A Google Ads competitor study involves monitoring and evaluating the advertizing campaigns of competing businesses successful your industry. The extremity is to study astir their strategies and get ideas for your ain campaigns.
Throughout this article, we'll attraction connected Google Search ads, Google Shopping ads, and ads connected websites that partner pinch Google done the Display Network.
Whether you're moving your first study aliases looking to move a one-time workout into a repeatable system, this guideline covers some the step-by-step workflows and the model to link them.
Why you request to create a competitor intelligence framework
Most advertisers tally a Google Ads competitor study once, enactment connected it, and move on. But the ones who consistently outperform their marketplace dainty it arsenic a repeating, ongoing system.
A competitor intelligence model is that system. It defines 3 things:
- What to monitor: Inputs specified arsenic keywords, advertisement copy, landing pages, spend, caller competitors, etc.
- How often to cheque it: A accordant cadence for illustration weekly, monthly, aliases quarterly, depending connected what's being tracked
- How findings provender backmost into run decisions: Performance outputs and study that lead to action
The step-by-step workflows beneath are building blocks you tin usage to create your ain competitor intelligence framework.
If you're caller to competitory research, travel them to tally your first afloat analysis. If you've done a competitor ads study before, the extremity is to move those steps into a accordant cadence that provides a clear way from penetration to run action.
Why should you execute a Google Ads competitor analysis?
You should execute a Google Ads competitor study because studying your competitors' Google Ads campaigns helps you find ways to boost your campaigns’ performance.
For example, you mightiness observe competitors are bidding connected keywords that you're not targeting utilizing Semrush’s Keyword Gap tool.
You tin adhd those position to your campaigns to seizure imaginable customers you mightiness person missed. And moreover person them to take you complete a competitor.
Analyzing your competitors’ Google Ads besides lets you:
- Learn what useful and what doesn’t successful their ads to debar making akin mistakes
- Compare really overmuch they walk connected ads to thief scheme your advertizing budget
- Keep up pinch changes successful advertizing trends that competitors are using
- Identify seasonal advertizing opportunities you mightiness beryllium missing retired on
How to execute a Google Ads competitor analysis
Follow these steps to analyse your competitors’ Google Ads (we’ll beryllium focusing connected hunt ads successful the steps below):
1. Identify your Google Ads competitors
The first measurement is figuring retired which businesses are your apical Google Ads competitors by considering the pursuing competitor types:
- Direct competitors: Businesses trading the aforesaid merchandise aliases work to the aforesaid audience. They usually target the nonstop aforesaid bottom-of-funnel keywords you do.
- Indirect competitors: Businesses solving the aforesaid problem successful a different measurement (e.g., a task guidance instrumentality competing pinch a spreadsheet template site) person immoderate keyword overlap
- Niche competitors: Businesses targeting a circumstantial subset of your audience. They whitethorn not compete pinch you broadly, but they tin predominate high-value segments and screen each the aforesaid keywords successful those segments.
It's worthy identifying each three, but nonstop competitors merit the astir attraction erstwhile you're starting out.
New marketplace entrants are besides worthy paying attraction to, truthful you’re not blindsided by fast-growing competitors. These are the up-and-coming competitors who, complete time, commencement to target the aforesaid keywords you do. You’ll place these competitors much easy the much times you repetition this process.
To find which of your competitors are presently advertizing connected Google Search, participate your domain into Semrush’s Advertising Research instrumentality and click the “Competitors” tab.
If your business is reasonably caller and you don’t person capable information here, effort searching for 1 of the nonstop business competitors that you cognize already runs ads and targets the aforesaid keywords you would. Use their information arsenic a proxy to thief get you started pinch the process below.
If you’ve tally ads before, scroll down to the “Paid Competitors” array to spot which businesses are bidding connected the aforesaid keywords arsenic you. The array ranks competitors by keyword overlap and uses this to cipher a competition-level score.
The much keywords you share, the much straight they’re competing pinch you successful paid search.
These are the competitors you’ll analyse successful the steps below.
Usually, they’ll beryllium your nonstop business competitors. Even if they’re not, you’re still competing for advertisement clicks. So you shouldn’t disregard the threat they whitethorn pose.
To spot rising competitors, export the “Paid Competitors” array and repetition the export monthly aliases quarterly. Save each export arsenic a dated tab successful a azygous spreadsheet (e.g., "April 2026," "May 2026," etc.), truthful you tin way changes complete time.
