How to Spy on Competitor Ads in 2026: Google, Meta, and LinkedIn Transparency Tools for Australian Marketers

Every dollar your competitor spends on ads is now visible to you, if you know where to look. Thanks to platform-mandated transparency tools introduced across Google, Meta, and LinkedIn over the past few years, the era of advertising in the dark is over. The intelligence your competitors once kept behind closed doors is sitting in publicly accessible libraries, waiting to be analysed, reverse-engineered, and used to sharpen your own campaigns.

Most Australian marketers still only check one platform, if they check any at all. They might browse the Meta Ad Library occasionally, or run a quick Google search to see if a competitor is bidding on their brand name. But a fragmented, ad-hoc approach to competitor research leaves serious strategic value on the table. In a market where Google Ads CPCs in competitive Australian verticals like finance, legal, and recruitment have climbed between 20 and 40 per cent over the past two years, understanding what your competition is spending money on, and what messaging is working for them, is no longer optional. It is a competitive necessity.

This guide is the complete cross-platform playbook. I will walk you through exactly how to use the Google Ads Transparency Center, the Meta Ad Library, and the LinkedIn Ad Library to extract actionable intelligence. I will also cover the free and paid tools that go deeper, show you how to build a competitor swipe file that actually improves your campaigns, and share two real client case studies from our work at 3P Digital. By the end, you will have a repeatable research process that gives you a structural edge over competitors who are still flying blind.

Key Takeaways

• Google, Meta, and LinkedIn all offer free, publicly accessible ad transparency tools that let you see competitor ad creative, messaging, and history without paying for a single third-party tool.

• The Meta Ad Library is the most detailed free tool available to Australian marketers, allowing you to filter by active status, platform, and ad format, and to view the full creative history of any advertiser.

• The Google Ads Transparency Center lets you search by advertiser name and filter results by Australian region, giving you insight into messaging strategy, keyword themes, and ad copy evolution.

• LinkedIn's Ad Library is underused by most B2B marketers, but it reveals sponsored content history, creative formats, and strong signals about how competitors are positioning themselves to their ideal customer profile.

• Competitor ad research is only valuable if it feeds a structured action process. The 3P Digital framework, Profile, Plan, Perform, gives you a repeatable way to turn raw intelligence into differentiated campaigns.

• Combining free platform tools with paid research tools like SEMrush or SpyFu gives you spend estimates, keyword overlap data, and historical trending that the native libraries do not provide.

Summary Table

Why Competitor Ad Intelligence Matters More in 2026

If you have been running paid media in Australia over the past 18 months, you have felt the pressure. CPCs in verticals like mortgage broking, personal injury law, NDIS services, and B2B SaaS have increased substantially. Google's shift toward AI-driven Smart Bidding and Performance Max campaigns means the platform is now optimising more aggressively for conversion value, and that competition is pushing auction prices up across the board.

At the same time, the volume of ad creative being produced has exploded. AI image generation and copy tools have made it possible for even small advertisers to produce dozens of ad variations per week. This means the signal-to-noise ratio in any given industry's advertising landscape is higher than ever. Understanding what your competitors are actually investing in, not just what they claim in their brand positioning, tells you where the real battleground is.

There is another dimension to this that is specific to the Australian market. The ACCC's ongoing scrutiny of digital advertising practices, combined with platform transparency mandates rolled out from 2021 onwards, means advertisers here are operating in an environment of increasing visibility. This is not just about compliance. It is an opportunity. The same rules that force your competitors to disclose their ad activity give you free access to their playbook.

When I talk to marketing managers at Australian SMEs and mid-market companies, the most common gap I see is not budget or creative quality. It is context. They are building campaigns in a vacuum, without understanding the messaging landscape their target audience is already being exposed to. Competitor ad intelligence fills that gap. It tells you what promises are already being made, what visual language is saturating the market, and where there is room to stand out.

This is the foundation of our competitive digital marketing analysis process at 3P Digital, and it feeds directly into every paid media engagement we take on.

Google Ads Transparency Center: Step-by-Step Walkthrough

What Is the Google Ads Transparency Center?

The Google Ads Transparency Center, accessible at ads.google.com/transparency, is Google's public-facing database of all ads served across its network. It was introduced as part of Google's broader advertiser verification and political advertising disclosure commitments, but it covers all advertisers, not just political ones. Every verified advertiser on Google has a presence in the Transparency Center, and their ads are searchable by anyone.

