Google Ads Competitor Analysis: Find Competitor Keywords and Ads

A Google Ads competitor analysis answers four questions: who you compete with, what they say in their ads, which searches they pay for, and how often they beat you. You can answer all four with free Google tools in about an hour.

One thing first. Google does not show anyone another advertiser's keywords, bids or spend. Every tool that claims to show them is estimating. That is fine, as long as you treat the numbers as estimates and not as facts.

Why competitor keywords matter

You are not in an auction alone. Your cost per click depends on who else bids. Google's help page on actual CPC says you pay "what's minimally required to clear the Ad Rank thresholds and beat the Ad Rank of the competitor immediately below you." A new rival on your best keyword can raise your costs with no change in your account.

A competitor analysis helps you:

• Find keywords you missed. Searches your rivals cover and you do not.
• Spot weak offers. If every rival says the same thing, a different angle wins attention.
• Stop fights you cannot win. Some keywords are not worth the price once a big rival moves in.
• Explain cost changes. When CPC jumps, you know whether it was you or the market.

Step 1: name your real competitors

There are three kinds, and they are often different lists.

1. Auction competitors. The advertisers you actually meet in Google Ads auctions. Open the auction insights report for your main campaign. Sort by overlap rate. The top five names are your real auction rivals.
2. Search competitors. Who shows up when a buyer searches your best keywords. Check with the Ad preview and diagnosis tool, under Tools in Google Ads. Google says it shows live results "without affecting your impression data", which is better than searching on Google yourself and adding impressions with no clicks.
3. Shopper competitors. The brands your customers compare you with. Ask them, or read your reviews and support emails for names.

Keep a list of five to ten. More than that and you will never finish.

Step 2: see their ads

Open Google's Ads Transparency Center at adstransparency.google.com. Search each rival's website, set the region to the country you sell in, and set the date range to the last 30 days.

For each rival, write one line per ad:

Then widen the date range. An ad that has run for months is one they keep paying for, which hints it works. An ad that ran for a week and vanished was likely a loser.

Step 3: find their keywords with free Google tools

Keyword Planner, started from their website

1. In Google Ads, go to Keyword Planner in the Tools menu.
2. Choose Discover new keywords.
3. Choose Start with a website and paste the competitor's URL. Google says it "will look for keywords related to the content on that site."
4. Choose Get results.

You get the searches their site is built around, with Google's estimates for monthly searches, competition and top of page bid ranges. Google defines those bid ranges as roughly the 20th and 80th percentile of what advertisers have historically paid for a top of page spot.

Two tips from Google's own help page. Entering a keyword together with a URL gives more ideas than the URL alone. And Keyword Planner ideas stay locked until you add billing details to the account.

This is not their keyword list. It is the list of searches their site is relevant for. In practice that is close enough to find gaps. Our keyword research guide goes deeper on Keyword Planner.

Your own search terms report

Filter your search terms for rival brand names. If people type "rival name + product" and click your ad, you are already in their brand auction, by accident. Decide on purpose: keep it, or add a negative keyword.

Paid spy tools

Tools like SpyFu and Semrush show estimated rival keywords and ad history from their own data. They save time when you track many brands. Remember the numbers are their estimates of what Google does not publish.

Step 4: check their landing pages and offers

Click through to each rival's landing page and note:

• Price of the main product, and any bundle.
• Shipping cost and speed.
• Returns policy.
• Proof on the page: reviews, photos, warranty promises.
• Speed. Does the page load fast on your phone?

If a rival beats you on price, shipping and proof, a better ad will not save you. Fix the offer first, or stop bidding on the searches where they win.

Step 5: measure who is winning, over time

Back in auction insights, compare this month with last month. Watch three numbers per rival:

• Impression share. How much of the market each of you takes. See our impression share guide.
• Overlap rate. How often you show together.
• Outranking share. How often you beat them.

A rival whose impression share and position above rate both climb is spending more or has better ads. That is your signal to look at their ads again.

Should you bid on competitor keywords?

Bidding on a rival's brand name is called conquesting. It is allowed, with limits.

What Google's trademark policy says. In its list of what it "will not restrict", Google names "using trademarks as keywords". What it can restrict, after a complaint from the trademark owner, includes "using trademarks in an ad from a direct competitor." So you can usually bid on the name. You should not put the rival's name in your headline. Local trademark law still applies, and it differs by country.

Whether it pays. Often it does not. People who search a brand name want that brand. Your ad has to give them a strong reason to look elsewhere, like a lower price, faster shipping or a product they do not sell. Expect lower click-through rates and higher costs than on your own brand terms.

Our rule of thumb for conquesting:

1. Start with a small, separate campaign so the spend is easy to see.
2. Only target rivals where your offer is clearly better on one thing.
3. Write ads about your edge, not about them.
4. Judge it on cost per sale after two to four weeks. Cut it if it loses money.

And expect them to bid on your brand in return. Keep a brand campaign running so you are not the cheapest rival on your own name.

PPC analysis: turning findings into changes

A competitor analysis is only useful if it changes something in your account. Here is the short list of moves it usually leads to:

The part a competitor analysis cannot do

Every step above looks outward. Most of the money in an account leaks inward: search terms nobody checked, products that never sell, budgets stuck on the wrong campaign. Run the free Google Ads audit to see where your own account leaks first.

If you want that view from live data, Scaley Media Buyer connects to Google Ads read-only and answers questions like "which rivals took impression share from me this month" or "which search terms mention a competitor". It cannot change a setting. Start the free trial. Disclosure: Christopher Krassnig, who founded Scaley, also runs ZenoX Media, a Google Ads agency, and this is the same process the team runs before taking on an account.

Where these facts come from

Checked on 2026-10-08:

• Use Keyword Planner, Google Ads Help - Start with a website, keyword plus URL, billing needed for ideas.
• About Keyword Planner forecasts, Google Ads Help - competition and the top of page bid ranges.
• About the Ad preview and diagnosis tool, Google Ads Help - previewing live results without affecting impression data.
• Use auction insights to compare performance, Google Ads Help - overlap rate, outranking share and position above rate.
• Actual cost-per-click (CPC), Google Ads Help - how the competitor below you sets what you pay.
• Trademarks, Advertising Policies Help - trademarks as keywords and in ad text.
• Ads transparency, Advertising Policies Help - what the Ads Transparency Center shows.