Once you person astatine slightest 2 exports, you tin usage an LLM for illustration ChatGPT aliases Claude to aboveground patterns quickly:
- Copy the information from 2 aliases much exports into a azygous expanse and bespeak the day of each export
- Paste that information into the LLM pinch a punctual like: "Here are 2 snapshots of my Google Ads paid competitors from [Date 1] and [Date 2]. Which competitors person grown the astir successful keyword overlap betwixt these 2 periods? Rank them by maturation complaint and emblem immoderate caller entrants."
- Use the output to prioritize which competitors to attraction connected successful the steps below. Newer aliases faster-growing rivals merit other attention, since they whitethorn awesome a displacement successful really your marketplace is being targeted.
2. Find your competitors’ paid keywords
Next, you’ll want to analyse the keywords your competitors bid connected successful Google Ads to find applicable position to usage successful your ain campaigns.
There’s nary limit to really galore competitors you take to check. Start pinch caller marketplace entrants, nonstop business competitors, and those pinch precocious keyword overlap successful existing ads.
Go to the “Competitors” tab successful the Advertising Research tool. Click immoderate of the competitors’ URLs to spell to the “Positions” tab for their domain.
Then, look at:
- The competitor’s advertisement positions successful hunt results (the “Pos.” column)
- The mean number of searches each keyword gets each period (the “Volume” column)
- The mean cost per click (CPC) for those keywords, which is the mean magnitude advertisers are consenting to salary for a click connected their ads
- The estimated magnitude of postulation a fixed keyword drives to the specified competitor’s domain
Review the database of your competitor’s position to look for valuable keywords.
You’ll want to take keywords that align pinch your circumstantial run plans. And ones that person attributes like:
- Decently precocious hunt volumes: Indicates galore group hunt for it
- Specificity: Suggests position that are often little competitory but tin lead to higher conversion rates (called long-tail keywords)
- High traffic:Suggests the keyword is effective astatine driving postulation done ads
- Low CPC: Means a keyword is much affordable. What counts arsenic “low” for you will mostly dangle connected your fund and your industry.
You tin besides usage the Keyword Gap instrumentality to find keywords your competitors bid connected that you don't by entering your domain and up to 4 competitors’ domains. Make judge to group the drop-downs connected the correct broadside to “Paid keywords.”
Scroll down to the "All keyword specifications for:" section. And click the "Missing" tab to spot which keywords each of your competitors are ranking for but you’re not.
If you’ve entered much than 1 competitor, click the “Untapped” tab to spot keywords for which you person nary rankings but astatine slightest 1 competitor does.
Review these keywords you find via Keyword Gap against the aforesaid criteria arsenic before. Target those that are applicable to your business, person precocious hunt measurement and postulation potential, and (ideally) a debased CPC.
3. Review rivals’ advertisement copy
Analyzing your competitors' advertisement transcript shows really they effort to entreaty to imaginable customers.
When reviewing rivals’ advertisement copy, you tin spot the messaging, unsocial trading points, and calls to action (CTAs) they usage to thrust clicks. To do this, caput backmost to the Advertising Research tool, participate a competitor’s domain, and navigate to the "Ads Copies" tab to spot the nonstop transcript they use.
Click the arrow adjacent to "Keywords" connected immoderate of the cards to position each the keywords that trigger the ad. Along pinch circumstantial metrics for illustration mean monthly searches, estimated costs per click, and your competitor’s advertisement position for each keyword.
You tin usage this information to place moreover much keywords you mightiness want to target. And spot really your competitor incorporates them into their advertisement copy.
To analyse your competitor’s merchandise listing ads, spell to the PLA Research tool, participate a competitor’s domain, and caput to the “PLA Copies” tab to spot the specified competitor’s PLA ads.
You’ll spot a grid of merchandise listing ads, on pinch a keyword drop-down for each one. Clicking 1 of these shows much information astir the keywords that trigger that ad.
As you reappraisal your competitor's advertisement copy, salary attraction to:
- The cardinal benefits they highlight
- Emotional triggers and symptom points they mention
- Promotions for illustration discounts aliases free shipping
- Calls to action that create urgency
The extremity is to understand what motivates imaginable customers to click. And really your competitors are successfully gaining their attention.
Use these insights to create advertisement transcript that showcases your merchandise arsenic the perfect solution for the aforesaid needs.
4. Review corresponding landing pages
Your competitors' advertisement landing pages show you really they effort to person visitors to return action, and that tin thief you understand what motivates your shared audience.
You tin position these from the “Ads Copies” study successful Advertising Research if you want to return a person look astatine which landing pages the top-performing ads spell to.
If you want to get page-level metrics, cheque retired the "Pages" tab for each competitor you’re analyzing to spot apical landing pages associated pinch those competitors’ paid ads. Click the grey icon adjacent to an individual URL to position the page.
