You kill three birds with one shot when you learn how to identify best performing competitor ads.
FIrst, you get to stay in the know about what your competitors are doing. Second, you'll have creative inspiration galore. And third, you’ll never run out of campaign angles and offers you can make while promoting your ecommerce brand.
That's why watching over your shoulder for competitor ads is a crucial part of any ecommerce marketing strategy.
In this article, we'll talk about the steps to determining which of your competitors' ads are performing well and other things you can track and analyze from your competitors' marketing.
Scraping the web, hunting for ads out in the wild, and browsing to look for ads are not effective strategies. These practices cost time and are random and inefficient.
Here’s how to identify best performing competitor ads quickly and effectively:
- Get a holistic view first
- Spy on ads and campaigns from a top down view
- Look out for oldest active ads
- Find angles your competition uses
- Frequently Asked Questions
- How can I find the best-performing competitor ads?
- What are the essential metrics to analyze when examining competitor ads?
- How can I leverage competitor ad insights to enhance my advertising strategy?
Get a holistic view first
If you want to research how your competitors do marketing, start from a zoomed out view of everything your competitors are doing for marketing.
Ecommerce marketing strategy starts with their ecommerce site. Go there for a quick start.
Check your competitors' social handles (including Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube).
Do a quick check on their content marketing profile--do they have meaty content on their site? How is the site positioned for SEO?
How is the ecommerce site designed? How are their product pages designed? What other aspects of their product pages catch your attention?
From there, we can drill deeper into finer aspects of competitors’ marketing strategy.
Spy on ads and campaigns from a top down view
What do we mean by top-down view?
When you look at an ad that an ecommerce brand rolls out, you’ll want to guess what happens after a user clicks on the ad.
Where is the ad leading them? Is the ad creative made for reach or branding? Or is it an ad created directly to promote a particular product or product category?
Are the ads promoting a single product or a bundle of products? Are your competitor ads a part of broad and evergreen campaigns or are they seasonal campaigns?
After clicking on the ad, where is the user likely to be sent to? Is it directly to the ecommerce site? Is the user sent to a dedicated ecommerce landing page?
On the ecommerce landing pages, if any, are your competitors asking for a “sale” or is there a request to sign up for a coupon code?
Notice the marketing flow or the campaign flow and you’ll get a fair idea as to what you should do (or shouldn’t do) with your own marketing campaigns.
Look out for oldest active ads
Using Panoramata, identify the ads your competitors are running for the longest time by checking the oldest active ads. Some of these ads are social ads-- being run on social platforms such as Meta (Facebook), Instagram, Twitter, and so on. Social ads often have several comments underneath the ad itself.
Read those comments to glean insights on the brand, their quality of customer service, possible issues with competitor products, or any relevant service issues (comments will usually highlight some of these as users put them out in the open).
These ads not only give you creative inspiration but will also reveal insights about their customers’ experiences as well.
You’ll get insights on the brands since users reveal issues on the ground level which would have been impossible to get otherwise.
Find angles your competition uses
What are the most common angles that your brand’s competitors use while running ads and other marketing campaigns?
Do they focus on benefits or features more? Does your competition often take pot shots at other players within the industry?
Are the ads image-heavy with mostly product images? Or are the ads being run with a focus on people using products?
Do the ads feature social proof, testimonials, and so on? How is the ad copy written?
Do campaigns run ads comparing products with other products?
Finding out what angles your competition uses tells you what you should or shouldn’t do.
Get a crash course on offers & the marketing flow
While you are out there looking for ads and creatives using Panoramata, these are not the only things you’d look for.
Check out the marketing tools that your competitors use. Find out what your competitors are doing with respect to aspects such as content strategy (including SEO profile and content) , website design changes (using the snapshots feature), take a quick look at their landing pages, and so much more.
Delve farther than the obvious by also checking out the email marketing campaigns that your competitors use--including subject lines, email marketing frequency, the actual content of the emails, images used within emails, and more.
You’ll also be able to create inspiration lists or build complete repositories of competitor campaigns using Panoramata that you and your team can have access to.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I find the best-performing competitor ads?
Discovering top-performing competitor ads is made easy through competitive intelligence tools and analytics platforms. These tools provide insights into crucial metrics like engagement rates, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates, enabling you to pinpoint ads resonating most with your competitors' audiences.
Furthermore, keeping an eye on social media channels and ad networks where your competitors advertise can help you stay updated on their latest campaigns and spot emerging trends in their advertising strategies.
What are the essential metrics to analyze when examining competitor ads?
When analyzing competitor ads, it's essential to focus on key metrics indicative of overall performance and effectiveness.
These metrics include ad engagement metrics (such as likes, comments, shares), CTR, conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
By monitoring these metrics consistently, you can gain valuable insights into how well your competitors' ads resonate with their target audience and drive desired actions, informing your own advertising strategy.
How can I leverage competitor ad insights to enhance my advertising strategy?
Competitor ad insights serve as a valuable source of inspiration and benchmarking for refining your own advertising strategy.
By analyzing the creative elements, messaging, and targeting strategies utilized in top-performing competitor ads, you can identify best practices and trends to incorporate into your campaigns. Additionally, understanding which ads drive the most engagement and conversions for your competitors can help you optimize your targeting, messaging, and creative approach to better resonate with your audience.
Ultimately, leveraging competitor ad insights allows you to stay competitive, optimize ad performance, and drive superior results for your ecommerce brand.
