Do you want to go behind the scenes and see what ads your competitors are using?
Maybe you’re running ads, maybe not. Either way, there is massive value is seeing what your competitors are doing.
If you’re running ads, realize that you’re competing against your competitors for the ad space. Facebook is not a billboard, where you purchase a finite ad placement. You purchase an opportunity to compete in the marketplace, against every other advertiser.
This is why it’s critical to see what your competitors are doing. You do not want your ads to be too similar to the competitors, or it’ll blend in. You also don’t want to be overshadowed by a powerful or outlandish ad, so make sure you check what they’re doing.
If you aren’t running ads, checking out your competitors offers you the opportunity to get some inspiration. Take a look at what kind of angle they’re using, then advertise something DIFFERENT so you can stand out.
Another reason to check your competitor’s ads is to see what offers they’re using in their ads. No matter what niche or industry, effective advertising needs an offer. Whether it’s a discount, or free upgrade, every ad needs good “bait.”
Looking at your competitors ads will allow you to see what offers they’re using, so you can take it one step further.
When they offer a week long trial, you offer two weeks.
They give a free eBook? You give a free BOOK.
They offer a book? You offer…two BOOKS!
You get the point. Take their offer, and one-up it.
This is why it’s necessary to look at your competitors, so you can deliver a strong ad and knock their advertising out of the water.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how to find your competitor’s ads organically. Alternatively, you could use “Facebook spy tools.” These third party sites pop up every few months, including WhichAdsWork, Addicted.io, Adplexity, etc.
I’ve used these and have had success with them, but there’s one big problem…they always get shut down! WhichAdsWork was my favorite for a while, but unfortunately they had to shut down. One day I visited their page and saw this:
Now, instead of depending on a tool to get my spying done, I use a more organic approach.
If I want to do a swipe file for all my competitors, here’s exactly what I do, step by step.
#1 – Start a Spreadsheet
This is the most boring step, but is definitely necessary. You want to set up a spreadsheet (or Google Sheet, which I recommend) to keep track of all the data. Columns include:
- Date Viewed
- Competitor Name
- Competitor Location
- Competitor Website (link)
- Competitor FB Page (link)
- Ad Copy
- Ad Image (description)
- Ad Targeting
- Engagement (likes, shares, comments)
- Date Posted
This will allow you to keep track of everything you see on the ad. Now, instead of browsing through tons of ads, you can look at this spreadsheet and analyze all your data.
Now that you’re set up to record data, it’s finally time to see some ads.
#2 – Like Their Facebook Page
The first step to finding their Facebook Ads organically is to…like their Facebook Page.
Sounds simple, but it’s often overlooked. By liking their page, it puts you at the top of Facebook’s choices for who to get ads.
In order to see a specific business’ ads, we’re going to trick Facebook into think you’re EXTREMELY interested in this business. This will increase the odds that you’ll see an ad from this business.
Facebook is smart and wants to drive ads to the right people. Even if you don’t select “people who like my page” in your audience, Facebook KNOWS that people who like the page are high quality leads. This means you’re likely to click, so they’ll show you ads.
Now that you’ve liked the page, let’s take it a step further.
#3 – Engage with the Page
t’s time to move yourself even higher up the “customer ladder” by engaging with their posts.
Facebook counts engagement as likes (reactions), comments, and shares. Do any and all of these to consider yourself engaged with the page.
This will tell Facebook that you’re not just some random person who liked the page. You’re interested in what this page has to say, and you want to hear more. Facebook will interpret that as “please show me an ad!” and send you an ad.
#4 – Visit their website
To take it to the next level of customer priority, visit their website.
After you do this, you’ll be in THREE “customer buckets” for this business – page likes, page engagement, and website viewers. If you aren’t seeing ads
If you don’t get ads after this, they’re doing something wrong, or not running ads at all.
Bonus: if you’d really like to spy on this business, see if they have the Facebook Pixel installed, and check what events they have firing. You can do this using Facebook Pixel helper.
#5 – Install Turbo Ad Finder
Turbo Ad Finder is a Chrome Extension that takes your Facebook Newsfeed, wipes out all your friend’s posts, and makes it..
100% Ads
This might sound like a nightmare to some people, but if you’re trying to find ads, this is a blessing. Facebook spaces out paid ads at preset positions in between organic posts. Instead of scrolling through your newsfeed begging for ads, this extension lets you see ONLY ads.
