20 Best Google Ads Spy Tools to Outsmart Ecommerce Competitors

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Ecommerce marketing often feels like a race with no finish line. When you think you're ahead of the pack, another competitor speeds past you, leaving you in their dust. One way to get ahead of your rivals is by spying on their Google Ads. The information you gather can help you outperform them and optimize your campaigns for better results. This is where Google Ads Spy tools come in. In this article, we'll explore how these tools work, how to leverage them to gain insights into your competitors, TikTok Ecommerce Strategy and how Shophunter can help you.

Shophunter is a Shopify sales tracker that helps you uncover the secrets of your competitors Google Ads. Using this tool, you can quickly identify which of your rivals products are winning in their ad campaigns and get details on their sales performance. This can help you pinpoint lucrative opportunities to target in your own ads, so you can run profitable campaigns that outperform your competitors.

What are Google Ads Spy Tool?

Google Ads is Google's advertising platform, allowing businesses to promote their products and services across its vast network of apps and services. The platform will enable advertisers to create targeted ads and pay for them based on user interactions. Google Ads is Google’s primary source of income, accounting for over 80 percent of the company's total revenue. In 2020, Google Ads generated a staggering $147 billion.

The advertising platform helps businesses promote their products and services on Google and its vast network of apps and websites. By running Google Ads, businesses can reach potential customers actively searching for their products. Instead of waiting for organic search results to improve, Google Ads enables enterprises to reach the top of search results quickly and target their ideal audience. Google Ads works on a bidding system where advertisers bid for available advertisement spots across Google’s services.

How Google Ads Spy Tools Simplify Targeting and Strategy for Businesses

The platform has many advertising features, and you can get granular with your audience and keyword targeting, budget management, and ad properties. Advertising on Google can be pretty complicated, especially if you know little about the prerequisites and creatives you need to succeed.

Businesses spend years and months trying to figure out the best strategies for advertising their product and services on Google Ads, and if you need more time and plan to spend that much time on figuring things out, Google Ads Spy tools can come to the rescue.

What are Google Ads Spy Tools?

Google Ads spy tools help businesses analyze their competitors’ ad strategies to improve their own Google Ads campaigns. With the rise of many different websites and apps, reaching the first position on Google seems almost impossible. It’s only a hard thing to do, and not hard at all. You can achieve this by simply running ads.

You should learn more about all those competitors to analyze their performance and learn a thing or two from the insights shared so you can use them in your marketing.

Time-Saving Automation with Google Ads Spy Tools: Effortless Competitor Analysis and Data Extraction

Google Ads spy tools allow us to automate these actions. So, instead of looking for every single keyword and ad, you can ask a Google Ads spy tool to search the competitors and keywords up to do the job for you quickly.

These spy tools save you lots of time from coming up with creatives and learning more about ad strategy. They will go through many ads and extract data from them so you can use the data in your research and decisions.

What are the Benefits of Using Spy Tools for Google Ads?

There are various reasons why using a Spy Tool for Google Ads is almost necessary even if you only have a blog and write posts for it. Google Ads analysis will help you overpower the ads running for a particular product by optimizing the SEO further. But let’s see some of the benefits of Google Ads spy tools in more detail.

Competitor Analysis

The first and most important aspect of using a spy tool is learning more about your competitors and analyzing them to see what you can learn and what you can Improve. Therefore, if you are looking for solid information on how your competitors are doing with:

Their ads

How their ads are performing

What are their win points and lose points, etc.

Spy tools are a great chance to avoid making the same mistakes as your competitors.

Keyword Research

The second most important benefit of Google Ads spy tools is that they help you find better keywords. The difficulty of a keyword depends on how much businesses are willing to pay to have their ads running for that specific keyword. If you find those keywords and figure out the competitor’s strategy, you might be able to replicate it without spending a single cent. So, first of all, look for relevant keywords in your field.

Find Ad Copy that Works

Another way these spy tools work is by providing us with an extensive library of successful ad copies and ads. We can always analyze the copy and the ad title. That helps us find the copy by searching for it and using it for our blog posts.

Boost Your Marketing even without Advertising

As mentioned, you can find the winning strategies by searching for unsuccessful ads on a particular keyword or product. We have also noted that if you compare just enough data, you can find the best creatives that work for different users on Google Ads.

Find the Best Demographics and Locations

As you look for the products and categories, you can see which locations your competitors got massive traffic from. For example, you can see if their products are based in a particular country or whether they are from a specific age range. Anyway, you can get valuable insights into where you should focus when advertising.

