It has always been there and always will be there... this is one factor you will never be able to change.
Even if your product is new, unique, patented, and you've several signed NDAs, there will be someone else already doing it, and if you are really the first, new competitors will come out of the woodwork faster than you can even imagine.
In one market where we work with Google Ads for Real Estate in Europe, we started campaigns in 2015 with 8 competitors. In a period of 24 months, they tripled to 25. Now there are more than 80.
Often, when I talk to my clients, the same phrases pop up: "They copied us", "they lowered their prices", "they did this and that", "they hired that person after we trained him/her", "now they started their own company", "they're outselling us", etc.
Yes, they will, and I can vouch for that.
Your competitors monitor you, analyse you, look at what you do, how you do it and when you do it, and their only goal (in most cases) is to take market share away from you.
If ice cream parlour A and ice cream parlour B are the only ice cream parlours in town, and there are 100 people going for ice cream today, in a "fair" market, 50 would go to ice cream parlour A and 50 would go to ice cream parlour B (if the quality, service and pricing are equal, of course).
But the market is not "fair", which means ice cream parlour A will always try to "steal", "take" or "guide" more customers to its own ice cream parlour, with the aim of having a market share of 70%, leaving ice cream parlour B with 30%.
I've seen competitors do everything (believe me, everything) to take clients away from others – ethical and not, legal and illegal.
This was true in the first markets and exchanges in the Middle Ages, it is true today and it will be true in the future.
In terms of mobile sales, today, Samsung has 20% of the market share and Apple has 17%. You can imagine how much effort these two multinationals put into taking market share away from their competitors.
The same is true at all levels, but I can guarantee you one thing: competition is healthy.
1. Competition drives companies to innovate and offer better products;
2. Competition forces you to improve your customer service (or it should);
3. Competition helps customers find your business more quickly;
4. Competition teaches you new skills.
If a customer decides to go to another company that is your competitor, it's not the competitor's fault – it's your fault or your company's fault.
We also monitor our clients' competition, their ads, their offers. We analyse their campaigns, and clearly, our goal is for the person looking for our client's service to click on our Google Ad and then become our client's customer.
Let me give you some advice:
1. Offer a flagship service or product at a level so high, so incredible, so fantastic, that your competition can't reach it;
2. The time you spend getting angry at or thinking about the competition – invest it in improving your product or service;
3. You can't change the market, the customers or the competition, so concentrate on your business;
4. Constantly improve elements of your business (for example, are you using lead nurturing? Read the blog post);
5. If the competition "copies" you, it means you are doing things right. So, congratulations;
6. A price war between ice cream parlour A and ice cream parlour B is not a good strategy for anyone; both lose quality of product, service and, of course, turnover.
A few years ago, when digital marketing boomed, many experts I know in Europe complained about how many new "agencies", "gurus" or "experts" there were in the market.
I've never been very concerned about that, because my years of experience confirm that if you offer a serious professional service and an excellent calibre of work, even if there is a lot of competition at incredible prices, my clients and future clients don't care.
I imagine virtually all of my clients have received emails or offers from other companies over the years. Why get upset if all the clients are still with us? And I repeat, if any client had gone to a competitor, it would be our fault.
My clients are not looking for low-cost companies or Black Friday deals; they are looking for international Google Ads experts with extensive experience in more than 15 different sectors.
Take a look – this is our ranking in a market where we were running Google Ads campaigns for our own agency:
We have the best impression share of all our competitors (13 different companies who are Google Ads experts) who work with our same keywords and who are looking for the same or similar clients as we are.
So the goal is clear: be well positioned, get really interested leads, and let the magic begin.
In Europe, there are a handful of us who are Google Ads experts with this level of experience and a real track record of more than a decade of campaigns. We all know each other, and I have to say that we are in touch often, either for advice or to pass on a client for reasons of geography or experience (usually we each have our own specialisation in Google Ads).
Here's your proof. A screenshot of Biriwuanga's Google Ads account, which has generated more than 500 million impressions, nearly 4 million clicks and, most importantly, 375,000 conversions for our clients (and counting):
Learn how to perfect your business, your campaigns, your products or services. The competition will be doing what they do, whether you like it or not, so there's no point wasting time over that.
What's true is that, as time will tell, the market always puts everything in its place.
On to the next conversion with Google Ads!
Dean.