Using keywords to target other brand names, products, or services is one of the easiest ways to go after competitors in Google Ads. But targeting competitor keywords can get expensive. The good news is, there are more options we have than just the Search Network.
While Search will always have the deepest intent, there are some pretty specific targeting options we can use for other campaign types that also have deep intent. In this post, I am going to go over three ways you can reach your competitors’ audience without targeting their keywords.
- Build custom audiences with competitor keywords
- Build custom audiences with competitor URLs
- Target YouTube ads on competitor videos
1. Build custom audiences with competitor keywords
As you may or may not know, custom intent and custom affinity audiences have been combined into one custom audience feature in Google Ads, which helps us to reach audiences more in line with our campaign’s goal type. It also helps us to run competitive ads.
How it works
This strategy sets your Video and Discovery campaigns to appear in front of users who have searched competitor terms.
How to do it
Go to Tools & Settings > Shared Library > Audience Manager to create your custom audience.