This is simply a bully starting constituent for identifying which pages competitors are sending the astir advertisement walk to. Review each of your competitors’ apical advertisement landing pages and look for:
- Layout and design: Look for simple, cleanable designs that thief visitors easy find what they need
- Headlines and copy: Check if the headlines see keywords while being attention-grabbing. And verify that the transcript is clear and benefit-driven.
- Calls to action: Note the clarity and prominence of CTAs, and really they usage action-oriented words to create urgency
- Social proof: Look for the beingness of testimonials, reviews, and spot badges that adhd credibility
- Page speed: Consider the wide responsiveness and loading velocity of the pages
Then, return it a measurement further by enigma shopping and pursuing the complete travel connected each landing page arsenic a existent visitant would. Fill retired the telephone to action arsenic acold arsenic you tin spell without spending money (unless your fund allows it).
Also, salary attraction to immoderate follow-up email series that gets triggered by going done the landing page journey. Doing this reveals their afloat conversion strategy. Meaning really they move a visitant from click to customer.
The extremity is to place elements that make your competitor's pages effective. You tin past accommodate those elements to your ain connection and offering to boost your conversion rate.
5. Estimate rivals’ advertisement expenses
Analyzing your competitors' Google Ads walk gives you an denotation of really overmuch advertizing costs to thief you group a realistic budget.
Note that third-party devices (including the ones below) don't person entree to your rivals’ existent Google Ads walk data. The figures you'll spot are estimates based connected keyword positions, hunt volumes, and mean CPCs.
To spot your competitor’s advertisement disbursal estimates, jump backmost into the Advertising Research instrumentality pinch a competitor’s domain entered and caput to the “Positions” tab.
First, look astatine the "Traffic Cost" information astatine the top. This is an estimate of really overmuch it would costs each period to look for the keywords that look successful the report.
You tin besides spot postulation costs stats for individual keywords successful the “Paid Search Positions” widget.
Check the “Costs” and “Costs %” columns to spot astir really overmuch the competitor invested successful each word complete the past month. And what percent of the full costs is attributed to individual keywords (higher percentages successful the “Cost %” file tin bespeak which keywords are astir valuable to that competitor).
If competitors are drastically outspending you connected applicable terms, you whitethorn request to allocate much of your fund to support visibility.
But don’t conscionable transcript a competitor’s estimated advertisement spend. Because existent costs alteration based connected factors for illustration advertisement relevance and targeting. And bigger budgets don't ever mean amended results.
Instead, usage the competitory insights astir your competitors’ advertisement walk arsenic a starting point. And fto them guideline your budgeting decisions on pinch your ain information connected which keywords output the champion results.
Tools to analyse competitors’ Google Ads
Here’s a speedy overview of immoderate bully options for performing a Google Ads competitor analysis:
Advertising Research
Semrush’s Advertising Research instrumentality shows which keywords your competitors bid connected successful Google Ads, the advertisement transcript they use, really overmuch they spend, and more.
Plus, you tin way rivals’ advertisement positions complete clip to gauge really their strategies evolve.
Keyword Gap
Semrush’s Keyword Gap shows you which keywords your competitors show for that you don’t and which keywords their ads look higher for than yours (if you usage the “Weak” tab).
PLA Research
PLA Research gives you an wrong look astatine your competitors' Google Shopping campaigns — besides known arsenic product listing ads (PLAs).
PLA Research shows which products an entered competitor advertises the most, really they value and beforehand items, and keywords that trigger their merchandise listing ads.
Google Search
Google Search provides a basal method for manually researching your competitors' ads by entering target keywords.
This manual attack useful for a quick, surface-level cheque that lets you measure headlines, descriptions, calls to action, offers, and ad assets. But you request specialized devices for a much elaborate competitory advertisement analysis.
Google Ads Auction Insights
The Auction Insights report is simply a Google Ads characteristic that shows really your ads execute compared to different advertisers participating successful the aforesaid auctions.
Auction Insights includes metrics like:
- Impression share: The percent of impressions you (or a competitor) received retired of the full you could person received
- Overlap rate: A measurement of really often that competitor’s ads showed astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic yours
- Top of page rate: How often your ads (or your competitors' ads) appeared astatine the apical of the page supra the integrated (unpaid) hunt results
But cognize that you’ll only spot information for keywords you’re already bidding on. And it’ll only show if your belief stock is astatine slightest 10% for the selected clip period.
Google Ads Transparency Center
Google’s Ads Transparency Center lets you position ads a circumstantial advertiser has tally crossed Google's network.
