How To Spy On Competitors' Google Shopping Ads? (FREE)

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Oct 3, 2024

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How to spy on competitors' Google Shopping Ads

Wondering why your competitor's Google Shopping Ads work better? After all, Google Shopping Ads boast a healthy average conversion rate of 1.91%. However, e-commerce is competitive, so keeping ahead is essential.

Don’t worry; this article shows you how to spy ethically on your competitors' Google Shopping Ads to narrow the gap and boost your efforts. Moreover, we'll examine their tactics, from top-selling items to keywords, using powerful FREE tools.

Let’s start!

What Does "Spy On Competitors' Google Shopping Ads" Mean?

Competitors' Google Shopping Ads.

You cannot directly spy on specific Google Shopping Ads. Google safeguards advertisers' privacy and campaign information.

However, you can use competitor analysis to analyze rivals' product advertisements. Many Competition analysis tools may provide Google Shopping Ads strategy insights:

Products they're promoting.
Pricing strategies.
Keywords they're targeting.
Bidding tactics.
Ad copywriting techniques.

In internet advertising, it's like having a secret agent who assists you in gathering intelligence and making well-informed judgments to plan ad strategies appropriately.

Read more: Best Shopify Competitor Research Tools.

Look at the advantages of spying on competitors' Google Shopping ads below to learn more.

Why Spy On Competitors' Google Shopping Ads?

Here are two main reasons why researching their Google Shopping Ads may help you succeed:

1. Find Profitable Opportunities And Target Gaps

The online industry is ripe for growth, with global e-commerce revenues expected to reach $6.33 trillion by 2024 and beyond. If you want to capture a slice of this pie, it's critical to comprehend your rivals' tactics.

Here's how: Analyzing your rivals' Google Shopping ads might reveal market possibilities and product trends. Their products and client groupings may reveal market gaps. This lets you capitalize on new trends and build a niche with little competition.

Furthermore, researching your rivals' top-performing items might provide valuable performance insights. By learning about what their customers like, you can get helpful ideas for improving your product lists. This might lead to higher click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates, resulting in more clicks and revenues.

Take note of their triumphs and apply the information to improve your product presentations, making them more appealing to prospective buyers.

2. Compare Your Performance And Improve

Despite Google Shopping Ads' $0.66 average cost-per-click (CPC), running ads isn't enough to make money. To optimize return on investment (ROI), go deeper.

Analyzing your rivals' Google Shopping Ads may make all the difference. Reading their ads' copywriting techniques lets you learn what connects with your target demographic. This lets you write more engaging ads that meet clients' needs.

You can also get ideas for buying strategies by looking at how your rivals split their advertising funds between campaigns or product groups.

So you know the major advantages of studying your rivals' Google Shopping Ads. Let's discover how to obtain this data in the following section.

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3 Ways To Analysis Competitors' Google Shopping Ads (FREE TRIAL)

No doubt, understanding your rivals' techniques is essential for staying ahead of the e-commerce game. This tutorial examines three free competition analysis tools to empower your Google Shopping Ads:

Shine Commerce (for Shopify stores): Analyze competitive Shopify shops' Best-selling goods, ads, and social media. Recognize market trends and improve your products.
SEMrush PLA Research: Examine rival Google Shopping Ads. Review triggering keywords, ad content, and competitors. Find audience-friendly terms and messages.
SpyFu (limited free features): Discover competing keywords and their projected cost-per-click (CPC). Gain insights for keyword research and bidding optimization. Explore premium plans for more features.

Let’s learn how to use these tools now!

Option 1: Use Shine Commerce (Commerce Inspector)

Shine Commerce (before Commerce Inspector) is a helpful application that provides Shopify business owners with market analytics.

It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to check patterns and draw conclusions from accessible data sources like Facebook, Google, Instagram, and Pinterest. As a Chrome extension, it collects insights when you visit other Shopify shops.

Start by visiting Shine Commerce to get the free Chrome extension.

Use Shine Commerce to analysis competitors' Google Shopping Ads

Next, visit your competitor's website. Now, you can see best-selling and trending goods, advertisements, social media, traffic, and store profiles.

After following a shop, you can get information immediately through the Chrome plugin or the Shine Commerce web.

Discover popular product categories and consider adding them to your business.
Get innovative and message ideas to strengthen your advertising efforts.
Discover practical applications your rivals utilize to improve shop functioning and consider their advantages for your business.

