Google Ads Competitor Analysis: Top Tools and Tactics in 2025

Learn how to conduct a Google Ads (formerly AdWords) competitor analysis in 2025. Use tools like SpyFu, Semrush, and Ahrefs to track keywords, ad strategies, and PPC trends.
September 10, 2025

Google Ads Competitor Analysis: Top Tools and Tactics in 2025

Meta: A Google AdWords competitor analysis (now Google Ads) shows you keywords, copy, and landing pages. Read on to learn the tools and tips that I use in 2025.

A Google AdWords competitor analysis has changed a lot since the tool was rebranded from AdWords to Google Ads. Today, you can see rival keywords, ad copy, and landing pages in far more detail than before. Running these checks helps you spot threats early and adjust your campaigns to avoid wasting spend.

In this guide, I’ll break down the steps I follow, the tools I’ve tested, and the workflows that make the process practical in 2025.

What is Google AdWords competitor analysis?

A Google Ads (formerly AdWords) competitor analysis is the process of tracking rival keywords, ad copy, and landing pages to understand how competitor campaigns work. It means looking closely at the keywords they buy, the bids they set, the creatives they run, and the pages they drive traffic to. 

For example, by studying these details, I saw that one competitor leaned heavily on discount-driven ads, but their landing page felt cluttered and slow. I adjusted by testing cleaner layouts with a clear offer, and my conversions lifted without increasing spend.

Why competitor analysis matters in Google Ads

If you run campaigns without checking what competitors are doing, you’re diving in with no direction. Spend a few minutes studying their ads so you can get a clearer idea of where to focus and avoid wasting spend.

With a little research, you’ll see which of their keywords drive clicks and sales, and you’ll notice the audiences or placements they ignore. That’s your chance to step in and capture traffic they’ve missed.

You’ll also start to recognize the kind of copy that gets attention. When you see which messages land, you can better shape your own to speak more directly to customers.

Competitor research also shows where others overspend. When you spot waste, you can put your budget where it has a better chance of paying off. Even their landing pages and offers give you ideas for making your own pitch more convincing.

How to run a Google Ads competitor analysis

Running a Google Ads competitor analysis for the first time feels intimidating, but you can break the process into steps to make it more manageable.

Here’s how to do your Google Ads competitor research:

1. Identify your main competitors

Start by searching your key terms on Google and write down the brands that appear consistently in the ad slots. Then, check Auction Insights in your Google Ads account to see which advertisers overlap with you most often. 

Google Ads Transparency Center also helps when you want to confirm if a brand is active in Search or Display. 

When I worked with a fitness client, I expected Nike and Adidas to show up, but I also spotted two smaller shoe brands. That changed how I set priorities because I realized I was competing with niche players as well as household names.

The main lesson is to let the data guide you, instead of assuming who your competitors are. Build your list of competitors from what you see in the tools and use that list to focus your strategy.

2. Study competitor keywords

Keywords show you where competitors put their money. Use Google Keyword Planner to check for overlap with your campaigns, then turn to tools like SpyFu or Semrush to see how long they’ve been bidding on specific terms. 

If you want a quick look without paying for a subscription, try a free tool like Ubersuggest.

When you see a competitor invest in the same keywords over time, it usually means those terms deliver results. Use that pattern to decide which keywords are worth testing in your own campaigns.

3. Look at their ad copy and creatives

Studying how competitors write their ads gives you ideas you can use to sharpen your own.

Start with the Google Ads Transparency Center to review both current and past ads. Look at how often they rotate creatives, which headlines they repeat and the calls to action they use most often.

As you compare multiple ads, you’ll start to see patterns. Notice which offers show up again, which urgency tactics they rely on, and which emotional triggers they repeat. Pay close attention to how they frame value, whether it’s through free shipping, discounts, or guarantees. These details often reveal what resonates most with customers.

For example, I once ran this check for a retail client and noticed three competitors consistently leading with “Free Shipping” in their headlines. My client’s ads never mentioned shipping. We tested a variation with “Free 2-Day Shipping,” and it outperformed the control within a week.

4. Check landing pages and offers

Landing pages play a big role in turning a click into a conversion. Studying competitor pages helps you see what works and where your own pages might fall short. 

To start, click through their ads and note the basics. Look at the headline and call-to-action, the structure of any lead forms, and the overall mobile experience. Check how quickly the page loads and how smooth it feels to navigate on a phone.

