Google Ads Competitor Analysis for eCommerce Success (Easy Guide)

In the competitive online landscape, any eCommerce store’s business relies heavily on digital marketing strategies to reach potential customers and drive sales. If you have a WooCommerce shop, the platform or advertising channel you will use to promote your products will depend mostly on your niche, location, and market trends.

However, there’s one channel you cannot simply ignore. It’s Google Ads or Google Shopping Ads. 49% of online users come to Google first before buying a product, and Google displays your ads practically everywhere online.

By strategically utilizing Google Ads, you can increase your visibility, attract qualified traffic, and ultimately boost your bottom line.

One of the most effective ways to optimize your Google Ads campaigns is through thorough competitor analysis. By studying your competitors’ strategies and tactics, you can gain valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t in your industry.

Today, we will talk about how to perform Google Ads competitor analysis in detail and discuss different tools for the task.

Let’s dive in.

Benefits of Google Ads Competitor Analysis for Shopping Ads

Google Ads competitor insights and strategies can help you identify opportunities, improve your targeting, and ultimately outshine your rivals. In addition, competitor analysis is equally beneficial for Google Shopping ads as well.

Google Shopping Ads are product ads specifically made for eCommerce and brick-and-mortar stores that sell physical products. Unlike traditional keyword-based campaigns, Shopping Ad campaigns showcase your products directly in search results and contain images, ratings, and prices.

This visual format can significantly increase click-through rates and conversions. However, to truly maximize the potential of Google Shopping Ads, it’s essential to understand how your competitors are using this powerful tool.

By analyzing their strategies, you can unveil opportunities to refine your own campaigns, improve your targeting, and ultimately achieve greater success.

Let’s dig deep to find out the key benefits of Google Ads competitor analysis:

1. Identify Product Gaps & Opportunities

• Understand Competitor Offerings: By analyzing what products your competitors are offering, you can identify gaps in their product lines or areas where they may be underperforming.
• Discover New Market Segments: Identify new product categories or variations that your competitors are targeting. This can help you expand your own product range and tap into new market segments.
• Leverage Competitor Strengths: Analyze the products that are performing well for your competitors. Identify the factors contributing to their success, such as product features, pricing, or branding, and consider incorporating similar elements into your own offerings.

2. Uncover High-Performing Keywords

• Analyze Ad Copy: Google Shopping Ads don’t directly use keywords. However, everyone places keywords in their product content, right? The product feed you submit to run shopping campaigns contains these keywords, and your competitors follow the same method. Therefore, you can still analyze what keywords your competitors are using. The keywords used in product titles and descriptions can provide valuable insights. Here’s a complete walkthrough of Google Shopping WooCommerce integration for better understanding.
• Identify Relevant Keywords: By analyzing the keywords used by your competitors, you can identify relevant search terms that might be driving traffic to their ads.
• Optimize Your Product Information: Incorporate these relevant keywords into your own product titles and descriptions to improve your chances of appearing in relevant search results.

3. Benchmark Performance

• Gauge Average Bids: Understand the average bids your competitors are using for their Shopping Ads. This can help you set competitive bids for your own campaigns.
• Analyze Ad Formats: Observe the different ad formats your competitors are using, such as carousel ads or image ads. Identify which formats are most effective and consider incorporating them into your own campaigns.
• Evaluate Targeting Strategies: Analyze the targeting strategies your competitors are employing. This can include demographic targeting, location targeting, or interest targeting. Identify effective strategies that you can apply to your own campaigns.

4. Discover Creative Inspiration

• Analyze Ad Visuals: Examine the visual elements of your competitors’ Shopping Ads. Pay attention to the images they use, the design styles, and the overall aesthetic.
• Analyze Ad Messaging: Analyze the messaging used in your competitors’ ads. Consider the tone of voice, the key benefits highlighted, and the overall persuasive elements.
• Create Compelling Ads: Use these insights to create more visually appealing and persuasive ads for your own products.