How to Search for a Competitor

To find a specific competitor, go to the Transparency Center and type their brand name into the search bar. The tool will return a list of matching advertisers. Select the correct one and you will land on their advertiser profile. From here, you can see all the ads that have run under that account, including search ads, display ads, and YouTube ads.

Critically, you can filter by region. Set the region filter to Australia to see only the ads that have been served to Australian audiences. This is important because many larger advertisers run different creative for different markets, and you want to be analysing the same competitive environment your target audience is experiencing.

Reading Ad History and Identifying Messaging Patterns

Once you are looking at a competitor's Australian ad history, the goal is not just to see individual ads. The goal is to identify patterns. Ask yourself these questions:

• What offers are they leading with? Discounts, guarantees, free consultations, speed of service?

• What pain points are they addressing in headlines?

• How have their messages changed over time? If they have shifted from price-based messaging to quality-based messaging, that tells you something about what has been working and what has not.

• What ad formats are they using? Text ads only, or are they investing in responsive display and YouTube pre-roll?

• Are they running branded search campaigns, or are they bidding on competitor terms?

For a mortgage broking client we worked with in late 2025, a Transparency Center audit of their two main competitors revealed that both were heavily focused on rate comparison messaging. Neither was speaking to the anxiety and complexity that first home buyers feel about the lending process. That gap directly informed a campaign strategy that led to a 34 per cent reduction in CPA within the first three months. I will cover this in detail in the case study section below.

Limitations to Keep in Mind

The Google Ads Transparency Center does not show spend data, impression volumes, or keyword-level information. You can see what creative has run, but you cannot directly see which keywords triggered those ads. For that level of detail, you need a paid tool like SEMrush. The Transparency Center is best used for creative and messaging intelligence, not budget or keyword strategy.

Meta Ad Library: How to Research Facebook and Instagram Competitor Ads

Why the Meta Ad Library Is the Most Powerful Free Tool Available

The Meta Ad Library, accessible at facebook.com/ads/library, is arguably the most comprehensive free competitor ad research tool available to Australian marketers. Unlike the Google Transparency Center, which shows you current and historical creative without run dates, the Meta Ad Library shows you whether an ad is currently active, when it started running, the platforms it has appeared on (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network), and for political and social issue ads, spend ranges.

For most commercial advertisers in Australia, you will not see exact spend figures. But the combination of active status, run dates, and creative format gives you a rich picture of where your competitors are investing.

Filtering for Australian Competitors

When you open the Meta Ad Library, set the country filter to Australia before you start searching. This ensures you are seeing ads that are geographically relevant. Type your competitor's brand name into the search bar, select the correct page from the results, and you will see their full ad library.

From here, you can filter by:

• Active or inactive status (inactive ads are still visible, which lets you see what they have tested and stopped)

• Platform (Facebook vs Instagram vs Messenger)

• Ad format (image, video, carousel, collection)

• Language

The ability to see inactive ads is one of the most underused features of the Meta Ad Library. When a competitor has run an ad for three months and then turned it off, that is a signal worth noting. It might mean the ad underperformed, or it might mean they ran a seasonal campaign that they will reactivate. Context matters.

Creative Format Analysis

Beyond messaging, the Meta Ad Library lets you analyse creative strategy at a structural level. Are your competitors using predominantly video or static images? Are they running carousel ads to showcase multiple products or services? Are their landing page links going to homepages, specific service pages, or dedicated lead capture pages?

For a recruitment agency client, an analysis of three competitor Meta ad accounts revealed that all of them were using static image ads with generic stock photography. None of them were using video testimonials or case study creative. We advised the client to build a creative set around real candidate success stories in short-form video format, under 15 seconds, formatted for Reels placement. Within six weeks, their CTR on Meta had improved by 47 per cent compared to their previous static creative.

Spend Ranges as a Proxy Signal

For political, electoral, and social issue advertisers in Australia, the Meta Ad Library shows spend ranges. While most commercial advertisers will not fall into this category, monitoring how advocacy organisations, government bodies, and industry associations advertise can provide useful context about the broader messaging environment your audience is being exposed to. It also helps calibrate your intuitions about what ad spend looks like at different volume levels.

