A Simple Simple Short Shot

Google Outranking Share Explained For Marketing and Advertising Professionals.

Businesses can outrank their competitors for quality keywords and have their websites appear in the top spot on search engine results using Google Ads.

Update for 2019:

This bidding strategy will be phased out in 2019. Campaigns running it will be changed to Google’s latest smart bidding strategy, “Target Impression Share.

Much of the thinking behind outrank share can be carried over to Target Impression Share when you’re mapping out your media buy tactics. Original article below.

The top spot on a search engine results page (SERP) is valuable property. With Google Outranking you can get the top spot in a search result and get more people visiting your website. Google offers a range of advertising options but none offers the precision targeting of Google Outrank Share.

Why is it important to be on the top of a page?

Study after study shows that the first result with either Google Adwords or organic search drives traffic to websites.

A 2018 study from Advanced Web Ranking states that primary listing on a SERP receives 30% of clicks on a given page. That’s more than twice as many as result #2. Being in the first position of organic and paid searches automatically raises your site traffic and the number of quality leads you generate.

The importance is obvious: search engine optimization or an effective outranking share strategy is a must. But how do you get to the very top? How do you get your ad groups on top of the competition?

Think of a competitor that is consistently in the top ranking position in search! They consistently frustrate you because you can’t get footing with your SEO program. So, how do you compete? Google created Outranking Share so that you can buy a position above your most important competitor. Music!

How do Google Ads Outranking Share work?

Google’s Outranking Share tool gives you an easy way to target a competitor and get your results above their ad.

Google Outranking Share is a bidding strategy that assists in getting your adwords to come before a specific competitor URL in paid search results. This strategy is a great tool when directly competing in the same keyword auctions as your strongest competitor.

For example, if we were working with a burger restaurant, we would want our ads to appear above our major competitor, Restaurant X. If we know that Restaurant X has a strong adwords campaign, we can specifically bid higher on similar keywords like “Best Calgary Burger Restaurants” or “Burgers in Calgary” where they show up.

When setting up this kind of bid strategy, only one competitor can be targeted per campaign. Google uses the domain name to determine what ads the competitor is using and where they are ranked.

Through auction insights, the Ad Rank and Quality Score of each keyword establishes what specific keywords would benefit from this bidding strategy.

 

This article has been updated to reflect the 2018 changes where Google has moved all their ad channels to the new platform Google Ads.

Google Outranking Share strategy should be used in parallel with a consistent SEO program and map advertising that reflects the full range of advertising opportunities available for local brands.

Want more? Read more from Google Support.