As a brand owner, you want your business to prosper. You do your best to polish the product to a shimmering brilliance, putting a lot of time and effort into that. But one thing often gets overlooked – what are your competitors up to?
Whatever the niche, researching the opponents and their marketing strategies, especially in social media venues, is a must these days. Why? Social media platforms open up a window of opportunities, and if you use them correctly, you can be sure your business will thrive.
So there should be no denying that scrutinizing competitors’ marketing efforts must be your task to know what works well and how you can run a better campaign.
Check the newsfeed to get familiar with ad marketing methods
Scrolling the newsfeed is the least effortful way to learn more about your competitors and their marketing approaches. It may not reveal every detail about the ad campaign, but it will shed light on what parameters they use when creating Facebook or Instagram ads.
Using one of the following methods, you can learn whether your competitors accentuate visuals and use a post maker, Facebook event banner, or focus on video content to spark people’s attention.
So, assume you stumble across the competitors’ ad. In that case, here is what you need to do:
- Tap (if you use a smartphone app) or click (if you use a desktop app) the three dots in the upper-right corner of the promoted post
- Choose “Why am I seeing this ad?”
- Find the parameters you are interested in the most.
You won’t get substantial info in some instances, seeing only the age and location. Still, doing this can sometimes lead to interesting insights. For example, you can learn that you see the ad because such companies fall in your interest area, have been on a hashed list that a brand used, communicated in English (is a specific accent), shown interest in email marketing, etc.
Use Meta Ad Library to research competitors’ ads
The mentioned is a comparatively easy way to learn essential information about the competitors. Completing those steps will help you get a bigger picture of their marketing setups. If you want to dive in deeper and learn more about your rivals, there is no better way than using Meta Ad Library.
Meta Ad Library will help you get familiar with your current opponents and show what companies will likely become your competitors in the future.
Why use Meta Library?
Meta Ad Library is a superb tool that provides crucial information about companies’ marketing campaigns. Everyone can use it for business or any other purpose. What’s in it for you? Let’s look at it in a broader scope:
- Shows which platforms rivals use: The tool allows you to see what platforms brands find more pertinent to their niche. It also shows whether they use cross-platform ads or focus on one network only.
- Showcases their offers, seasonal discounts, etc.: Meta Ad Library provides info on brands’ offers and how they roll them out on social media. This helps better understand how they attract customers.
- Provides with calls to action they implement: The tool shows a competitor’s ad template alongside its headline and content that lead to the call to action button.
- Pinpoints places where they drive traffic: Meta Ad Library includes rivals’ landing pages that you can visit. This way, you will know what typical buyers see when directed to a landing page.
- Demonstrates formats of ads they rely on: This option reveals whether the company uses pictures, videos, or animations in their ads.
- Highlights collabs they arrange: Last but not least, the feature shows brand collabs that cast extra light on companies you might be interested in turning to.
Run Facebook or Instagram and find the sought brand
So, what do you do to learn about your competitors’ ads using Meta Ad Library? Luckily, three ways exist. If Facebook is your core platform, here is a quick step-by-step guide:
- Launch Facebook (mobile app or in a browser) and locate your rival’s business page
- Find a transparency panel on their page, click it, and scroll to the bottom until you see Go To Ad Library
- Use filters and a keyword search to enhance your exploration.
The only different thing you need to do if you use Instagram is to run the app, find the competitor, and choose Active Ads. Upon doing that, you will be redirected to Meta Ad Library. The rest is the same as in the above list.
The third way is connected to Meta Ad Library, as well. But here, you don’t need to search for contestants but use keywords to see and analyze all the businesses that operate in the same area. It will show you different advertising approaches that related companies use.
Conclusion
Researching competitors and their advertising strategies is necessary to get into the spotlight. Analyzing rivals, you learn what you need to perfect to lure away people and convert them into your clients.
As you can see, there are several ways to learn about your competitors’ marketing efforts. If you are short on time, the first method will be your go-to. Utilizing Meta Ad Library will be a better option if you strive to learn the ins and outs of rivals’ ads, making your advertising strategy impeccable in the long run.
