When running Facebook ads, we gain valuable insights into various marketing strategies and advertising knowledge. Additionally, analyzing successful ad campaigns and spying competitors’ Facebook ads are essential practices.
But how exactly can you spy on competitors' Facebook ads? What are some easy-to-use tools that can help you achieve this?
Understanding Facebook Ads
As we all know, Facebook is a social networking platform where users can send messages and share information with each other. With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers a massive audience for advertisers to reach.
On Facebook, whether an advertisement achieves the desired results depends on several key factors, including:
- Selection of advertising objectives
- Choice of ad placement (Newsfeed, right-hand column, mobile devices)
- Target audience segmentation
- Ad bidding model
- Ad copy and creative materials
- Ad format (e.g., image, video, carousel)
- Data tracking and analysis of ad performance
By analyzing competitors' ads based on these aspects, we can gain valuable insights into their strategies and optimize our own campaigns accordingly.
When it comes to analyzing your competitors’ Facebook ads, it's not just about the ad formats or copy; it's also about how to efficiently gather this information.
Now, let’s explore some simple methods that can help you easily discover your competitors' ads, giving you an edge in your advertising strategy.
How to Easily Find Your Competitor’s Ads？
Want to know what ads your competitors are running? It’s actually pretty simple. Here are a few easy ways to start:
Visit your competitors' websites regularly
Drop by their websites every so often to check for new ads or promotions. Often, you’ll find their Facebook page or other social media links right there.
Search for and click on your competitor’s brand name on Facebook, and leave comments on their fan page
Search for your competitor's brand on Facebook, click on their fan page, and leave a comment or two. Facebook will start noticing your interest and show you more related content.
Repeat these steps a few times, leveraging Facebook's powerful recommendation engine
If you keep engaging in this way, Facebook's algorithm will catch on to your preferences, and soon enough, you’ll start seeing your competitors' ads in your News Feed or on the right sidebar.
This way, you can quickly see key details like the ad formats, placements, and materials your competitors are using.
But the big question is: are there any tools out there that can help us get even more in-depth information about our competitors' ads?
What Tools Can We Use to Spy on Competitors’ Facebook Ads?
Now that we've covered some manual methods for finding your competitors' ads, let’s explore some powerful tools that can help you monitor ads more efficiently. Here are a few popular tools designed to analyze and spy on Facebook ads from your competitors.
Facebook Ad Library
Launched by Facebook in 2019, the Facebook Ad Library allows you to view all active Facebook ads. You can search for the advertiser's name to see their active ads. By clicking “View Details,” you can check out the ad creatives, ad copy, and more.
The Facebook Ad Library supports three search options and allows you to search ads from over 180 countries, ad positions, and display times.
While the Facebook Ad Library has the largest inventory of advertising data, its filtering options are somewhat limited.
Features: Find all Facebook advertising.
Pricing：Free
Adspy
Adspy is a tool with multiple filtering capabilities for spying on Facebook and Instagram ads. It stores data on Facebook and Instagram ads from over 180 countries and offers detailed analysis of each ad's timing, audience, and elements. Adspy provides over ten advanced filtering methods, allowing you to search by ad time, creative concepts, keywords, and more.
Features:
- Search and filter function: find ads by name and use basic filters
- Review search: check for positive or negative feedback on ads
- Supports Facebook and Instagram
Pricing: $149 per month
Poweradspy
Poweradspy provides competitor advertising analysis across four platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Google. It monitors millions of creatives across 20 countries. However, Poweradspy is still an immature tool as it requires a browser extension, which can be cumbersome for first-time users.
Features:
- Search and filter function: filter by age, gender, relationship status, keywords, or content on target pages
- Requires a browser plugin to use
- Supports Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube
Pricing: $49 to $349 per month.
Adplexity
Adplexity is a Facebook advertising tool used to monitor competitors. It categorizes Facebook ads into four types: desktop, mobile, native, and e-commerce ads. Adplexity offers several specialized advertising spy tools based on ad types, and users can directly purchase the tools that best fit their needs.
