Strategic retailers analyze more than competitors paid search keywords. Learn new ways to to drive growth through data you already have.
This presentation was originally given at SES NY.
1. Paid Search Competitive Analysis
Take your competitive intelligence to the next level.
New York | March 19–23
2. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Traditional competitive analysis is flawed.
Understanding a competitor’s keyword strategy is not essential to success.
What can traditional • Keyword lists
competitive analysis tools • Average cost per click
provide? • Average positions
• Ad copy
• Overall investment
None of this data is essential to your success. Why?
1. Consumers respond uniquely to your brand.
2. Your business goals are different.
3. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Your brand is unique. So is your competitor’s.
Executing the same strategy will not achieve the same results.
Keyword list Consumer
response
Even with the same keyword lists, the consumer response to your
ads, landing pages, and overall brand will be unique.
How do consumers respond to the same keyword list?
Click Through Total
Traffic Volume Conversion Rate
Rate Conversions
You 100k 2% 4% 80
Competitor 100k 1.5% 10% 150
Your logo here
4. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Your business is unique. So is your competitor’s.
Executing the same strategy will not achieve the same results.
Consumer Paid search
response success
Even the same consumer response will not lead to success. Your business goals
are unique, therefore your metrics for success are unique.
What metrics determine success?
Total
Margin New Customers
Conversions
You 7% 60 150
Competitor 15% 20 150
5. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Be a leader, not a follower.
Find out what your competitor isn’t doing, or how you can do it better.
Analyze your competitor’s • Ad copy relevancy
brand experience. • Landing page relevancy
• Product offering
• Site design
• Promotions
Discover new market • Search queries
demand trends. • On-site search
• Overall search trends
• Organic queries
• Product sales
Your logo here
6. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Make your data work for you.
The research tools you need are already in your hands.
Analyze your competitor’s • Search engines
brand experience. • Competitor’s site
Discover new market • Search engine reporting
demand trends. • Internal analytics: SEO, on-site
search, and products
• Web demand trend tools (i.e.
Google Insights)
7. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Case study: Uncovering a million dollar query.
Monitor and mine queries to stay ahead of your competitors.
• Noticed queries for a new product increase dramatically in late 2010.
• Verified the search trend by analyzing Google Insights data.
• Suggested to the client that they start to carry the product.
Your logo here
8. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Case study: Uncovering a million dollar query.
Monitor and mine queries to stay ahead of your competitors.
Competitors begin carrying
and marketing the product.
• Paid search sales from the new product alone contributed over $900k in the first
six months.
• Much later, large retailers noticed the trend and began bidding on the same keywords.
Your logo here
9. New York | March 19–23, 2012 | #sesny
Remember this.
3 things to take with you.
1. Executing the same strategy will not achieve the same results.
2. Find out what your competitor isn’t doing, or how you can do it better.
3. The research tools you need are already in your hands.
Your logo here
Hinweis der Redaktion
First, I believe that traditional competitive analysis is flawed. Not useless, not providing insight, but flawed. And that understanding a competitor’s keyword strategy is not essential to success. Those are a couple of bold statements, so let me first define what kind of information about your competitors I think traditional competitive analysis tools can provide. Generally, this includes things like keyword lists, average cost per click, average positions, ad copy, and overall investment. Awesome! That’s a lot of data right at your fingertips about your direct competitors. Now you know some real details about your competitor’s paid search strategy, so let’s go execute on it! However, in my experience, none of this data is essential to your success. Why? First, because consumers respond uniquely to your brand. Second, because your business goals are different.Traditional competitive analysis tools are great at providing you with competitive data such as keyword lists, average CPCs, average positions, and ad copy samples. Great, you’ve got all this information about your competitor. You’re ready to go execute some strategy on your campaigns using this information. So, what now? Well, you’ll have to test every term to see how consumers respond to your ads, landing pages, etc. What is your CTR and CVR compared to your competitor’s? Without this knowledge, you’re missing an essential piece of the competitive puzzle. The assumption here is that if you execute the same strategy, you won’t get the same results.I am going to take a counter-intuitive approach to this question. I believe that understanding competitor’skeyword strategy is not an essential component to a successful search marketing plan. I believe that eachcompany, its products, and its services are unique, and how a better understanding of the underlyingbusiness metrics is a more essential component for campaign successIf I were to hand you your competitor’s keyword list, you would still need to test every term to see howsearchers responded to your ads, URLs and brand, and what your CTR and CVR are. Therefore I willdiscuss keyword research using Search Queries, Site Search, Site Design, Keyword Lookup Tools(SEMRush, etc.) and how to drive the biggest returns to you and your company.I will also demonstrate specific examples of success, like how I discovered, for a lingerie client, a highdemand for a product that wasn’t being offered. This product ended up driving $1 million in first quartersales before any competitors realized how it was and started selling and advertising it themselves.Traditional competitive analysis would miss opportunities like this.
