How to get your competitors to generate traffic for you

One rule we live by when scaling Google Ads:

Always on the lookout for new customer segments to sell to.

Typically, we do this by expanding into new countries, running cold traffic ads on YouTube, etc.

But there's another method that's less common yet just as powerful to do so.

It’s a bit sneaky (and it might annoy your competitors).

But it’s completely legal and when executed well…

It can unlock a massive segment of high-intent buyers who are ready to purchase.

Let me explain…

Right now, in your market, there's a group of potential customers who are extremely close to buying… just not from you.

They’re searching for your competitors using keywords like “[Competitor],” “[Competitor] reviews,” and similar terms.

That’s a huge pool of your ideal customers you can tap into…

A pool filled with high-intent buyers that your competitors already spend big money to:

1. Educate about the product category

2. Drive them to Google through Meta ads, influencer collaborations, and other channels

Now, you might be thinking:

“But Jackson, surely these people would just land on the competitor’s page, right? After all, that’s what they’re searching for.”

And for the most part, you'd be right.

A portion of that traffic already knows and wants your competitor’s products.

Let's call it 10% to keep things simple.

That 10% will go directly to your competitor's site and buy without hesitation.

Which means… the other 90% are still on the fence. They haven’t committed to that brand yet.

They want that type of product…

But they're still figuring out if your competitor is the best choice.

THAT is the segment you can capitalize on.

If you position your brand smartly, you can “steal” that traffic to your site and convert them into customers.

There are 3 ways to do this effectively.

The most common approach is sending visitors directly to your product page.

It can work, but it overlooks the intent of this type of traffic.

These buyers are already familiar with your competitor’s brand. 

To pull them away, you have to go beyond showing them what you sell.

You have to show them why it’s a better choice.

This is what the other 2 methods focus on.

We either use head-to-head comparison pages (“Your Brand vs Nike”).

These keep the design clean and make it clear that they belong to your brand.

This works best when you're competing against massive brands that could go after you legally.

Or “independent” review sites listing top brands in the category (“best 10 protein powders”).

These highlight both pros & cons of competitors and don’t reveal that you own this page.

Both formats give you more room to build trust and deliver a clear “Why us instead?” story.

All wrapped up inside an educational piece of content that people already want to consume.

To be fair, these formats aren't exactly new.

Brands have been running them forever on Meta.

But on Google search and YouTube? Almost nobody's doing it.

We’ve been running these profitably for over a year now.

They’re allowing us to push spend much further than before.

So here’s my prediction:

As meta CPMs keep climbing, more brands will wake up to how profitable this is on Google.

And it’ll soon be the common practice

But for now, it’s still wide-open territory.

Jackson

CEO & Founder of Echelonn

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