Conquesting Advertising: A Guide to Successful Campaigns
Have you heard of conquesting campaigns? This practice has been around for as long as traditional advertising has, but it is still useful and relevant today for digital marketing. A well-planned ad campaign can leverage conquesting strategies to target specific audiences and outperform competitors.
But what exactly is conquesting? What are some common conquesting tactics? Let’s break down what this marketing strategy is and why food and wine brands should take advantage of it. In digital marketing, competitive conquesting is a strategic approach that focuses on targeting and dominating competitors’ keywords, ad spaces, and audience attention across various channels. Businesses can use conquesting to reach and engage other businesses’ audiences, expanding their market share and visibility.
What are Conquesting Campaigns?
Conquesting in the context of digital advertising refers to the act of deploying an ad for a brand’s products or services in the same space as editorial content that relates to a competitor or their products, such as competitor’s products. For example: A wine brand’s competitor might have a wine article that promotes their products placed on a wine fan blog. The wine brand would then have banner ads for their product placed on the same page as the article, targeting the competitor’s audience and strategies. Conquesting ads can also be used in podcasts or other media where competitors are active, allowing brands to reach listeners with host testimonials or unique promotions that track ad performance. However, it gets a little more complex than this. It is one of the best advertising techniques for those that want to advertise as their competitor. Food brand owners can promote their products by using food blog advertising (Ads) on digital media through food blogs.
Understanding How Conquest Advertising Campaigns Take Place
In ad campaigns, there are usually non-brand and brand keywords that are used. One would have to know the subset of unbranded keywords, competitor’s branded keywords, and competitor terms in order to usurp the competitor’s advertising and keywords. Essentially, brands will bid on competitor keywords—often through platforms like Google and Google Ads—in order for their ads to show up on the search engine results page (SERP) where the competitor’s ad would usually appear. By targeting these searches with Google Ads, marketers can increase visibility and attract potential customers. Programmatic display CTR benchmarks are an essential metric for assessing how well conquesting campaigns are performing. By analyzing CTR data, marketers may determine how effective their conquesting campaigns are at boosting traffic and engagement.
Brand keywords are, naturally, keywords that will include your business name in some capacity, such as “Bob’s Winery” or “Jim’s Winery.” An unbranded keyword would be something more like “wineries in Idaho” or “wineries near me.” Competitor keywords are typically a mix of branded and unbranded keywords, including competitor’s branded keywords and competitor terms, that your competitor excels in. In paid search campaigns, a strategic mix of target keywords and specific keywords—covering both branded and unbranded terms—can help maximize reach and effectiveness.
While understanding conquesting campaigns, many advertisers get confused due to marketing vs advertising differences. Market research, product or service creation, and brand alignment are all aspects of marketing, whereas advertising is purely focused on promoting a product, service, or brand. The effectiveness of conquesting campaigns can be influenced by factors such as quality score and lower quality score, which impact ad placement and cost when bidding on competitor keywords. Optimizing campaign performance also requires a relevant landing page that matches the ad’s message to encourage conversions, as well as a deep understanding of user behavior and intent for better targeting. However, brands should be cautious, as aggressive targeting of competitor keywords can lead to a bidding war, escalating costs and reducing overall campaign efficiency.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Conquesting Campaigns
Conquesting campaigns can be beneficial, but they also have some downsides. Sometimes, competitors will create false conquest campaigns to create tension between brands by placing a link to the competitor’s website via the original brand’s ad. Conquest advertising is very much legal, so it’s not impossible for such a scenario to occur, but it can definitely be irritating to deal with. Additionally, brand loyalty has weakened in recent years, making it possible for conquesting campaigns to challenge or even overcome the loyalty of longstanding customers by offering a superior alternative.
There are many benefits as well. Clients can see significant advantages from these strategies. Branded search sits pretty low in the sales funnel, so consumers that are searching through branded keywords are often high intent customers who are close to making a purchase. A conquest campaign can be very effective for generating leads in this respect.
Effective media planning questions are essential for successful digital advertising campaigns. By ensuring that potential customers are aware of your company and the various ways your products are different from the brand they may have been searching for, you can absolutely push incremental sales with relative ease. In many scenarios, targeting your competitors’ unbranded and brand keywords can produce an inexpensive cost per lead or cost per sale when compared to targeting regular, non-branded terms. This digital marketing tactic is very useful for new and upcoming brands that are trying to usurp or disrupt a major player in their industry.
Types of Conquesting Campaigns
Conquesting campaigns come in several distinct forms, each offering unique opportunities for brands to outmaneuver their competitors in the digital marketing landscape. One of the most popular approaches is paid search conquesting, where advertisers bid on competitor keywords to ensure their ads appear prominently in search results when users are searching for rival brands. This tactic can effectively intercept potential customers at a critical point in their buying journey.
Display prospecting is another method, leveraging display ads that are strategically placed alongside content related to competitors. This approach increases the likelihood that your brand will be seen by audiences already interested in similar products or services. Paid social conquesting takes these strategies to social media platforms, allowing brands to target competitor audiences with tailored ads on channels like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
SEO/SEM conquesting involves optimizing your website and search engine marketing efforts to rank for competitor brand names and product terms, capturing organic and paid traffic that might otherwise go to your rivals. Each conquesting campaign type has its own strengths and is best suited to different marketing goals and target audiences. By understanding and selecting the right mix of conquesting strategies, advertisers can create a comprehensive marketing strategy that maximizes reach and impact across multiple digital channels.
Methods of Conquesting Campaigns
Banner Ads are the essential media format to use in your conquesting campaign. Service providers, such as meal delivery companies, often leverage these strategies to reach new audiences. Banner Ads can get in front of potential customers easily, especially through programmatic targeted marketing. Effective campaigns may target the competition’s brand directly, as well as a range of competitors brands, to maximize reach. While your click-through rate will definitely affect your cost per click, one can easily run a consistent banner campaign based on behavioral targeting and keywords shared with your competitor. Additionally, targeting users interested in a specific brand can further enhance campaign performance and deliver better outcomes for the client. They are also used in native advertisements. Native advertising examples show that native ads are highly successful in conquesting campaigns.
Digital Marketing and Conquesting
Conquesting campaigns are most effective when integrated into a broader digital marketing strategy. Successful advertisers align their conquesting efforts with overall marketing objectives, ensuring that every campaign supports brand visibility and business growth. Digital marketing channels such as social media, display advertising, and search engine optimization (SEO) can all be leveraged alongside conquesting to create a unified and impactful marketing approach.
By weaving conquesting into their digital marketing strategy, brands can reach target audiences at multiple touchpoints, reinforce their messaging, and drive consistent results. This holistic approach not only amplifies the effectiveness of conquesting campaigns but also helps advertisers navigate the complexities of the digital landscape, ensuring that every marketing dollar is spent wisely and strategically.
Measuring Success and Market Share
Evaluating the success of conquesting campaigns is essential for understanding their impact on brand growth and market share. Key performance indicators such as click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS) provide valuable insights into campaign effectiveness. Additionally, tracking shifts in market share, brand awareness, and customer acquisition costs helps advertisers assess the true value of their conquesting strategy.
Regular measurement and analysis enable advertisers to refine their campaigns, optimize advertising spend, and make informed decisions that drive long-term success. By focusing on data-driven improvements, brands can strengthen their market position, increase brand awareness, and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage through well-executed conquesting campaigns.
