Written by: Aaron Rovner, Founder, Saas Hero | Last updated: August 25, 2026
What You Will Get From This 90-Day Conquesting Plan
B2B SaaS teams often waste $10k–$50k each month on broad keywords while competitors capture high-intent buyers searching pricing, alternatives, and reviews.
This 90-day framework combines intent segmentation, battlecards, comparison pages, negative-keyword hygiene, sales enablement, and CRM-tied revenue tracking to reach payback in under 90 days.
Three intent tiers – Pricing, Problem/Complaint, and Review/Validation – guide keyword strategy, ad groups, landing pages, and offers so you match buyer psychology precisely.
High-intent comparison pages convert at 1.5–7.2% versus 0.4–1.8% for blog posts, while disciplined programs deliver 80-day payback, 10x CPL reduction, and $500k+ Net New ARR within 12 months.
Book a discovery call with SaaSHero to get your competitor-conquesting roadmap, battlecards, and comparison-page wireframes built for your top two competitors within the first week.
Prerequisites and Key Definitions for Your Program
Confirm access to these systems before launch so setup runs smoothly:
Google Ads with admin access for campaign creation and negative keyword lists
LinkedIn Ads for ABM layers and persona-targeted conquesting
CRM such as HubSpot or Salesforce with pipeline stages mapped to revenue
Existing competitor keyword data from Semrush, Ahrefs, or Google Search Console exports
Three intent types drive your keyword and content strategy:
Pricing Intent: Searches like “[Competitor] pricing” or “how much does [Competitor] cost.” The user is price-sensitive and evaluating total cost of ownership.
Problem/Complaint Intent: Searches like “[Competitor] alternatives” or “cancel [Competitor].” The user feels friction with their current tool and wants to switch.
Review/Validation Intent: Searches like “[Competitor] reviews” or “[Competitor] vs [Your Brand].” The user is in consideration and wants third-party confirmation before committing.
Track these core metrics throughout the program:
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): Total sales and marketing spend divided by new customers acquired.
LTV (Lifetime Value): Average revenue per customer over the full relationship.
Net New ARR: Closed-won annual recurring revenue from new logos only.
Payback Period: Months required to recover CAC from gross margin.
Plan for a 4–6 week setup phase, pipeline impact at 30–45 days, and a month-to-month accountability cadence with no long-term lock-in.
The 90-Day Rollout Framework at a Glance
This six-step framework keeps your rollout structured and measurable:
Revenue Tracking & Phased Rollout – Deliverable: CRM-tied Looker Studio dashboards reporting Net New ARR, SQLs, and payback period
Powered By Search’s B2B SaaS Google Ads blueprint treats conquesting as one of four distinct campaign pillars alongside prospecting, remarketing, and brand. Each pillar needs its own keyword strategy, landing pages, and measurement logic, and this framework follows that same separation.
Step 1: Intent Segmentation & Keyword Mapping
Objective: Divide competitor-related search volume into the three intent tiers so each ad group, landing page, and offer aligns with buyer psychology.
See exactly what your top competitors are doing on paid search and social
Actions:
Export all competitor brand queries from Semrush or Ahrefs for the two or three competitors with the strongest displacement case.
Tag each keyword by intent tier – Pricing, Problem/Complaint, or Review/Validation – so you can match ad copy and landing pages to buyer mindset in later steps.
With keywords tagged, estimate monthly search volume and CPC for each tier. Because competitor conquest campaigns in Google Ads typically produce median CTRs of 4.1–5.4% and CPCs 2–5× higher than other campaign tiers, you need to budget carefully to keep cost-per-acquisition sustainable.
Build separate ad groups for each intent tier based on your volume analysis. Never mix Pricing Intent keywords with Review/Validation Intent keywords in the same ad group.
Decision point: If monthly search volume for a specific competitor-intent combination sits below 100 searches, consolidate that tier into a broader ad group instead of creating an isolated campaign that will starve for data.
Common mistake: Teams often target the bare competitor brand name, such as “Salesforce,” alongside modifier keywords. Bare brand queries carry navigational intent, so the user wants the login page. These queries inflate spend without generating pipeline, so separate them immediately.
Quality check: Every keyword in the final list should map to exactly one intent tier and one corresponding landing page. If a keyword cannot be assigned to a page, remove it from the campaign.
Step 2: Battlecard & Messaging Development
Objective: Give sales reps one-page competitive battlecards that surface the right talk track the moment a competitor appears in a deal.
Actions:
Identify the top two or three competitors from Step 1. Competitive displacement programs can produce payback periods of about 80 days and 650% ROI when executed with discipline.
Pull win/loss data from the CRM and filter for deals where a named competitor appeared. Extract the objections that surfaced most often in lost deals.
Build one battlecard per competitor. Cover their positioning, your defensible differentiator, three to five objection-handling responses, trap-setting questions that expose competitor weaknesses, and a clear migration or switching offer.
Distribute battlecards inside the CRM, pinned in Slack, or embedded in Notion so reps can find them quickly instead of digging through a shared drive.
