Take Advantage of Your Competitors Super Bowl Success By Bidding On Their Keywords

by Bob Hazlett on January 28, 2009

Don’t have $3MM to spend on a 30-second Super Bowl commercial? Take advantage of your competitors deep pockets by bidding on long-tail memorable ad keywords that your competition may have missed. For example, Career Builder put out a series of spots during last year’s game that focused on “Follow Your Heart.” Users who searched on the “follow your heart” terms most likely didn’t remember the brand behind the commercial.  Monster.com took advantage of Career Builder publicity by bidding on their tagline and hence directing a large amount of focused traffic right to their site.

Lesson: If you’re the guy paying $3MM for a single TV commercial, make sure you have a little extra left over for other mediums as well. If you’re the guy who can’t afford the budget, riding your competitors coat tails, doing a little recon and spending a few hours setting up a landing page makes you look like the MVP in the eyes of your boss.

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  • I understand where you're coming from in terms of branded terms. This strategy isn't something you should employ all the time. My point being (1) that if the terms are unclear and undefined like "follow your heart" tagline, then its OK to bid on those terms to capture that traffic and (2) this strategy must coincide with your search goals as well. If your goal is revenue then you're right, this probably isnt the best way to do it.

    I'd much rather create an amazing commercial and try to defend it instead of riding someone's coattails.
  • You know Bob. I'm not real big on the whole "Conquesting" competitor terms. There is little to no return on investment, so all your really doing is paying to ensure the competitors message doesn't convert and at the same time having almost zero chance to turn that searcher into a conversion for yourself. Paying for you both to lose.
  • Great idea too bad some one won't be doing anything with Tacky Christmas Sweaters. also it says I am logged in over ther on the right but when I try to comment it asks me to connect thru facebook
  • Great post, Bob. I'm not sure I'd be completely comfortable drafting on someone else's campaign like that but this is certainly memorable advice for the Career Builders of the world.
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