Stealing Clicks From Your Competitors (Episode 507)

This episode addresses the controversial topic of targeting competitors in Google Ads, advising caution due to budget constraints and potentially unmotivated leads. It's argued that most businesses should focus on saturating their core keywords instead of diverting funds to competitor campaigns, which can invite bidding wars and target less qualified traffic. The host suggests that if one insists on competitor targeting, it should focus on pre-decision searches (e.g., competitor + "price," "reviews") and offer distinct value propositions, ideally with a comparison landing page. The host recommends a separate, manually bid, exact-match campaign, with tightly controlled ad scheduling and pinned headlines that offer concrete reasons to switch.