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Master Google Ads Keyword Grouping to Build High Converting Campaigns

Separate your keywords into high-level Campaigns and then hyper-focused Ad Groups to maximize the performance of your Google Ads campaign. Keywords are the building blocks of a successful  Google Ads campaign. Like with any construction, starting with high-quality building materials is essential. But in order to get the results you want, you need to put each of those pieces in its right place.  If you build your Google Ads campaign the right way, you’ll get more clicks, produce more conversions, and score a high Quality Score with Google (which can result in higher ad rank, lower CPC, and higher ROI).Before we start breaking down your keywords, let’s take a look at the basics of your Google Ads account structure. Google Account Structure Your Google Ads account is the unique account you created for your business. You’ll only have one “account” for each business that you work with. Within that account, you’ll need to have at least one Campaign and Ad group. What is the Google Ads  Campaign?A “Campaign” in Google Ads is the top level of organization for your account.  Each Campaign is made up of one or more Ad Groups (which are then made up of keywords and ads).  You can have up to 10,000 campaigns within your Google Ads account, and each campaign has its own settings, like budget and location targeting.  What is an  Ad Group? An Ad Group in Google Ads is a group of ads and the keyword phrases that trigger those ads. An ad group is contained within a specific campaign. Ad Groups can be customized with their own bids and some settings (like device targeting and ad rotation strategies), but budget and location can only be set at the Campaign level. How To Group Your Keywords In Your  Campaigns: Build Campaigns Based on High-Level Criteria To break down your massive list of keyword phrases into focused Ad Groups, start by separating them into big buckets based on the most critical shared characteristics. Those big buckets will become your Campaigns. 2. Build your campaigns around high-level differentiators in your business, like categories of products or services. Google recommends creating a separate campaign for any group of keywords that requires a separate budget. Or to target a specific geographic region. In general, use a separate  campaign for a group of keywords when: You want to separate broad categories, classes, or types of products. (i.e., televisions versus cameras)You need to be able to adjust the ad budget for that category of products or services without affecting other ones.You need to target different geographic regions with specific keywords or ad copy. Some successful campaigns can be built using different criteria, such as branded vs. non-branded keywords or the user’s search intent (Purchase, Compare, Educate). Use these ideas as a guide but build your campaigns based on the categories that matter most to your business. Group your keywords into highly-relevant Ad Groups Now you have your Campaign buckets, which are filled with a lot of keywords that share at least one big thing in common. Your next step is to take determine what differentiates these keywords from one another. And then break them down into smaller groups based on that criteria. How far should you go in breaking down your Ad Groups? The ultimate goal is that you can write ad copy that is equally relevant to each keyword in the Ad Group. In most cases, you’re going to want to stop short of creating separate Ad Groups for every one or two words or your campaigns will be too broad to be manageable. It’s possible that an Ad Group could have as many as 50-100 keywords. Others may only be 5 to 10 related keyword phrases. As long as your ad copy is relevant to each keyword in the group, then you’re giving yourself the best chance at success. What does an  Ad Group look like? Let’s take a look at how you might handle this if you were organizing keywords for a campaign advertising televisions. We’ll start with this (abbreviated) list of keywords for the Campaign “televisions”:  You should start by creating general ad groups for each type of television in your assortment-- like LCD or OLED.  But you’ll also need separate ad groups for other important modifiers like 4k, 8k, Ultra-HD, and ultra-thin TVs too.And you’ll probably want to create Ad Groups for major brands (Samsung LCD, Samsung OLED) as well. You can see how this can get pretty detailed very quickly.  But the more focused your ad groups are, the more specific and relevant your ad copy will be.Think about it-- if your customer is searching for ‘Samsung QLED TV,” which of these headlines are they more likely to click on? Of course, they’re going to choose Option #2-- because it’s showing them exactly what they were searching for. That’s the power of tightly-focused Ad Groups. Beyond simply boosting your click-through rates, targeted ad copy can help improve your eCommerce conversion rates and improve your Quality Score, which can help you rank better for key terms and even reduce your CPC. Writing  Ads That Generate Clicks You’ve created a comprehensive list of keywords for all your products. You’ve broken them down into Campaigns by key categories. And then into neat, little, tightly-organized, and highly-focused  Ad Groups. Now you need to create ad copy that makes all that highly-focused traffic want to click. Sign up for a free iSpionage account to see competitor keywords, ad groups, ad copy, and landing pages. Receive 10 free competitor reports and 3 complimentary competitor alerts per day.
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How to Optimize PPC Ads for Better Conversion Rates

