The web is literally filled with one-size-fits-all ads for products and services. And which company is preferred by potential customers usually depends not on the quality of the products, but on the method of promotion and the approach to advertising development. Very often the one who managed to set up the context more effectively and creatively wins. And if you do not want to lag behind your competitors and set yourself the task to get ahead of them, then you just need to understand what queries they are promoting in context and what ads they use. How to collect this data – read below.
Why do competitor analysis at all
Competition in the Google and Yandex advertising networks is constantly increasing. And the goal of any marketer is to prepare an advertising offer that is more effective and better than the competition. That’s why you need to know and understand their promotion strategies in context.
What information a competitor context analysis will help you get:
- The products and services being promoted;
- ad formats;
- context settings;
- extensions used;
- approximate advertising costs;
- Effective calls to action;
- keywords used;
- and many other important data.
Once you have all this information, you can copy some working techniques, rework weaknesses in your ads, develop better headlines, calls to action and, as a result, get a high conversion rate.
Identifying your direct competitors in context
It makes sense that a list of competitors is the first thing you should have before you start your analysis. The most accessible (but time-consuming) method of collecting such data is to use search engine results. Instructions:
- Enter a keyword for your topic into the search bar. It is worth examining the “Keyword Planner” from Google and Yandex.Wordstat in advance.
- Separately study the output in both search engines (competitor sites will be displayed in the ad units).
- Look at the ads – they link to single-pages or use extensions (special additional features like images, links and other elements that make the ads more visible).
- Create a table, include links to competitors’ projects and the keys they use in contextual ads.
The best option is to check the output not only from your computer, but also from your smartphone and tablet.
In addition to extradition, you can analyze your competitor’s ads through the search engine’s ad network. For example, with the help of “Auction Statistics” (Google) or “Budget Forecast” (Yandex).
Once you have collected data on your main competitors (there may be dozens or hundreds of them – it all depends on the competitiveness of the niche) and put them in a table, you can move on to the analysis. To do this, you need to use special services.
Top 6 services for analyzing competitor context
Let’s look at 6 most popular and convenient platforms that help you quickly analyze your competitors. And not only in context, but also in terms of search engine optimization, errors on the site, the number of backlinks, etc.
SpyWords
A paid tool with extensive capabilities that allows you to use keywords to find your competitors and display such information on them:
- keys used;
- approximate budget;
- active contextual ads;
- positions in context and prominence;
- traffic volume.
SpyWords has a powerful “Domain Battle” tool that can be used to compare multiple sites in parallel and determine the most profitable keywords as well as the SEO methods used.
PromoPult
Russian platform for promoting web projects on the Internet. Here you will find both tools for new marketers and professionals. The site also has unique functions for site owners – for example, you can launch an automatic promotion of your resource.
To work with competitors’ contextual advertising on PromoPult the function “Words and competitors’ ads” is implemented. To work with it you need:
- To write a link to the site.
- Enter the minus-words (words for which the ad should not be promoted).
- Select a search engine.
After processing, the resulting report can be downloaded in Excel spreadsheet format. Functionality here is also paid, but you can use the free trial period.
Serpstat
Another powerful service for analyzing contextual advertising competitors. The site is international, but there is support for the Russian language. What features does Serpstat provide:
- Automatic detection of competitor sites;
- Determination of the positions of competitors in the search for specific keywords;
- Comparison of the visibility of the domains of the sites;
- other data regarding web project statistics.
Serpstat also “knows how” to analyze contextual advertising – it collects keys that competitors work with, analyzes the content of their ads and landing pages, and finds the top keys. In general, Serpstat allows you to get maximum information about your competitors’ contextual advertising campaign. The functionality is paid – you can choose from 4 available tariffs.
SimilarWeb
International platform without Russian language support. Shows generalized information about the site:
- traffic in recent years;
- GEO data;
- The interests of the project audience;
- sources of visitors;
- external links;
- user activity in social networks.
SimilarWeb has a built-in function to search for top pages in a particular niche. In terms of analyzing competitors by context – the site allows you to get information on a particular query:
- CPC (average click price);
- key frequency;
- the ratio of organic traffic to paid traffic;
- etc.
You can use the service for free for a week after registration.
Saitreport
It is notable for its simplicity. Supports the Russian language. Shows detailed reports on SEO and external/internal factors affecting the promotion of the site. The main task of the service is to find errors of a particular resource and display them to its owner.
In addition to conditionally free site promotion factors (SEO and links), you can use Saitreport to analyze traffic, the number of queries (and queries themselves), as well as the advertising activity of competitors. If you want to get information on 25 pages of the report, you will not have to pay anything. If you need more detailed data, the cost will depend on its volume.
Direct Editor
Using Direct Editor, you can analyze your competitors and choose the best settings for contextual advertising. The platform displays:
- detailed information regarding the current campaigns;
- The effectiveness of certain ads in context;
- keywords used by competitors.
One of the advantages of Direct Editor is the ability to batch edit queries and ads. There is also a separate functionality for working with competitor’s campaigns. With its help you can determine the strategy, budgets and overall quality of contextual advertising. Free use of the service is available for 15 days.
Without the services described above, it’s quite difficult to get comprehensive information about how your competitors are promoting themselves in context. What’s more, these services will help you gather the most effective keys, as well as develop prototypes for conversion ads.