For example, in the "Top Products" area, you can see the best-selling items from your rivals, arranged by how much money they made.

Furthermore, sort revenue by product type under the "Products types" column. From here, you can determine the market direction.

Option 2: Use SEMRush PLA

PLA (Product Listing Ads) are appealing product squares on Google search results. They let e-commerce companies market to people seeking related goods directly.

With Semrush PLA Research (Business), you may learn about your rivals' Google Shopping efforts.

This is how you do it:

First, access the Semrush PLA Research tool and enter your competitor's domain name, subdomain, or URL. Then, click "Search" to begin the analysis.

As an example, we'll enter the domain name amazon.com.

After that, a complete report will be prepared that details your competitor's advertising activity.

Look at the upper left corner and find the "Positions" option. It will display the keywords that have triggered your competitor's advertising and the number of currently running ads.

Look at these keywords and the product lists that go with them to see if your search plan needs to include anything.

Next, the "Competitors" option shows a list of your competitor's competitors. This lets you do more research and get a fuller idea of the competition.

Finally, learn from top performers in the "PLA Copies" category and display your rivals' top-performing advertisements.

Analyze their ad text to see which messages connect with their target audience. Use these findings to enhance your ad wording and increase click-through rates (CTR).

Option 3: Use SpyFu

SpyFu provides competitive intelligence tools for SEO and PPC efforts, including Google Shopping advertisements.

You can find out what keywords your rivals use in their Google Shopping Ads efforts with SpyFu. This could help you find new term ideas for your ads.

Also, SpyFu calculates rival cost-per-click (CPC), which might be useful as a benchmark for establishing your own bids.

Here's a step-by-step roadmap for realizing its potential:

Step 1: Login Or Create Your SpyFu Account

First, access SpyFu's login page (if you already have one) or the sign-up page to establish a new one. Explore their membership options and choose the one that best suits your requirements.

If you don't log in to your SpyFu account, you may still use it, but the functions will be restricted.

Step 2: Leveraging SpyFu Keyword Research (Optional)

Once step one, go to your dashboard and type the website URL of your selected competition into the search field.

Then click "Search" to begin the analysis.

If you're unsure who your main rivals are, SpyFu's keyword research feature might generate valuable leads.

From your SpyFu dashboard, go to "Keyword Research" and input your core keyword or service.

To begin the procedure, click the "search" button.

Then, scroll down the results to see which firms provide services comparable to yours. These are prospective rivals that you might investigate further.

By carefully using SpyFu, you may get a massive advantage in the competitive world of e-commerce advertising.

Step 3: Analyze Your Competitors' Google Ads Strategies

Following step two, SpyFu takes competition research from a guessing game to a strategic advantage.

Here's an overview of the essential data and insights you may get to enhance your Google Ads campaigns:

Monthly Domain Overview:

Get a high-level overview of your competitor's traffic sources. The graph shows whether they rank organic (SEO) or bought traffic (Google Ads), enabling you to change your plan.

Competition Section:

Keep scrolling down on the overview page.

SpyFu displays a list of your rivals competing for the exact keywords. Analyze each competitor's data to get insight into their entire marketing strategy.

Competitor Shared Keywords:

Identify the specific terms each competitor targets and the common ground where rivalry heats up. This allows you to rank high-performing keywords while developing your personalized keyword strategy.

Top Keywords:

Investigate your competitors' top-ranking organic search and paid advertising keywords.

Learn about their click volume, cost-per-click (CPC), and prospective SEO techniques. Analyze this data to compare your Google Ads CPCs and improve your SEO strategies.

Top Google Ads Buy Recommendations:

SpyFu suggests appropriate keywords for your Google Ads campaigns. Determine which rivals are already pursuing these keywords and measure the strength of the suggestion using the blue rating bar.

This may be a valuable resource for growing your keyword pool and getting targeted visitors.

Analyzing The Data: What To Look For?

Here are things to check for when examining competition Google Shopping Ads (with ethical tools that access public data):

Product & Listing Insights:

Top-selling products: Determine which goods frequently feature in your competitors' top rankings. This may reveal popular patterns and guide your product strategy.
Product Titles & Descriptions: Check keywords, details, and unique selling points. This may boost your product listings.
Pricing Strategies: Compare your rivals' prices. Are they competitive, expensive, or a mix? Assess their prices against product quality and brand perception.

