Research Competitor Ads to Gain an Edge on Search, Display & Social

The satellite of integer ads is accelerated and crowded. Marketers person to cognize their competitors and their advertizing strategies to enactment applicable and basal out. But to bash so, you archetypal request the close tools.

AdClarity and Advertising Research tin assistance you spot your competitor's ads, show and analyse them, and marque smart, data-driven decisions.

Here’s how.

Why Competitive Advertising Research Matters

Ad campaigns don’t beryllium successful a vacuum. Whenever and wherever your lawsuit sees your ad, the likelihood is that they’re besides seeing different ads from your competitors. You’ll request to cognize what your advertisement looks similar successful that discourse – however does it fare adjacent to your competitors’ work?

Competitive advertizing probe besides ensures that you’re alert of what messaging, design, and different tactics your competitors are utilizing successful their ads. 

For example, you could observe that your competitors’ video ads execute champion connected societal media, and you could prioritize your ain video advertisement accumulation determination and reap higher returns.

Further, you tin find what kind of video ads execute best. Are they high-production worth oregon are they utilizing UGC (user generated content) successful their ads? 

Look astatine what works for your competitors truthful you don’t person to commencement from scratch. 

To instrumentality the guesswork retired of this process, usage AdClarity for show advertizing probe and Advertising Research for studying hunt advertizing competitors.

AdClarity tin behaviour advertisement probe for your competitors’ Google show and societal media ads. The app reveals: 

• Any advertisers’ apical ads and campaigns 
• Top publishers 
• Ad types distribution
• Estimates of your competitors’ advertisement spend (and expenditure breakdown)

With this information, you tin marque a implicit examination of your advertisement strategy with that of your competitors’, and signifier your adjacent steps accordingly. 

Let’s instrumentality a look astatine however to get started.

Setting Up Your AdClarity Account

AdClarity is disposable to anyone with a Semrush relationship – including a escaped relationship oregon a proceedings period. After that, the app is subscription based and program prices alteration according to the tier you select.

To commencement utilizing AdClarity, travel this link and click Try it free.

Then, prime the selling channel(s) you privation to absorption on. 

Here, you tin either sign-up to a paid plan, oregon click Try for free to proceed to a proceedings play of the tool.

Identifying Key Competitors

Once you person entree to the AdClarity dashboard, you’ll request to participate your competitors successful the apical hunt bar. You tin adhd up to 10 competitors astatine a time.

Perhaps you already cognize your competitors and tin leap consecutive in. 

If not, the Advertising Competitors report from Semrush lists websites that vie astir with your existent Google Ads campaigns for paid keywords. 

These paid hunt competitors could overlap with your paid Google show and societal media competitors, and truthful are a bully spot to begin.

Pro tip: If you’ve ne'er tally Google Ads, the Organic Research Competitors report tin help. This study shows domains that vie with your website for integrated keyword rankings. To usage it, simply participate your URL successful the hunt barroom and click Search.

Exploring Competitor Campaigns

Once you’ve entered your competitor(s) successful AdClarity, you tin click connected the left-hand tab beneath the hunt barroom to prime the selling transmission you privation to absorption on. 

Choose betwixt each channels, display, social, oregon video.

In the tabs to the right, you tin refine your hunt by instrumentality type, clip frame, and location. For example, you could look astatine your competitors’ ads crossed each channels connected desktop devices implicit the past 7 days successful the US.

The clip framework filter offers options specified arsenic the past 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 12 months, oregon a customized date. This functionality allows you to summation advertisement insights into some progressive and humanities advertisement campaigns. 

Analyzing Creatives and Ad Formats

Knowing what your competitors’ ads look similar is simply a immense constituent of curating your advertisement strategy. With AdClarity, you tin dive into the creatives, formats, and messaging of your competitors’ ads and observe what resonates with audiences.

To get going, click the ‘Compare’ fastener astatine the acold close of the AdClarity dashboard.

Next, participate different 1 of your competitors. In this case, we’ll prime Walmart (a known rival of Amazon). 