Why? Lower cpcs, uncovered markets, etc.I am going to take a counter-intuitive approach to this question. I believe that understanding competitor’skeyword strategy is not an essential component to a successful search marketing plan. I believe that eachcompany, its products, and its services are unique, and how a better understanding of the underlyingbusiness metrics is a more essential component for campaign successIf I were to hand you your competitor’s keyword list, you would still need to test every term to see howsearchers responded to your ads, URLs and brand, and what your CTR and CVR are. Therefore I willdiscuss keyword research using Search Queries, Site Search, Site Design, Keyword Lookup Tools(SEMRush, etc.) and how to drive the biggest returns to you and your company.I will also demonstrate specific examples of success, like how I discovered, for a lingerie client, a highdemand for a product that wasn’t being offered. This product ended up driving $1 million in first quartersales before any competitors realized how it was and started selling and advertising it themselves.Traditional competitive analysis would miss opportunities like this.
Why? Lower cpcs, uncovered markets, etc.I am going to take a counter-intuitive approach to this question. I believe that understanding competitor’skeyword strategy is not an essential component to a successful search marketing plan. I believe that eachcompany, its products, and its services are unique, and how a better understanding of the underlyingbusiness metrics is a more essential component for campaign successIf I were to hand you your competitor’s keyword list, you would still need to test every term to see howsearchers responded to your ads, URLs and brand, and what your CTR and CVR are. Therefore I willdiscuss keyword research using Search Queries, Site Search, Site Design, Keyword Lookup Tools(SEMRush, etc.) and how to drive the biggest returns to you and your company.I will also demonstrate specific examples of success, like how I discovered, for a lingerie client, a highdemand for a product that wasn’t being offered. This product ended up driving $1 million in first quartersales before any competitors realized how it was and started selling and advertising it themselves.Traditional competitive analysis would miss opportunities like this.
Why? Lower cpcs, uncovered markets, etc.I am going to take a counter-intuitive approach to this question. I believe that understanding competitor’skeyword strategy is not an essential component to a successful search marketing plan. I believe that eachcompany, its products, and its services are unique, and how a better understanding of the underlyingbusiness metrics is a more essential component for campaign successIf I were to hand you your competitor’s keyword list, you would still need to test every term to see howsearchers responded to your ads, URLs and brand, and what your CTR and CVR are. Therefore I willdiscuss keyword research using Search Queries, Site Search, Site Design, Keyword Lookup Tools(SEMRush, etc.) and how to drive the biggest returns to you and your company.I will also demonstrate specific examples of success, like how I discovered, for a lingerie client, a highdemand for a product that wasn’t being offered. This product ended up driving $1 million in first quartersales before any competitors realized how it was and started selling and advertising it themselves.Traditional competitive analysis would miss opportunities like this.
QUERY MININGOption #1: Test all keywords in your competitor’s keyword list and see what happens. Use average CPCs to try to bid higher than competitor.Option #2: Analyze your competitor’s consumer experience, not their keywords. Quality score driven approach.
Andra example – Google insights to show query volume, charts, etc.I am going to take a counter-intuitive approach to this question. I believe that understanding competitor’skeyword strategy is not an essential component to a successful search marketing plan. I believe that eachcompany, its products, and its services are unique, and how a better understanding of the underlyingbusiness metrics is a more essential component for campaign successIf I were to hand you your competitor’s keyword list, you would still need to test every term to see howsearchers responded to your ads, URLs and brand, and what your CTR and CVR are. Therefore I willdiscuss keyword research using Search Queries, Site Search, Site Design, Keyword Lookup Tools(SEMRush, etc.) and how to drive the biggest returns to you and your company.I will also demonstrate specific examples of success, like how I discovered, for a lingerie client, a highdemand for a product that wasn’t being offered. This product ended up driving $1 million in first quartersales before any competitors realized how it was and started selling and advertising it themselves.Traditional competitive analysis would miss opportunities like this.
Andra example – Google insights to show query volume, charts, etc.I am going to take a counter-intuitive approach to this question. I believe that understanding competitor’skeyword strategy is not an essential component to a successful search marketing plan. I believe that eachcompany, its products, and its services are unique, and how a better understanding of the underlyingbusiness metrics is a more essential component for campaign successIf I were to hand you your competitor’s keyword list, you would still need to test every term to see howsearchers responded to your ads, URLs and brand, and what your CTR and CVR are. Therefore I willdiscuss keyword research using Search Queries, Site Search, Site Design, Keyword Lookup Tools(SEMRush, etc.) and how to drive the biggest returns to you and your company.I will also demonstrate specific examples of success, like how I discovered, for a lingerie client, a highdemand for a product that wasn’t being offered. This product ended up driving $1 million in first quartersales before any competitors realized how it was and started selling and advertising it themselves.Traditional competitive analysis would miss opportunities like this.