The "Competitor Conquest" Stack: Slashing CAC via PMax and Identity Resolution

In the highly competitive landscape of digital advertising, traditional Search campaigns targeting competitor keywords have become prohibitively expen...

Deep Research AI
marketing

Author’s note:

Question: Explain to me how to better steal ad traffic from competitors at a fraction of the cost

Context: Context:

please I’m begging you

use google performance max ads

dont disappoint me

target your competitors brand names + pricing as the audience

EG “x pricing” “y pricing” “z pricing”

then get leads

use something like rb2b or vector .co to convert this website traffic to emails

port emails to cold email campaign in instantly

connect with them linkedin via phantom buster automation via API

Executive Summary

In the highly competitive landscape of digital advertising, traditional Search campaigns targeting competitor keywords have become prohibitively expensive. However, a modern “Competitor Conquest” stack allows marketers to siphon high-intent traffic at a fraction of the cost. By shifting budget from standard Search to Google Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, advertisers can reduce their Cost Per Click (CPC) significantly 1.

Furthermore, the traditional conversion funnel loses roughly 98% of visitors. By deploying identity resolution tools like RB2B or Vector.co, businesses can de-anonymize up to 30% to 40% of this traffic 2. Once identified, these prospects are automatically routed into cold email sequences via Instantly.ai and engaged on LinkedIn using PhantomBuster 3 4. This report outlines the exact technical and strategic workflow to execute this strategy compliantly and profitably.

I. The PMax Arbitrage: Lowering the Cost of Competitor Traffic

Traditional competitor keyword targeting on Google Search is expensive. In 2025, the average CPC across all Google Ads was $5.26 5. However, Performance Max campaigns offer a lucrative arbitrage opportunity. PMax campaigns have an average CPC of just $0.68, compared to the standard Search Ads average of $0.85, while maintaining a highly competitive conversion rate of 1.83% (close to the Search average of 1.96%) 1.

To capture competitor traffic without paying Search premiums, advertisers must utilize Custom Segments.

Building the “Competitor Pricing” Custom Segment

Instead of bidding on broad terms, you can build a custom segment targeting users with high purchase intent.

  1. Navigate to the Google Ads Audience Manager and create a Custom Segment 6.
  2. Select the option for “People who searched for any of these terms on Google” 6.
  3. Input high-intent competitor queries, such as “[Competitor Name] pricing” or “[Competitor Name] alternative” 7.

Crucially, search term-based custom segments only retain their strict search intent when served on Google-owned properties (like YouTube, Gmail, and Discover) via PMax or Demand Gen campaigns 7. If applied to standard Display campaigns, Google treats these search terms merely as broad “interests,” diluting the intent 7.

II. Identity Resolution: Turning Anonymous Clicks into Leads

Even with cheaper clicks, relying on users to voluntarily fill out a form is inefficient. Identity resolution tools bridge this gap by identifying the actual people or companies visiting your site.

Comparison of Top Identity Resolution Tools (2026)

FeatureRB2BVector.coLeadinfo
Primary FocusUS Person-Level ID 8Contact-Level Ads & ID 9EU Company-Level ID 2
Starting PriceFree tier (150 credits) 10$399/mo (2,500 visitors) 9€59/mo (50 companies) 2
Compliance FocusUS-Only (CCPA) 8Global (Company) / US (Person) 9100% GDPR Compliant 2
Key IntegrationsSlack, CRM, Zapier 8Salesforce, HubSpot, Ad Sync 915,000+ B2B Users 2

Takeaway: Use RB2B for free, US-based person-level identification, but switch to Leadinfo for EU traffic to maintain strict GDPR compliance.

RB2B operates by identifying visitors through a combination of 1st and 3rd party cookies, device IDs, and IP addresses across a permissioned network 8. Once a visitor from your PMax campaign lands on your site, RB2B identifies them and pushes their LinkedIn profile and validated business email directly to your Slack or CRM 8.

