Creating an effective Facebook ad is no less than an art that takes plenty of hit and trial.
When you take that route, it’s hard to predict success. In fact, you could lose a lot of advertising dollars trying to land on that perfect ad. However, what if we told you that your competitors can help you move in the right direction?
A powerful way to gain a competitive advantage is by spying on what they’re doing. In this blog post, we’ll talk about ethically spying on your competitors’ Facebook and Instagram ads.
However, before we dive into the step-by-step process, let’s delve deeper into why ad spying is a great option.
Why Spy on Your Competitor’s Social Media?
According to data, 200 million businesses use Facebook to advertise their products, so if you aren’t, you’re missing out big time. That’s especially true when you can see what other advertisers are achieving their marketing goals.
Plus, landing on an ad campaign that generates consistent results can be hard, especially if you’re starting out. Thankfully, there’s a way you can identify winning ad campaigns by simply looking at what’s working for your competitors. Here’s a list of the benefits of spying on your competitors’ social media ads.
Save Time and Money
When you know which ads perform, you don’t spend your time and money elsewhere. Studying your competitors lets you understand what’s working with your target audience, saving you time and money.
Get a Head Start
Knowing what’s working for your competitors eliminates the need for hit and trial, giving you a head start. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t continuously track your campaigns and not make changes where necessary.
Target the Right Audience
Competitor analyses allow you to identify high-performing ads in your industry. This helps you understand what your target audience wants and craft an even better social media ad campaign.
How to Spy on Your Competitor’s Facebook Ads
There are essentially three ways to spy on a competitor’s Facebook ads.
Facebook Ad Library
The first, and the most powerful one, is the Facebook Ad Library. Using it, anyone can see:
- How much you’re spending on an ad
- Who’s the ad for
- And more
To access the Facebook Ad Library, just go to https://www.facebook.com/ads/library
You can then access your competitors’ ads by using three filters.
- Country
- Category
- Keyword or advertiser
After selecting the country and ad category, you can find a particular advertiser or search ads with a keyword.
Let’s take a look at the Facebook ads “Bardi Heating, Cooling, Plumbing” is running.
You can then analyze each active ad of your competitor. Let’s look at the first one.
You can see every piece of information you need to understand your competitor’s strategy.
This includes:
- The platforms it’s running the ad on
- The name of the page
- Ad copy
- Ad image
- Call to action
Not only that, but you can also visit the ad landing page by clicking on the call to action, which in this case, is “Contact Us”.
This was an easy and straightforward way to spy on a competitor’s Facebook ads. Let’s now see how to spy on competitors’ Instagram ads.
How to Spy on Your Competitor’s Instagram Ads
To spy on your competitors’ Instagram ads, you can use the Facebook Ad Library.
All you’ll need to do is set the “Platform” filter to “Instagram”.
You’ll see that option after selecting the country, category, and keyword/advertiser.
It’ll list all the ads that a particular competitor is running on Instagram.
In addition to that, you can filter out these ads based on:
- Language
- Active or inactive status
- Impressions by date
- Media type
You May Also Like: How to Hire a Facebook Ads Manager
What to Look at When Spying on Competitor’s Ads?
When you’re doing competitor research, it’s important to focus on the right metrics. Here’s what you should be looking at while spying on your competitors’ ads:
Impressions
To identify a brand’s best-performing ads, check their impressions. The metric indicates the number of times an ad is viewed.
Media
Another important metric to check is the type of media. Is your competitor using images or videos, or a combination of both? If they’re using both, filter their ads by impressions to identify the best-performing type of media.
Ad Copy
Copy is inarguably the most important part of an ad. It decides whether someone stops scrolling their news feed after seeing your ad or not.
While spying on a competitor’s ad, pay attention to the hook, any pain points, and the call to action at the end. Get inspiration from what’s working for others in your industry, but don’t copy them.
How to Spy On Competitor’s Facebook & Instagram Ads: FAQs
Can You See Competitor Ads on Facebook?
Yes, you can see competitor ads on Facebook in the Facebook Ads Library. You can also use other third-party tools to achieve similar results.
How Do I Spy On Competitor Facebook Ads?
You can spy on a competitor’s Facebook ads in the Facebook Ad Library by using the following filters: Country, category, and advertiser/keyword.
Which is the Tool to Spy on Competitors’ Ads?
The best free tool to spy on competitors’ ads is Facebook’s own Ad Library. Whether you have an ad account or not, you can see what your competitors are doing on the platform before getting started.
How Do You Analyze Competitors’ Ads?
To analyze a competitor’s ads, look at their impressions, copy, value proposition, pain points & desires addresses, and type of media used.
Conclusion: Spying on Competitors’ Facebook & Instagram Ads
Creating a Facebook or Instagram ad that makes social media scrollers stop in their tracks is hard. More often than not, it requires several hits and trials. But, not anymore. Facebook Ad Library helps advertisers take their game to the next level by analyzing what’s working for their competitors and what to avoid going forward.
To access any brand’s Facebook and Instagram ads, all you need to do is go to the Facebook Ad Library and select these filters: Country, category, and keyword or advertiser. The platform also lets you filter these ads based on media type, language, platform, active/inactive status, and impressions by date.
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