5. Improve Targeting Efficiency

• Learn from Successful Strategies: Identify the targeting strategies that are working well for your competitors.
• Refine Your Targeting: Use this information to refine your own targeting settings and reach a more relevant audience.
• Maximize ROI: By targeting the right audience, you can improve your click-through rates and conversion rates, ultimately increasing your return on investment.

How to Perform Google Ads Competitor Analysis

Steps for effective Google Ads competitor analysis involve using different tools, both free and paid, built-in and third-party. Google offers a range of tools to monitor and analyze your competitors.

We’ll break down the analysis methods into two categories:

1. Google Ads Competitor Analysis Using Google Tools
2. Google Ads Competitor Analysis Using Third-Party Tools

Let’s get into the details.

Google Ads Competitor Analysis Using Google Tools

Google offers a wide variety of tools to perform Google Ads competitor analysis for B2B eCommerce. We will start with the Keyword Planner tool.

Google Ads Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner is still handy for researching keywords for your website or online store. It is a valuable tool for understanding keyword search volume, competition, and related terms.

Along with keyword research, this tool is also helpful in discovering your competitors’ keywords. You can use this tool as part of your Google Ads competitor keyword analysis techniques.

To access Keyword Planner, log into your Google Ads account. Navigate to Tools >> Planning >> Keyword Planner.

The “Get search volume and forecasts” option lets you find out the search volume, competition, and how much it will cost for you to display your product ads at the top of the search engine result page (SERP), etc.

For example, let’s say you sell t-shirts; input the word in the box and hit the button.

You can also set your target location to find out how many people search with this term in your target area every month. The competition column tells you how competitive this keyword is.

In simple words, High competition and high bid range mean many competitors are bidding on and investing in the same keyword.

Hot tip: Always aim for low-competition keywords with higher monthly searches.

Google Ads Competitor Analysis Through Discover New Keywords

The “Discover new keywords” option directly serves as one of the free tools for competitor analysis in Google Ads. This feature allows you to input your competitor’s website address to find out which keywords they are using on their website.

For example, enter a keyword and your competitor’s website URL.

It will return the focus keyword’s search volume and other data. Along with that, it will also display what other keywords your competitor is using on its website, including search volume, competition, etc.

You can find useful keywords here and apply them to your ads, content and product feed as well.

To directly acquire the list of keywords your competitors are using on their website, use the “Start With a Website” option.

It will return the full list of keywords your competitor is using. You can download the list as a CSV file to analyze it better.

In addition, you can also select and add keywords in the negative keywords list for your Google Shopping Ad campaigns. Select the ones you want to ignore and add to the list.

Negative keywords serves as filters in your shopping campaign. This means you don’t want your product ads to appear when people search for those keywords/search terms.

Auction Insights for Competitive Analysis in Google Ads to Improve ROI

We have covered auction insights in our article –

• Google Shopping Ads Tracking for Monitoring Performance

This tool specifically benefits you if you are already running a Google Shopping campaign.

Google Ads’ Auction Insights report provides a valuable way to monitor your ad performance in comparison to competitors. While you can’t directly see how much a competitor is spending or what specific keywords they’re bidding on, the Auction Insights report offers key metrics to analyze their strategy. Let’s break down how this report can help you in competitive analysis.

Key Metrics for Competitor Analysis

• Impression Share
  Impression share shows how often your ads are displayed compared to how often they were eligible to appear. This is a crucial metric for understanding how visible your ads are in comparison to competitors.
  • What it reveals: If your impression share is low compared to competitors, it could mean they’re outbidding you or running more ads. An impression share between 60-70% is generally good, but a highly competitive field can make it harder to achieve a higher percentage. Monitoring changes in impression share over time can help you identify shifts in competitor strategies or increases in competition.
• Overlap Rate
  Overlap rate tells you how frequently your ads appear alongside a competitor’s ads in the same auctions.
  • What it reveals: A high overlap rate means you’re consistently competing for the same audience with specific competitors. This metric can help you identify who your true competitors are in a given keyword space and how aggressive they are in terms of visibility.
• Outranking Share
  Outranking share shows how often your ad ranks higher than a competitor’s or appears when their ad doesn’t.
  • What it reveals: If a competitor consistently outranks you, it could mean their bids are higher, their ad quality is better, or their targeting is more precise. Monitoring outranking share helps you assess whether changes in performance are due to more aggressive bidding or other strategic adjustments from competitors.