III. The Outreach Engine: Automating the “Stolen” Lead Follow-up

Once you have the identities and emails of users who were searching for your competitor’s pricing, the next step is automated, multi-channel outreach.

Cold Email Architecture with Instantly.ai

Instantly.ai is designed for high-volume cold email outreach. Their “Growth” plan allows for unlimited email accounts, 25,000 uploaded contacts, and up to 100,000 emails per month 3. By connecting Instantly to your identity resolution tool via Zapier or Make.com, you can automatically port identified website visitors directly into a targeted cold email campaign 11. Using unlimited sender accounts protects your primary domain’s reputation while scaling outreach volume 3.

LinkedIn Automation via PhantomBuster

To complement the email sequence, you can automate LinkedIn connections. PhantomBuster’s “LinkedIn Auto Connect” Phantom automatically sends personalized connection requests to your leads 4. Because LinkedIn restricts users to approximately 100 connection requests per week, PhantomBuster operates in the cloud and respects these limits to keep your account safe 4.

Executing this strategy requires strict adherence to platform policies and global privacy laws.

Google’s trademark policy allows advertisers to use a competitor’s trademarked brand name as a keyword 12. However, Google will restrict ads that use the trademark in the actual ad copy if the trademark owner files a complaint, particularly if the ad is from a direct competitor or is deemed confusing 12. Always use the competitor’s name in the backend targeting, but keep your ad copy focused on your own brand’s superior pricing or features.

Privacy Frameworks: GDPR vs. CCPA

When identifying visitors, regional laws dictate what is permissible:

  • CCPA (California): Consumers have the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of their personal information 13. Tools like RB2B are CCPA compliant, provided you offer proper opt-out mechanisms 8.
  • GDPR (Europe): Tracking individual personal data without explicit consent is prohibited 2. Therefore, tools like Leadinfo rely on “legitimate interest” by only identifying company-level data (via IP ranges) rather than individual people, ensuring 100% cookieless GDPR compliance 2.

Furthermore, LinkedIn’s User Agreement strictly prohibits the use of third-party software, bots, or extensions to scrape data or automate activity 14. While tools like PhantomBuster are widely used, they must be deployed conservatively to avoid triggering account restrictions 14.

V. The Bottom Line

By combining Google Performance Max audience signals with identity resolution and automated outreach, B2B marketers can effectively hijack competitor demand.

  1. Lower CAC: Shift competitor keyword budgets to PMax to drop CPCs from $0.85 to $0.68 1.
  2. Capture the Invisible 98%: Use RB2B or Vector.co to identify the users who click your ad but don’t convert 8 9.
  3. Automate the Close: Route these high-intent leads into Instantly.ai for email and PhantomBuster for LinkedIn outreach 3 4.

This interconnected stack transforms passive, anonymous ad clicks into an active, outbound sales pipeline at a fraction of traditional acquisition costs.

References

Footnotes

  1. About audience signals for Performance Max campaigns - Google … ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. How to Structure Audience Signals in Performance Max - Solutions 8 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Competitor Audience Targeting Is the Future of PPC. Here’s How To … ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. P.Max Audience Signal Keywords+Competitors+Retargetting … ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Audience Signals in Performance Max Explained (Why They Matter) ↩

  6. RB2B-Identify Your Website Visitors and Boost Your Leads ↩ ↩2

  7. How To Identify Anonymous Website Visitors: Strategies To Turn … ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. How To Identify Website Visitors: Key Strategies and Tools … - RB2B ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  9. The most commonly asked question I get about RB2B is, “What do I … ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  10. Website visitor data identifier : r/b2bmarketing - Reddit ↩

  11. How to identify website visitors - Vector.co ↩

  12. Product release: enhanced visitor identity - Vector.co ↩ ↩2

  13. Can Clearbit identify anonymous website visitors? - Vector.co ↩

  14. Automate Identifying Website Visitors & Sending Cold Emails in … ↩ ↩2

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