracking keywords. The pricing for this module is $89.95 per month.
Professional
This is a combo pack of the research and tracking modules. It also provides access to affiliate reports. It’s recommended users are multinational PPC companies. The pricing for this module is $139.95 per month.
Hand Picked Content:
How to Use Keyword Spy For Competitive Keyword Analysis
4. SpyFu
SpyFu is an industry leading competitive research tool with remarkable features.
It allows you to see every possible place where your competitor has shown up in Google.
SpyFu also includes all the keywords that they have brought and all the ad variations that they have used.
It works in the same manner as SEMrush when it comes to providing competitor’s data.
With the help of this tool, you can compare your campaigns with those of your competitors.
SpyFu helps you to discover the most profitable keywords that you were missing. It also helps you to eliminate nonperforming keywords that were wasting your budget by suggesting negative match suggestions.
The best use of SpyFu is that it reveals the most important and profitable keywords of competitors based on their advertising history. You can view actual ad copies that your competitors have been running.
Simply type the web address of the competitor and you will get to see the estimated budget, clicks, keywords, ad texts and ad position.
The pricing for SpyFu is based on 3 modules:
-
Basic:
Annual Package= $44 per month. Monthly Package= $49 per month.
-
Professional:
Annual Package= $74 per month. Monthly Package= $99 per month.
-
Team:
Annual Package= $199 per month. Monthly Package= $299 per month.
Hand Picked Content:
Using The SPYFU Keyword Competition Tool To Get Ahead In Your Business
How Spyfu Can Inform Your Content Marketing Strategy in 2018
5. Adbeat
AdBeat is another PPC spy tool.
It allows you to browse the top ads and ads by format like text, flash, videos etc.
Adbeat also lets you discover the competitor strategy and spy on the ad copy with split testing.
With Adbeat, you can uncover your competitor’s online strategy and see what works in favor of them.
It allows you to instantly reveal any of your competitor’s best ad copies, landing pages, and overall PPC strategy.
You can also see the number of days an ad was live and also the exact dates when the ad was first and last seen.
The pricing for Adbeat is based on 3 modules:
-
Standard:
$249 per month.
-
Advanced:
$399 per month.
-
Enterprise:
You need to contact Adbeat to get the demo.
6. WhatRunsWhere
WhatRunsWhere is another PPC spy tool that allows you to see your competitor’s advertising strategy in Google AdWords.
It includes tracking of text, display, banner and mobile ads.
The best use of WhatRunsWhere is that you can see your competitors’ entire PPC strategy. See where you can improve and what changes do you need to bring in your strategies to work.
You can find where your competitors are running their ads, which ad copies are they using, for how long their campaigns have been running etc.
The pricing for WhatRunsWhere is based on 3 modules:
-
Desktop Awareness:
$299 per month
-
Desktop+Mobile:
$399 per month
-
Enterprise:
You need to contact WhatRunsWhere to get the demo.
7. The Search Monitor
The Search Monitor is an accurate Ad intelligence tool for the competitors at the enterprise level.
It allows you to have full visibility into the PPC strategies and techniques of your competitors.
The best use of The Search Monitor is that it tracks ad rank, ad copy, targeted keywords, click rates, Cost per Click, monthly ad spend, and other PPC metrics.
The Pricing for The Search Monitor starts at $499 per month.
8. Adgooroo
Adgooroo allows you access knowledge about your competitors’ PPC strategies including the keywords, ad copy, landing pages, ad spend, impressions, clicks and much more.
It goes into an in-depth analysis of your ad copy and the landing page along with the ad copy and landing page of your competitors.
With Adgooroo, you can access the PPC strategies of your competitors on the desktop as well as mobile.
It offers a complete picture of PPC marketing landscape.
It enables you to view current and historical data that includes the ad spend, statistics, keywords, ad copy in comparison with any of your competitor across desktop, tablet, and mobile search.
The pricing for this tool is not listed on the website as yet.
Final Thoughts
In order to make your PPC campaigns effective enough, give relative importance to your PPC competitors as well.
Doing a competitor analysis is a step towards building an effective and efficient PPC strategies to gain a better understanding of what makes your campaigns unique.
Competitor analysis always begins with identifying present and potential customers.
Ensure that you analyze your competitors along various dimensions like keywords, ad copy, landing page, budget, strategies, strengths, and weaknesses.
Do not lose sight of your overall PPC objectives while focussing on competitor analysis.
However, competitor analysis is just a part of your PPC campaigns and not the sole reason to make your PPC campaigns efficient.