Watch the types of offers they highlight. Some brands push limited-time discounts or free shipping. Others lean on free trials or bundled deals. These choices reveal what they believe persuades visitors to convert.

If you want to go deeper, use tools like BuiltWith to see which platforms or scripts support the page, or the Wayback Machine to review older versions. Both options give you a pretty good sense of how competitors adjust their landing pages over time.

5. Watch bidding strategies and placements

Competitor bidding and placement trends show you where rivals spend most of their budget and when they ramp up pressure in the auction.

Use Google Ads Auction Insights to see which advertisers bid most aggressively and how often they outrank you. This view also highlights shifts in impression share, which signal when competitors raise or lower their spend.

Another thing to look at is how they use the Display Network. A tool like Adbeat reveals where their display ads appear and which publishers they return to. This helps you understand which placements they value most.

Video and shopping ads matter too. Tools such as Semrush let you analyze competitor activity on YouTube and in Google Shopping results. These insights show how competitors spread budget across formats and where they may have an edge.

6. Estimate their budgets

Tools like SpyFu and Semrush provide spend estimates by combining data such as impression share, average cost-per-click (CPC), and historical bidding trends. 

Treat these numbers as rough estimates, not exact figures. They won’t tell you the exact dollar amount a competitor spends, but they can show you whether someone is investing heavily in a keyword, pulling back on bids, or shifting budget into new areas.

For example, I once ran a check in Semrush for a client in the fitness space and noticed a competitor suddenly increasing spend around ‘marathon training plans.’ The spike didn’t mean we had to match their budget, but it was enough to justify a small test campaign targeting part of that keyword set. The test showed promise at a manageable cost, which helped us decide whether scaling was worth it.

By pairing estimates with your own testing, you can turn competitor budget insights into practical decisions without wasting your money.

9 Top tools for Google Ads competitor analysis

I’ve tested quite a few tools in my career. Here are the tools I’ve tried and used, along with what each does best:

Tool Best for What it does Starting price
Google Ads Transparency Center Viewing competitor ads Lets you see active and past ads from any advertiser, searchable by brand or keyword Free
Auction Insights Auction-level competitor data Provides impression share, outranking share, and overlap rate within Google Ads campaigns Free (in Google Ads)
Semrush PPC keyword and budget insights Shows paid keyword data, competitor ad copy history, and estimates of Shopping and YouTube activity $139.95/month
SpyFu Affordable PPC spend estimates Reveals keyword history, ad copy changes, and directional budget estimates $39/month
Adbeat Display ad placements Tracks where competitor display ads run, which creatives they use, and how spend shifts over time $249/month
Similarweb Traffic benchmarking Estimates website traffic, audience geography, and referral sources for competitor domains $199/month
Ahrefs Search keyword and backlink analysis Shows competitor keyword rankings, backlinks, and top-performing pages $129/month
BuzzSumo Content and influencer research Finds top-performing content in your niche and highlights influencers driving engagement $199/month
TapClicks Marketing analytics and reporting Consolidates SEO, PPC, and social competitor data into dashboards for tracking and alerts $298/month (build-a-plan)

These are the tools I’ve used over the years to get a closer look at what competitors are doing and where they focus their spend. 

Each one serves a different purpose, from analyzing ad copy to tracking traffic or estimating budgets. If you’d like to dive deeper, check out our full guide on competitor analysis tools for a more detailed breakdown.

How to use competitor benchmarks

Competitor benchmarks work best when you treat them as signals for action. Here’s a simple process you can follow:

  1. Spot: Look for shifts in metrics like impression share, click-through rate (CTR), or CPC. If you see AdWords competitor data showing a rival’s numbers climbing while yours stay flat, mark it as a potential signal worth digging into.
  2. Validate: Ask why the change is happening. Did they launch new ad copy, raise bids, or shift budget into a different format? Use tools like Google’s Auction Insights or the Transparency Center to confirm.
  3. Test: Run a controlled experiment that responds to what you saw. If a competitor’s CTR jumped, test new hooks or offers in your ads. If your Google Shopping competitor analysis shows your rivals’ spend rose, try a small campaign in the same space.
  4. Track: Keep an eye on the benchmark over time. A one-week spike could be a promo, but steady movement signals a lasting strategy. Tracking helps you avoid overreacting or missing real trends.

Using benchmarks this way turns raw numbers into practical actions. You move beyond watching competitors and start learning, testing, and adapting before you fall behind.