Strategic Insights from Auction Data

• Adjusting to Competitor Activity
  By tracking changes in impression share and other auction metrics, you can gauge shifts in competitor activity. For example, if a competitor’s impression share suddenly increases, it may indicate they’re increasing their budget or focusing more on specific keywords. This can lead to higher cost-per-click (CPC) rates, which impacts your own budget strategy.
• Budget and Bid Optimization
  The Auction Insights report can show when you’re losing impression share due to budget or ranking limitations. If you’re losing impression share because of budget, competitors are likely outbidding you. Conversely, if you’re losing due to rank, their ads may have higher quality scores or better relevance. These insights can help you fine-tune your bids or adjust your budget allocation.
• Focusing on Relevant Competitors
  Not all competitors in the Auction Insights report will be direct threats. Large brands like Amazon may appear in the report because they’re bidding on related keywords, but smaller brands may be more relevant competition. Focus on competitors whose products and services overlap more directly with yours rather than broad, big-box competitors.

The Bigger Picture

• Understanding CPC Increases
  If you notice a significant rise in competitors’ impression shares, it may explain increases in your own CPC. As competition becomes more intense, bids generally increase, so tracking these changes helps you anticipate budget shifts and prepare accordingly.
• Niche vs. Big Competitors
  Don’t be distracted by large, multi-product companies if they don’t directly compete with you. Smaller, niche competitors may be more relevant to monitor since they focus on the same specific consumer goods or services that you do.

By regularly analyzing Auction Insights, you can gain a clearer picture of who your competitors are, how they’re bidding, and where your ads stand in the competitive landscape. This helps you make smarter decisions about your own Google Ads strategy.

Google Merchant Center for Google Ads Competitor Analysis

If you have an eCommerce/WooCommerce store, Google Merchant Center is the platform you need to play with. Google Merchant Center (GMC) can distribute your products across the internet and significantly increase your reach, reputation, and conversions.

All you need to do is upload a Merchant Center product feed to the platform. You must also connect the GMC feed to Google Ads to create and run Google Shopping ads.

As we mentioned earlier, Google Shopping ads are generated automatically from the product feed. Therefore, all your optimization, visual and textual content, and keyword placement go inside this feed file.

Along with feed upload and product management, Google Merchant Center, particularly the enhanced features in Google Merchant Center Next, offers tools that allow you to analyze how your products stack up against competitors. This information can give you the insights needed to adjust your Google Ads strategy for better performance.

Below is how Google Merchant Center helps in competitor analysis:

Competitor Overlap Analysis

The Competitors under Analytics >> Products in Google Merchant Center Next provides a clear view of how your product ads are performing in relation to your competitors. This section allows you to:

• Identify Overlap: See the percentage of times your ads appear alongside competitor ads.
• Discover New Competitors: Find out about businesses you didn’t know were competing in your space.
• Category Leaders: Identify which competitors are most visible in your product categories. This data can reveal whether the brands you think are competitors are truly dominating the market.

These insights help you understand the competitive landscape and see where you can improve your ad visibility.

Price Comparison Insights

As you know, pricing is a key factor in your eCommerce success. The Pricing tab in Products Analytics compares your product prices with competitors’. Here’s how it helps with competitor analysis:

• Spot Pricing Discrepancies: See how your prices compare to the average market price. If your price is significantly higher or lower, it might affect your ability to convert customers.
• Pricing Strategy Adjustments: If you discover that your products are priced much higher than competitors, you can decide to adjust pricing or highlight your unique selling points in your ads.

To find out if your prices are more expensive than those of your competitors, click the following link.

The chart displays your product prices compared to your competitor’s prices and the price gap percentage. From this data you can better understand and adjust your pricing strategies as well as ad spend.

• Low-Price Advantage: If you have competitive pricing, this report suggests which products might benefit from increased ad spend.

To find out how cheap your products are compared to those of your competitors, click the following link.