LinkedIn Ad Library: The B2B Marketer's Secret Weapon

Why LinkedIn's Ad Library Is Underused

LinkedIn introduced its Ad Library as part of the same wave of platform transparency initiatives that gave us the Meta Ad Library and the Google Transparency Center. But most B2B marketers I speak to in Australia are either unaware it exists or have never used it systematically. This is a significant missed opportunity, particularly for professional services firms, SaaS companies, and recruiters operating in the B2B space.

The LinkedIn Ad Library lets you search for any LinkedIn Page and see all the sponsored content that page has run. You can see the ad creative, copy, call to action, and approximate run period. Unlike Meta or Google, there is no spend data available, but the insights you can draw from creative and messaging analysis are substantial.

Searching by Company and Reading Sponsored Content History

To access the LinkedIn Ad Library, go to the LinkedIn page of the competitor you want to research. Scroll down to the "Ads" section in the left-hand navigation, or look for the "Posts" tab and filter for "Ads". LinkedIn has been progressively improving the accessibility of this feature, and as of 2026 it is reasonably straightforward to navigate.

Once you are viewing a competitor's ad history, look for patterns in:

• Job titles and industries they appear to be targeting (you can infer this from the language and pain points in the ad copy)

• Whether they are promoting thought leadership content, direct service offers, or event registrations

• How frequently they are publishing new sponsored content (a high frequency suggests active testing)

• What their call to action structure looks like ("Download the Guide", "Book a Demo", "Learn More")

Identifying ICP Targeting Signals from Ad Copy

One of the most valuable things you can do with LinkedIn ad analysis is reverse-engineer a competitor's ideal customer profile (ICP) from their ad copy. If every ad they run references "CFOs at ASX-listed companies" or "HR managers at businesses with 50 or more staff", that tells you who they believe their best-fit customer is. You can use this intelligence to either target the same audience with differentiated messaging, or to identify adjacent audiences they are ignoring.

For a B2B consulting client in the HR technology space, a LinkedIn Ad Library analysis of four competitors showed that all of them were targeting HR Directors and Chief People Officers with messaging about compliance and risk reduction. Not one of them was speaking to the growth and strategic people analytics angle. We built a LinkedIn campaign around that differentiated positioning, targeting the same seniority levels but with forward-looking, growth-oriented messaging. The result was a 28 per cent improvement in lead quality as measured by SQL conversion rate within the first 60 days.

For a deeper look at how this kind of research fits into a broader marketing strategy, see our guide to SWOT analysis for marketing strategy.

Free and Paid Tools to Go Deeper

SEMrush Advertising Research

SEMrush is the most widely used paid tool for competitor ad research among digital marketing agencies in Australia. Its Advertising Research module lets you enter a competitor's domain and see estimated monthly ad spend, the keywords they are bidding on, their ad copy history, and the landing pages those ads are pointing to.

The keyword data is particularly valuable because it fills the gap left by the Google Ads Transparency Center. You can see which keywords a competitor is targeting, how long they have been bidding on them, and what their estimated position is. This lets you identify high-value terms they are investing in that you may have overlooked, as well as terms they have stopped bidding on, which can signal poor ROI.

Pros: Comprehensive keyword and spend data, Australian-specific filtering, excellent historical data depth, integrates with broader SEO research.

Cons: Subscription costs start at around $140 AUD per month for the basic plan, spend estimates are algorithmic approximations not exact figures, and data accuracy for smaller or newer advertisers can be limited.

SpyFu

SpyFu has been a staple of PPC competitor research for over a decade. Its core strength is showing you the long-term keyword history of any advertiser, including keywords they have tested and abandoned. For Australian marketers, the main limitation is that SpyFu's database is heavily US-centric. Coverage of Australian advertisers is improving but is still notably thinner than what SEMrush provides for the AU market.

Pros: Affordable entry-level pricing, excellent for understanding long-term competitor keyword strategy, good historical depth for US advertisers.

Cons: AU data coverage is inconsistent, interface is less polished than SEMrush, display advertising data is limited.

iSpionage

iSpionage is a solid mid-tier option that focuses specifically on PPC competitor monitoring. Its alert functionality lets you set up notifications when a competitor launches a new ad or starts bidding on a new keyword. This is useful for ongoing monitoring rather than one-off research audits.

