There’s nothing worse than watching your individual merchandise compete in opposition to one another.
When your paid media technique begins pitting your product strains in opposition to each other, you’re not simply inflating prices; you’re undercutting your individual probabilities at conversion.
That’s the query this month’s “Ask A PPC” will sort out:
“I work for a corporation that has three manufacturers in the identical area of interest with a excessive ticket merchandise for home renovation. All firms have excessive spend on search adverts, however we’re concentrating on the identical key phrases and we’re seeing cannibalization.
What can we do with our bidding technique to attempt to cut back our CPC and nonetheless compete on the identical merchandise/key phrases, however not cannibalize one another?”
Let’s break down tips on how to keep away from key phrase cannibalization, notably when coping with premium merchandise, and tips on how to construction campaigns in a method that retains every little thing working collectively.
The Exhausting Reality: You Can’t Keep away from All Cannibalization
Let’s begin right here as a result of that is what nobody desires to listen to: Should you’re concentrating on the identical non-branded key phrases, the identical geographies, and comparable audiences with comparable worth props, some stage of inside competitors is inevitable.
Search campaigns don’t know your product strains are siblings. All they see are bids, relevance scores, and conversion knowledge. Some key phrases/adverts will win. Some received’t.
The aim is to mitigate the interior crossfire and make strategic choices that give each product its finest shot to shine.
Prioritize: Which Merchandise Get Which Key phrases?
We don’t wish to play favorites with our merchandise, however with regards to generic, high-volume key phrases, you might need to.
Until you will have contractual obligations to spend equally throughout product strains (attempt to keep away from this), you’ll have to assign sure non-branded queries to at least one product or one other.
Right here’s how you are able to do it:
- Phase by market: Allocate geographic zones to completely different merchandise primarily based on efficiency developments, gross sales reps, or product-market match.
- Use key phrase analysis as a compass: Each Google’s and Microsoft’s key phrase planners can present you which ones search phrases have higher affinity with which product.
- Set up thematic lanes: If Product A is extra “entry-level” and Product B is the “professional model,” allow them to personal completely different phases of the funnel.
Use Class Pages, Not Product Pages
One workaround, particularly with Dynamic Search Adverts (DSA) and Efficiency Max (PMax), is to keep away from pushing individuals on to product pages. As an alternative, drive them to class or assortment pages.
Why this works:
- It provides customers choices with out forcing them to choose one.
- You may nonetheless management concentrating on and advert inventive on the marketing campaign or asset group stage.
- It creates a extra balanced distribution of visibility with out inflating cost-per-click (CPCs) by bidding on the identical SKUs.
DSAs and PMax campaigns do that notably effectively. You’re not bidding on key phrases within the conventional sense; you’re letting Google’s (or Microsoft’s) AI decide which queries to match primarily based on content material and intent.
On Google, AI Max enables you to information that intent extra narrowly by means of advert group-level settings.
On Microsoft, PMax can do one thing comparable, particularly in the event you feed it clear, structured knowledge and lean into visible inventive.
Construct A Branded Security Web
You doubtless have already got branded campaigns in place, and in the event you don’t, this is a crucial go do.
Branded search and Procuring ought to be certain that anybody on the lookout for a selected product by title sees solely that product. That is the place you possibly can (and may) be strict about marketing campaign segmentation.
Branded campaigns provide you with clear efficiency knowledge, defend your CPCs from cannibalization, and supply the clearest attribution path.
Leverage Visible Differentiation
That is the place platforms like Google Demand Gen and Microsoft Viewers Adverts actually shine.
Visible content material enables you to sidestep key phrases altogether and lean into product storytelling. You may goal by curiosity, subject, or customized segments – not search intent – which implies you possibly can:
- Run one marketing campaign per product and assign every a finances.
- Or run one massive marketing campaign and let the inventive information person alternative.
You need to use PMax right here, too, particularly on Microsoft, the place PMax makes it extra prone to safe Copilot placements throughout cell and desktop.
Copilot has been proven to have 25% extra relevancy than conventional search, in line with Microsoft inside knowledge.
The secret is to deal with these upper-funnel performs as viewers builders. Then, as soon as customers interact, you possibly can section them with remarketing throughout each platforms.
Professional tip: On Microsoft, even simply an impression is sufficient to construct an viewers. Which suggests your remarketing and exclusions can get very exact, in a short time.
As long as there’s a minimum of one viewers advert marketing campaign in your impression-based remarketing sources, you possibly can enable PMax to remarket to PMax and Search/Procuring to remarket to Search/Procuring, i.e., you possibly can seize intent from Copilot even when they didn’t interact with you there.
Does This Actually Resolve Cannibalization?
The one surefire option to totally stop cannibalization can be to run solely separate advert accounts, one per product. However that opens up a Pandora’s field of compliance dangers.
Google and Microsoft are each very conscious of efforts to double-serve, and in the event that they understand your accounts as making an attempt to sport the system – even in the event you’re simply making an attempt to remain organized – you might find yourself suspended.
So as an alternative, your finest transfer is to handle the overlap, not eradicate it. Deal with:
- Utilizing class pages for non-branded queries.
- Proudly owning branded queries with tightly segmented campaigns.
- Differentiating merchandise visually by means of audience-first codecs.
- Utilizing geographic and thematic separation when assigning generic key phrases.
When carried out proper, the buyer makes the ultimate resolution, not your CPC technique. That’s not cannibalization. That’s only a person selecting which of your nice merchandise matches their wants finest. And both method? You win.
Closing Takeaways
To recap:
- You may’t totally eradicate cannibalization with out risking violating platform insurance policies.
- Good segmentation of campaigns by geography, theme, and intent, helps mitigate overlap.
- Class pages + visible adverts can information customers to the appropriate product with out inflating CPCs.
- Branded campaigns are your finest good friend; maintain them clear, tight, and product-specific.
- Viewers-based concentrating on provides you management with out competing on search phrases.
On the finish of the day, your campaigns ought to replicate how your customers store: exploring, evaluating, deciding. Make that course of simpler for them, and cheaper for you.
Extra Assets:
Featured Picture: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