Decision point: If win/loss data is insufficient, with fewer than 20 competitive deals in the CRM, supplement with G2 and Capterra review mining to uncover the most common complaints about each target competitor.
Quality check: Each battlecard should include at least one genuine advantage for the competitor, clearly sourced and dated. Cards that claim wins on every dimension erode rep trust and buyer credibility.
Step 3: Comparison-Page Architecture
Objective: Using the intent-segmented keywords from Step 1 and the competitive messaging from Step 2, build dedicated landing pages for each competitor-intent combination that match the ad message and convert at rates that justify higher CPCs.
Build a side-by-side feature table limited to 6–10 buyer-deciding rows such as pricing model, core workflow fit, integrations, support responsiveness, and onboarding time. Cite competitor pricing pages or dated screenshots for every claim.
Include “Who should pick X” and “Who should pick Y” sections so buyers can self-select without reading the full page.
Add migration path guidance such as free data import, contract buyout terms, or onboarding support. This content addresses the switching-cost objection directly.
Place a primary CTA after the verdict block and a secondary CTA in the conclusion to capture both fast and slower decision-makers.
Objective: Remove navigational and irrelevant traffic from conquesting campaigns so CPL stays efficient and ad copy remains compliant.
Actions:
Add the bare competitor brand name as a negative exact match keyword in every conquesting campaign. A user searching only the brand name wants the login page, not a comparison.
Build a shared negative keyword list that includes job-related terms such as “[Competitor] careers” and “[Competitor] jobs,” support terms that indicate existing customers such as “[Competitor] login” and “[Competitor] help,” and other navigational variants.
Apply the shared list across all conquesting ad groups. Review and expand it weekly during the first 30 days using the Search Terms report to catch new irrelevant queries.
Once your traffic looks clean, focus on ad compliance to reduce legal risk. Use competitor names only in factual comparisons, avoid competitor logos, and ensure ad headlines clearly identify your brand to prevent passing-off claims.
Troubleshooting: If CPCs spike without a matching lift in conversion rate, check the Search Terms report. Navigational queries often slip into the campaign, so expand the negative keyword list before you change bids.
Quality check: Run a Search Terms audit at the end of Week 2 and Week 4. Any query that does not map to Pricing, Problem/Complaint, or Review/Validation intent should be negated immediately.
Step 5: Sales Enablement & Switching Offers
Objective: Ensure every lead from the conquesting engine reaches a sales rep with the context, tools, and offer needed to close against the named competitor.
Actions:
Tag every inbound lead in the CRM with the competitor keyword and intent tier that generated the conversion so this context follows the lead through each pipeline stage.
Create a competitor-specific email sequence for non-converters who visited a comparison page but did not submit a form. Tailor the sequence to the specific pain point of that intent tier.
Define a switching offer for each target competitor, such as free data migration, a contract buyout credit, or an extended trial. Make each offer specific and quantified, not generic.
Brief the sales team on the battlecards from Step 2 before the first leads arrive. Teams that use competitive intelligence tools and train reps on the material before deals enter the pipeline see meaningful gains in competitive sales effectiveness.
Tip: Leads from strong comparison pages usually show higher intent and often convert better than leads from informational content pages. Sales reps should treat these leads as high priority and respond within the same business day.
Quality check: Confirm that every lead from a conquesting campaign has a competitor tag in the CRM before the end of Week 4. Untagged leads cannot be attributed to the program and will distort payback calculations.
Step 6: Revenue Tracking & 90-Day Phased Rollout
Objective: Tie ad spend to closed-won revenue through CRM integration and build dashboards that make the program defensible at the board level.
Actions:
Days 1–14: Run keyword discovery, win/loss analysis, and a CRM audit. Map pipeline stages such as MQL, SQL, Opportunity, and Closed-Won as conversion actions in Google Ads with differentiated values.
Days 46–75: Launch the second and third competitor campaigns. Build the Looker Studio dashboard pulling from CRM data, including Net New ARR by competitor, CPL by intent tier, SQL rate, and payback period.
Attribution gap: B2B SaaS buyers research across many touchpoints before converting. Last-click attribution in Google Analytics undercounts the impact of top-of-funnel comparison page views. Use multi-touch attribution in HubSpot or Salesforce to capture the full influence of the conquesting program on closed-won deals.
Success Metrics and How to Measure Them
Use three benchmark outcomes to judge a disciplined 90-day competitor-conquesting program:
80-day payback period: Measure this by dividing CAC by monthly gross margin per new customer. This is the benchmark introduced in Step 2, now with the measurement method defined.
10x CPL reduction: Measure this by comparing CPL before and after negative-keyword hygiene and intent segmentation. SaaS Hero delivered a 10x CPL decrease and a 163% volume increase for Playvox by restructuring their account around these principles.
Collect these metrics through a Looker Studio dashboard connected to the CRM and updated weekly. Report on Net New ARR, pipeline value by competitor, SQL rate by intent tier, and payback period. Avoid using impressions, clicks, or CTR as primary metrics because they do not correlate directly with revenue.
