When faced with 30% over-year increases in CPCs and a somewhat poorer position on core non-brand terms, it’s tempting to throw up your hands and declare, that’s out of your reach. And, while you can’t easily reverse competitive pressures in a PPC account, no VP of Marketing or CMO is paying you to explain the apocalypse in slick PowerPoint slides. You should take as many steps as possible to counteract competitors.

Conquer the First Impression 

If your competitors are ranking higher than you and emphasising the same value propositions, you’re out of luck. Be proactive and learn what your competitors are emphasising in their adverts for key terms. Speak with your advertiser’s sales staff (for B2Bs) or read customer evaluations (for eCommerce) to see why someone would choose you above the competition. If you have a certain opponent that is consistently outperforming you, focus on the advantages you have over that competitor. If they have better cost, delivery, and selection, but you have superior customer reviews, make that clear in your ad language.

Look out for Conversion Rates

If your CPCs are increasing, the only practical strategy to offset CPA rises is to boost conversion rates. Begin by creating landing pages. Examine the landing pages that your rivals are using for key terms. Can you make it easier for users towards the bottom of the funnel to convert? Does the content of your landing pages represent the above-mentioned comparative advantages? Your competition may have aggressively boosted prices to acquire 20% more clicks, but that doesn’t indicate they’ll get 20% more conversions.

Consider your offer itself next. Is everyone else offering a free quote while you’re slinging the same old whitepaper? If this is the case, get a free quote. Consider your comparative advantages over the competition listed above. Assume that all visitors to your landing page have already been to your competitors’ websites (odds are, most of them have). Highlight how and why you have the competition beat as succinctly as possible.

Provide a Better UX

Because not every user is ready to convert on her first visit, make sure you meet them where they are in the funnel. This is especially beneficial if your competitors treat their landing pages as an all-or-nothing battle for a first-click conversion.

We are significantly more aggressive about why prior visitors should buy from us (and soon!) with sales language and other value propositions when they return to the site. Many customers do not make a purchase on the first click. A more useful user experience enhances the likelihood that they will return to your page by bookmarking it, clicking on an organic link, or searching for your brand. In each of these instances, we have eliminated the competitor’s advantage of higher bids.

Pay attention to Quality Score

Quality Score is a means to an end of getting a higher average position and fewer CPCs, not a goal in and of itself. However, when faced with stiff competition, Quality Score is an excellent strategy to outperform your rivals. Quality Score is Google’s way of rewarding you for providing more relevant ad copy and LPs. Increasing your Quality Score from 5 to 7 on a non-brand keyword will increase your ad rank by 40%! It not only allows you to be more competitive with the same bids, but it also raises the CPCs that our competitors must pay to appear ahead of you. Forcing their CPCs higher reduces their budget and diminishes their market strength.

Google tells you exactly what they think is and isn’t up to par. Examine what has to be done to improve QS at the keyword level, and implement the necessary adjustments as quickly as possible.

Fight Back against Competitors

Competitor campaigns are not always the greatest strategy to reach your advertising goals, but you will almost certainly have a disproportionate impact on your competitor’s brand CPCs. The more money they spend to preserve their brand, the less money they have to compete for top position and impression share on non-brand terms.

The competition is fierce. Nothing is more frustrating than a PPC account that is humming along and delivering tremendous performance improvements, only to go up in flames when a competitor doubles their bids, budgets, and impression share. “Be solutions-oriented,” a fundamental element of Metric Theory’sThe competition is fierce. Nothing is more frustrating than a PPC account that is humming along and delivering tremendous performance improvements, only to go up in flames when a competitor doubles their bids, budgets, and impression share. “Be solutions-oriented,” a fundamental element of Metric Theory’s organizational culture, is emphasized in every quarterly all-hands meeting, individual review, and recruiting meeting. A solution-oriented person develops and implements a success strategy. There are two kinds of PPC account managers: those who spend their time elegantly outlining how their competitors have stolen market share, and those who do something about it. You’ll be the second. organizational culture, is emphasized in every quarterly all-hands meeting, individual review, and recruiting meeting. A solution-oriented person develops and implements a success strategy. There are two kinds of PPC account managers: those who spend their time elegantly outlining how their competitors have stolen market share, and those who do something about it. You’ll be the second.