From the chart, you can figure out opportunities on which product ads you should spend more on and can result in better CTR and conversions.

Popular Products Report

The Popular Products in Google Merchant Center Next Analytics shows which products are trending on Google Shopping. This helps you:

• Spot Market Trends: Identify which products are popular among your competitors.
• Focus on High-Demand Products: Adjust your ad strategy to prioritize products that are performing well in the marketplace.
• Brand Insights: If you sell products from multiple brands, you can see which ones are trending and focus your Google Ads campaigns on those high-performers.

This data ensures you’re promoting the right products at the right time to compete effectively.

Google Ads Competitor Analysis Using Third-Party Tools

Now, we will discuss some of the best tools for Google Ads competitor analysis, which are third-party, paid tools that provide greater insights about your competitors.

1. SEMrush PPC Toolkit

SEMrush is one of the most popular tools for digital marketers, offering a robust PPC toolkit. Here’s how it can help you in competitor analysis:

• Advertising Research: Uncover the keywords your competitors are bidding on, along with estimated traffic, ad positions, and ad copy.
• Market Analysis: Get insights into your competitors’ top-performing ads, traffic trends, and overall positioning in the market.
• Keyword Magic Tool: Identify high-traffic keywords and assess competition levels for more effective bidding strategies.

SEMrush offers a comprehensive overview of competitor ad strategies, allowing you to spot gaps in the market and refine your Google Ads approach.

2. Ahrefs Site Explorer

Ahrefs is primarily known for its SEO capabilities, but it’s also a powerful tool for paid search analysis. With the “Site Explorer” feature, you can analyze your competitors’ PPC efforts:

• Paid Keywords: See which keywords are driving paid traffic to your competitors’ sites.
• Ad Performance: Evaluate the top ads your competitors are running and their performance over time.
• Top Pages: Understand which pages on your competitors’ websites are generating the most paid search traffic.

While Ahrefs is often used for organic search, it provides deep insights into the paid side of things as well, helping you uncover opportunities in Google Ads.

3. SpyFu PPC Research

As its name suggests, SpyFu specializes in spying on competitors’ PPC strategies. Here’s what it offers:

• Competitor Ad Data: See your competitors’ ad history, top-performing ads, and which keywords they are targeting.
• Budget Insights: Get an idea of how much your competitors are spending on their Google Ads campaigns.
• Keyword Overlap: Discover shared keywords between your campaign and your competitors’, helping you identify potential missed opportunities.

SpyFu gives you detailed insights into competitors’ ad spend, ad copy, and keyword targeting to help you stay ahead.

4. iSpionage

iSpionage is another valuable tool for Google Ads competitor analysis. It provides:

• Keyword Monitoring: Track the keywords your competitors are bidding on and see how their campaigns are performing.
• Ad Copy Analysis: Review your competitors’ ad copy to identify trends and messaging strategies.
• Campaign Performance: Evaluate the effectiveness of your competitors’ Google Ads campaigns by analyzing their CTR (Click-Through Rate) and ad positions.

iSpionage focuses on uncovering competitor bidding strategies and ad performance, allowing you to fine-tune your own campaigns.

5. AdBeat

This tool focuses on competitor display advertising but also offers insights into Google Ads:

• Ad Creative Analysis: See the top-performing creatives your competitors are using in their campaigns.
• Competitor Trends: Understand trends in ad spend, placements, and targeting.
• Top Networks: Identify the networks where your competitors’ ads are performing best, including Google Ads.

AdBeat is especially useful if you want to dig deeper into display ads while also keeping track of your competitors’ Google Ads strategies.

Wrap up

Along with utilizing all the tools mentioned above, you can also use the old and classic yet proven technique of studying SERP and YouTube ads to identify your competitors. Simply search with the common keywords your customers might use to discover similar products to yours, and SERP will do its job.

Pay attention to the ads, their content (title, descriptions, etc.), pricing, extensions, Google Shopping annotations, visuals, and keywords. This Google Ads competitor analysis can get you ahead of the advertisement game.

We hope this article will guide you in analyzing your competitors efficiently and using that data to make informed and effective decisions.