Turn this extension on, and keep scrolling until you see ads from this competitor. If they’re doing things correct, you should see an ad on the first try. If you don’t see any, refresh the page and try again.
If you refresh a few times and see NOTHING, it means they probably aren’t running ads. If you don’t see ads, and saw earlier that they have pixel installed, it just means you aren’t getting targeted.
The main reason you wouldn’t be targeted is for location. Even if you’re super interested in this business, it won’t matter unless you’re within their geographic specification.
Facebook lets you choose not only between geographic areas, it also lets you choose between…
- People Who Live Here
- Everyone
- People Recently Here
If you aren’t one of those, you won’t be hit with an ad.
Most local business only do their location plus 10-20 mile radius, so if you’re outside that, you won’t get anything no matter how hard you try.
#6 – Swipe
Now that you’ve found an ad, it’s time to swipe it. This is when you would go to your handy dandy spreadsheet and start filling out the columns.
Copy the ad copy and paste it there for easy reading. Write down any notes or observations you see. If you want to take things to the next level, take a screenshot of the ad and save it to your desktop.
Now that you see it’s an ad, that’s great, but how do you know it’s performing well? There’s two ways to get a handle on it’s performance.
First is the engagement. Good ads will get lots of likes, comments, and shares. Check to see how much of each it has.
If it has nothing but a few likes, it’s either a bad ad or a new ad. This is where age comes into play.
It’s possible an ad with no engagement is just that, a new ad. To tell this, look for the “date posted.” All organic posts will show the date and time posted under the poster, like this:
Unfortunately, sponsored posts hide this and say “Sponsored” instead, like this:
To check the date on a sponsored post, start by hitting “Share” at the bottom of the post, then hitting “Share…”
This will begin the prompt to share this in a post, with some added text or something.
Hit “Show All” to expand the ad. This will show you the date, like this:
Now that you’ve got every detail about the ad copied, it’s time to go “under the hood…”
#7 – Targeting
Now that you’ve seen the visual portion of the ad, it’s time to see who the targeting is.
Targeting is a huge factor in successful Facebook Ads, so it’s crucial to see what your competitors are doing.
To see the targeting from an ad, click on the “…” on the top right corner of a Facebook Ad.
From the dropdown, select “Why Am I Seeing This?”
Here’s what I see from this example.
From reading this, they’re targeting people aged 18-54 who are interested in Marathons and live in the United States.
Simple targeting. As you start to look at more ads, you’ll see the targeting for is not that complicated (for good reasons).
There are a few other things you can see from the “Why Am I Seeing This” tab that I want to cover.
Here is what this will say if they’re using a Lookalike Audience:
Here we see Southwest Airlines using a Custom Audience, based on website traffic:
Great, now you can see and understand everything your competitors are doing with their add. The only step now is to take the next step.
#8 – Retargeting
If you really want to see what your competitors are doing, take a step down their sales funnel to see what happens.
Now that you see an ad, you’re obviously being targeted as a possible buyer. It’s time to take that to another level by clicking on their ad.
This will show you what their landing page is. The landing page is where customers land after clicking on the ad.
It’s very important to have a clearly defined landing page that takes customers by the hand and guides them towards a sale. If you need inspiration for your page, you’ve got it here on a silver platter.
After clicking on their ad, you’ll be hit with retargeting ads. These ads are for people who view content, but don’t buy.
If you want to go even further, add their product to your cart. Most eCommerce companies have abandoned cart ads set up, to add urgency and priority for people who added to cart, but clicked away.
Even if they have an opt-in form on their page, fill it out and see what they do with your email. It’s definitely useful to see how they use email marketing. You can always delete the messages and unsubscribe.
After doing all this, you’ll see every ad they’re doing, from cold traffic, to warm traffic, to super hot traffic.
Click on their ads, even add it to cart, to see what they’re doing
Conclusion
Congrats, you’ve now analyzed every part of your competitor’s ads. If they’re smart, you’ll be hit with a pitter patter of ads for the next few days (maybe months), that you can swipe.
If you’ve read this far, you’re ready to run ads for your business, or maybe you’re already running ads, but they’re not bringing in the results you want.
In that case, it’s time to quit horsing around and reach out to a professional. Advertising wizards (like myself) can take a look at your ads and pinpoint exactly what’s preventing your ads from being successful.
Don’t wait, book a 1-on-1 consultation call with me by clicking here, free for first-time visitors.