Competitor analysis on Google Ads: how to find and outperform your competition

What is a competitor analysis in Google Ads

Competitor analysis in Google Ads is the systematic process by which an e-commerce brand understands who is competing for the same searches, what keywords they are buying, how they are positioned in ads, what landing pages they are using and where they are potentially wasting or gaining budget. It is not a copycat exercise. It's a way to see the marketplace as it really works inside the Google results page: with bids, CPC, search intent, conversion rate, bids, differentiation and user experience. For an online store owner, the value lies in identifying where they can gain profitable traffic without getting into a blind bidding war. See also: Digital Marketing & SEO, website construction, e-shop construction.

Google Ads has become more complex because competition is no longer limited to traditional Search campaigns. Decisions are influenced by Performance Max, Shopping, remarketing, first-party data, mobile experience, Quality Score and a brand's ability to connect the ad message to user intent. So, google ads competitor analysis should not only answer the question “who is appearing above me?”. It should answer more commercial questions: who is targeting terms with the highest purchase intent, who is using stronger offers, who has a better trust message, who is driving the user to a faster and more persuasive page, and what gap your brand can exploit.

What Semrush's approach shows and why it concerns e-commerce brands

From organic clicks to visibility within AI responses

Semrush's article on competitor analysis in Google Ads focuses on a practical methodology: first identify the actual paid search competitors and then analyze keywords, ad copies, display frequency, landing pages and historical advertising patterns. This is critical because your business competitors are not always the same as your Google Ads competitors. A marketplace, a price comparison site or a niche niche shop may appear consistently for your most commercial queries, even if you don't consider it a direct brand-level competitor.

Through tools such as Semrush Advertising Research, an e-commerce team can see paid keywords used by other advertisers, indicative ad copies, landing pages and estimates around paid visibility. Meanwhile, Auction Insights within Google Ads shows metrics such as impression share, overlap rate, position above rate, top of page rate and outranking share. The combination of these sources is more powerful than any tool alone: Semrush helps map market and competitor keywords, while Auction Insights shows what's happening within your own auctions.

For example, if you sell sneakers and you see that a competitor is frequently appearing in keywords with “men's running shoes offer”, the simple reaction would be to increase bidding. The more mature reaction is to check that your own landing page adequately answers the search intent, whether it displays price, availability, free shipping, returns, reviews and a clear CTA. In many cases, improving the message and user experience reduces the need for aggressive CPC because it increases conversion rate and makes the same click more profitable.

The data you need to keep track of before you raise a budget

Before you make the decision to increase your Google Ads budget, you need to know if the problem is one of visibility, cost, traffic quality or conversion. The key data are impression share, lost impression share due to budget, lost impression share due to rank, average CPC, CTR, conversion rate, cost per conversion, ROAS and margin per product category. On a competitive level, track which companies have a high overlap rate with you, which ones outperform you most often in position above rate and which ones consistently appear at the top of page for keywords of high commercial intent.

Benchmarks should not be used as an absolute goal, but as a reference point. According to LocaliQ's Google Ads benchmarks for 2024, the average CTR on Search campaigns was 6,42%, while the average conversion rate was 6,96%. If your e-commerce is much lower, the answer is not necessarily “more budget”. It may need better ad copy analysis, tighter keyword gaps, match type restructuring, negative keywords or improved landing pages. As the chart below shows, even two basic metrics can quickly give insight into whether the market is responding to your message and whether traffic is converting.

The landing page experience is often where PPC competition is won or lost. A competitor may have a similar CPC to you, but if their page loads faster, responds more cleanly to search intent and reduces uncertainty, they will have a better chance of conversion. Google has published data showing that as mobile load time increases, the likelihood of abandonment increases significantly. This is especially important for e-commerce owners who pay for every click: if the user abandons before seeing a product, price or CTA, then even the best paid search keyword becomes unprofitable.

The graph below shows the increase in bounce probability as the mobile page load time increases from 1 second to higher levels. For an online store, this data is directly linked to competitor analysis because a faster landing page can act as a competitive advantage without requiring an increase in bids.

There is another dimension: the paid media budget should not only be evaluated as a cost, but as an investment that must return revenue and profit. Google reports that businesses on average earn $2 in revenue for every $1 spent on Google Ads. This doesn't mean that every account will automatically achieve that kind of return; it means that the right structure, good targeting, Quality Score, commercial offer and post-click experience determine whether the ad spend will become profitable growth or just a traffic acquisition expense.

Step-by-Step guide to Google Ads competitor analysis

Step 1: Define the actual search market. Start with your core product categories rather than your brand. If you sell cosmetics, don't just stick to terms like store name. Map queries like “SPF 50 facial sunscreen”, “hyaluronic acid serum”, “cosmetic offers” or “moisturizer for oily skin”. These keywords reveal search intent and show which ones are competing for demand that can lead to purchase. At this stage, the keyword gap is valuable: compare the keywords in which you appear with those in which competitors appear, and separate them into brand, category, product, problem-aware and offer-driven terms.

