Google Ads Adventure Part 3

 

More experience means more skills. As I have continued working, testing new things, making mistakes, seeking solutions, and asking questions, that's exactly what I gained. Every industry, campaign, and company will use unique ad groups and keywords. However, there is one campaign and ad group that any company can benefit from: competitor campaigns. What are these? Why should you use them? And how do you build them? Let's get started:

What Are Competitor Campaigns?

These are campaigns that you create to try and steal traffic away from your competitors. Ever notice how when you type in one company into google, it won't take long for you to see one of their competitors? That's because they are also bidding on the same keyword. 

Why Should You Use Them?

Competitor keywords can be highly effective. Why? For one, you know that people searching for your competitors would also be your ideal customers in most cases. For example, if someone is looking to buy an engagement ring from Jared, those people may likely buy a ring from you if you're in that industry. Secondly, searchers often look at several of the options that pop up on google. If they can't find the ring of their dreams on the first website that showed up, it's highly likely that they will give the link under it a chance, which could be yours. This approach has worked a lot for some of our clients. In fact, one of the competitor campaigns I created outperformed all the other campaigns in that account and had the lowest cost per lead!

A WARNING: Be sure to avoid writing your competitors' names into your headlines or descriptions (it's likely that Google will flag you for this). The purpose of competitor campaigns is to simply appear in the places where you know your audience will be. It's basic marketing. Picture Google like a mall. Someone may go into the courtyard to grab lunch. They will notice that there are several options. And companies will strategically place themselves there because they all have the solution to the problem of the shopper: food to eliminate hunger in this situation. 

How Do You Make Them?

• Begin with a lot of research. Let's say you sell diamond engagement rings. Type in "diamond engagement rings" in Google and write down all the company names that pop up. To get more specific, separate the companies that are national competitors and the ones that are local competitors. (I also recommend separating these into two campaigns). Don't stop at page one of Google—in marketing, the more data, the better.

• Now turn all of those competitors into keywords. Bid on Jared, Kay, Alpine Jewelers, etc. I recommend turning each competitor into two keywords (one with exact match type and one with phrase match). 

• Create your ads and headlines as usual. You'll notice that the ad strength won't be very strong. That's because you won't be able to include the competitor names in your headlines. But rest assured, this will not affect your eligibility to appear on the search engine results page.

• The final step is to continuously analyze and optimize the campaign. Be sure to keep an eye on your budget, as some of these keywords can be pricy. (The local competitors shouldn't be too expensive). Be sure to eliminate irrelevant search terms. Common ones include the competitor's name and city. For example, "Jared Stores in Omaha." Be sure to add this as a negative keyword if your company doesn't do business there.

Hopefully, you've learned a cool trick while reading this blog. Marketers are always trying new things and strategies to drive more business. Not every strategy will work for everyone, but it's always worth trying new things. Best of luck to you in your own marketing adventure!