What Can You Learn from Spy Tools for Google Ads?

There are many different things you can learn from Google Ads spy tools. Not all programs will provide this data, but these are usually the primary types of data you can access when browsing a spy tool for Google Ads. Remember, spy tools are often integrated with SEO tools so that you will get lots of SEO insight into advertising.

Ad Variations

You can see different variations of the same ad for the exact keywords or topics. This helps you familiarize yourself with how other companies or people advertise the same products. You can keep in mind their creatives, copy, etc.

Ads in a Certain Category

If you want to know how other people are promoting certain products in a specific category so you can find the best way to advertise products in your category, you can search for them on any spy tool.

Ad Performance

If I have come across certain ads and I feel like their creatives are amazing and I'm wondering whether they're performing as well as they could be, the section on the ad spy tools that gives me some insight into the ad performance can be helpful. This way, I'll know how my ad will perform if I make it completely similar to that specific ad.

Ad Popularity

Similar to performance, ad popularity can give me insights into what I can expect if I use specific creatives for my Google ads.

Successful Products

If I’m looking for some products that are performing very well, I can find related ads and check whether the ads are performing well. Then, using the search volume, I can see if people are looking for that type of product or not. If certain products are not performing well in ads or search volume, I should probably not promote that product.

Best GEOs and Demographics

Suppose a product I want to sell is available in various locations, and I can’t decide which area or target audience is best. In that case, I should check the target demographics specified in the ad to get some insight into the best GEOs and user details.

Ad Copies

If I'm promoting specific products and need help with how to phrase my ad or what description I should include, looking at similar products or categories with successful advertisements can help me understand my ad copy structure.

There is no magic behind excellent copy; it’s mostly about research and content marketing. Still, if I want to hire someone other than a content marketer or have little experience, this information can help me with my block or ad content.

Keywords

I am looking for the best keywords for a particular product to target so people can easily find it in their Google search. When I look for successful ads, some spy tools allow me to learn about the keywords and key phrases corresponding to them. I can target the exact keywords and enjoy the traffic. Remember that sometimes, I cannot target the same keywords as a brand's name, especially if it's specified in my affiliate program.

Estimated Pricing for Bids

Another significant use of Google Ads Spy tools is seeing the estimated bid price. So, suppose I am looking to post some ads on Google Ads and want to decide whether to consider the earnings per click of the affiliate program I’m getting commissions from or the price of the product I’m selling. In that case, it is worth it. The bidding estimation can help me a lot.

Ad conversion

Looking to see if a product is successful, considering the number of clicks out of the number of impressions. The ad conversion rate can tell me whether an ad for a service or product is successful compared to its competitors.

E-Commerce Advertising

Ecommerce Sales Strategy

Ecommerce Monitoring

Ecommerce Search Metrics

Competitive Product Analysis

Ecommerce Marketing Budget

Ecommerce Marketing Ideas

20 Best Google Ads Spy Tools

1. ShopHunter: Your Shopify Sales Tracker and Product Research Assistant

ShopHunter’s Shopify sales tracker offers a unique tool for eCom founders, particularly those in the Shopify ecosystem. At its core, it is a custom algorithm that estimates sales for entire stores and specific products, helping users quickly validate product potential. The platform goes beyond basic sales tracking, featuring an ad spy tool that monitors advertising activity across stores.

This combination lets users spot trending products and successful marketing strategies early on. ShopHunter aims to streamline product research and reduce the risk of investing in low-performing items, whether:

You're a dropshipper

A Shopify store owner

Someone looking to enter the e-commerce space

Sign up for a free trial (no credit card required) to our Shopify sales tracker tool to find your next eCom opportunity or to level up your current eCommerce store by learning from your competitors.

2. Google Ads Auction Insights Reports: Your Competitor Performance Overview

Google provides a great tool that gives a helpful overview of how your rivals perform on the platform. Auction Insights tells you how you’re faring against your competitors overall or with a specific campaign or ad group. The tool lists your rivals in:

A table, with each column demonstrating valid data like impression share (how often ads appear on SERPs)

Average position

Overlap rate, etc.

While Auction Insights will not tell you exactly how much your rivals spend on their ads, it’s a brilliant way to monitor the competition over time. By regularly checking these reports, you can discover patterns, keep track of their performance, find out if a new rival has entered the race, and adjust your strategies accordingly.

3. Google Ads Keyword Planner: Research Keywords for Your Competitor's Google Ads

Keyword search is a crucial part of running ads on Google, and the Keyword Planner is Google's official tool for discovering new keyword ideas. It has another usage, too. If you’re familiar with your competitors, you can copy-paste their URLs into the tool’s search bar to reveal some great keyword ideas from their outlets (meaning they’re probably utilizing these keywords in their strategies).