Hit the Compare fastener successful the bottommost close of the box, and you’ll beryllium taken to a surface with a afloat breakdown of your 2 competitors’ ads.

Scroll down to the Top Ads section, wherever you tin presumption your rival ads that person the highest fig of impressions successful your specified clip frame.

Click connected each advertisement for much details astir the advertisement format, dimensions, spend, and publishers.

From here, you tin instrumentality notes astir the advertisement format, copy, design, and wide aesthetics of your competitors’ apical performing ads. You tin gully parallels betwixt ads, and admit what types of ads are received good by audiences. 

For example, you mightiness announcement that some your competitors predominantly usage banner formats, informal language, person beardown colour contrasts, and nary interactive elements successful their champion ads. 

This cognition tin substance your originative efforts erstwhile you make your ain ads.

Similarly, underneath successful the Top campaigns section, you tin spot each of your competitors’ astir palmy advertisement campaigns. 

The advertisement campaigns present are listed based connected the run landing page. Click connected “View each campaigns” to spot a breakdown of your competitor’s run strategy. 

Here’s what we spot from walmart.com. This is telling america that the “School Supplies” run ran connected each 3 channels, made 2.35B impressions and outgo $23.4M implicit the selected clip frame.

Just click connected immoderate run from this array to spot a elaborate study of immoderate circumstantial campaign. 

For example, here’s the apical of the study connected Walmart’s “School Supplies” campaign. 

Then, scroll down to spot what the run looked similar with the apical ads. 

Browse done these ads and analyse your competitor’s messaging strategy. 

Assess the advertisement formats, design, storytelling, and much – each which tin beryllium applied to your advertisement campaigns moving forward.

Monitoring Ad Placements and Channels

Now that you person your advertisement originative probe compiled, let’s determination to where your competitors are putting their ads.

Back astatine the apical of the AdClarity dashboard, the mediate widget displays your competitor’s advertisement types distribution. 

For Amazon, we’re told that successful the past 7 days, 36.40% of the retailer’s ads were societal ads, 35.37% were banner ads, and 28.23% were video ads. 

Scroll down to Top publishers and apps and you tin presumption the channels wherever your competitors’ ads are being featured.

Keeping with the Amazon example, we’re shown that Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitch person the highest fig of impressions for Amazon’s ads implicit the fixed play of time. 

This information tin archer you wherever your competitors are having the biggest impact. By knowing the places they people the most, you tin program to vie and outperform others successful your industry. 

Likewise, you tin find the underutilized channels that your competitors are missing, giving you the accidental to experimentation with advertisement placements successful those areas and marque a bigger splash due to the fact that there’s small oregon nary competition.

Assessing Ad Spend and Performance

Budget is unsurprisingly a important measurement successful researching your competitors’ ads. Knowing what your competitors are spending connected ads enables you to allocate your fund much strategically.

AdClarity estimates your entered competitors’ expenditure, advertisement buying methods, expenditure trends, and expenditure breakdown.

Below is the estimated expenditure for Amazon implicit the past 7 days. The retailer spent astir $36.5M successful the time, and received 6.2B advertisement impressions during this period.

To the close of this widget, the instrumentality gives a summary of Amazon’s advertisement buying methods. The bulk of advertisement purchases were programmatic (60.92%), followed by nonstop (23.58%), and advertisement web purchases (15.50%).
 

Using this information, you tin find however you privation to acquisition ads, and however that strategy aligns with your disposable budget. 

Underneath Ad buying methods is the Advertiser expenditure trends graph. Select Impressions, Spend oregon Publishers from the apical of the graph (two options astatine a time) and presumption the metrics implicit your specified time.

With the graph, you tin visualize immoderate correlations betwixt the metrics, arsenic good arsenic immoderate noticeable seasonality. For example, you whitethorn reason that Amazon’s advertisement walk and impressions dip toward the extremity of the week. 

You could past refine your advertisement run to put little successful ads that look connected the aforesaid platforms astatine the extremity of the week.

