If you run Google Ads yourself for a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, or roofing company, competitor targeting is one of the easiest ways to waste a week of budget, or one of the cleanest ways to pick up jobs when a local rival is slow to answer the phone. The difference is process.
This is the DIY playbook. No agency theater. Just Auction Insights, a bid-vs-negative rule, compliant copy, a landing page approach, Presence geo, budget caps, and a simple read on whether conquesting pays.
Prefer the product-angled version of the same topic? Read How VibeAds Helps Local Trades Target Competitors on Google Ads.
What is competitor conquesting in Google Ads?
Conquesting means showing your ad when someone searches a competitor's brand name. Example: a homeowner types "Summit City Plumbing" and your plumbing company appears in the paid results with a clear alternative offer.
That is different from:
- Winning non-brand service auctions ("water heater install near me") where you and rivals already compete
- Defending your own brand so searches for your name do not get stolen
- Accidentally matching competitor names inside broad or expanded Search without intending to
DIY owners often mix those together. Separate them in the account or you will never know what worked.
Step 1: Pull Auction Insights before you bid on anyone
In Google Ads, open a core Search campaign or ad group that spends on your money terms. Go to Auction insights.
Look for:
- Local companies that repeatedly show up beside you
- Overlap in impression share on emergency vs install campaigns
- Out-of-area national brands that appear more on informational queries
Write down a short list (often three to seven local names). Do not start with twenty brands. You are building a test, not a phone book.
If Auction Insights is thin, you may lack volume. Fix tracking, budget, and non-brand coverage first using a trade guide such as how to set up Google Ads for plumbing or HVAC.
Step 2: Decide bid vs negative for each competitor name
For each name on your list, choose one lane:
Bid (conquest test)
Use when the rival is local, overlaps your service area, and you have a real differentiator (same-day, financing, licensing proof, stronger reviews, tighter niche).
Negative
Use when the brand attracts tire-kickers, DIY researchers, job seekers, or loyalty you cannot beat. Also negative names that historically clicked without booking.
Neither yet
Use when you have no data. Watch search terms for a few weeks before spending.
Add decided negatives at campaign or account level so they cannot leak back through match types. Refresh your baseline list with the negative keywords tool and this negatives guide for plumbers, HVAC, and electricians.
Step 3: Build a separate conquest campaign or ad group
Do not dump competitor brand keywords into your emergency ad group.
A clean DIY structure:
- Campaign: Brand defense - your business name and common misspellings
- Campaign: Conquest test - only approved competitor names, low daily budget
- Campaigns: Non-brand services - emergency, repair, install, maintenance as you already run them
Use phrase and exact match for competitor names at first. Keep the conquest campaign easy to pause.
Step 4: Write conquest ad copy that stays compliant
Rules of thumb for local trades:
- Do not claim to be them. No "Official," no copying their slogan as if it is yours.
- Do not use their trademark in the RSA if it creates confusion. Safer pattern: talk about your offer, city, licensing, and response time. (Policies and enforcement can vary. When unsure, keep their name out of visible assets.)
- Do offer a clear alternative. Same-day dispatch, upfront pricing, financing, warranty work, or a free inspection, only if true.
- Do put the phone number path in extensions. Call extensions help mobile homeowners.
Example angle (illustrative, not a template to fake claims):
- Headline ideas: "Local Licensed Plumber," "Same-Day Service in [City]," "Upfront Pricing, Real Techs"
- Description ideas: "Looking for a second option? Local crew, clear estimates, call now."
You are inviting a comparison, not impersonating a brand.
Step 5: Send traffic to a landing page built for switchers
Homepage dumping kills conquest tests.
Better DIY landing approach:
- Headline that states your offer and city
- Phone number above the fold
- Trust proof: license, insurance, reviews, years in market (only accurate claims)
- Short form as backup
- A sentence that acknowledges they may be comparing options, without bashing the rival by name
- Fast load on mobile
If you need a refresher on landing pages for ads, see How to Create a Landing Page for Google Ads.
Step 6: Lock geo to Presence and keep radius honest
Set location options to Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations. "People interested in" your city will import tire-kickers from outside your dispatch radius.
Match the conquest campaign geo to where you actually roll trucks. If you will not drive 40 miles for a comparison quote, do not pay for that click.
Step 7: Cap the budget so conquest cannot starve real demand
Pick a number that cannot hurt your core campaigns. Many DIY owners start conquest as a small fraction of monthly Search spend and a hard daily cap.
Practical rules:
- Fund emergency and core service campaigns first
- Give conquest a trial window (for example two to four weeks) with a fixed ceiling
- Do not raise the conquest budget because CTR looks exciting
Conquest is optional. Non-brand service demand usually pays the bills. Category hubs: /google-ads-for/plumber, and how-tos for electricians and roofers.
Step 8: Measure whether conquesting pays
Vanity metrics lie here. Track:
- Cost in the conquest campaign only
- Qualified calls / forms from that campaign (call tracking helps)
- Booked jobs you can honestly attribute
- Job quality (margin, distance, tire-kicker rate)
- Search terms inside the conquest campaign (add negatives weekly)
Compare cost per booked job from conquest vs your best non-brand campaigns. If conquest stays worse after a fair trial, pause it and keep the names as negatives.
If you are not tracking calls well, fix that before judging the test. See Track Calls From Google Ads Without CallRail.
Step 9: Weekly checklist for DIY owners
Spend 15 to 20 minutes once a week:
- Search terms on conquest and non-brand campaigns
- Add DIY, jobs, parts, and failed competitor variants as negatives
- Confirm Presence geo still matches dispatch
- Skim RSA assets for anything that sounds unlike your business
- Check call quality notes or recordings for conquest callers
- Pause keywords or the whole conquest campaign if booked-job economics fail
Common DIY mistakes to avoid
- Conquesting national brands with no local win condition
- Mixing competitor keywords into Performance Max or a giant mixed campaign where you cannot see query waste clearly
- Using aggressive copy that implies affiliation
- Skipping brand defense while attacking others
- Reading CTR as success
- Letting AI matching expand a conquest ad group into unrelated junk without negatives
When to stop DIY and get help
If you can keep the checklist going, DIY is enough for a small test. If search-term cleanup, negatives, and call quality review keep slipping while you are on job sites, that is the signal many owners follow: put monitoring on rails. VibeAds is built around Search-first local campaigns, negative hygiene, and optimization aimed at real leads. The product-angled companion post explains how we think about competitor work without promising magic: How VibeAds Helps Local Trades Target Competitors on Google Ads.
What to remember
For local trades, competitor targeting is a controlled experiment:
- Read Auction Insights
- Bid only a short local list, or negative the rest
- Isolate conquest in its own budget
- Stay compliant in copy
- Use Presence geo
- Judge booked jobs, not clicks
Do that, and conquesting becomes a decision you can defend. Skip the process, and it becomes an expensive habit.
FAQ
Is it okay to bid on a competitor's business name?
Often yes as a keyword strategy, but your ads and landing page must not impersonate them. Stay truthful about your own company.
Should I put competitor names in my ad headlines?
Usually safer not to, especially if it could confuse the searcher. Lead with your offer, city, and proof.
How long should I test conquesting?
Give it a fixed budget and a fixed window long enough to collect real calls, then decide with booked-job math. Do not "leave it on" by default.
What if competitor names appear in my non-brand search terms?
Add them as negatives in those campaigns unless you intentionally want that traffic inside a separate conquest campaign.
What is the first thing to fix before conquesting?
Leaks: wrong geo, weak negatives, no call tracking, and homepage landing pages. Conquest will not save a leaky account.