Pros: Affordable, good alert and notification system, reasonable ad copy database for Australian advertisers.

Cons: Smaller overall database than SEMrush, less granular spend estimates, limited social ad coverage.

Our Recommendation

For most Australian SMEs doing their own research, the free platform tools (Google Transparency Center, Meta Ad Library, LinkedIn Ad Library) combined with a SEMrush subscription will cover the vast majority of what you need. If budget is a constraint, start with the free tools and layer in SEMrush when you are ready to go deeper on keyword strategy.

Our paid media service at 3P Digital uses a combination of all these tools as part of every campaign setup and ongoing optimisation process.

How to Build a Competitor Ad Swipe File That Actually Improves Your Campaigns

What Is a Swipe File and Why Does It Matter?

A swipe file is a curated collection of competitor ads, messaging examples, and creative formats that you reference when planning your own campaigns. The term comes from direct response copywriting, where writers kept physical files of effective headlines and copy they could draw on for inspiration. In the context of digital advertising, a swipe file is a structured research document that captures competitor intelligence in a format that is usable by your creative and strategy team.

The key word is structured. An unorganised folder of screenshots is not a swipe file. It is a graveyard of good intentions. A real swipe file captures the right information in a consistent format so you can spot patterns, track changes over time, and make strategic decisions from it.

The 3P Digital Swipe File Framework

Here is the template framework we use at 3P Digital when building swipe files for clients:

Competitor: Name and website Platform: Where the ad ran (Google Search, Google Display, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn) Ad Format: Text, image, video, carousel, responsive display Date Captured: When you found the ad Status: Active or inactive Headline: Exact headline copy Body Copy: First two lines of copy Call to Action: What action the ad is asking for Offer: What specific offer or value proposition is being made Landing Page: Where the ad links to (homepage, service page, lead capture) Messaging Theme: The underlying strategic angle (price, quality, speed, trust, authority, fear, aspiration) Creative Notes: Observations about imagery, video style, colour palette, talent used Strategic Observation: What this ad tells you about the competitor's strategy or audience assumptions

When you have 20 or more entries across multiple competitors and platforms, patterns emerge. You start to see that the market is saturated with one type of messaging, or that a particular creative format is being ignored. These gaps are where your opportunity lives.

How Often to Update Your Swipe File

For actively competitive markets, a monthly review is the minimum. For highly competitive verticals where CPCs are high and creative fatigue is fast (fitness, finance, recruitment), a fortnightly review is more appropriate. Set a calendar reminder and spend 30 to 45 minutes going through each competitor's ad libraries on a consistent schedule.

This research process connects directly to our broader analytics and reporting framework, which is built to surface competitive signals alongside your own campaign performance data.

Turning Insights Into Action: The 3P Digital Approach

The 3P Framework Applied to Competitor Ad Research

At 3P Digital, every engagement runs through our proprietary 3P Framework: Profile, Plan, Perform. Competitor ad research is one of the most important inputs into the Profile phase, and it directly shapes what we do in Plan and Perform.

Profile means understanding the competitive landscape before making any creative or budget decisions. Who are the main competitors in paid media? What messages are they running? What offers are they making? What platforms are they prioritising? What creative formats are they investing in? The tools and processes outlined above answer all of these questions.

Plan means using that intelligence to design a campaign strategy that is differentiated, not derivative. If three of your five main competitors are running discount-led search ads with similar headlines, the smart move is usually not to write a slightly better discount headline. It is to find the angle they are ignoring and own it.

Perform means executing the differentiated strategy with precision, testing quickly, and iterating based on data. The competitor intelligence gathered in Profile does not just inform the initial brief. It provides an ongoing benchmark against which you measure your own creative and messaging performance.

Case Study 1: Mortgage Broking Client, 34% CPA Reduction

A Sydney-based mortgage broking firm came to us with a Google Ads account that was generating leads but at a cost per acquisition that was not commercially sustainable. Their average CPA was $340 per qualified lead, and their close rate was in line with industry norms. The maths did not work.

Our first step was a full competitor ad audit using the Google Ads Transparency Center and SEMrush. What we found was that every significant competitor in the Sydney first home buyer market was running rate and comparison-based messaging. Headlines like "Compare Home Loan Rates Today", "Find the Best Rate in 2026", and "We Compare 30+ Lenders" dominated the landscape.

