# PPC Competitive Analysis Template: The Framework Agencies Use Monthly

> A monthly PPC competitive analysis template for agencies: 5 sections across Google and Meta, each ending in a decision. With a real worked example.
- **Author**: Marxx
- **Published**: 2026-10-15
- **Category**: Competitive intel
- **URL**: https://marxx.ai/posts/ppc-competitive-analysis

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Most PPC competitive analyses end up as a slide full of screenshots: competitor ads, a keyword overlap chart and a note that "Brand X is running a sale." The client nods, and nothing changes in the account.

The problem isn't the data. It's that most templates only tell you what to **collect**. They don't tell you what to **decide**. They also stop at Google search, even though your client's competitors are probably spending just as much on Meta.

Below is the monthly template agencies can use instead. It has five sections, each ending in a decision, and it covers both search and paid social. There's also a worked example using a real brand's ads so you can see what a good finding looks like.

Six rival ads from Wonderla, Rebounce, Color Factory and Game Palacio, each labelled with how many days it stayed live

## The template at a glance

The monthly PPC competitive analysis: Roster, Search, Creative, Offer and landing page, Decisions

| Section | The question it answers | What you decide |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Roster | Who's spending, who's new, who's gone quiet? | Who to watch and who to ignore |
| 2. Search | Which keywords and messages are they fighting for? | Where to bid and what to defend |
| 3. Creative | What hooks and formats are they *backing*, not just testing? | What to test or steal |
| 4. Offer & landing page | What are they offering, and where do clicks land? | Whether to match or differentiate |
| 5. Decisions | What will we change this month? | 3 actions, each with an owner and a due date |

**Cadence:** run it once a month, on the same day, for every client. Watch your time: a template that takes a full day per client won't survive the second month.

## Why most competitive analyses don't change anything

The top-ranking guides for "PPC competitive analysis" share three gaps:

1. **They're search-only.** Keywords, auction insights and ad copy are covered well. Meta, where a lot of competitor spend and creative testing happens, gets a line at most.
2. **They mistake volume for strategy.** "Competitor X runs 400 discount ads" sounds important. But the ads a brand runs most aren't always the ones it believes in most.
3. **They have no output.** A checklist of things to collect doesn't tell the account manager what to change on Monday.

The worked example below shows why the second gap matters most.

## Worked example: volume vs. conviction

We pulled Wonderla's ads from Marxx. Wonderla is one of India's biggest amusement park chains. Sorted by hook type, the obvious reading is "they're an offer brand": about a third of their ads open on an offer, and almost as many on price.

Now add a second number: **how long each type of ad stays live**. Brands keep paying for ads that work, so ad lifespan shows which ads they actually believe in.

Wonderla's hook types: share of ads vs average days each ad stays live

| Hook type | Share of ads | Avg. days live |
|---|---|---|
| Offer-led | 34% | 15 |
| Price-focused | 30% | 14 |
| Curiosity | 7% | 14 |
| Question | 5% | 11 |
| **Problem-solution** | **2%** | **34** |
| **Surprising** | **2%** | **33** |

Offer and price hooks make up most of the volume, but they last about two weeks. **Problem-solution hooks are only 2% of ads, yet they stay live 2.3 times longer.** The same pattern shows up in ad formats: skit ads make up 2% of Wonderla's ads and average 35 days live, against 10-14 days for the offer banners.

Here are the ads Wonderla kept running longest:

Wonderla's longest-running ads: 'Break out of boredrooms' ran 60 days; a question-hook carousel ran 45 days across three cities

| Ad | Hook | Hook type | Audience | Ran |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate day-out banner | "Break out of boredrooms" | Problem-solution | Office teams | **60 days** |
| Carousel | "Do you sometimes ever wonder..." | Question | Stressed office workers | **45 days, copied across Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru** |

**The finding:** Wonderla's long-running ads aren't the BOGO offers. They're **corporate group bookings, sold on office boredom**. The same carousel running in three cities at once is a scaling signal: they found something that works and rolled it out.

**The decision**, if you managed a competing park:

- **Test:** a problem-led corporate offsite campaign (Wonderla has shown the angle holds).
- **Defend:** bid on "corporate outing", "team day out" and "office offsite" in the cities where Wonderla is scaling.
- **Don't:** copy their BOGO banners. They make up most of Wonderla's ad volume but don't stay live long.

That's what a useful competitive analysis looks like. The data is in a lot of tools. The decision is what this template is for.

*One caution: days live is a proxy. Brands also pause ads for seasonality, budget or legal reasons. Treat findings like this as hypotheses to test, not facts.*

## The full template (copy this)

Paste this into your monthly client doc. Fill in one block per competitor, then complete section 5 last.

