Paid search benchmarking to win the holiday season ad wars

In this report, you’ll discover key competitive trends to set yourself up for paid search success this holiday season, including Black Friday. 

Our AI-powered search intelligence monitored top retail search terms across the beauty, electronics, fashion and home furniture sectors to provide a broad overview of market activity and SEM success. 

By comparing the search performance on a global scale, you not only gain a benchmark to guide your strategy, it also enables you to see and show how your paid search performance stacks up against competitors. You’ll be able to: 

• Compare your brand’s Share of Clicks vs competitors. 
• See how your brand’s market share stacks up against rivals. 
• See the top spenders in the category.

Unveil your competitors’ strategies 

Who has the most effective approach? Monitor the click and impression share of competitors over time and detect any strategy shifts as they ramp up for the holiday season. 

Stay ahead of the curve

In 2023, Boots dominated on mobile on PLA in ‘gift sets’ generics, with The White Company replacing The Perfume Shop by taking share on desktop. 

Boots has a lower share of spend vs their share of clicks on both desktop and mobile, making them more efficient. Whereas The White Company and the Perfume Shop seem to be spending more than they are getting in return in terms of clicks on desktop. You can use Adthena’s MyAnalytics to delve into the metrics and reasons behind the success of rivals like these. 

Keep your eye on the performance metrics as they roll in such as impressions, clicks, click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS) to help you compare your performance against the competition.

Adthena’s Biggest Movements allows you to track weekly shifts by Share of Clicks in search. You can see competitor click and impression share distribution, helping you to identify strategy changes and seize opportunities. 

Navigate the electronics sector with intel 

In the fiercely competitive landscape of laptops and electronics during Black Friday, Adthena serves as a strategic compass. The platform will show you category-wide changes including: 

• Spend increase 
• Modified ad copy 
• Reduced competitor activity 
• Higher ad quality scores 
• Modified ad copy 
• Bidding on more search terms

Click Share boost or set back?

Walmart increased their click share ahead of Black Friday across ‘laptop’ generics. In contrast, Office Depot lost in click share. 

By leveraging Adthena insights, you identify the factors contributing to this decline with our market share intel, set your strategy for success, and secure more customers.

Year after year, the fashion sector becomes increasingly active during the holiday period, as prominent players in the activewear space offer competitive discounts.

With Adthena’s Market Share, understand which domains have the highest share of clicks and spend for a given location and search term group you are monitoring, all over a specific time period. 

Race for the top spot 

With retailers fighting for the attention of deal-hunting shoppers, gaining a competitive edge and monitoring your rivals is paramount. 

Reflecting on last Black Friday, Gymshark held the majority market share for ‘women’s gym clothes’ on both PLA’s and text ads, desktop and mobile combined. But when they lost market share in late October, a window of opportunity opened up for runners up like Fabletics and Shein to capitalize on this. (See above graph using Adthena’s Market Share). 

It’s interesting to see the contrasting performance between Text Ads and Shopping. On Black Friday, Gymshark had almost double their share on Shopping (See above graph). 

With the holiday season on the horizon, you need to keep an eye on how competitors switch up their strategy on different devices, and also across text and shopping channels.

Reveal the biggest market players, where the gaps are, and where you fit in. 

Who are the top 10 contenders on Google? 

Another highly competitive category during Black Friday is home furniture generic terms. You’ll see that DFS dipped in market share early November, so Argos and Wayfair took the opportunity to capitalize on this and overtake the top spot. 

Adthena offers access to real-time insights into your competitors’ search strategies across search, shopping, desktop, and mobile domains. 

Our Market Share technology helps you quickly identify the biggest market share holders and your brand’s position compared to competitors. 

Don’t forget you’ll get regular alerts that keep you informed about shifts and new entrants in your market landscape. Get the insights on your biggest rivals and get that top spot.