Conquest ads are online ads that run in a spot where your competition might run an ad. These ads -- on your own or a third party site with content relevant to your product or service and combined with behavioral targeting -- work well for high-consideration purchases like automobiles or consumer electronics. And, many BT ads are targeted at consumers who are in the early research stages of the buying cycle. But with conquest ads, a marketer can place an ad in front of a consumer who is deeper into that cycle-- a consumer who is busy considering a competitor's product.

By their nature, conquest ads are less efficient in terms of CPC and CPL. Done right, though, a conquest ad puts you in play right when potential buyers are thinking about your product classification (e.g., automotive)--, price range or model configuration at a time when they still might consider an alternative to the product they are researching.

In the next few pages, I'm going to show you some ways to use conquest ads. Here at Jumpstart, we focus our efforts on the automotive industry, and so most of the examples will be auto-focused, but the strategies can be effective for any high-consideration purchase.

Next: Conquest ads and specific products