If you’re spending money on Paid Search Ads (PPC), you probably spend a considerable amount of time checking your conversion rate. After all, what’s the point of buying Google ads if it doesn’t convert into paying customers?  Thankfully, there are several ways to optimize your PPC campaigns, get a higher Quality Score in Google, and improve your landing page conversion rate. In this article, we explain how Google defines Quality Score and areas where you should focus to improve your low quality score, which will lead to more conversions. Then, we’ll show you how to utilize SEM competitive insights to fine-tune your strategy.
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How to Turn Google Ads with No Impressions into High-Performing PPC Campaigns

There are few things more frustrating in the PPC world than spending hours or even days building out a new Google Ads campaign, only to get no (or very few) impressions on your ads. While Google ads with no impressions can feel discouraging, they don’t always signal a problem — and when they do, a simple fix often boosts impressions and sends campaigns off to the races.
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Founder Interview: How One Digital Agency is Adapting to the Crisis and Economic Downturn

“When times are difficult, it's vital to be human, transparent, and flexible with your clients. Take time to listen — and be truly empathetic. Then can you figure things out together and support each other as partners who are in the same boat.” This was one point made by Alex Minchin, Founder and Managing Director of Zest Digital, in our recent conversation about how agencies can respond to a sudden economic downturn.
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How to Lower CPC on Google Ads: 3 Key Strategies Based on Competitor Analysis

If you’re running PPC advertising on Google Ads (Google Adwords), lowering your cost-per-click (CPC) is likely to be a constant ambition. Naturally, efficient campaigns generate a better ROI, and this can maximize your profits or enable you to scale advertising efforts to new heights. So, rather than setting-and-forgetting your Google Ad campaigns, it’s vital to tweak your setup to achieve lower CPCs.
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Why Pay For Your Web Traffic, When You Can Get It For Free?

That’s why organic SEO is so important – getting your site listed in Google’s NON-PAID search results, so you can capture visitors who are not clicking on PPC ads. The problem is, most people waste too much time on SEO that brings little or no traffic because they’re going in blind! The key to maximum return on your SEO effort is knowing which keywords are worth your time. In this quick video, we will show you: How to use your iSpionage account to get tons of free traffic by pinpointing the right keywords for your site. How to access valuable details Google tries to hide from you.How one site is saving over $39,000 with free traffic, and how you can borrow their methods to save money on your traffic. Click the video to start watching now… iSpionage will forever change how you approach free traffic.  Here’s what an iSpionage user says about iSpionage for SEO:  "… an excellent tracking and competitive intelligence tool for both SEO and PPC. One really unique attribute I like is it places value on the SEO traffic in terms of how much you would need to spend on PPC to obtain those rankings. This is extremely helpful to both clients and getting prospects" - Alan Bush, VP of Strategy, Ignite Visibility Try iSpionage Risk-Free for 30 days UPGRADE NOW
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Adwords Landing Page Intelligence = More Conversions

Your success or failure with Adwords and PPC hinges on what I’m about to tell you… There’s a 3-step journey your website visitors MUST take before you’ll ever see one morsel of profit.  Here’s the journey: Keyword > Ad > Landing Page Each step serves an important purpose… 1. Your keywords TARGET the right people. 2. Your ads BRING people to your site. 3. Your landing pages CONVERT people into leads or customers. That’s why traffic doesn’t make you money.  Conversions do.  And it’s why you won’t see ANY profit until your LANDING PAGE converts. But it can take months and thousands of dollars in testing to get your landing page to convert visitors to your satisfaction. Fortunately, you can slash the testing required to get awesome landing page results, so you can create more successful and profitable campaigns faster. How? Simple…with iSpionage…  …the ONLY competitive intelligence tool that documents the entire user journey of your most successful competitors, including the landing pages triggered by their highest converting keywords and ad copy. In just seconds, you can see the exact campaigns (keywords, ads and landing pages) your most dominant competitors are using to corner the market. Watch a quick video tutorial on exactly how you can do this. In no time, you’ll be swiping your top competitors’ most effective ideas to help ensure your own campaigns are effective. iSpionage gives you: Advanced insight on what’s actually working right now. Access to the entire user journey (keywords > ads > landing pages). You won’t find this anywhere else.The best source of proven ideas, tactics, strategies and offers to borrow for your own landing pages.A short-cut for your research time.Less advertising risk.The ability to create more profitable campaigns faster. Click the video below to see how easily you can do all of this and more… UPGRADE your account and take 30 days to decide with our 30-day money-back guarantee. Let your not-so-smart competitors struggle while you hit the ground running with instant access to the most effective campaigns in your industry or niche. Here’s some praise from another happy iSpionage user: "Before I ever launch an SEO or PPC campaign I like to uncover exactly what my competitors are doing. What keywords are they bidding on? How much are they bidding? What ad copy are they using? How long have they been using the ad copy? What landing pages are they using to convert traffic? iSpionage allows me to do all this and more. I can confidently launch campaigns with a proven formula for success, and save a lot of time and money in the process!"- Robbie Richards Try iSpionage Risk-Free for 30 days UPGRADE NOW
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How Your Competitor Help Write Best Ad Copy For You