Keyword Targeting:

Shared Keywords: Find keywords your rivals seek that match yours. This will identify high-competition keywords and suggest lower-competition ones.
Long-Tail Keywords: Specific keyword phrases drive focused, high-purchase-intent visitors.

Campaign Strategies:

Landing Page Insights: While you can't view the precise landing pages for Google Shopping Ads, tools may provide information about the kind of landing pages that rivals use. Check whether they go to product or category pages.
Social Media Presence: If competitor analysis tools include information on social media activity, investigate how companies market their goods on these networks. This may suggest ideas for social media integration for Google Shopping Ads.

Analyzing rival Google Shopping Ads data ethically and strategically may provide significant insights for optimizing your product listings, keyword targeting, and overall campaign strategy.

Tips For Effectively Using Information After Spying On Google Shopping Ad Competitors

The e-commerce industry depends on targeted advertising, and Google Shopping Ads rule supreme. With 85.3% of Google Ads clicks coming from Shopping Ads, this platform has huge customer-attracting potential.

However, merely running Google Shopping Ads is not enough. Here are some tips for using that information effectively:

1. Optimize Your Product Title

Well-optimized product names may greatly enhance the click-through rates (CTR) for Google Shopping advertising. In fact, the more keyword-rich product names increased CTR by 18%, while the CTR increase for the precise query match to the term added to the title was 88%.

So, find your rivals' top keywords. As instructed above, search phrases with high volume and low competition may be found using SEMRush or SpyFu.

Also, focus on clarity and concision:

Descriptive Titles Under 70 Characters: Make sure your names describe the product.
Focus on Information: According to Google Merchant Center, titles that surpass 150 characters are shortened. Place the most relevant keywords and product information at the beginning.

For example, in the image below, Allbirds Google Shopping Ads title is "Allbirds Tree Skippers, Navy Night (white), Lace-up Casual Shoes."

The title clearly states the product category, brand, model, and major characteristics. Also, customers looking for these shoes may use keywords like "Tree Skippers," "Navy Night," and "Casual Shoes".

Allbirds’s Google Shopping Ads

Remember:

Avoid all capitals and spammy language: According to Google's recommendations, employing all caps might make you look untrustworthy.
Focus on features and benefits: Highlight your product's uniqueness and value to prospective buyers.
Skip Promotional Details: Google does not allow promotions such as price or discount in titles.

By combining these data and competitive information, you can create attractive and informative product descriptions that increase clicks and boost the effectiveness of Google Shopping ads.

Use Strong Negative Keywords To Improve Google Shopping Ads

When creating Google Shopping Ads, it is critical to ensure they reach the intended audience.

Negative keywords are search queries you avoid in ads. For example, if you offer expensive shoes, you wouldn't advertise "cheap shoes" or "used leather shoes."

Consider using SpyFu to analyze competing ad strategies. Look for terms they omit that might be useful to your negative keyword list.

Create a negative keyword list using SpyFu to analyze rival ads.

Pay attention to relevant search phrases that are receiving a large number of clicks but are failing to produce any conversions. To save ad expenditure, include these as negative keywords.

2. Choose The Right Images

High-quality product photos are critical to Google Shopping Ads performance. They attract attention, show your product's worth, and convert clicks.

Minimum Resolution: Google's smallest size is 100x100 pixels for non-clothing and 250x250 pixels for apparel. Refer to Google Merchant Center guidelines.
File Size Constraints: Avoid huge, slow-loading graphics. Google restricts file size to 16 MB and resolution to 64 MP.

Example: Google Shopping Ads product photos.

Remember:

Background Matters: Choose a clean, white, or transparent backdrop to match Google Shopping ad styles.
Unique Images for Variants: Each color variety of your product should have distinct, high-quality pictures.
No Promotions in Images: Text like discounts, warranties, and delivery information cannot be in the picture.
Accurate Variant Representation: Each picture of a product should show the version that it represents (for example, a red shirt in a picture of a red shirt).

Pro tips: Using tools like Shine Commerce, you can examine rival product listings and learn about their image strategy.

Features of Shine Commerce analyze competitor product listings and prices.

Another helpful tool is SEMrush PLA, which allows you to examine competitor product listings on Google Shopping and find the picture parts that are working well.

