MPire Marketing

How to Spy on Winning Competitors in Google Ads

Have you ever wondered what keywords your competitors are marketing to? If you have, you’re not alone. 

There are plenty of third-party apps and other websites that claim to be able to tell you exactly what your competitors are using. However, the truth is you can’t know exactly what they’re using. 

Analyzing competitors is an important strategy for a successful Google Ads Campaign. 

How to Spy on Competitors’ Google Display Ads

There are various websites advertising spy services on competitors. While we can’t speak to how well all of them work, we can tell you that without access to a competitor’s Google Ads Account, there are many data metrics that cannot be measured. 

Here’s what we suggest doing if you want to compare competitors’ ads to yours.

What you can do to compare competitors is use the Google Ads Auction Insights to compare your ad performance to advertisers in the same auction. 

The best course of action is to research competitor Google Ads using the Google Transparency Tool and try to derive keywords from your competitor’s Google Ads. 

So, now that you know what to look for, it is important to evaluate if it’s worth it. 

Should You Spy on Competitors’ Google Ads 

While it is possible to do, you may wonder if it’s even worth the time and effort to research yourself, or if it’s worth it to buy into a third party claiming to be able to spy. 


Let’s go over some pros and cons of spying on competitors. 

Pros:

  • Gain insight into keywords you might not be using yet 
  • Find successful tactics
  • Identify design trends
  • Informed decision making
  • Competitive advantage

Cons:

  • Sometimes competitors don’t know what they’re doing, and they’re just throwing money at the wall, hoping something will bring in leads. 
  • Many third-party apps have misinformation
  • There is no way to get to the most important metrics that are only in the competitor’s Google Ads account
  • You can’t just copy competitors, since their strategy might not be right for your brand
  • Hard to find specific keywords to target, 

There are some other things you can evaluate to create a better brand and obtain a higher quality score than competitors…

Analyzing Competitor Creatives (Formats, Messaging, CTAs, Design)

It can be worthwhile for your business to conclude the competitor’s Google Ads strategy. 

But which things should we be comparing?

What we think is worthwhile to compare are things you can see without any add-ons. These would be:

  • Messages 
  • Landing page 
  • Formatting
  • Features and Benefits they offer
  • Price Point
  • Specific Ads Copy
  • CTA and promotional offers

Competitors will have their own branding, message, and benefits that you can choose to target. 

When making your own ads, comparing competitors’ ads to your own can help create a more effective ad campaign. 

How to See What Keywords Competitors are Using in Google Ads

Much like spying on competitors, Google Ads Spending 

Actually seeing Google Ads competitor keywords is more difficult than it may seem. While there are third-party apps that claim to be able to give you information and spy on competitor keywords, we have found they aren’t reliable. 

FAQ: 

By using the Google Transparency Center to view all of the active ads of your competitors. You can also try searching for keywords you think they’re running ads for and checking for their ads. 

Yes, it is legal to spy on competitors using 3rd party tools and Google’s Transparency Center; these are legal, publicly available information sources. As long as you aren’t hacking into your competitors’ websites or doing anything illegal to their websites, there’s no problem.

What metric to focus on when analyzing competitor ads depends on the goals of your marketing campaign and their marketing campaign. 

If the goal of the campaign is to generate leads, then lead conversion reate if the most important metric. If the campaign is just looking for brand awareness and growth, then their reach and impressions matter.

Yes, you can use insight on competitors’ ads, their landing pages, and actual ad copies to improve your campaign. From finding keywords you could be covering to assessing competitor ad copy strategies, there are lots of ways to improve your ad campaigns from competitor insights.

To find indirect Google Ads competitors, you could use the Auction Insights report to find competitors based on keywords you’re bidding on. 

While it’s fully legal to analyze competitors’ ads, it is important not to plagiarize or impersonate. When analyzing competitors, we don’t recommend remaining transparent in your tactics. Don’t lie about your identity or call the business trying to access sensitive information. 

There are legal boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed as well, such as hacking or stealing from a competitor or violating NDAs. Only using public information and respecting private information is also required.

How often to conduct competitor analysis is dependent on what your goal is and what you’re trying to get out of it. Generally, doing a competitor analysis once after you’ve started your Google Ads campaign to get a sense of the competition.

Yes, competitor analysis can help with gaining market advantages and finding what spaces they are taking and using those that you may not be.

Gavin Miller

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