Definition

Competitor Campaigns refer to when a Brand buys their Competitor’s Brand terms as keywords.

Reasons for buying Competitor keywords include:

• Attempting to lure away your competitor’s target consumers. Users who are searching for Competitor brand terms are near the bottom of the funnel, but are likely to have already (or almost) made up their mind that the competitor offer is what they are after. As such, buying their Brand terms offers you the lowest Click Through Rate (we’re essentially attempting to intercept a consumer at the last minute), however means you often can reach the right person at the right time (if you could lure them with the right appeal).
• Denying your Competitors clear air. Business is always a challenge – no need to make it easier for your competitors, right?

Intentional Tips

• Buy Competitor Search as an important part of your overall Digital Strategy
• Observe Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) for full control of all of your Competitor terms. 
• Make Competitor keywords work harder for you by supplying Competitor specific Ad Creative and Landing Pages. A good example may be provided a comparison table to make it easier for users (who were intent on your competitor), see why they should consider your offer instead.
• Never co-mingle Competitor Search with Branded or Unbranded Search. This practise typically degrades account Search performance because Competitor keywords typically have very low Click Through Rates, extremely poor Quality Score and therefore expensive click costs. This typically happens either from poor account structure and/or because advertisers are unknowingly buying Competitor keywords from broad matched and un-monitored Unbranded keywords.