Step 2: Identify Google Ads competitors, not just the known industry players. Use Semrush Advertising Research to see domains that appear in paid search for common keywords. Then open Auction Insights on your own campaigns and see which domains are participating in the same auctions. Pay attention to competitors with a high overlap rate, because they often claim the same user at the same time. If someone has a high position over rate, it doesn't necessarily mean they are “winning” commercially; it means they appear higher more often. Your job is to check if that position translates into better CTR, conversion rate and ROAS for you when you react.

Step 3: Analyse the ad copies by commercial criteria. Don't just record words. Record promises, guarantees, offers, delivery times, social proof and differentiation. A competitor may be gaining clicks because they mention “free shipping over $39”, “delivery in 24 hours”, “up to -40%” or “official reseller”. Ad copy analysis should result in decisions: which message is missing from your own ads, which benefit is more persuasive to the audience, which wording best fits the search intent, and which CTA can increase CTR without attracting the wrong clicks.

Step 4: Check competitors' landing pages as if you were a customer. Click on ads only when necessary, and opt for preview tools or organic URL inspection when available so you don't unfairly burden third parties. Notice if the user is directed to a category, product, collection, filter or specific landing page. Check title, hero section, speed, mobile layout, filters, ratings, reviews, returns, shipping, availability, payments and trust signals. In an e-commerce environment, paid search doesn't stop at the click. If the page doesn't convince quickly, the CPC becomes expensive even when the campaign seems technically correct.

Step 5: Compare the opportunities with your own margin. This is where many accounts get it wrong. Not all keywords have the same value. A keyword with high volume and high CPC can be bad for low margin products, but great for products with high average order value or repeat purchases. Create a table where each group of keywords is evaluated based on purchase intent, CPC, competition, conversion rate, ROAS, margin and stock availability. This makes Google Ads a business decision tool rather than just a traffic channel.

Step 6: Turn the findings into experiments. If you see that competitors are heavily promoting direct delivery, create an A/B test on headlines and assets. If you see that they're winning in terms of bidding, test a special landing page for discounted products. If you identify a gap in long-tail queries, create separate ad groups or campaigns with more specific messaging. If Quality Score is the problem, work on keyword, ad and landing page relevance. Analysis is of no value if it doesn't lead to small, measurable changes.

Application checklist for e-commerce groups

A practical routine can be implemented on a monthly basis. First, extract from Google Ads the searches with the highest cost, highest conversions and lowest ROAS. Then, check in Auction Insights to see which competitors appear most often for the same campaigns. Then, you move to Semrush Advertising Research to see if those same competitors are investing in additional paid keywords that you haven't covered. Then, you review their ad copies and record patterns: prices, discounts, delivery, warranties, product authenticity, social proof. Finally, you compare landing pages and decide on three actions: a change in targeting, a change in messaging, and a change in landing page.

To keep the process manageable, avoid excessive analysis. You don't need to track every competitor and every keyword. Focus on the products that bring in profit, the categories with strategic importance and the queries that show clear purchase intent. If a campaign has a high spend but a low conversion rate, look to see if competitors are promising something you're not promoting. If a campaign has a good conversion rate but limited impression share, look to see if there's room to increase budget or bids. If a campaign has a high CTR but low sales, the problem may be in the landing page, price, availability or a discrepancy between the ad and the actual offer.

How you turn analysis into profitability decisions

Competitor analysis in Google Ads should result in a clearer strategy, not reflexive moves. If a competitor is raising bids, it doesn't mean you should follow them. If he writes more aggressive ad copy, it doesn't mean you should lose your own placement. The point is to figure out where you can win based on your brand's strengths: better service, faster delivery, exclusive products, more reliability, better content, cleaner return policy or higher cart value.

For an e-commerce brand, the most mature approach is to tie PPC competition to the marketing strategy. If you sell low-margin products, you may want to avoid very expensive generic keywords and invest in long-tail queries with clearer intent. If you have a strong brand and a high repeat purchase rate, you may be able to afford a higher CPC in the first market. If you have products with a strong differentiator, the message should highlight it from the first headline. If you have weak landing pages, improving them can pay off more than a budget increase.

In practice, analyzing Google Ads competitors is an ongoing process. Auctions change, bids change, CPCs move, consumers compare more, and automation algorithms need qualitative inputs. The winning business is not always the one that spends the most. It's the one that knows where it's worth showing up, what to say, which user it wants to attract and how to convert the click into a profitable order. With this logic, Google Ads becomes much more than an advertising platform: it becomes a mechanism for understanding the market, competition and demand.

TWO DOTS approaches such analyses with a combination of data, commercial logic and creative optimization. The goal is not just to “run” a campaign, but to create a customer acquisition system that learns from the competition, continuously improves messaging, reduces waste and increases the value of each visit. When google ads competitor analysis is done consistently, it can reveal opportunities not seen in a simple report: new keyword clusters, better offers, stronger landing pages and cleaner positioning against the market.

Sources: Semrush - Google Ads Competitor Analysis | Google Ads Help - Auction Insights | LocaliQ - Google Ads Benchmarks | Think with Google - Mobile Page Speed Benchmarks | Google Economic Impact

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