### Section 1: Roster

| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Top 5 competitors | Name, Google ✅/❌, Meta ✅/❌ |
| New entrants this month | Brands that started advertising on your keywords or in your category |
| Gone quiet | Brands that paused or cut volume sharply |
| Activity change vs. last month | ↑ / ↓ / -> in live ads |
| **Decision** | Watch closely / monitor / drop from the list |

### Section 2: Search

| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Keyword overlap | Shared terms; new terms they started bidding on |
| Brand-term bidding | Are they bidding on your client's brand name? |
| Auction insights | Impression share, overlap rate, outranking share (from Google Ads) |
| Ad copy themes | Main claims in headlines (price, speed, trust, features) |
| Ad extensions | Sitelinks, callouts, promotions in use |
| **Decision** | Raise bids / add negatives / defend the brand term / new copy angle |

### Section 3: Creative (Meta and Google)

| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| New ads launched | Count this month, by format (image, video, carousel) |
| Top hook types | By share of ads |
| **Longest-running ads** | Top 3, with hook, hook type, emotion, offer and days live |
| Scaling signals | The same ad copied across regions, audiences or placements |
| Volume vs. conviction | Hook or format types that are rare but long-lived |
| **Decision** | Test this angle / steal this format / ignore this trend |

### Section 4: Offer and landing page

| Field | What to record |
|---|---|
| Offer type | Discount, BOGO, bundle, free trial, group pricing |
| Offer change vs. last month | New, deeper, removed |
| Landing page | URL, headline, primary CTA, form length |
| Audience the page is built for | e.g. families vs. corporate teams |
| **Decision** | Match the offer / differentiate on value / build a dedicated landing page |

### Section 5: Decisions

| # | Action | Based on finding | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | | | |
| 2 | | | | |
| 3 | | | | |

**Rule:** never more than 3 actions. If everything is a priority, nothing ships.

## How to fill it in faster

Sections 1, 3 and 4 take the most time when done by hand: scrolling through ad libraries, screenshotting and guessing which ads matter. This is where Marxx helps.

**Track your top 5 rivals across Meta, Google and keywords.** Marxx monitors each competitor's live ads, flags new launches and tags every ad by hook, emotion, offer and format, so the creative section largely fills itself in.

Marxx creative board grouping competitor ads by hook, angle and format

**See conviction, not just volume.** Every ad shows how long it has been live and how many near-identical copies are running. That's how the Wonderla finding above came out of Marxx: the problem-solution and skit patterns were flagged automatically.

**Spot what's rising in the category.** The trend view shows which hooks and formats are emerging, rising, plateaued or declining across your client's sector.

Marxx trending tactics: hooks and formats by stage across a sector

**Get the monthly digest delivered.** Competitor launches, sector shifts and overnight changes arrive by email or Slack, which is useful raw material for section 1.

Marxx sending a competitor brief to Slack

**Ask in plain English.** "What has Wonderla been running longest?" or "Which competitors started bidding on corporate outing?" can be asked in Claude or ChatGPT, and the answer comes back with the ads.

Marxx answering a competitor question inside Claude

## Common mistakes

- **Tracking 15 competitors.** Five is enough. Past that, the report gets longer and the decisions get vaguer.
- **Counting ads instead of reading them.** "400 ads" says nothing. Read the top 3 longest runners.
- **Analysing search only.** If the client's competitors run Meta, half the picture is missing.
- **Copying the loudest tactic.** The most frequent ad type is often the one with the shortest life.
- **No owner.** A decision without an owner and a due date is just an observation.

## FAQ

**What should a PPC competitive analysis include?**
At minimum: who's advertising (roster), search keywords and ad copy, creative and formats, offers and landing pages, and a short list of decisions. This template covers all five for Google and Meta.

**How often should agencies run PPC competitor analysis?**
Monthly for most clients, with lighter weekly checks in fast-moving categories like e-commerce sales seasons. Use the same template each month so changes are easy to spot.

**How do I know which competitor ads are working?**
You can't see their CTR or ROAS. The best public signal is how long an ad stays live and whether it's been copied across regions or audiences. Brands keep funding ads that perform.

**What tools do I need?**
Google Ads auction insights for search overlap, a keyword tool for terms and CPCs, and a competitor ad tracker for Meta and Google creative. Marxx covers the ad tracking, tagging and trends in one place.

**Should I copy a competitor's best ad?**
Copy the *angle*, not the ad. In the Wonderla example, the lesson is "corporate groups respond to an office-boredom problem hook", not "make a roller-coaster banner".

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## See your rivals' longest-running ads

Book a demo and we'll set up tracking on your top 5 competitors, then walk you through a live teardown of the ads they're running right now: what they're testing, what they're backing and what to do about it.

**[Book a demo: track your top 5 rivals ->](https://www.marxx.ai)**

*Sources: [AgencyAnalytics, competitive PPC analysis](https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/competitive-ppc-analysis) - [Databloo, competitive PPC analysis](https://www.databloo.com/blog/competitive-ppc-analysis) - Marxx ad library, October 2026.*

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