How to uncover your competitors' Google PPC ads using Ahrefs

Executive overview

When running paid search, not knowing what competitors are advertising wastes budget and misses strategic signals. Ahrefs Position Explorer exposes exactly which keywords rivals are paying for, what ad copy they run, and which pages they send traffic to.

Competitor PPC data reveals landing page strategies and keyword bets worth copying or countering.

Finding competitor paid keywords

• Enter a competitor's domain into Position Explorer to see their paid keyword count by country
• The paid keywords report lists every keyword they're bidding on, plus ad position
• Hover over the ad icon to preview the exact ad copy without leaving the report
• Use the word-count filter to isolate short-tail or long-tail keyword groups
• Keywords a competitor pays for signal terms already proven to convert — start there

Reading competitor ad copy

• The ads report shows every ad variant a competitor runs, not just one
• Different ads often point to different landing pages — map which copy drives traffic where
• Example: Buffer ran an ad targeting "social media strategists" leading to an email opt-in offering 25 strategies — a clear lead-gen play worth modelling

Identifying their highest-priority pages

• The top pages report reveals which URLs competitors actually spend money sending traffic to
• Buffer advertised just two pages: their homepage (12 keywords) and an email course opt-in (35 keywords)
• High keyword investment on a single page signals that page is central to their funnel
• Compete directly by building a comparable offer and targeting the same keyword set