Keyword Planner gives you an estimated search volume and forecasted bid range, which helps you find the right keywords and adjust your bidding strategy.

4. Semrush: All-in-One PPC Research Tool

Unfortunately, Google’s free tools won’t give you detailed information about how much your rivals are spending and what ads they’re running on different Google services. Here’s where paid third-party tools come to the rescue. Semrush, for example, has a great PPC toolkit that lets you closely monitor your competitors with tons of:

Market analysis

Keyword research

Campaign tracking data

With Semrush, by entering a single URL, you can find out:

What keywords your rivals are targeting

How much they’re spending on ads

How much traffic they’re getting

5. Ahrefs: SEO Tool with Great Features for PPC Competitor Research

Another top-notch competition research tool is Ahrefs, which is particularly popular among SEO specialists and provides excellent features for PPC marketers. Ahrefs’s Site Explorer is where you can enter your competitor’s URL to reveal important competitive data similar to Semrush.

You can check the list of:

Keywords they’re using

The traffic they’re generating with their ads

Samples of their top advertisements

6. AdFlex: Dedicated Ad Spy Tool

Unlike previous third-party tools that are part of a more extensive package, AdFlex is a dedicated ad spy tool designed to monitor competitors and check out their ads across different channels. Spy tools have been a much-needed marketing tool ever since the emergence of digital advertising. Luckily, some powerful ad-spying software is available on the market right now.

Staying Ahead with AdFlex: Finding Competitors and Learning from Their Best Ads

With a competent ad spy tool, you can always stay one step ahead of your rivals, closely monitor their actions, and learn from their mistakes and innovations. Spy tools are the most efficient answer to how to check competitors’ Google ads. AdFlex’s Google Display ads spy is exceptionally helpful if you want to check out how your rivals are running campaigns on GDN.

What makes AdFlex great is that you don’t even have to know who your competitors are. You can narrow your search with dozens of filters to accurately find your direct competitors, sort results based on the most successful ads, and get inspiration from winning ads on the Display Network.

7. SpyFu: Discover Your Competitor's Google Ads History

SpyFu is another powerful tool for spying on your competitor's Google Ads campaigns. Like SEMrush, it offers a free version with limited functionality, but it can still be useful for getting started. To use SpyFu, enter your competitor's domain name in the search bar and select 'PPC Research' from the dropdown menu.

This will give you a list of the ads that your competitors are currently running, including:

The ad copy

Landing page

Estimated cost per click

You can also use SpyFu to see the keywords your competitors are targeting, as well as their ad history and budget.

8. PowerAdSpy: Easy-to-Use Google Ads Spy Tool

PowerAdSpy, a straightforward Google Ads spy tool, lives up to its name by offering comprehensive insights into not only Google Ads but also other platforms. This user-friendly tool simplifies the process of researching ads and competitors. It starts by analyzing keywords, competitors, and target audience data to generate informative reports.

These reports encompass both current and past ads, as well as landing pages, enabling you to emulate successful advertisements effectively. PowerAdSpy promotes itself as a platform designed to and for affiliates. Its primary focus is on extracting valuable data from ads, even considering factors like screen position.

The platform supports ads across various social media platforms, such as:

Facebook

Instagram

YouTube

It does not provide data for Google Shopping product listing ads.

9. Anstrex: Native Ad Spy Tool

Anstrex stands out as a prominent Google Display ads spy tool. It is specifically designed to excel at monitoring native ads. If your sole aim is to keep an eye on your competitors’ native ads, Anstrex presents itself as an excellent solution. The other native ad spy tools mentioned earlier have an advantage. In addition to monitoring native ads, these tools also track standard ads on social networks.

As a result, they possess a more extensive collection of advertisements. Anstrex spies on more than 20 channels, gathering information about the native ads it provides to its users. Like other native ad spy tools, Anstrex offers a library of advertisements with filters and search parameters for user convenience during their searches.

10. BigSpy: Beginner-Friendly Ad Spy Tool

BigSpy is an ideal tool for beginners due to two primary reasons:

It’s free

Easy to use

This ad spy tool enables users to conduct searches based on their marketing objectives, call-to-actions, and creatives for a specific market segment. The platform provides notifications about particular brands and businesses. BigSpy may not offer detailed statistics and analysis, unlike paid ad spy tools.

