The shift toward increased transparency about Facebook advertising makes it easier than ever before for brands to review the performance of competitors’ ads. Learn how to find ads on Facebook in the Ad Library, and see why searching for similar products can help your business become more competitive on the largest social network.
There are several ways to see the ads a competitor is running on Facebook.
The easiest methods involve viewing ads on a business page or searching for a brand name or company in the Facebook Ad Library.
On a business page, you can get information about ads by clicking the Page Transparency box in the right-hand navigation pane.
If the page is currently running ads, you can choose to view ads from the page or go to the Ad Library.
If you follow a brand or business page, you can click on the icon of three dots in the upper right corner of an ad on your news feed.
A menu will pop up that includes the option “Why am I seeing this ad?”
Selecting this menu option will provide an explanation of why you are being served an ad, such as being a user who falls within the target demographic of the ad or a retargeting lead.
It is worthwhile to look up competitors' ads on brand or business pages or through the Facebook Ad Library.
Checking similar Facebook ads on a regular basis can offer insight into the digital marketing strategies of the competition and indicate which tactics could resonate with your shared target demographic as well as any approaches that fall flat.
Facebook does not reveal the details of competitors’ ad spending, targeting methods or conversion data.
Once you know how to find ads on Facebook, you can compare the performance of active and inactive Facebook ads.
In general, the length of time for which an ad for a similar product has run on Facebook indicates its performance.
Long-running ads are typically successful campaigns that can present opportunities to target similar interests or lookalike audiences.
The Facebook Ad Library is the best way to find ads on this social media channel.
This interface, created in 2019 to promote transparency about advertising, makes it easy to find competitors' ads.
Search by brand or category and click “See Ad Details” to find out the duration of a campaign, the channels on which an ad appears and whether there are multiple versions of the ad.
Narrow down competitors’ campaigns by filtering ads based on country, platform or impressions.
Knowing how to find ads on Facebook can help the owners of small businesses or marketing professionals determine which ad campaigns are most likely to succeed.
The digital marketing specialists at Seer Productions use this and other methods of market research to maximize a client’s return on investment for ads on Facebook.
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/introducing-a-new-info-and-ads-section-on-pages
https://www.facebook.com/business/m/why-am-i-seeing-this-ad
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-to-use-facebook-ads-library/398438/