Semrush might be your favorite spy tool, but it's much more than that. You can also use Semrush to make better strategic decisions for your business.

Here are five ways you can use Semrush to boost the performance of your AdWords.

1. Are You Targeting the Proper Keywords from an SEO Standpoint?

Semrush gives you information on the organic keywords bringing traffic to your website. Compare your website with the closest five-to-six competitors and figure out if there are keywords you aren't working on.

It will also be interesting to compare the organic trends of competitors with your business. Are you leading the way, or have you fallen behind and need to catch up?

Main takeaway: Don’t just look at the keywords your competitors are showing up for to target them on paid search. Analyze the data strategically and figure out how you can boost your organic performance based on what you see.

2. Create a List of Calls to Action to Test

Semrush can show you the display ads used by your competitors. I always find it interesting to analyze the calls to actions they use and think about:

• Are these call to actions adding benefits to potential customers? If so, they might be delivering more clicks than me.
• Did I test a similar call to action yet?
• Is there more than one business testing a similar call to action? This could mean customers perceive it as a determining factor when choosing one company over another.
• Is there any company offering a special offer or a price discount that could break the current market balance?

Once you create a list of calls to action, you will be able to test a ton of new ads and benchmark the success of your competitors’ ads with yours.

3. Seasonalities

Are you new in the market and unsure of how to allocate your budget? Check out what market leaders are doing using the timeline graphic, and try to analyze potential swings in traffic purchase. You might find out that some parts of the year have spikes and others have downtrends.

This could indicate a more active market during traffic spikes, and therefore, you might want to allocate your budget during high season. This won't hold true for all businesses and strategies since you might prefer to bid when you have a lower competition (this would make sense as well). In each case, Semrush can help you figure out how to best move forward!

4. Find New Markets for Your Products or Services

Let’s assume you sell dog collars in the United States and you pay $1.22 per click. You want to find new markets at lower CPCs and test their conversion rates. That’s very easy to do. Just look up dog collars on Semrush and take advantage of the graphic positioned above the fold with a list of countries and average CPCs for dog collars.

You can now clicks on any of the countries and analyze the competitive situation of the market, but also look at other local keywords to decide whether it would be a viable option or not!

5. Create Ad Groups Based on Local Competitors

Take your top performing keywords and look up the list of competitors, both organic and paid. Download this list and create a new campaign using your competitors as keywords. This will allow you to capture some extra traffic from relevant users.

Be respectful and use ads that are not attacking your competition. Just mention what you have to offer without trying to do some bad PR for other companies.

Ed. team note: It’s important to note that Google’s policies (and local law) vary by country. Of course, Google’s policies are one thing; they don’t prevent a competitor from suing you. So, proceed at your own risk.

Conclusion

Don’t just use Semrush to spy on competitors; use it to support more strategic decisions.

This article is a means to start the conversion and have all of you share creative ways to use Semrush. We're all ears!