Successful PPC campaigns are based on 3 things: 1. Keywords > 2. Ad copy > 3. Landing Pages (with a great offer) I already showed you how to select great keywords with iSpionage’s proprietary KEI score (Keyword Effectiveness Index). iSpionage has another proprietary (and priceless) tool you can access right now in your free account explained in this video. It’s called the iSpionage AEI score (Ad Effectiveness Index). The AEI shows your competitors’ best-performing ads based on 4 critical metrics (our tech does all the math for you).  Even better…in a matter of clicks, you instantly see: Which ads rank the highest Which ads drive the most trafficWhich ads have been used the longestWhich keywords trigger each adAnd one AEI score that ranks all ads in order of their effectiveness So if you want to see the #1 most effective ad (and all the rest) in your industry or niche AND the set of keywords which triggered them, you can see them inside iSpionage right now. There’s only so much I can explain in this email. So I made this video to show you how powerful this can be for your business. Check it out the video You’d be a fool to do any PPC advertising without first seeing the ads your competitors are willing to pour millions of dollars into. You could work 24 hours a day and NEVER learn all that iSpionage shows you in seconds. Let iSpionage keep tabs on all the most effective ads in your industry or niche for you. P.S. Here’s what some of our thousands of happy customers are saying: "Of all the tools we use, iSpionage has to be #1 when it comes to better understanding our competitors' PPC and SEO strategies. The intel they provide helps us make much smarter business decisions. Bottom line: We save a ton of time and money." - Dan P "I have been a Web Developer and PPC marketer for more than 15 years, and iSpionage is probably the most reliable competitor research tool I have ever used..." - K. Ellingsen Try iSpionage Risk-Free for 30 days UPGRADE NOW
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How to Use Competitor Alerts to Automate Your Research

Last time we talked about how our proprietary Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) will help you uncover your competitor's most profitable keywords. In case you missed that, here's the video tutorial again: How to Find Profitable Keywords Faster with iSpionage's KEI Score Today, I want to talk to you about the benefits of setting up an iSpionage Competitor Alert. For all the details, watch this 5-minute video: When you manage a Google Ads campaign, sometimes you run out of ideas about which keywords to test. Sometimes, you just don't have the time to do more research on Google’s Keyword Planner to find new profitable keywords. But keywords are the lifeblood of your Google Ads campaign. Your business only shows up to Google users who type in the keywords you bid on in your campaign. Thus, it’s critical to keep adding and testing new keywords. That’s where iSpionage Competitor Alerts come in. With iSpionage Competitor Alerts, we send you a set of new keywords each week that your competitors started using or testing during the previous week. We scan 95,000,000+ keywords across hundreds of verticals on a regular basis. If your competitors start using new keywords, we’ll see them and will let you know right away. Can you imagine how long it would take for your team to gather that amount of competitive intelligence data on their own? Well don’t worry, we’ve automated the entire process so you just need to login and download the new keywords you want to test each week. Watch this 5-minute tutorial video to see how you can set up a Competitor Alert and get a steady dose of targeted keywords on a weekly basis. When you use Competitor Alerts, it’s like letting your competitor’s search marketing team or agency do your keyword research for you. Doesn't that sound awesome? Competitor Alerts also let you: Expand your keyword lists automaticallyReduce your risk with Keyword Effectiveness Index insightsSave money and run a profitable campaign. iSpionage Risk-Free for 30 days UPGRADE NOW
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How to Beat Google Ads Competitors and Maximize Profits

