Why Competitor Conquesting Works (& Tips)

/ Conquesting, Programmatic / By

Conquesting has been around for centuries. The Aztecs, Incas, Egypt, Babylonia all were actively conquesting at times throughout their reign. Conquesting, in advertising, is deploying an advertisement for products or services adjacent to editorial content, searches, or ads of a competitor. 

In ancient times, conquesting was popular because civilizations had spent a significant amount of time building up resources, had desirable land, or were simply large enough in number to interest and appeal to another group of people. Today, the motivations are not all that different. Large organizations spend a significant amount of time and money building up their company’s brand. 

Brands Become The Verb Or The Reference

Some companies become so large that their brand name becomes a verb (Googling something) OR becomes the interchangeable name of an industry (I need a Kleenex). Those brands have considerable advantages in digital marketing. People begin to search for solutions on the internet without realizing they are using a specific brand name in their search efforts. For example, it’s allergy season. Someone wants to stock up on tissues. They begin to search for cheap Kleenex options. Frequently consumers just want a good solution, not necessarily are they sold on buying the “Kleenex” brand specifically. 

Ok, So How Do I Use This To My Advantage?

Many legal battles have been fought in the past two decades regarding the digital landscape and whether you have the right as a brand to bid on another company’s keywords. I have been highly involved, deposed by the FTC, and even witnessed in a number of these legal battles. The outcome? Companies have many legal rights to show up alongside companies’ brands, all in the spirit of preventing monopolies & fair competition.

Programmatic & Competitor Conquesting

First off, every consumer is different. Video ads sway some, others by podcast/audio, others by display ads. The studies do agree that a combination is the best way to go. A wide variety of media is most effective in driving performance. Programmatic gives you the ability to hyper-target the right people and do so with all media forms.

Second, Google paid search is an easy place to begin competitor conquesting. If you aren’t doing it, you should certainly give it a try. 

Most importantly, programmatic offers a unique opportunity to utilize competitor conquesting in a very scalable & effective way. 

  1. You can target searches that are being conducted outside of Google (the other 98% of the web).
  2. You can target the actual locations – stores, events, conferences, etc. of your competitors.

Do they use billboards? 

Geofence their billboards and target those individuals digitally for the next 30 days. Don’t just target them when they see your “billboard.” Target them by video, audio, display, etc., over the next 30 days.

You can target content that is speaking about your competitors.

Are they spending a lot of money to build industry awareness? Great, don’t duplicate those efforts; target those efforts.

Tips Around Competitor Conquesting

Not sure the types of keywords that might make sense? The following is a list of ideas to get the juices flowing. 

(Positive) – Indicates keywords you should strongly consider utilizing to target.

(Negative) – Indicates keywords that might not be the proper context for you to target.

  1. First, develop a list of keywords.
    We find that 2 or 3 words per search query are the most effective. Longer-tail can be helpful and very targeted, but not as effective for search conquesting
  2. Pull all of the competitor’s SEO & Paid Search keywords.
    Filter the list of branded keywords. Define keywords that align with each of the 4 phases below. Negate any terms that are going to indicate a lower probability of being influenced. Below: “Positive” indicates it’s a good keyword or variation to target those that are open to conquesting. “Negative” indicates keywords or variations that typically are not effective to use in conquesting as the consumers aren’t really open to shopping around at that point.

    1. Researcher
      All keywords are good for this phase. No specific advice.
    2. Prospect
      1. (Positive) Brand Name (No com, etc. just brand name)
      2. (Positive) Review(s)
      3. (Positive) Compare
      4. (Positive) Versus
      5. (Positive) Similar to
      6. (Positive) Pricing
      7. (Positive) Fee(s)
      8. (Positive) About
      9. (Positive) Is…Safe
      10. (Positive) Is…Legitimate
      11. (Positive) What is
      12. (Positive) Whats
      13. (Positive) Free

    3. Customer
      1. (Negative) com
      2. (Negative) sign in
      3. (Negative) Login
      4. (Negative) Customer service
      5. (Negative) Contact
      6. (Negative) Support

    4. At-Risk Customer of competitor
      1. (Positive) Cancel
      2. (Positive) Alternative
      3. (Positive) Competitor
      4. (Positive) Return
      5. (Positive) Not working

Above all, building a business is not for the faint of heart. You work hard to build your business, drive revenue, and hit your goals. This should be an arrow in your quiver that you are testing or utilizing. 

We’d love to get you started programmatically – whether that’s starting you out in programmatic or helping you advance where you currently are. Please hit us up directly through the Contact form or social media.

Josh Aston
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