Features:
- Find successful campaigns and filter by keyword, advertiser, publisher, and affiliate network
- Facebook ads are categorized by mobile, desktop, native, push, e-commerce, and carriers
- Find the most suitable ads by various angles, such as device usage and ad types
Pricing:
- Native ads: $249 per month
- Mobile, desktop, and e-commerce ads: $199 per month
- Push ads and carriers: $149 per month
BigSpy
BigSpy is one of the best ad spy tools available, with over 1200k users. BigSpy offers excellent search and filtering capabilities, as well as the ability to monitor ads across multiple social media platforms.
Features:
- Excellent filtering options: filter by country, ad industry, creative, CTA type, e-commerce objectives, and ad time
- Ranking function: BigSpy ranks all ads based on several criteria (Last Seen, First Seen, Likes, Comments, Shares and etc.), helping you identify the most successful competitor ads
- Ad tracking: BigSpy can track competitors’ ad effectiveness and download their ad creatives. You can also target your competitors' ad audience
- In addition to Facebook, BigSpy can monitor ads on YouTube, Twitter, AdMob, Pinterest, Instagram, and Yahoo
Pricing: Free, Basic $9, PRO $99
How to Spy on Competitors' Facebook Ads Using Ad Spy Tools?
In the previous section, we introduced several popular ad spy tools. Now, let's take BigSpy as an example and walk through the steps of spying on your competitors' Facebook ads. Here’s how you can do it:
Step 1: Determine the Advertising Channels
There are several major advertising channels available today, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and more. Each platform has its strengths and weaknesses.
BigSpy is a free ad spy tool that allows you to view ads across all the major platforms. You just need to select the platform and enter your search keywords, and BigSpy will show you competitors’ ads from various platforms.
Step 2: Check Out Your Competitors’ Ads
With BigSpy, you can examine more than just the ad style and creatives. You can also view user engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares. You’ll get insights into how popular the ad is, how many users are interacting with the brand, and what the audience thinks about the ad.
This information can give you a good sense of how your competitors’ ads are performing and how users are responding to them.
Step 3: Advertising Time
Every advertising campaign has its own lifecycle, and people’s focus tends to shift over time. Advertising strategies should evolve to keep up with these changes.
BigSpy allows you to search for ads within any given time frame. This feature helps you explore how competitors’ ads perform at different times, giving you deeper insights into how ads' effectiveness evolves over time.
Step 4: Advertising Headline
The headline of an ad plays a crucial role in grabbing users' attention. A good headline can make or break an ad, as it’s the first thing that catches a user’s eye.
In today’s fast-paced, information-rich world, the headline is key to standing out. People only need 5 seconds to decide if they’ll click on an ad, and the headline plays a huge role in this decision. BigSpy helps you extract this vital information, allowing you to understand your competitors’ headline strategies better.
Step 5: Advertising Pictures, Videos, etc.
Eye-catching images and videos can significantly increase user engagement and drive more clicks. High-quality visual content helps users better understand the ad and makes the product more memorable.
BigSpy allows you to explore the visual creatives used by your competitors, helping you analyze what works and what doesn’t in terms of imagery and videos.
Step 6: Advertising Copy
Copywriting is essential in advertising. It initiates communication with the user and sparks transformation in how they perceive the product.
Effective copywriting follows a basic rule: build awareness first, then generate interest. Avoid exaggerating the product's value, as this can turn users off. Some common copywriting strategies include using the 4W1H (What, Why, When, Where, How) method, or creating curiosity and disruption.
Two key elements in copywriting:
- Using numbers to grab attention
- Using high-recognition words that resonate with the audience
Step 7: CTA Types
Each ad uses different types of Calls to Action (CTAs), which can produce varying results. Here are some common CTA types:
- Keep CTAs short and direct
- Highlight the benefits of the product
- Use action verbs to motivate users to act
- Use negative or passionate words to create urgency
- Ask questions to engage potential customers
- Create tension or curiosity
- Incorporate numbers for added impact
- Use A/B testing to find the optimal CTA display position
With BigSpy, you can see which types of CTAs your competitors are using, giving you valuable insights into how they drive user action.
Key Takeaways & Looking Ahead
In conclusion, the main purpose of studying competitors’ ads is to generate better advertising ideas, learn from the strengths of competitors, and improve our own advertising strategies. This is the core value of BigSpy itself, and it serves as the driving force for continuous improvement.