Your competitors are spending thousands on PPC (pay-per-click) traffic in Google, Yahoo and Bing. iSpionage lets you spy on all their expensive hard work, so you can: Discover their most profitable keywords, ads and landing pagesLower the RISK and COST of your own (or your clients’) PPC adsIncrease your conversionsMaximize your profit Here’s how. One of the most important bits of intel iSpionage reveals to you is the KEI score for every keyword your competitors use. Your competitors do NOT want you to have this information. I’ll explain… KEI stands for Keyword Effectiveness Index, and only iSpionage has it. It’s based on a proprietary algorithm that tells you which keywords are likely to be the most profitable for your competitors based on factors explained in this video. It probably took your competitors months of testing and thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of dollars to discover what the KEI scores tell you instantly. You can even sort all keywords by KEI score, so you can save even more time and focus on only the top-performing keywords. Having KEI scores always at your fingertips: Slashes your keyword research timeLets you cherry-pick the best keywords with confidenceHelps you get traffic at a lower cost with higher conversions And that’s the ultimate goal, right? Unless you love flushing your time and money down the toilet, do not launch a PPC campaign without checking the iSpionage KEI scores. Watch this quick video to see KEI in action: Your free iSpionage account will only show a handful of results per search and limits your daily usage. We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee for all of our paid accounts. That means if you sign up TODAY to spy on your competitors’ most profitable keywords, you’ll have 30 full days to test iSpionage out and to make sure it’s right for your business. So what are you waiting for? UPGRADE NOW to uncover your competitors’ most profitable PPC keywords, ads, and landing pages! P.S. Here’s what some of our thousands of users are saying: Best Competitor Intelligence Tool for PPC & Conversion Optimization "I have used all the keywords and spying tools on the market. iSpionage is the only one that is 100% focused on insights that you can make money with…" - Jamie Smith More than just a spy tool "Back in the day, keyword spy tools were great, but now the landscape has evolved and I need to know what my competitors are doing on their landing pages too. This helps fuel new ideas for my tests and what I can do to increase my conversion rates and be more aggressive with my PPC campaigns." - Jonathan Dane Take a look at these 5-star CAPTERRA reviews to see more real customers' reviews. Try iSpionage Risk-Free for 30 days UPGRADE NOW
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PPC Prospecting Software: How to Find PPC Prospects and Turn Them Into Clients

As a PPC agency or consultant, you may be looking for ways to boost client acquisition and improve your prospecting strategy. Lots of articles out there promise secret tips and tricks for getting new PPC clients. They might tell you to encourage referrals, personalize proposals, or promote case studies. However, few will offer a detailed method for using prospecting software to find and secure new PPC clients.
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Competitive Intelligence Tools for Your Marketing Technology Stack

Lots of articles out there will give you an exhaustive list of competitive intelligence tools — 50 or more. But this just adds to the noise and confusion, and doesn’t help you navigate the vast marketing technology landscape. Instead, we’ve chosen to curate a lineup of our favorite competitive intelligence tools for a marketer’s stack. That is, for each use case or purpose, we’ve listed the one tool we recommend, discuss why, and dive into their unique features.
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What is the Best SpyFu Alternative?

SpyFu is a popular tool for SEO and PPC competitor research, but many people are searching for an alternative. Why? Maybe you want to test a tool with a free trial (or a limited free account), or perhaps you’re looking for deeper insights — including what landing pages competitors are using for each ad or keyword or how long they’ve been bidding on a particular keyword. Maybe you’re simply looking for a fresh perspective on competitor data.
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Paid Search Competitor Analysis Tools: A Deep Dive into 5 of the Best

The vast array of digital marketing tools on the market can be overwhelming. At the last count, the martech landscape consisted of over 7,000 different tools. When you want to do paid search competitor analysis, there are comprehensive tools that build competitor research into their wider functionality, and there are specialist tools that focus solely on PPC competitor data. As a marketer, it can be difficult to know which way to go.
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The Secret to Wildly Successful Google Local Ads

Perfecting local PPC campaigns with Google Ads is the biggest challenge in search engine marketing (SEM). It’s true whether you’re multi-million dollar agency managing ad campaigns for a nationwide health insurance company or an independent hair salon opening your second shop on the other side of town.
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Dropbox vs ShareFile: Who has the best landing pages in the online file sharing space?

Your landing pages are the moneymakers in your PPC campaigns. Or at least they should be. They’re the deal-closers. The sweet-talkers. Your online, 24-hour digital sales force. Even if your PPC ads are driving high-value traffic, you’re wasting money on every click if your landing pages don't convert that traffic into free trials, paid users, or revenue-generating leads High-converting landing page ideas come from many places-- client interviews, customer feedback, your marketing team, and your competitors.   At iSpionage, we’re big fans of that last one. 
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3 Simple Ways to Squeeze More Profit Out of Google Ads eCommerce Campaigns

Lots of people are spending money on Google and Facebook ads, but not everyone knows how to squeeze the maximum profit out of their campaigns. Let me give you an example. I started working with a small eCommerce company a couple months ago that advertises with Facebook and Google ads. They were managing their campaigns themselves but then hired me to see if I could help them get a better return.
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5 Content Amplification Strategies That Beef Up Viewership  

No matter how engaging and informative your content is, it’s only worthwhile if people actually see it. Many bloggers and business owners focus on creating great content, but they don’t spend as much time on the amplification process. In today’s busy online world, it’s not enough to just create great content—you also have to develop an effective amplification strategy to ensure that this content reaches your audience.
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