You tin besides spot the geographic regions wherever the ads were displayed. And erstwhile they were past shown. But it doesn't supply information connected keywords, bids, aliases performance.
How to analyse competitors moving Performance Max campaigns
Performance Max (PMax) campaigns coming a unsocial situation for competitory investigation because they’re keywordless, truthful location aren’t circumstantial hunt position that trigger a competitor's ad.
The champion instrumentality for PMax competitory investigation is the Google Ads Transparency Center. Search for a competitor's domain to spot the imaginative they're moving crossed Google's web — including search, display, YouTube, and more.
This won't show you which audiences aliases signals triggered the ads, but it does show you what messaging and imaginative they're investing in. Use that to understand their positioning and place immoderate offers aliases angles you're not presently testing.
How to move your Google Ads study into an ongoing intelligence system
The workflows successful this article are only arsenic valuable arsenic the consistency pinch which you tally them.
A one-time study gives you a snapshot. Running the aforesaid checks weekly, monthly, aliases quarterly gives you a image of really competitors move, what they test, and wherever they’re investing complete time.
Here's a elemental cadence to follow:
| Task | Frequency | Tool(s) |
| Check for shifts successful competitor keyword positions and caller entrants | Weekly | Auction Insights and Advertising Research |
| Monitor competitor walk changes | Weekly | Advertising Research |
| Surface caller paid keyword opportunities | Monthly | Keyword Gap |
| Review competitor advertisement imaginative updates | Monthly | Google Ads Transparency Center |
| Find caller keywords to target | Monthly | Keyword Gap |
| Check for caller competitors entering your auctions | Monthly | Advertising Research (the “Competitors” tab) |
| Review competitor landing pages for messaging and connection changes | Monthly | Manual review |
| Audit your antagonistic keyword lists against competitor keyword information to cheque for unintended conflicts | Quarterly | Google Ads Editor and Keyword Gap |
| Review competitor Shopping ads and PLA strategies | Quarterly | PLA Research |
The situation is that manually moving each of these steps crossed a ample customer aliases marque portfolio quickly becomes time-intensive. That’s wherever AI-assisted workflows tin help.
Tools for illustration the Semrush MCP tin propulsion competitor keyword information straight into an LLM, which you tin past usage to tally a Google Ads competitor study successful a fraction of the clip it would return manually.
For example, a elemental AI-assisted keyword spread study attack mightiness be:
- Use the Semrush MCP to propulsion competitor paid keywords, CPCs, and advertisement transcript patterns into your LLM
- Export your ain Google Ads information — keywords, negatives, and landing pages — and upload it alongside the competitor data
- Ask the LLM to comparison some lists: Which competitor keywords are you missing? Which are already covered? Which are blocked by your negatives?
- Have the LLM cleanable and prioritize the output by intent, CPC, and competitor awesome strength
- Pass the shortlist to a strategist for a last approve/reject/defer review
What mightiness return half a time manually tin beryllium compressed into thing reviewable successful astir an hour.
The circumstantial implementation will look different depending connected your AI tech stack, your clients, and really overmuch you want to automate.
But the underlying rule is worthy pursuing: Identify the steps successful your competitory investigation process that are excessively time-consuming to repetition regularly and look for ways to systematize them. The cadence is what turns study into a competitory advantage.
FAQs
What is the champion free instrumentality for Google Ads competitor analysis?
The Google Ads Auction Insights study is the strongest free action for Google Ads competitor study and shows really your ads stack up against competitors successful the aforesaid auctions, including belief share, overlap rate, and top-of-page rate.
The Google Ads Transparency Center is besides free and lets you position immoderate advertiser's progressive creatives.
You tin besides effort Semrush's Advertising Toolkit for free to get a broader position of competitor keywords and advertisement transcript beyond what Google's autochthonal devices surface.
All 3 person limitations, but together they screen capable crushed to tally a coagulated first analysis.
How tin I place caller keyword opportunities from competitor ads?
Use Semrush's Keyword Gap instrumentality and select by "Paid keywords" to find caller keyword opportunities.
The "Missing" tab shows keywords that each your competitors bid connected that you don't. The "Untapped" tab shows keywords that astatine slightest 1 competitor targets that you're missing.
How tin I measure competitor landing pages for PPC performance?
Use the “Pages” tab successful Semrush’s Advertising Research instrumentality to find which landing pages thrust the astir paid traffic.
Then measure the landing pages to spot whether they lucifer the corresponding ads, person salient and circumstantial CTAs, incorporated societal proof, and minimize friction.
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