How To Use PPC Competitor Analysis To Identify Opportunities

Success in ecommerce isn’t just about having the best products or the biggest budget; it’s about knowing your competition and using that knowledge to your advantage. In a crowded digital marketplace, understanding what your rivals are doing can help you spot opportunities, avoid costly mistakes, and reach your audience more effectively.

That’s where PPC competitor analysis comes in. By analyzing your competitors’ paid search strategies, you can uncover insights into their keywords, ad copy, budget allocation, and performance. Armed with this information, you can make smarter decisions and build PPC campaigns that stand out and drive results.

What is PPC competitor analysis?

A PPC competitor analysis is a report on another business’s pay-per-click (PPC) advertising activity. It includes information on ad strategies and performance. Assembling an analysis involves researching keyword strategy, studying creative direction, and analyzing competitor advertising tactics. 

In a competitive digital landscape, ecommerce businesses are often fighting for the same customers with the same basic marketing tools. PPC advertising is a popular digital model in which businesses pay only when users click on an advertisement. Paid search advertisements—the promoted links that appear at the top of search engine results pages—are a common form of PPC ad.

Why conduct a PPC competitor analysis?

Conducting a PPC competitor analysis can reveal useful information about your competitors’ paid advertising strategies. You can’t access their specific campaign analytics, but PPC tools, advertising platforms, and ad libraries provide general information about their advertising activity. These are some of the details you can gather from a PPC competitor analysis:

• Ad spend. PPC competitor analysis tools can estimate how much competitors spend on advertising.

• Target keywords. Discover the keywords your competitors use to serve targeted ads.

• Placement strategy. Review where your competitors run PPC campaigns. Example placements include search results, social media, and display ads. 

• Ad messaging. Ad libraries make it easier to review competitor ad copy by assembling advertisements in one place. Studying messaging can help you understand how competitors are positioning their products. 

• Landing pages. Discover where your competitors direct their ad traffic. PPC competitor analysis tools display the links connected to specific ads. 

Once you understand what your competitors are up to, your team can look for market gaps—advertising opportunities that your competitors overlooked—and brainstorm ways to make your product stand out.

PPC competitor analysis tools

• Google Ads auctions insights
• Google Ads Transparency Center
• Meta Ad Library
• Third-party software platforms

Advertising platforms like Google and Meta offer several native analytics tools for researching keyword strategy and reviewing ad content. Third-party software platforms can also help reveal additional information about ad performance. Here’s how some of these common tools for researching competitor PPC advertising strategies can set you up for success:

Google Ads auction insights 

Google Ads auction insights is free for businesses that advertise on Google. With this tool, account owners can compare their own ads to other advertisers competing in the same auctions—the bidding process that determines PPC ad placement. Ad auction insights provide information about how you rank compared to competitors, the share of impressions your advertisements receive, and how much your keyword strategy overlaps. 

Google Ads Transparency Center

The Google Ads Transparency Center is a searchable database of active advertisements on Google-owned advertising channels, including YouTube, paid search, and display ads. Anyone can use this free, public tool to view all of a company’s current advertisements. 

Search for a competitor by name or website to view their advertising records. Google Ads Transparency records include an image of the ad, the most recent display date, and any geographic targeting information. The image feature makes this tool especially useful for researching creative assets—it’s an easy way to review your competitors’ ad photography and copy.

Meta Ad Library 

The Meta Ad Library is similar to the Google Ads Transparency Center. It’s a free, searchable database of active advertisements on Meta-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Users can search by brand name or keyword to review Meta’s ad records.

A Meta Ad Library query will return every active ad that includes your search terms and may display listings from multiple advertisers. If you search for a specific soda brand, for example, results could include that company’s advertisements, sponsored influencer posts, and any marketplace posts that reference the brand by name. Users can apply a filter to sort results by advertiser and focus on a specific competitor. Ad records include an image, a list of the display platforms, and information about how long the ad has been running. 

Third-party software platforms

Third-party tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and Spyfu can provide detailed information about competitor PPC strategies. These platforms include paid search analysis tools ideal for identifying keywords competitors are targeting. In addition to keyword research, a dedicated PPC competitor analysis tool can return information about search traffic associated with each keyword, average ad positioning, and estimated ad spend.

How to conduct a PPC competitor analysis

1. Make a list of your competitors
2. Assess active channels and strategies
3. Research competitor keywords
4. Review creative assets
5. Gather ad performance data
6. Synthesize and analyze

A competitive PPC analysis reveals where your rivals are winning and how they’re achieving success. Learn how to conduct PPC competitor research and translate your findings into actionable insights to boost your own strategy:

1. Make a list of your competitors 

Start by identifying the competition. You may already be aware of other businesses offering a similar product, also known as your direct competitors. Monitoring these companies is important, but conducting a comprehensive competitive analysis requires considering indirect PPC competitors as well. Indirect competitors don’t sell a similar product, but might target some of the same keywords as your brand—you’re primarily competing for attention. 

How do you find these other competitors? Use a tool like Google Ads auction insights to round out your list. Search for your primary target keywords to discover other companies bidding on the same terms. 

2. Assess active channels and strategies

Gather basic information about your competitors’ PPC campaigns. Research their active channels (search engines, social media platforms, display ads), most widely used ad formats (search, display, video), and targeting strategies. Consider using a tool like Ahrefs to review competitors’ landing pages—this can help reveal the intent (conversion, lead generation, website traffic) behind the ad.

3. Research competitor keywords

Use a paid search competitor analysis tool like Semrush or Ahrefs to analyze competitors’ keywords. Identify keywords driving the most traffic to a competitor’s domain. 

In Semrush, for example, you’d enter the competitor’s URL into the search bar, then navigate to the “Paid Search” or “Advertising Research” section. There, you’ll see a list of the highest-performing keywords sorted by metrics like traffic volume, estimated cost per click (CPC), ad position, and the percentage of traffic each keyword drives to their site. From there, you can filter by search volume, keyword difficulty, and intent to narrow down the most valuable opportunities. 

In Ahrefs, a similar process applies: Enter the competitor’s domain, go to the Paid Keywords report, and analyze their top-ranking ads and the queries driving the most clicks. These insights will give you a data-backed starting point for selecting which keywords to prioritize in your PPC campaigns.

Take note of both search volume and estimated cost per click—these are indicators of keyword competition. Compare the top performers to your own keyword list to look for missed opportunities. 

4. Review creative assets

Use a database like Google Ads Transparency Center or Meta Ad Library to analyze competitor ads. These platforms display ads as a consumer would see them—reviewing content in this format can help you understand your competitor’s public-facing image. Take note of key components like the headline, imagery, and product description or tagline in each ad. Look for broad themes that hint at the company’s positioning strategy and take note of any highlighted promotional messaging, like product discounts or free shipping.

5. Gather ad performance data

Use a dedicated research tool like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Spyfu to get a sense of how competitor ads are performing. Metrics like click-through rate, impression share, cost per click, and overall traffic volume can indicate ad success. Identify top-performing ads and look for themes, as these may indicate winning strategies or reveal customer desires. Consider using competitor ad performance to determine benchmarks and goals for your own advertisements. 

6. Synthesize and analyze 

Gather the information pulled from different platforms together into a report. PPC competitor data can help your team identify patterns. Look for recurring tactics and compare competitors’ strategies to your own online marketing efforts. Search for opportunities to differentiate your company, like adjusting your brand positioning, and gaps your competitors may have overlooked, like targeting an overlooked demographic.