11. Dropispy: Affordable Spy Tool for Dropshipping Ads

Dropispy is a valuable and cost-effective ad spy tool. It equips users with the essential information and features necessary for rapid progress in any business sector. Dropispy stands out among ad spy tools due to its comprehensive functionality and affordable access.

Dropispy‘s ad spy tool enables users to monitor and gather valuable information on social media advertisements effortlessly. With a vast database, Dropispy stores these ads for easy access by any user. The tool enables users to easily discover the “Winning Product,” explore various online ads and emulate successful ones to develop an effective marketing strategy.

12. SECockpit: Advanced Keyword Research Tool

SECockpit is widely recognized as one of the most advanced keyword research tools available. Like other tools, it allows users to enter keywords and receive relevant suggestions. What sets this tool apart is its ability to go beyond a simple list of keywords.

It empowers:

Users by helping them identify keywords with low competition

Discover low CPC (cost-per-click) keywords on Adwords

Even display keywords that yield results from platforms like:

YouTube
eBay
Amazon

Boosting Online Visibility with SECockpit: Efficient Keyword Research for Targeted Traffic

This comprehensive functionality makes SECockpit an invaluable asset for anyone seeking effective keyword research. This powerful keyword research tool facilitates quick and easy discovery of a multitude of profitable keywords on Google, effectively saving you valuable time and effort.

With a satisfied global user base exceeding 67,050 individuals, web marketers worldwide rely on SECockpit as their go-to choice for augmenting online visibility and driving targeted traffic to their websites.

13. WhatRunsWhere: Marketing Intelligence Tool

WhatRunsWhere functions as a marketing intelligence tool that empowers users to uncover valuable insights. These insights encompass competitors' advertising strategies, including the identification of their advertisement placements and the nature of their ads. The tool also simplifies the process of discovering advertisers and ads associated with specific domains and those linked to particular keywords.

Global Ad Intelligence with WhatRunsWhere: Multi-Method Ad Research Across 500 Networks

This comprehensive data is accessible across seven countries and 500 ad networks. The supported countries include:

The United States

United Kingdom

Canada, Australia

Brazil

France

Germany

WhatRunsWhere offers four distinct approaches for conducting ad research:

Exploration by advertiser domain

Investigation by publisher domain

Analysis by keyword (or topic)

The ability to search for top-performing ads

14. SimilarWeb: Traffic Intelligence Tool

SimilarWeb provides a comprehensive solution for gaining traffic intelligence. This tool provides detailed SEO and SEM data from numerous websites and apps. It does have one drawback: the inability to compare your competitors’ traffic with your own.

Consequently, users are required to download extensive spreadsheets to perform this task manually.

15. Long Tail Pro: Another Advanced Keyword Tool

Long Tail Pro is a more in-depth keyword tool that lets you:

Input a list of keywords

Get ideas for new keywords plus data on the competition

Cost per click (CPC)

The exact local and global monthly search volumes from Google

16. Answer the Public: Find Questions to Target for SEO

Answer the Public (now acquired by Neil Patel Digital) is a keyword research tool that analyzes people’s questions about your industry and provides a list of relevant keywords. It’s a great way to see people’s questions and how you can answer them.

17. Keyword Concatenation Tool from Primal: Build PPC Keyword Lists Faster

Primal's Keyword Concatenation Tool allows you to build PPC keyword lists much faster through concatenation (if you’re not an ads geek, you have no idea what this means). You can take any keyword and quickly find all its various combinations. So you could create lists of thousands of keywords much faster instead of doing it all manually.

The tool lets you filter by:

Broad match

Exact match

Negative keywords

The tool allows you to group your keywords by ad groups, and the best part is that it’s completely free.

18. Reporting Ninja: Automated PPC Reports

Reporting Ninja is a PPC tool that generates automated reports quickly and easily. It allows you to:

View

Analyze

Share data from:

Google Ads
Bing Ads
Google Analytics
Facebook Ads and more

19. Swydo: PPC Reporting with Visualizations

Swydo is a comprehensive reporting tool that allows you to visualize and analyze data from multiple sources, including:

Google

Bing Ads

LinkedIn Ads

Twitter Ads and others

It also includes an automated report generator that will help you save time.

20. Supermetrics: Automate PPC Reporting

Supermetrics automates the reporting process by allowing you to pull data from multiple sources into one report, such as:

BI tools

Spreadsheets

Google Discovery Ads, etc.

It is an excellent choice for PPC marketers who want to save time when creating reports.

