Tools for Benchmarketing a Search Campaign

(Chief Marketer) Four questions regularly arise when marketers try to understand their search potential. All can be answered with good competitive benchmarking analysis. 1. What keywords are my specific competitors using, and what am I missing? If you know your top competitors, AdGooroo, comScore and Hitwise all provide tools that can help you peer into their search playbook to see what's working well and not so well. Want to know the top traffic generating keywords for a specific category? Hitwise can help. Is a competitor's traffic on a keyword coming from natural or paid search? AdGooroo tools provide answers to this and other questions; Compete, comScore's qSearch and WebPosition Gold also provide related insights. Chances are, if there's something you'd like to know about your competitors' keyword selection strategy, one or more of these vendors can help. 2. What advertisers bid on my most important keywords? How much visibility do they get compared to my program? In many mature search marketing programs, even those with thousands of keywords, a few highly searched keywords typically drive a large portion of the sales or leads. These keywords drive direct online sales, but the visibility they deliver can also boost awareness and brand equity and drive offline store visits/sales.