Conquesting generally means taking control of a territory through a military campaign. In digital marketing, this word means ‘stealing’ your competitors’ traffic through paid ad manipulations.
This is an aggressive and controversial means of diverting your rivals’ traffic to your domain. Some people even find these tactics downright unethical and objectionable.
In this Innocams blog post you’ll find a lucid explanation of all crucial aspects of this special paid search tricks and their pros and cons.
Let’s get going.
Table of Contents
What is Conquesting?
Conquesting, which is also known as conquest advertising or conquest marketing, is implementing some tricks aimed at ‘hijacking’ the traffic to a rival’s website.
It is done by bidding on the competitor’s brand name or target keywords so when their legitimate customers will search for them, they will be shown your ads instead of theirs.
Consequently, it is assumed that a large portion of that traffic will visit your pages instead of your rival’s.
How Conquesting Works?
This unusual but widely practised paid ad manipulation technique has the following components:
- First, you decide to snatch your rival’s customers, who are already in the buying stage, and make them buy your product or service instead of your competitors’.
- Then you bid on the brand name or target search terms of your rivals.
- Then you use those keywords in your paid ads.
- When a customer uses those search terms, they will see your ad instead of your rival’s.
- As a result, your competitors will make all the marketing efforts and you’ll reap their benefits, leaving your rivals whistling for their traffic and conversions.
Advantages of Conquesting
Ethical or not, some people find it very convenient to let their competitors do all the work and enjoy the fruit of their labour. These are the benefits of this paid search manipulation–
Fast Market Sharing
By targeting customers who are already in the final stages of the sales funnel. you can quickly raise your brand awareness and share the market potential fast.
Benefits Without Much Efforts
And you will tap the market potential by leveraging the efforts of your rivals. You’ll let your competitors sweat it out and at the last moment trick their customers into your bag. Some people find it very beneficial and amusing.
Fast Buck and Great ROI
In conquesting you target customers who have already decided to do business with your competitors. This means they are qualified leads who are very likely to convert.
If you can divert them to your pages and offer something good, chances are they will buy your product instead of your competitors’.
The upshot is, you will get quick returns on your little efforts through a sudden surge in your conversion rates.
Disadvantages of Conquesting
No matter how appealing it seems to you, conquesting your competitors’ web terrains has some potential disadvantages which I must tell you about.
May Be Too Costly
Conquest advertising may not involve much effort, but it definitely involves spending a lot of boodle. You will bid on irrelevant keywords and brand names and consequently will have to spend more money than what you’d spend on relevant search terms.
Over time, the money you spend on this venture may accumulate into a fortune which you can ill-afford.
Low Click-Through-Rate
Conquesting can only work when the customers are in an evaluation stage. If they’ve already decided to buy the product of your competitors, they are unlikely to click on an ad of a different brand. Thus you may not get as much CTR as you expected.
The Hurdles of Leaders
You’re trying to conquest the territory of some established brands, which may prove to be too much for you in the long run.
May Harm Reputation
Customers loyal to your rivals will not only consider your products, but they may grow to dislike your brand, especially if your ad or product quality is poor.
This way, conquesting ultimately may imprint a negative image of your brand on potential customers’ minds which will harm your brand’s reputation.
The Ethical Concern
Some people consider this conquest marketing an unethical practice and dislike businesses that indulge in it.
Though search engines like Google don’t specifically prohibit it, they don’t like it very much either. Getting on the wrong side of Google may prove to be dangerous for you in future.
Conclusion
Conquesting helps you siphon off your rivals’ customers and profits without much effort. By leveraging a competitor’s marketing efforts, you can quickly amass considerable profits.
However, this type of aggressive and unusual advertisement techniques has potential drawbacks like getting a bad name for your brand, conceding huge expenditure and irritating potential customers.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Conquesting?
It is a paid search technique where you use your competitors’ brand names and target keywords in your ads to ‘steal’ their customers.
Is conquesting illegal?
Not exactly, but many people consider it an unethical business practice.
Can conquesting be expensive?
It usually is expensive as you’ll bid on irrelevant brand names and keywords.
