Competitor Displacement
Aimed at people already paying someone else. They have a solution, so they are not searching — the trigger has to come from you, and it has to be worth the cost of switching. That cost is almost always underestimated: migrating data, retraining people, admitting the last choice was wrong. The winning message is rarely 'we are better'; it is 'switching is less painful than you think'. Legally the most exposed strategy in this set, because naming a competitor invites both platform review and their lawyers. Every comparative claim needs to be substantiated and dated.
What competitor displacement is judged on
Cost per switched customer. The landing page has to ask for A migration-specific page, not the generic homepage. It should answer 'what happens to my data' before it asks for anything. — if it asks for something else, the campaign underperforms for a reason that never appears in the ad account, because people arrive expecting one thing and are shown another.
The offer that fits: migration assistance, contract buyout, extended trial, or parallel-run period.
How competitor displacement goes wrong: comparative claims that were true when written and are not now
That is the first entry on the list AdPlaybook checks a generated campaign against. The rest:
- Comparative claims that were true when written and are not now. Competitors change pricing without telling you.
- Trademark and platform policy: bidding on a competitor's brand is legal in some jurisdictions and not others, and platform rules are stricter than the law.
- Attracts the incumbent's unhappiest, cheapest customers, who then churn from you too.
- Switching cost was never actually addressed, so the campaign generates interest and no movement.
- The competitor retaliates on your brand terms and both of you pay more for the same customers.
Surfaces it suits, and one it contradicts
Rated highest for google, linkedin. Rated 0.25 or below for pinterest — the app will not offer it there, because the surface contradicts the approach rather than merely suiting it poorly.
What the creative has to do for competitor displacement
Address the specific friction of leaving, not a feature matrix. Show the migration, the timeline, what happens to their existing data. If there is a real switching incentive — free migration, contract buyout, parallel running — that is the creative. Avoid mocking the incumbent: their customers chose it, and insulting the choice insults the chooser. Comparative visuals must be accurate and dated, because the competitor's pricing page changed last week and yours is now a false statement.