Retailer conquest advertising is as popular as traditional advertising, yet some brands hesitate to implement it as part of their strategies. For a full-funnel approach to advertising, conquest marketing can help you meet and exceed expectations with every campaign.
Using SEM, paid social and display ads, conquest advertising can help you:
- Increase brand awareness online
- Persuade competitor loyalists to switch to your products
- Leverage the full potential of social media
- Be a part of every step of the shopper’s journey
- Drive more sales and profits
In this blog, we are looking at 8 popular eCommerce platforms, along with a deep dive into Amazon and Walmart, so you know the rules to conquest advertising each one for omnichannel success.
Rules for Conquest Advertising Each Marketplace
Every platform demands singular attention despite similarities. You can make your advertising strategy significantly more effective by tailoring it to fit each template, and we have an easy list of rules for you to keep in mind next time you want to win at keyword conquest advertising.
Instacart
As one of the country’s leading grocery retailers, Instacart presents a ton of opportunities for you to get ahead of the competition and establish your brand. Here are 3 rules you should keep in mind:
- Leverage limitless keyword conquest advertising on Sponsored Products.
- Target competitors using relevant keywords.
- Implement negative targeting to escape the noise.
CitrusAd
On this platform, you should prioritize your keywords before launching the ad campaign. This is because you cannot boost individual keywords, so all optimizations happen at the campaign level. You can learn to make the most out of your ad dollars with AI-enhanced research features, but keep in mind that all keywords are subject to a business review.
GoPuff
Sponsored Search ad placements on GoPuff are a tried-and-tested strategy to attract motivated buyers. Other than that, the platform does not have any restrictions when it comes to conquest marketing. Sponsored Products see an 85:15 ratio in spend for most campaigns versus their search campaigns.
Criteo
Criteo offers access to ads on 40+ retailer websites, including Target and Best Buy, so you can expect a ton of sales with it if done right. It is currently in the beta phase of keyword testing, with the predicted structure being similar to that of Citrus.
Two limitations to keep in mind:
- Conquest advertising is limited on the search and browse pages but allowed on product detail pages.
- You cannot execute negative keyword targeting at the line-item level (yet.)
eBay
This online marketplace offers advertisers two promotional campaign options – Promoted Listings (cost-per-sale) and Promoted Listings Advanced (cost-per-click) campaigns. Of these, keyword conquest advertising is possible via Promoted Listings Advanced campaigns.
Kroger
Unfortunately, Kroger does not allow any keyword conquest advertising at this time. For your ad campaign strategies, you simply choose one of the platform’s predetermined geographies, while the platform itself decides which category pages your brand and products fall within.
Kroger ensures that all advertising and marketing efforts are aligned with its ideology to inspire consumers. For Pride Month, the platform promoted LGBTQ+ brands to help consumers support and celebrate Pride.
Conquest Marketing Strategies for Amazon Advertising
Keyword conquest marketing is very important in every Amazon seller’s advertising strategy. Long-tail, detailed keywords perform well on the platform, so including essential identifiers of your product and brand in the category can increase ROAS significantly.
Based on your budget, the Amazon marketplace can help you convert competitor loyalists and increase traction to drive incremental sales. Targeting competitor products is a legitimate strategy and aggressive bidding on those keywords is the way to go. The platform offers equal opportunity to all advertisers on paid search, given you are willing to take a full-funneled approach across targeting and campaign types.
Within your campaign, you can also target specific ASINs to show up on top of your competitor’s search results. Combine this with category targeting and you can successfully increase visibility at each step of the shopper’s journey.
Conquest Marketing Strategies for Walmart Connect Advertising
Unlike many eCommerce platforms, Walmart offers advertisers the opportunity to conquest advertising both keywords (Search In-Grid-KWB) and Shopper Audience Targeting (WMX). So, you can bid on all non-branded terms and appear on top of relevant searches.
In case of a competitive term, you can log a ticket to have a chance to override the limitation and allow you to bid on it. Category targeting is also very important for Walmart, and it’s a first-price auction so your budget makes all the difference in execution.
As of right now, the platform doesn’t allow competitor conquest advertising. But it plans to bring about a lot of changes later this year. This is a newfound opportunity for trial-and-error conquest marketing.
Conclusion
Understanding and implementing conquest advertising tactics can be a complex and time-consuming process, but its benefits far outweigh the investments. Your strategy is a combination of your goals, budget, product categories, and target consumers, among other variables.
Based on your unique specifics, you can compare all the retailers we discussed in this blog to craft a plan best suited to your brand. To learn more about intelligent eCommerce advertising across multiple marketplaces, discover Pacvue Commerce and book a demo today!