The first home buyer audience, particularly in Sydney where median house prices remained above $1.2 million, was not primarily motivated by rate optimisation. They were overwhelmed by the complexity of the process and anxious about making a mistake. No competitor was speaking to that emotional reality.

We rebuilt the campaign around clarity and confidence messaging. Headlines like "Confusing Home Loan Process? We Handle It All" and "First Home Buyer Specialists, Plain English Advice" replaced the rate-comparison framing. We also built a dedicated landing page for first home buyers that was structured around answering their most common anxiety-driven questions rather than presenting a generic brokerage value proposition.

Within 90 days, CPA had dropped from $340 to $224, a reduction of 34 per cent. Conversion rate on the landing page improved from 4.2 per cent to 7.8 per cent. The campaign is now one of the most efficient lead generation systems this client runs, and it was built entirely on the insight that their competitors were ignoring the emotional context of their audience.

Case Study 2: Recruitment Agency, 47% CTR Improvement via Creative Differentiation

A national recruitment agency with a focus on construction and engineering roles had been running Meta ads for 18 months with declining performance. CTR had been falling steadily over the previous two quarters, and the cost per application was climbing.

Our Meta Ad Library audit of their four main competitors revealed a consistent creative pattern across the industry: stock photos of professional environments, generic copy about career opportunities, and blue-and-grey colour palettes. The visual language of the entire sector was virtually identical. No wonder performance was declining. Audiences had developed creative fatigue to the point where they were filtering out ads at a subconscious level.

We recommended a creative refresh built around authenticity signals. Short-form video testimonials from real placed candidates, shot on-site at actual project locations, with genuine language about the placement experience. We used warm earth tones and high-visibility workwear in the visual identity to stand out against the corporate blue of competitors. Copy was written in the first person, drawing on actual candidate language from discovery interviews.

The new creative launched across Facebook and Instagram, with priority given to Reels placement given the format's superior reach efficiency. Within six weeks, CTR had improved by 47 per cent compared to the previous static creative set, and cost per application dropped by 31 per cent.

What a Client Has to Say

"Before working with 3P Digital, we were guessing at what our competitors were doing and copying what felt like industry norms. The research process they brought gave us a completely different view of the market, and the campaigns we built from it outperformed everything we had run before. The transparency tools alone changed how we think about paid media strategy." — Marketing Manager, National Recruitment Agency

Hero Stats: 3P Digital Paid Media Performance

150+ campaigns managed | Average 3.2x ROAS | 40%+ CPA reduction for optimised accounts

If you want to bring this level of competitive intelligence and strategic rigour to your paid media campaigns, get in touch with our team to discuss what a structured competitor ad research and campaign strategy engagement looks like for your business.

FAQs

Is it legal to spy on competitor ads in Australia?

Absolutely. Using publicly available ad transparency tools is completely legal in Australia. The Google Ads Transparency Center, Meta Ad Library, and LinkedIn Ad Library are all publicly accessible by design. They were created to give the public visibility into who is advertising and what messages are being served. Viewing and analysing competitor ads through these platforms is no different to reading a competitor's brochure or watching their TV commercial. The ACCC and Australian Consumer Law do not restrict competitive intelligence gathering from public sources. What you cannot do is misrepresent competitors, use their trademarks deceptively, or engage in conduct that constitutes misleading and deceptive behaviour under the Australian Consumer Law. Observing and learning from competitor advertising is standard commercial practice.

How often should I check competitor ads?

For most Australian businesses, a monthly review of competitor ad activity across Google, Meta, and LinkedIn is the minimum. In highly competitive or fast-moving markets, such as finance, fitness, or professional services, a fortnightly review is more appropriate. You should also run an ad audit whenever you are about to launch a new campaign or enter a new market segment. The goal is not constant monitoring for its own sake. It is to ensure your campaign strategy reflects the current competitive landscape, not the one that existed three months ago. Set up a recurring calendar reminder and build the review into your campaign planning process.

Can I see how much competitors spend on Google Ads?

