The Best source of Facebook Ad Ideas: Your Competitors!

Are you thinking of getting started with Facebook ads, but aren’t exactly sure how to go about it? Or maybe you’ve tested running an ad here and there but were not too sure if it was good enough or engaging enough to have made a significant impact.

But what if you could create ad creatives similar to those that are already running successfully? What if we told you that you need not look hard for inspiration. In fact, there’s an easy place to search and find ideas for ads right there on Facebook itself.

It’s called the Facebook Ad Library. And it’s your best bet for finding inspiration for creating the best ads for your business.

Here’s how you can utilize your competitor’s Facebook ad campaigns for your own benefit.

1. Visit The Facebook Ads Library

The Facebook Ads Library is Facebook’s way of providing advertising transparency for all the businesses advertising on their platform. It shows you all the ads that are currently running but is also able to show you previous ad campaigns that have since ended their run.

It’s important to note, though, that while the ad library does show you the ad creatives that are running, they won’t be showing the level of engagement each campaign currently has. In other words, you won’t be able to find the number of likes, reactions, and shares on the Facebook platform.

 

2. Search for Facebook Ad campaigns in your industry

Once you find yourself on the Ads Library page, there’s a search field where you can type in any topic, keyword, or advertiser that you want to do some research on.

We suggest you first try and find out if your direct competitors are advertising on Facebook. Find out how they’re advertising their products, and see whether it’s something you’d be interested in doing as well, or if you prefer to do something that’s uniquely yours.

Another approach you could go with is searching keywords that are related to your topic of industry. If you’re a bakery that serves and delivers cakes, for example, you could search through several different keywords related to the different types of cakes, pastries, and other related keywords.

Once you’ve conducted your search, there’s nothing left but to…

 

3. Find the ads that strike a chord

Unfortunately, because the ads library doesn’t show you the engagement that each ad campaign is receiving, you won’t be able to get into what types of ads work and what don’t. But seeing all the ads that are available and are running should give you a general consensus as to what your competitors are doing, and how much money they’re putting into each campaign.

If, however, you find a relevant ad while scrolling through your feed, you can click on the three dots on the upper right-hand corner of the post, and then click “Why am I seeing this ad?” This option gives you a little bit more insight as to what targets each campaign is focusing on, and what targets they’re trying to hit.

In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you want to run an ad on Facebook. Inspiration is everywhere once you open the doors to the Facebook Ad Library. And so if you feel that you’re running out of fresh ideas for your campaigns, perhaps it’s time to scope out the competition.

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