They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. In the world of online advertising, your competitors might not be your enemies (unless you take life way too seriously and need to do some self-work), but they are a significant threat to your business if you don’t pay attention to what they’re doing. Understanding and analyzing your competitors’ ads can help you stay agile, relevant, and effective in your advertising strategy.

So, let’s dive into nine ways to spy on your competitors’ ads so you can keep your strategy on point.

1. Use the Facebook (Meta) Ads Library

The Meta/Facebook Ads Library is a powerful tool that shows you all ads currently running across Meta technologies. This includes:

• The ad copy and creative
• Whether it’s active or paused
• When it started running
• Which Meta platforms it’s showing on
• The ad category

For example, you can see a SoFi ad and analyze its elements. However, a downside is that you need to know the competitor’s name since keyword searches can be all over the place.

Things to pay attention to:

• Does this ad have multiple variants?
• What are the variations? (Copy, creative, audience?)
• Is the business running ads for other products or services?
• What segment of their target audience is this ad appealing to?

By dissecting these aspects, you can gather ideas for your own Facebook ad A/B testing.

2. Go to Their Website and Get Retargeted

A robust digital advertising strategy will include retargeting ads. Visit your competitor’s website, browse different pages, and take specific actions. This will trigger their retargeting ads, which you’ll see on other websites and social media.

Things to pay attention to:

• Do different actions on the site trigger different ads?
• What do the ads look like?
• What positioning do they take?
• How long after visiting the website do you start seeing ads?
• Are the ads general or specific to the product/service/page you visited?

This method gives you insight into their retargeting strategies and helps you understand how they try to bring potential customers back.

3. Use Facebook Itself

If you get retargeted by your competitor on Facebook, you can glean more insights by clicking on the ad.

Click the three dots in the upper right and select “Why you saw this ad.” This reveals details about why you’re seeing the ad, such as being part of a hashed list or demographic details.

4. Use an SEO Tool

Comprehensive SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush offer competitive analysis features. These tools allow you to delve into your competitors’ organic and paid performance.

In Semrush, for instance, you can use “Domain overview” on the “Competitive analysis” tab to view another site’s top paid keywords and sample text ads. You can also examine estimated traffic volume and costs for paid keywords.

Things to look for:

• What keywords are they targeting?
• Volume and cost per click of those keywords
• How much are they spending on ads?
• Which keywords are associated with which landing pages?

Visiting these landing pages can provide you with valuable insights into their copy, imagery, and positioning strategies.

5. Do a Google Search

If you don’t have access to an SEO tool, simply perform a Google search for your competitor’s brand name or the service they provide. This can show you whether they’re running ads and give you a peek at their ad copy and landing page.

Things to look for:

• What angle do they take in their ad copy?
• Are they bidding on branded keywords only, or non-branded keywords as well?
• Are other competitors bidding on their branded keywords?

For instance, a search for “Zendesk” might show you that Zoho is actually ranking above Zendesk for that keyword, indicating a competitive bidding strategy.

6. Use the Google Ads Transparency Center

Google’s Transparency Center is another tool to see your competitors’ ads. It’s essentially an ads library where you can search for text, ad, and video ads from your competitors or other businesses.

This can help you get inspiration for your own campaigns and understand the broader advertising landscape in your industry.

7. Try the TikTok Ads Library

If your competitors are active on TikTok, you can use the TikTok Ads Library to find their ads. This platform lets you browse ads on TikTok, providing inspiration and insights into the types of ads that are performing well.

8. Use Competitive Intelligence Tools

Tools like Similarweb offer extensive competitive intelligence capabilities. Similarweb allows you to find your competitors’ keywords, view their search ad positions, and analyze estimated ad impressions and traffic share.

Choosing between tools like Semrush and Similarweb depends on your focus. If you need comprehensive SEO, backlinks, and organic performance data, Semrush is ideal. If you require market research, data enrichment, and customer journey mapping, Similarweb is better suited.

9. Use Ad Intelligence Tools

Ad intelligence tools like Adbeat focus solely on ad data. With Adbeat, you can see the number of ads a competitor runs per month, channel breakdowns, ad creative sizes and types, and publisher sites where the ads appear.

You can also view a gallery of the brand’s ads and details like the ad’s date, type, and size.

Use These Tools to Spy on Your Competitors’ Ads

Keeping an eye on your competitors’ ads provides invaluable insights to inform your strategy and inspire your copy and creative ideas. Incorporate these nine tools into your competitive analysis arsenal, and you’ll stay ahead of the game.

• Use the Facebook (Meta) Ads Library
• Go to Their Website and Get Retargeted
• Use Facebook Itself
• Use an SEO Tool
• Do a Google Search
• Use the Google Ads Transparency Center
• Try the TikTok Ads Library
• Use Competitive Intelligence Tools
• Use Ad Intelligence Tools

By mastering these techniques, you’ll ensure your advertising efforts are not only competitive but also primed for success in the dynamic digital landscape. Want to know how you can leverage this ad information to better your ROI in your own campaigns, contact us today.