TripMaster adds $504,758 in Net New ARR in One Year
Advanced Variations and Scaling Paths
Once the first two or three competitor campaigns produce consistent pipeline, expand using two clear paths.
Channel expansion: Extend the conquesting program to Microsoft Ads for enterprise and government-heavy audiences, the Capterra and Gartner network for buyers already in active vendor evaluation, and Meta for retargeting comparison-page visitors who did not convert. Let strategy drive channel selection, not the reverse.
Quick-Start Checklist and Next Actions by Maturity Level
Use this checklist to confirm your starting point:
CRM pipeline stages mapped to Google Ads conversion actions
Competitor keyword lists segmented by intent tier
Shared negative keyword list applied across all conquesting campaigns
Dedicated comparison pages live at /compare/ or /vs/ subdirectories
Battlecards distributed inside the CRM for the top two competitors
Switching offer defined and quantified for each target competitor
Looker Studio dashboard reporting Net New ARR and payback period
Mid-market teams ($1M–$10M ARR): Run the full six-step framework against two competitors at the same time. Prioritize CRM integration and multi-touch attribution from Day 1.
Scale-up teams ($10M+ ARR): Add ABM conquesting, expand to three or more competitors, and set a dedicated pipeline target for the compete program with a named owner who reports monthly.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to set up a competitor-conquesting program?
The setup phase runs 4–6 weeks for a team with existing CRM infrastructure and competitor keyword data. The first two weeks cover keyword discovery, win/loss analysis, and CRM mapping. Weeks three through six cover page builds, battlecard development, and campaign launch. Pipeline impact usually appears 30–45 days after launch. Teams working with SaaS Hero benefit from a senior-led setup process where the same strategists who design the program also execute it, which removes the handoff delays common in traditional agencies.
What team roles are required to run this program?
You need a paid media manager for Google Ads and LinkedIn, a content or web resource to build comparison pages, a sales enablement contact to distribute battlecards, and a CRM administrator to configure pipeline tracking. SaaS Hero’s retainer model functions as an embedded growth team that covers all of these roles under a flat monthly fee, with a dedicated senior account strategist, campaign manager, and project manager assigned to each client.
Does this program work for smaller organizations with limited budgets?
The framework scales to any spend level above $10k per month. Smaller organizations should start with one competitor and one intent tier instead of building full infrastructure at once. Focus matters more than budget. A $10k per month program targeting one competitor’s Problem/Complaint intent with one comparison page and one battlecard will outperform a $50k per month program spread across ten competitors with generic landing pages. SaaS Hero’s entry-level retainer starts at $3,500 per month for teams spending up to $10k on ads, which makes professional execution accessible earlier in the growth cycle than percentage-of-spend models.
What are the primary risks, and how are they mitigated?
The three primary risks are legal exposure from competitor ad copy, attribution gaps that undercount program impact, and stale battlecards that lose rep trust. Legal risk is mitigated by using competitor names only in factual comparisons, avoiding competitor logos, and keeping ad headlines clear about your brand. Attribution gaps are mitigated by importing CRM pipeline stages as Google Ads conversion actions and using multi-touch attribution in HubSpot or Salesforce. Battlecard staleness is mitigated by a monthly refresh cadence and trigger-based updates when a competitor changes pricing or launches a major feature.
How often should the program be reviewed and iterated?
Review the negative keyword list weekly during the first 30 days and then every two weeks. Refresh comparison pages monthly for the top three competitor pages and quarterly for all others, updating pricing, recent feature launches, and G2 positioning shifts. Refresh battlecards at least monthly. Review the overall program, including competitor selection, intent tier priorities, and switching offers, at the 90-day mark using cohort data, then quarterly. SaaS Hero operates on a month-to-month contract structure, which creates a built-in forcing function so the program must re-earn the client’s business every 30 days.
Ready to Launch Your Competitor-Conquesting Engine?
A 90-day competitor-conquesting program built on intent segmentation, battlecards, comparison-page architecture, negative-keyword hygiene, sales enablement, and CRM-tied revenue tracking gives B2B SaaS teams spending $10k–$50k per month on paid media a capital-efficient path to Net New ARR. The benchmarks are clear: 80-day payback, 10x CPL reduction, and $500k+ in Net New ARR within 12 months.
Traditional agencies struggle to deliver this stack because percentage-of-spend billing rewards budget inflation over efficiency, long-term contracts weaken accountability, and junior execution layers lack the domain knowledge to connect ad spend to closed-won revenue.
SaaS Hero delivers the full execution stack, including intent segmentation, battlecards, comparison-page wireframes, negative-keyword hygiene, sales enablement, and CRM-tied dashboards, under a flat monthly retainer with no long-term contracts and senior-led execution on every account.
Book a discovery call and get a competitor-conquesting roadmap built for your top two competitors within the first week.
Includes unlimited revisions as well as custom written copy (from a human, not ChatGPT). We’ll send a first draft in Figma and you can request as many edits as you’d like. We won’t ever activate any landing pages until you give us the final OK
