Proven Competitor Keyword Strategies to Outrank Your Rivals

Competitor keyword strategies can help you see where your competition is outranking you, so you can get the upper hand. Read on to find out what the experts recommend.

When it comes to digital marketing, any opportunity to work smarter vs. harder is one worth exploring. (Of course, we work hard around here, but we also know time is valuable.)

This is especially true when it comes to trying to beat your competitors on the search engine results page (SERP).

Nearly every industry is in fierce competition with other businesses, vying for top spots in search results and the same target audience.

That’s where a competitor keyword strategy comes in. Here, we chat with Jordan Fultz, a lead strategist at HawkSEM.

He helps us break down what a competitor keyword strategy is, how businesses can leverage it properly, what benefits it can bring, and more.

Searchers who are using competitor keywords in their search query have probably been exposed to ads and gained some loyalty or interest in your competitor. (Image: Unsplash)

What is a competitor keyword strategy?

A competitor keyword strategy is the specific, proactive approach to how you want your ads to interact with the marketing funnels of competitors.

“The strategy determines when to exclude competitor keywords and audiences, when to poach customers, and how budgets can be impacted,” Fultz explains.

While this mostly applies to target keywords for paid search ads and PPC campaigns, it can also encompass your search engine optimization (or SEO) strategy through organic keywords you target through your website content and other written marketing collateral.

How a competitor keyword strategy can benefit your business

Fultz says it’s important to remember that searchers who are using competitor keywords in their Google search query have probably been exposed to ads and gained some loyalty or interest in your competitor.

However, the product purchase hasn’t been completed.

“Even though the cost per click may be high, you’re saving money on upper-funnel marketing if you can poach a potential customer at the lower funnel,” he explains.

That’s why it’s worth testing competitor ad campaigns that leverage Google’s new customer targeting settings, signaling that you’re willing to pay a little more for people who are new to your store but also possess behavioral signals at the bottom of the sales funnel.

A competitor keyword strategy can benefit your company by helping you identify:

• Underserved target audience members
• Areas of optimization
• Where you can fine-tune your understanding of search intent
• Competitive keyword gaps that need to be addressed (also called a gap analysis)

What does a competitor keyword strategy cost?

When you’re targeting a competitor’s keywords, consider this additional ad spend an investment in your company’s success.

“Competitor keywords are typically more expensive to target because of Google Ads’ Quality Scores of keywords and how they interact with cost per click,” Fultz explains.

Artificial intelligence (AI) campaigns now use brand inclusion and exclusion lists, which are essential to success in the same way older campaign types require negative keyword management.

It’s key to seek out your search competitors specifically, on both the paid and organic sides. (Image: Unsplash)

How to build a competitor keyword strategy

A thorough competitor keyword strategy involves gathering data, analyzing metrics, reviewing ad copy, and checking out competitors’ websites to get a better understanding of your competitions’ keyword rankings.

This process can help you come up with a list of top keyword ideas you can add into your existing content strategy and paid search plan to get your brand name more impression share and increased visibility on the SERP.

Determine your top competitors

Think you know which businesses are your top competitors? You might want to double-check that.

Some brands in your field may get the lion’s share of sales, but they invest in different digital marketing tactics — or in other types of marketing altogether.

That’s why it’s key to seek out your search competitors specifically, on both the paid and organic sides.

The right keyword research tools — like Semrush, Ahrefs, SpyFu, and Google Ads Auction Insights — can help you see metrics like who consistently appears beside you on the SERPs and ad auctions. Those are the brands whose specific search terms you’ll want to analyze first.

Pro tip: Don’t skip over third-party sites — review blogs, niche publishers, and comparison websites often rank for high-value information-based queries and provide quality backlinks as well.

Conduct a competitor keyword analysis

Now that you’ve IDed the key players, you can dig into their top-performing keywords via a competitive analysis.

