Conquesting — the offensive mirror of brand defence.

Conquesting is the offensive mirror of brand defence: bidding on competitor brand names and competitor ASINs in order to put your product in front of their shoppers. It's legal on Amazon, sometimes very profitable, and very easy to mis-size.

The two mechanics

Brand-keyword conquesting

Bid on competitor brand keywords in a Sponsored Products campaign. The shopper types the competitor's name; your ad appears alongside (or above) the competitor's organic listing.

ASIN-targeted conquesting (Sponsored Display / SP product targeting)

Target the competitor's actual product detail page. Your ad appears in the carousel on their page, ideally inside the Buy Box-row carousel where conversion is highest.

When conquesting works

• Your product is genuinely better on a dimension the shopper cares about. Cheaper, longer warranty, better reviews — something concrete. Without that, the shopper bounces back to the brand they searched for.
• Your conversion-rate gap is bounded.Conquesting traffic converts at 30–60 % of brand-search conversion. Plan for it.
• Your margin can absorb the higher CPC.Competitor brand keywords are usually 2–3× the CPC of your own brand keywords.

When conquesting doesn't work

• You don't actually have a differentiating advantage. The shopper will scroll past your ad.
• The competitor brand commands strong loyalty in the category. Apple ASINs are extremely hard to conquest.
• You expect retaliation. Tit-for-tat conquesting raises everyone's CPCs and benefits Amazon, not the combatants.

How to size a conquesting campaign

• Separate campaign, separate budget, separate ACOS allowance from your category-keyword work.
• Bid 50–70 % of your own brand-keyword bid, not 100 %. Conquesting CVR is lower, so the max profitable CPC is lower.
• Track recovery share: of the shoppers your ad captured, how many returned to the competitor on a later session. AMALYZE's reporting flags this.