Identifying your competitors using Google search results

Advertisers considering PPC ads need to understand which similar websites and businesses are already using AdWords, and also how they are positioning themselves in the online search market. This competitive information can be used to research keywords, which the competition is taking advantage of and identify our own unique advantages.

Getting ready

You likely already have a list of businesses that you consider your key competitors in a particular market. However, they may not all be advertising on AdWords. Armed with a list of websites you consider your competition, you can begin researching their online ad presence.

How to do it...

Start with a search on Google using terms that you consider your main keywords or ways that customers look for your products or services. In the following example, we searched Google for PPC ads to figure out which websites are coming up in both organic and paid listings.

Organic, or natural listings, are on the left below the search query, while the paid ads are to the right and potentially above the organic listings.

Take note of paid ads coming up for your key searches, including how many ads are appearing. Scroll to the next page of search results to see additional pages and websites that come up after the first page of Google's search results. The more ads there are, the greater the competition and the more saturated the market is for those keywords.

The paid ads that we see may not be the same businesses we identified as our competition prior to doing the search. Our competitors may not be advertising with AdWords or our search query may not be triggering their ads at the time of our research. You may also find new businesses that you were not previously aware of that you will be competing against.

It's also possible that your keywords are applicable to different industries and areas of focus. In any case, the ads that consistently come up for your most important keywords in your target locations will be your competition in the online ad auction, and you'll need to better understand their strategies to make your own campaigns successful.

There's more...

Perform the Google search, as previously explained, multiple times a day and on different days. Each auction is in real time and we'll likely see different results every time we search on Google. Your competitors' ads may or may not show when we perform a search based on their campaign settings, including during what days and times of the day they have set their campaigns to show, or what locations they have chosen to target via their campaigns.

See also

• The Using third-party tools to research competitors recipe