Top organic search keywords are the terms that drive the most organic traffic through SEO efforts and get them high visibility in search results.

Top paid search keywords are the terms they’re bidding on, the match types they’re probably using, and the ratio of branded to non-branded keywords.

You can do this analysis first-hand through your own SERP research. You can also take advantage of tools like Similarweb to speed up the process and ensure nothing falls through the cracks during your research.

“Google Ads already has keyword planning tools to scout ahead when considering competitor keyword experiments,” says Fultz.

Further reading: Short-Tail vs. Long-Tail Keywords: Key Differences (+ When to Use Each)

Examine their top-ranking pages

Check out the high-ranking, high-visibility content and web pages your rivals are ranking for. This is the perfect time to see which content gaps exist in your own content and landing pages. From there, you can address them via content marketing targeting specific keywords.

Of course, you don’t want to just blindly follow in their footsteps, mimicking their posts or style.

Rather, use this as an opportunity to ask yourself if there are underserved audience segments or “low-hanging fruit” relevant keywords that make sense for you to cover on your own site using your unique brand voice.

Third-party tools that estimate volume and costs associated with competitor terms are valuable ways to assess the risks and benefits.

“Heatmapping tools like Microsoft Clarity are also useful if you’re creating custom landing pages for your competitor keyword campaigns, allowing you to observe user behavior when they land,” says Fultz.

For example, you’ll want to analyze if they’re bouncing from the page immediately because they’re only interested in the competitor’s site, or if they simply didn’t find what they were looking for (like a comparison graphic to check out the pros and cons of using your business vs. the competitor).

Revisit your keyword strategy and optimize accordingly

Armed with all of this helpful data and info, you can reexamine your current keyword research strategy and determine what modifications, if any, should be made. To guide this process, you can ask questions like:

• Are our keywords aligned with our current goals?
• Are we missing any high search volume, high-intent keywords?
• Have we leveraged negative keywords properly?
• Are there any keywords we target organically that we should target via paid ads?
• Are there keyword opportunities to optimize for SERP features like AI Overview and featured snippets?
• Do our competitors rank well with certain content types we underutilize?
• Could their formatting choices help them outrank us (such as the use of video, multimedia, interactive elements, etc.)?
• Do we have a plan for regularly optimizing and refreshing existing content?

Pro tip: Avoid getting into bidding wars when you’re not in a position of success already, Fultz advises. Bidding on competitor keywords is expensive, but it might pay off for you. “Just ensure you’re already successful with your ad account before branching into competitor keyword experiments,” he says.

How to determine when to test competitor keywords

A business can consider testing competitor keywords when they have enough of a marketing budget to devote to an experiment.

“Chances are competitor keywords are already in the search terms of the account, especially from Performance Max, unless strict negative keywords and brand exclusions are used correctly,” says Fultz.

“Having said that, search term reports may have competitor keywords if you try filtering them by the competitor’s name, which could provide insights into expected cost per click.”

He adds that it’s also worth considering how competitive a business’s marketing vertical is, based on existing costs per click, number of advertisers, and difficulty of gaining impression share.

Pro tip: If competitor keywords are trademark-registered with Google Ads, then you probably can’t use them. This means your ad relevance will be lower. The result: lower keyword Quality Scores and lower ad rank in the SERP auction. Instead, Fultz recommends differentiating your ads with important value propositions that solve your customers’ pain points. Review competitor ads and landing pages to see what their ad copy reveals about how they’re securing customers.

The takeaway

Competitor keyword strategies aren’t about imitating what others are doing. Rather, they’re a way to understand the broader search landscape and how you stack up against your rivals.

This way, you can make more informed decisions — and build a smarter, more sustainable search engine marketing strategy.

When you pair valuable insights with targeted content, strategic PPC bidding, and consistent optimization, you’re on the fast track to outranking your competitors and leaving them in the dust.

Ready to see how we can help your digital marketing plan soar? Reach out today.