Not directly through the Google Ads Transparency Center. The native tool shows you ad creative and advertiser history but does not disclose spend data or impression volumes. To get estimated spend figures, you need a third-party tool like SEMrush or SpyFu. These tools use algorithmic modelling based on estimated traffic, keyword positions, and average CPCs to calculate approximate monthly spend. The figures are not exact, but they are directionally useful. SEMrush generally provides more accurate Australian market estimates than SpyFu, which is more US-centric. Treat any third-party spend estimate as an order-of-magnitude indicator rather than a precise figure.

What is the Meta Ad Library and how do I use it?

The Meta Ad Library is a free, publicly accessible database of all ads running across Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network. To use it, go to facebook.com/ads/library and set the country filter to Australia. Type a competitor's brand name into the search bar and select their page from the results. You will see all their current and historical ads, with the ability to filter by active or inactive status, platform, and ad format. For each ad, you can see the creative, copy, call to action, and the date the ad started running. For political and social issue advertisers, spend ranges are also disclosed. For commercial advertisers, spend is not shown, but the combination of run dates, creative formats, and active status gives you substantial strategic intelligence.

Does LinkedIn have an ad transparency tool?

Yes. LinkedIn has an Ad Library that lets you view the sponsored content history of any LinkedIn Page. To access it, go to the LinkedIn Page of the competitor you want to research and look for the Ads section. You will be able to see all of the sponsored content that page has run, including the ad copy, creative format, call to action, and approximate run dates. LinkedIn's Ad Library does not provide spend data, but it is particularly valuable for B2B marketers because it lets you reverse-engineer competitor messaging strategy and make educated inferences about who they are targeting based on the language and pain points in their ad copy.

What tools do agencies use for competitor ad research?

Professional digital marketing agencies typically use a combination of the three free native platform tools (Google Ads Transparency Center, Meta Ad Library, LinkedIn Ad Library) and one or more paid research platforms. The most commonly used paid tools in the Australian market are SEMrush, SpyFu, and iSpionage. SEMrush is the most comprehensive for Australian advertisers, providing estimated keyword spend, keyword overlap analysis, ad copy history, and landing page data. SpyFu is strong for long-term Google Ads keyword history but has variable accuracy for Australian advertisers. iSpionage is useful for ongoing monitoring and alerting when competitors change their bidding or creative strategy. At 3P Digital, we use SEMrush in combination with all three native platform tools as part of our standard competitor research process.

How do I turn competitor ad insights into better campaigns?

The key is to treat competitor research as strategic input, not creative inspiration. The goal is not to copy what competitors are doing but to understand the messaging landscape well enough to find differentiation opportunities. Start by cataloguing the dominant messages, offers, and creative formats in your market. Then ask what is missing. What pain points are competitors ignoring? What audience segments are underserved? What creative formats are absent? Build your campaign strategy around those gaps. Structure your research using the Profile phase of your planning process, and make sure insights are documented in a structured swipe file that your creative and copy team can reference. At 3P Digital, we use the Profile, Plan, Perform framework to ensure competitor intelligence directly informs campaign strategy rather than sitting in a folder that nobody reads.

References

1. Google Ads Transparency Center (ads.google.com/transparency): Google's official public-facing ad database, providing searchable access to all verified advertiser creative across Google Search, Display, and YouTube, with regional filtering by country.

2. Meta Ad Library (facebook.com/ads/library): Meta's mandatory transparency tool providing public access to all ads running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network, with spend data available for political and social issue advertisers.

3. LinkedIn Ad Library: LinkedIn's sponsored content transparency database, accessible via individual company pages, showing historical and active sponsored content for any LinkedIn advertiser.

4. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Digital Platforms Inquiry and Digital Advertising Services Inquiry Reports: The ACCC's formal investigations into digital advertising markets in Australia, providing authoritative context on advertiser transparency obligations, market concentration, and consumer protection considerations relevant to competitive advertising research.

5. SEMrush Competitive Research Documentation (SEMrush.com): SEMrush's official product documentation and methodology guides for its Advertising Research and Competitive Intelligence modules, including explanations of how spend and keyword estimates are calculated for non-US markets.

6. Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia (IAB Australia) Digital Advertising Expenditure Reports (2026): IAB Australia's quarterly and annual benchmarking data on digital advertising spend by platform and format in the Australian market, providing context for CPC trends and platform investment allocation across Google, Meta, and LinkedIn.