3. Make Your Landing Pages Perfect

While creating appealing Google Shopping Ads is essential for garnering clicks, your landing page is what generates purchases.

Here's how to maximize your landing page conversions:

3.1. Always Make Your CTA Stand Out On Your Page

According to research from the Norman Nielsen Group, users tend to scan just the top half of a page.

So, use prominent calls to action ("Add to Cart," "Buy Now") placed above the fold to direct people towards making a buy.

Take a look at the image below as an example. Allbirds places their "ADD TO CART" button right below the product size selection section for higher conversions and a better customer shopping experience.

Allbirds’s CTA button on the product page.

3.2. Leverage Social Proof

Customers looking to buy online want confidence. Reviews do not convert as many people as testimonials do. Testimonials appear on 36% of the best landing pages, whereas reviews are found on only 11%.

So, display good feedback and testimonials to resolve product quality, description accuracy, and website security concerns.

Examples of testimonials

Read more:

You can encourage client reviews:

Automatic Requests: Using automatic email prompts, encourage pleased consumers to submit feedback.
Optimal timing: To cut misunderstandings, send review requests after product delivery.
Incentives: Offer discounts or free delivery to encourage consumers to share their stories.

Pro Tip: For Shopify users, EComposer Page Builder may help you create landing pages faster. This is the best drag-and-drop editor without coding and enables you to:

Create any page type, including landing pages, home pages, and product pages.
Easily add and edit reviews and testimonials.
Create attractively using a user-friendly interface and pre-designed templates.
Improve functionality with built-in tools such as Ajax Cart, Color Swatches, and Image Optimizer.
Use sophisticated features such as Page Analytics and AI Content Generator.

EComposer Landing Page drag-and-drop designer.

Try this #1 Shopify Landing Page for free today!

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FAQs

1. Is It Ethical To Spy On Competitors' Google Shopping Ads?

The ethicality of spying on rivals' Google Shopping Ads is determined by the tactics utilized.

Unethical Practices:

Downloading competitor ad info without permission is against Google's rules and may be illegal.
Using automatic tools for scraping can cause rival websites to become overloaded.

Ethical Practices:

Using Google Ads features: Google provides tools inside the platform for high-level competition analysis (without disclosing specifics).
Using competitor research tools: Many third-party businesses rely on publicly accessible data to provide insights about rival ad strategies, keywords, and landing sites.
Analyze competitor advertisements organically: Observing rival advertisements in search results and making notes on their message, images, and CTAs is an appropriate method of gathering information.

The goal is to collect information without interfering with rival activities or infringing privacy. When in doubt, err on the side of caution and follow ethical practices.

2. Won't Competitors Be Able To See My Information If I Use Competitor Research Tools?

No, competitor research tools will not share your information with your rivals. These technologies use publicly accessible data or approaches that do not require you to provide personal information.

Here is an analogy: Assume you're exploring a shop window, admiring competition items and displays. Competitor research tools work similarly, enabling you to analyze publicly accessible information about competitors' methods without making them our findings.

3. How Often Should I Be Spying On My Competitors?

Here's how often you should do competitive research for your Google Shopping Ads:

Minimum Baseline: Conduct a complete study of your competitors at least every three months. This will give essential fundamental insight into them and help you spot strategy alterations.
Ideal Scenario: Conduct a competition analysis biweekly (every two weeks) for a more proactive strategy. This will help you remain up to speed on small changes and see developing trends sooner.

By conducting regular competition research and converting findings into practical changes, you can keep your Google Shopping Ads competitive and achieve ideal results.

Related posts:

Key Takeaways

In this blog post, we've examined the three free trial tools for competition research for Google Shopping ads. Also, getting honest information about how your rivals do things could help you find profitable opportunities, improve your ad text and creatives, and improve your landing pages.

Don’t forget to boost your Google Shopping Ads with stunning landing pages! Try EComposer for free and see how easy it is to create high-converting landing pages.

Remember that the competition environment for Google Shopping Ads is constantly changing. Learn more about keeping ahead in the ever-changing world of e-commerce on our blog.

EComposer Team

Hi friend, we're Shopify gurus from EComposer. A team of 10-year experienced and certified experts. Additionally, our expertise has been recognized and highlighted in esteemed publications such as TechCrunch, Shopify Expert, Entrepreneur, and Forbes. We want to share our experience and knowledge about Technology, AI, Shopify, Marketing and E-commerce.