SWOT analysis – what is it?

Don’t worry if you don’t know what it is. This blog will introduce you to the finer details of SWOT analysis along with the advantages of using it in your PPC campaigns.

Table of Contents

• Understanding SWOT Analysis
• Components of SWOT Analysis
• The benefits of SWOT Analysis for PPC Campaigns in Your Company
• How to Do a SWOT Analysis of Your PPC?

1. SWOT Analysis S: Strengths
2. SWOT Analysis W: Weaknesses
3. SWOT Analysis O: Opportunities
4. SWOT Analysis T: Threats

• How Can Your SWOT Analysis Be Put into Practice?
• Visualizing and Displaying Your SWOT Analysis

Understanding SWOT Analysis

Now let’s just get into the basics of SWOT analysis and how it works. The full form of SWOT is strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats which simply means this process is the analysis of these 4 aspects. SWOT analysis is an evaluation of the company’s performance, competitors, risks and potential along with the part of its business in terms of product lines or division, industry or another entity.

It uses both internal and external data. With that, the technique can direct firms towards strategies that are more likely to be successful and away from those in which they have been, or are expected to be, less successful.  They can also get advice from independent SWOT experts, investors, or competitors on whether a business, product line, or industry might be strong or weak and why.

Businesses were initially analyzed using SWOT analysis. These days, a lot of people utilize it, including investors and business owners, as well as governments and charitable organizations. The SWOT analysis has countless potential uses.

Components of SWOT Analysis

The following four categories will be included in each SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is not complete without all of these components, even if the components and findings will differ from business to business:

S – Strengths

An organization’s strengths, such as its distinctive technology, devoted customers, strong balance sheet, and powerful brand, define its areas of expertise and what sets it apart from the competitors.

W – Weaknesses

An organization’s weaknesses prevent it from operating at its highest potential. A weak brand, higher-than-average turnover, high levels of debt, an insufficient supply chain, or a lack of capital are examples of areas where the company has to improve in order to stay competitive.

O – Opportunities

Opportunities are advantageous external factors that could provide the company with a competitive edge. For instance, a car company can export its vehicles into a new market if a nation lowers tariffs, which would increase sales and market share.

T – Threats

Things that have the potential to do harm to an organization are referred to as threats. A corporation that produces wheat, for instance, is at risk from a drought since it might ruin or diminish crop production. Other frequent risks include things like escalating material costs, fiercer competition, a shortage of labor, and so on.

The benefits of SWOT Analysis for PPC Campaigns in Your Company

After knowing what SWOT analysis is, let’s further know why is it important. If you want to ensure that your PPC ads are successful, you should think about doing a SWOT analysis for the company.

Too frequently, companies examine their campaigns in isolation when attempting to optimize their PPC advertising. They just examine their own landing pages, bids, and keywords. That being said, your PPC ads don’t live in a vacuum. For the same desired three or four places, you are up against hundreds of different companies.

You may better understand external issues that might affect your PPC campaigns by doing a SWOT analysis. The success of your advertising and the chance that someone will make a purchase after clicking them can be impacted by a number of factors, including competitors, the status of the economy, and the state of the industry you work in.

Additionally, you’ll find new ideas for your marketing. That could mean improving one of your shortcomings or focusing more on what you do well. Building a strategy that includes more than just boosting your sales is far simpler when you first identify what is and is not working.

In the end, it will assist you in seeing your PPC campaigns from a new perspective. Even if there is a ton of information available on PPC campaign optimization, it’s simple to become stuck in a routine of keyword research, testing new ad copy, and creating new landing pages.

You can do a lot more to make your campaigns better, and a SWOT analysis can enable you to step up your PPC efforts.

How to Do a SWOT Analysis of Your PPC?

To do SWOT analysis, all you have to do is sit down and list all the advantages, disadvantages, chances, and risks of your campaign. Usually, they are shown in a 2 by 2 grid. However, you could just create a list beneath each heading if that’s easier. Having a specific objective in mind might be useful when beginning your SWOT analysis.

You have already limited your focus by concentrating on your PPC advertisements, but are you able to see your goals even more clearly?

Perhaps you would like to know why, for example, your Facebook advertising is generating more sales than your PPC campaign. Or look for methods to make the most of a channel that is already profitable.

Doing a SWOT analysis in groups of two or more is recommended. The more perspectives and ideas you can gather, the more comprehensive a picture you may create. You can work through the analysis independently or as a group, coming together at the end to discuss your findings.

Finally, when brainstorming, try to keep things as even as possible. Find ten areas of weakness if you have ten strengths. Look for threats in every situation.

SWOT Analysis S: Strengths

Start by making a list of all the strengths your PPC campaign has to offer. Strengths are all the internal aspects of your PPC campaigns that are advantageous. These strengths can include –

• High ROI
• High Quality Score
• The PPC agency you partner with
• Diminished bounce rates
• Your deep understanding of the industry
• Your ability to effectively manage your PPC campaigns
• Having a mobile strategy in place
• The quality of your products
• The strength of your brand
• The resources you have and so on…

Consider asking yourself questions such as what your click-through rate is and how well-ranked your top keywords are, how is your bounce rate or CTR, what’s the caliber of your landing pages, etc. to come up with the list. 