Ecommerce Ads

Ecommerce Advertising Platforms

Analytics Tools for Ecommerce

Google Ads for Ecommerce

Ecommerce Video Ads

How to Make TikTok Ads

Facebook Ads for Ecommerce

E-Commerce Social Media Advertising

Ecommerce Ad Intelligence

PPC Competitor Analysis Tools

Competitor Ads

How to Choose the Best Google Ads Spy Tools

Pricing: Choosing the Right Google Ads Spy Tool for Your Budget

Pricing is the first factor when selecting a Google Ads spy tool. Both free and paid options are available. Free tools may reveal limited information, while paid versions boast unique features to help you with your marketing strategy.

To find the tool that best fits your budget, compare the pricing of top Google Ads spy tools on the market. This will give you a good idea of the features and analytical capabilities you can expect at each price point.

Provided Data: Finding the Right Type of Information

Consider the type of information different Google Ads spy tools provide. While all tools can help with ad performance, many offer insights into search engine optimization and organic search performance. Depending on your needs, you want to find a tool that delivers the correct data type to help you achieve your marketing goals.

For example, some tools provide primary SEO data and ad information. Others may offer:

Detailed analysis of target audiences

Landing page performance

Conversion rates, and more

Carefully evaluate the provided data for each option to determine whether the pricing is justified for your needs.

Search Abilities: The More, the Merrier

Not all Google Ads spy tools are the same regarding search abilities. Some platforms only allow you to search information based on your domain or ad campaigns. Others give you the power to search for the exact information you want, regardless of whose domain it is associated with.

Platforms that allow for free and open searches of any Google Ads campaign are undoubtedly the best options, so aim for those.

Extra Features: Look for Comprehensive Tools

As mentioned earlier, ad spy tools can do more than help you with ad performance. Some of the best tools available today also analyze search engine optimization and organic search performance. This is particularly important if you’re using Google Ads to compete with other websites looking for organic traffic.

All-in-One SEO and Ad Spy Tools: Maximizing Organic and Paid Traffic with Comprehensive Packages

Having access to spy tools that allow you to research other search engines, do research on your own website’s keywords, find the most significant keywords to write content about, and optimize your organic search traffic are the best platforms. The greatest thing about it is you get one package with one pricing including both of these services and features:

Organic traffic using SEO

Some of these platforms ask you for your landing page so they can analyze it and let you know how to increase your conversion rates. So it is just a matter of the pricing that could compare whether you are paying a fair price for the extra features or you’ll get no additional features.

How to Use Google Ads Spy Tools to Boost Marketing

So now that you have found one ad spy tool you can work with and want to keep using, how do you benefit from this spy tool to improve your ads and potentially your sales? By following these steps, you can ensure you will boost your marketing when using Google ad spy tools. If the tool requires you to add your website, and if you have a website, your website is on it to get an analysis of my keywords and my traffic so the tool can suggest some optimizations.

Then, if you don’t have a website and if you only want to spy on my competitors, I can use the tool to start looking for the information regarding the category of the product I want to promote, competitors of the product, at that specific competitors I know have posted on Google and any other information that I can find regarding the competitors to the service I am promoting or my competitors. After having this information, I can look at each ad’s conversion rates and impressions. I can find the successful ad on Google by the following:

Number of clicks

Authority score

Target audience

Demographics of

Leveraging Ad Success for SEO: Using High-Performing Keywords and Copy for Organic Growth

If the ad's conversion and success rates are high, I can search for the keyword search volume on Google itself for organic traffic. If I’ve come across some good keywords with low difficulties and high volumes, I can consider them for my content marketing. If I encounter good keywords with high challenges, I can consider them for my ads.

I want to take note of all the successful copies that successful ads have used to promote their product. I will write them down and keep them to encourage my act. These copies are excellent at converting anyway, and I can use them for my website with organic traffic.

Implementing Data-Driven Bidding Strategies and Continuous Ad Monitoring for Success

To start bidding on my ad and target users, I should pay attention to the data I’ve gotten from the successful ads I’ve seen. I should simply decide how long I want my act to run, depending on how long the successful ads have run, find the best target audience and location, and place a fair bit depending on the estimated bit the tool provides me with.

Once I am done posting the ad, I will monitor the ad performance and compare it with the successful ads I’ve seen before. I should keep an eye on my ad for as long as possible to make sure it is performing well, and if it’s not, stop the ad and rerun it later with updated information from my analysis.

You're a dropshipper

A Shopify store owner

Someone looking to enter the e-commerce space

Sign up for a free trial (no credit card required) to our Shopify sales tracker tool to find your next eCom opportunity or to level up your current eCommerce store by learning from your competitors.