Further down, the Advertiser expenditure breakdown widget highlights the publishers, organisation of publishers, Share of Voice (SoV), spend, and organisation of your competitors’ walk for display, video, and societal ads.
 

We larn that portion Amazon’s show ads person the widest publishers and distribution, the retailer spends the astir connected video ads. Meanwhile, its societal ads person the highest impressions and SoV. 

This accusation empowers your marque to marque smarter, informed decisions erstwhile crafting your advertisement strategy. 

By recognising what tactics your competitors person utilized to nutrient the astir ROI, you tin confidently align your ain ad spend with improved advertisement performance.

Google Ads Competitor Analysis

Google Ads is the starring advertizing platform, and it makes consciousness to delegate a bully chunk of your rival advertisement probe to Google hunt ads.

This allows you to observe competitors’ advertisement tactics astatine standard and stitchery ideas for your campaigns.

Wondering however to cheque competitors’ Google hunt ads? The Advertising Research instrumentality helps you find rival ads, analyse their keywords, reappraisal their advertisement copies and history, and research their landing pages.

To get going, unfastened your Semrush relationship and prime the Advertising tab connected the left-hand side. Underneath Market Analysis, click Advertising Research.

Next, you’ll beryllium shown a hunt barroom to participate your competitor(s) and the determination you privation to absorption your probe on. We’ll instrumentality to Amazon, and halfway connected the US.

Once you deed Search, you’ll spot the Advertising Research dashboard. The Competitors tab located supra the information volition assistance you pinpoint your Google ads competitors. 

The database is compiled based connected the fig of keywords that brands’ ads stock with yours. The much keywords that you share, the stronger a rival the marque is to you. For Amazon then, we spot that eBay, Wayfair, and Uline are its main advertisement competitors.

You tin click connected immoderate of the listed competitors – this clip we’ll prime ebay. You’ll beryllium taken to a dashboard nether the tab Positions, showing a afloat breakdown of their keywords, traffic, and postulation cost. You tin besides presumption their paid hunt trends and the paid hunt positions.

The Positions report is an extended database of your competitor’s keywords, which tin springiness you an denotation of the presumption you should beryllium targeting.

in the Ads Copies tab, you tin instrumentality a look astatine the substance that your rival includes successful their ads. This tab shows the nonstop advertisement transcript and the links to landing pages wrong your competitors’ ads.

Over successful the Ads History tab you tin spot however your competitors’ advertisement strategy has evolved implicit time. Sticking with eBay, we tin spot a 12-month overview of the keywords eBay has paid for and the positions they fertile for with those keywords.

This conception is adjuvant for advertisement probe due to the fact that it reveals the keywords that your competitors consistently bid connected and their rankings for those terms.

By clicking connected immoderate bluish cell, you tin besides spot the nonstop advertisement copies that utilized a peculiar keyword that month. This helps place recurring themes successful palmy advertisement campaigns that you tin use to your ain advertisement strategy. 

In the Pages tab tool, you’ll spot the apical landing pages of your competitors, including the traffic, keywords, and backlinks per page. 

These landing pages are important due to the fact that they archer you however your competitors person radical to instrumentality action.

For example, we tin spot that eBay’s apical landing leafage for August had an estimated 41.7K visitors and ranked for 8 paid keywords.

By clicking connected the link, we tin spot the implicit page.

Having nonstop entree to your competitors’ landing pages means you tin instrumentality into relationship the layout, design, copy, CTAs, leafage speed, and different important factors that power customers’ decisions to convert. 

Knowing the Lay of the Ad Land

Your competitors’ ads springiness you a wide representation of the competitory landscape. Which tin beryllium a invaluable starting constituent to devise a almighty advertisement strategy of your own. 

Not lone tin your competitors’ ads animate you, they tin radiance a airy connected what areas and tactics haven’t been tapped yet – giving you a immense competitory edge.

Make your advertisement probe easier and much effectual with AdClarity successful the Semrush App Center, and the Advertising Research instrumentality from the main Semrush interface. 

Get going contiguous with a escaped proceedings oregon demo, and truly chopped done the competitory noise.