Consider the benefits you have over your competitors as well. There’s no need to restrict your abilities to things that are relevant to your PPC campaign. Don’t be modest, here! If there was ever a moment to brag, it is now.

SWOT Analysis W: Weaknesses

Next, assess the weaknesses of your PPC campaign. These are the factors that you can manage that are keeping you from making more money and improving your return on investment. They could also be things, like lack of A/B testing, that your campaign is now missing. However, there could also be more general flaws like a lack of PPC specialists or a limited budget. The list of weaknesses can also include –

• Your inadequate understanding of the target audience
• Your poor quality content
• The gaps in your landing pages
• The low quality score of some keywords
• Absence of negative keywords
• Having no mobile strategy
• Tight budgets and so on.

Remember that you should only add things to this category that you can control. For example – a bigger, well-funded competitor is not a relevant weakness for your campaign. On the contrary, working in a highly competitive market is. Although you are powerless over a competitor, you are free to choose not to compete or not engage in direct competition. When in doubt, consider looking at your strengths list and think about the opposite.

SWOT Analysis O: Opportunities

Now think about any positive outside factors that can enhance your PPC advertising in the future. For example, you may be starting a new advertising campaign to boost demand for your product and it can open the door for several opportunities for you. The list of opportunities can also include –

• Perhaps a competitor that is on the verge of bankruptcy or is changing their business model
• an increase in demand for your products after running a marketing campaign
• Growing use of mobiles
• An increase in the search volume
• Expansion of the eCommerce industry and so on…

Consider the duration of these opportunities. Demand may only rise for a few months during a new marketing campaign, but ongoing market growth (like the acceleration of e-commerce) may last for years. Remember to include your past efforts by including weaknesses that can be turned into your strengths.

SWOT Analysis T: Threats

Finally, examine the threats to your PPC campaign. These are other outside factors over which you have very little or no control. This is the point at which you should list those bigger, better-funded competitors who consistently outbid you.

But, it’s not just your competitors you need to consider. How is the market for your present product doing? Do customers shop someplace except Google? Is there anything that may happen that would affect your success, such as an employee leaving to take a job elsewhere?

The list of threats can also include –

• The dominance of a specific brand
• Lowered search volume
• changes in the policies of SERPs
• Low budgets, etc.

It can help to think about your company and your industry more broadly. Does your product stand at risk of being outdated? Or could changes in the market decrease interest in your product or service? These questions are some of the examples of threats.

How Can Your SWOT Analysis Be Put into Practice?

SWOT analysis is a great tool for analyzing the present state of your PPC marketing campaigns, but it won’t yield any actionable results. The SWOT analysis must be made actionable by the person doing it.

Start by examining the connections between each section. Determine if you can counter threats by improving your weaknesses or if you can use your strengths to create new opportunities.

Finding methods to turn your strengths into new opportunities should be the first step of action. It implies that you may strengthen the performance of your PPC campaign by doing more of what you do well. For instance, you may create additional landing pages for your ad groups if you are skilled at making them. This will raise your conversion rates by lowering the bounce rate and raising your quality score.

What’s next?

The next step is to identify how you can turn your weaknesses into strengths. For instance, if you lack a PPC expert, you can quickly fix that issue by hiring one, assuming, of course, you have a budget for that, or you can work with a digital marketing consultant.

You may then assess the opportunities that are in front of you and figure out how to take advantage of them. Perhaps the growth of e-commerce will provide you with a great opportunity to expand your company. Increasing the PPC budget is one way to show ads to more people and take advantage of e-commerce growth. As an alternative, you may make new landing pages and advertisements for new products.

Threats are the last thing to consider. These are not immediately changeable. You may, however, take action to lessen their influence on your PPC advertising campaigns. For example, you may target longer-tail keywords to optimize your return on investment if you are competing against someone with a larger budget.

Tip:

A TOWS Analysis is an extension of the SWOT Analysis framework that identifies your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats but then goes further in looking to match up the Strengths with Opportunities and the Threats with Weaknesses. TOWS analysis is a great next step after completing your SWOT and allows you to take action from the analysis. However, we won’t be discussing this topic in this blog.

Visualizing and Displaying Your SWOT Analysis

As seen above, a 2×2 grid is the most widely used format for a SWOT analysis. Because each section is shown in connection to the others, it is simple to see your analysis as a whole. However, there are several ways to present your SWOT analysis. There are different ways to make your analysis more digestible and visually engaging.

For example, see this SWOT analysis of Nike Company by Business Strategy Hub

This is just one example, you can find many such samples and templates of SWOT analysis and go with the one that suits you.

In a nutshell, SWOT analysis is a powerful method for evaluating your Pay per Click (PPC) marketing campaigns. It assesses the internal strengths and weaknesses of your campaigns as well as the external opportunities and threats. By conducting a SWOT analysis, you gain insights into what’s working well and what needs improvement, enabling you to optimize your PPC strategies. The process of SWOT analysis involves identifying strengths and leveraging them, addressing weaknesses, seizing opportunities, and mitigating threats. Visualizing the analysis helps make the findings more accessible.