How to Use Competitors’ PPC Campaigns to Boost Your Own SEO

Have you ever struggled to write titles and descriptions for your website’s organic search engine results? With a constrained character limit, it can be tough to come up with compelling copy that ranks well. So, where do you start and how do you figure out what ranks well in the first place?

Here’s a suggestion: copy your competitors.

Not literally. But you can use your competitors’ successful PPC campaigns—the ads ranking in the top page one spots—to create your own organic search result listings. It’s like studying your favorite baseball player and adjusting your swing to be more like his. The more you learn from successful players, the more you’ll start hitting like a pro.

You can apply the same theory to your search results, too, learning from top-performing PPC campaigns to get your own organic listings to rank higher.

As we all know, the more SEO-friendly your content is (including the titles and description tags that show up in search results), the more you’ll show up in relevant searches. So, your goal is to take the top keywords and additional phrases/terms, and combine them to create a title and description tags that optimize the best of the best.

To make things a little clearer, we’ll use the search term “maid service” as an example.

Start by choosing the keywords for which you want to rank higher. In this case, we want to rank higher for the search term “maid service.” We type the keywords into Google and see what PPC ads pop up.

The ads that appear in those top spots are there for a reason. Sure, they bid the highest amount to get there, but they also have top keywords and copy that converts.

Any PPC ad that ranks in the top spots have likely done a lot of split testing, and therefore has found the keywords and phrases that get the most clicks. So, with that knowledge, why not use those high-ranking ads to create your own titles and description tags on your website?

Of course, we don’t condone plagiarism, so don’t copy and paste the exact same titles and descriptions. However, you can compare the results and see what similarities these ads have.

Look for copy that stands out or keywords that are used repeatedly. For the keyword “maid service”, you’ll notice that the top ads include:

• Mention of green cleaning products
  
• Copy that affirms trust (trusted, experienced, top-rated, most reliable, etc.)
  
• Service discounts
  
• Free consultation/quote
  

Since the top performing PPC ads all use these keywords and copy, we can assume these keywords generate clicks. You can use these as inspiration for your own titles and descriptions.

Here’s an example of what we might write using this information:

Top Maid Services in Columbus | Professional Housekeeping
 Cleaning company CBUS Maids uses green cleaning products to quickly clean your home. Call today for a FREE
 personalized quote & $20 off your first 3 cleanings!

One thing to note is that you should incorporate those main keywords people will be searching for in the title, and use some of those additional helpful words and phrases in the description. By incorporating all the elements found in those top PPC ads, you’re more likely to rank higher organically.

This is just one strategy you can use to create better titles and descriptions that will help you rank higher for organic search results. Play around with a few combinations and see what you get from the results. If you can successfully learn from your competitors, you might just find yourself at the top, too.