A smarter way to run conquesting campaigns in the pet pharma market.

1. Brand X at a Glance

Brand X is a leading U.S. online pet pharmacy, catering to pet owners across the country with prescription and no-prescription medications, supplements, and health essentials. With 80% of its ad budget dedicated to Paid Search, it's a performance-first business that relies on search to acquire and retain customers.

Its target audience? Primarily dog and cat owners in the U.S., many of whom place recurring orders. That makes search visibility, especially against competitors, critical to long-term growth.

2. The Challenge: Growing New Customers Without Breaking the Bank

Brand X faced intense competition in Paid Search, particularly around competitor keywords. These are high-intent,high-cost terms, think customers searching directly for rival brands orproducts.

But bidding on them came with serious risks:

· Higher CPCs and lower conversion rates, which threatened channel efficiency

· A potential drain on performance metrics like ROAS and CAC (Cost per Acquisition)

· Limited keyword structure flexibility that made optimization hard to scale

Brand X needed a way to capture competitor traffic without harming efficiency targets, all while unlocking meaningful growth in new customer acquisition.

3. The Strategy: AI-Driven Conquesting via a Single NBTA Campaign

To solve this, Brand X and Crealytics overhauled the conquesting approach with a smarter campaign structure powered by automation and a clear acquisition goal.

The four-step transformation:

1. Consolidated into a Single NBTA Campaign: All competitor keywords were unified into one NBTA (Non-Brand Text Ads) campaign: centralizing control and optimization while simplifying budget allocation.

2. One CPC target across the board: Instead of micromanaging keyword groups, all terms were held to the same CPC and ROAS goals: with a single objective: drive incremental, high-converting traffic.

3. Doubled Keyword Depth: The keyword set expanded to include category-level and long-tail variations, extending reach while staying focused on qualified traffic.

4. AI Bidding with Target ROAS (tROAS): Smart bidding ensured spend was dynamically allocated toward the most valuable clicks. The team adjusted ROAS targets regularly to prevent overspending and improve efficiency.

4. The Results: Scaled Customer Growth, No Extra Spend

At stable spend levels, the new strategy delivered powerful results:

· +48% more clicks, unlocking high-intent traffic from competitor terms

· +60% growth in new customers, proving the strategy drove real acquisition

· –38% lower CAC, with significantly improved ROAS and CPC

It wasn’t just better performance: it was sustainable, scalable growth through smarter keyword strategy and AI optimization.

Final Takeaway: Winning the Conquesting Game Without Burning Budget

Brand X’s success proves that competitor keywords don’t have to be a gamble. With the right structure, in this case, a unified NBTA campaign powered by tROAS: conquesting becomes a reliable lever for growth, not just a costly experiment.

For brands in highly competitive verticals, this strategy offers a blueprint for balancing aggression with efficiency, and turning search into a source of smart, incremental scale.

In need of growing your new customers with performance marketing? Reach out to us.

About Crealytics

Crealytics is an award-winning full-funnel digital marketing agency fueling the profitable growth of over 100 well-known B2C and B2B businesses, including ASOS, The Hut Group, Staples and Urban Outfitters. A global company with an inclusive team of 200+ international employees, we operate from our hubs in Berlin, New York, Chicago, London, and Mumbai.