Try this competitor changelog workflow for Google Ads

Most people approach a Google Ads competitor analysis by checking ads in isolation and moving on, but the real value comes from tracking changes over time

A simple changelog helps you see which competitors push harder, what promos they lean on, and how those moves affect your campaigns. It doesn’t need to be complicated; you just need a few minutes each week to build a record you can act on.

Here’s how you can set it up:

  • Cadence: Export Auction Insights once a week for your key campaigns and devices. Once a month, take a snapshot from the Ads Transparency Center to capture any new promos or creative changes.
  • What to track: Create a table or sheet with the columns: Competitor, New promo observed, Messaging angle, Overlap change week over week, Position above rate change, Action taken, and Result. Filling this in takes only a few minutes but builds a clear history you can review later.
  • Trigger rule: If you see overlap increase by 10% or more and CPCs rise by 8% or more in the same period, run a message test before you adjust bids. This keeps you from overspending when the real issue may be ad relevance.

Here’s a hypothetical example of what a simple changelog might look like:

Competitor New promo observed Messaging angle Overlap change w/w Position above rate Action taken Result
Nike 20% off running gear Price-driven offer 0.12 0.15 Tested “Free Shipping” headline CTR +9%
Adidas New sustainability campaign Eco-friendly messaging 0.03 0.05 Held steady, monitored No major change
Smaller brand X Free returns promo Risk-free trial 0.08 0.1 Shifted spend to weekdays CPC -11%

By keeping a log like this, you stop guessing and start building a record of what works against competitor moves. Over time, it becomes a playbook you can lean on whenever the market shifts.

How Bestever can help with competitor analysis on Meta, TikTok, & LinkedIn

Google Ads competitor analysis helps you see what drives rival campaigns and where you can adjust your own. The hard part is tracking ads over time and turning scattered data into insights you can actually use. 

If you also run campaigns on Meta, TikTok, or LinkedIn, Bestever can help. We use AI to review your competitors’ creatives and find patterns in what’s working versus what’s not.

With Bestever, you can:

  • Analyze your ads' effectiveness: Bestever’s Ad Analysis Dashboard gives you instant feedback on an ad's Visual Impact, Brand Alignment, Sales Orientation, and Audience Engagement. It’ll even break down each element in detail.
  • Get suggestions to improve every frame: If an ad isn’t hitting the mark, ask Bestever to tell you what’s wrong and get instant, actionable suggestions on what to do to fix it. No more guessing or wasting time, your team can start fixing those issues asap.
  • Understand your audience: Bestever’s audience analysis tools go beyond sharing standard demographics, helping refine both targeting and messaging. You can share your website URL or integrate it with your ad manager, and it’ll quickly let you know who wants to hear more from you. 
  • Rapid asset generation: Fetch AI-generated images, stock photos, and video clips that all fit your brand voice. Then you can share the creatives with your team to make multiple ad variations faster.
  • Instant feedback loop: Know immediately why an ad variant underperforms, then pivot before wasting your budget.

Want to see how your competitors’ ads are performing and how you can stay ahead? Let our team show you how Bestever can break down competitor campaigns, highlight what works, and help you adjust faster.

Schedule a free demo of Bestever now.

Frequently asked questions

How often should you run competitor analysis?

You should run a competitor analysis at least once a month and check weekly during active campaigns. Regular reviews help you catch changes in bidding, messaging, and offers before they affect your results. You’ll also want to re-check during seasonal peaks like holidays, when competitors usually adjust their spend.

Can you see competitor budgets in Google Ads?

No, you can’t see exact budgets in Google Ads, but you can see estimates. Tools like SpyFu or Semrush estimate spend based on impression share, CPC trends, and keyword history. These numbers are not exact, but they give you a directional sense of how much competitors invest in certain terms or formats. Use that insight to guide small tests instead of trying to match spend directly.

What is an ad spy tool and how does it help?

An ad spy tool is software that lets you see the ads competitors run across different platforms. These tools collect creatives, placements, and spend estimates so you can spot which messages and formats perform best. By reviewing this data, you can uncover trends in offers or hooks that resonate with audiences and apply those insights to your own campaigns.

How can you check competitors' ads on Google?

You can check competitors' ads on Google by using the Ads Transparency Center to view active and past ads from any advertiser. Auction Insights in Google Ads also shows who outranks you in the auction, and an ad spy tool can give you a broader view of your AdWords competitor analysis across networks.

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