Grab your magnifying glass and your fedora, you’re about to become a secret spy…

Well, kind of.

This isn’t quite a secret service mission, but it is a handy hack that you can use to have a nosy at what ads your competitors are running using Facebook advertising.

There’ll be no hacking into the mainframe or unethical practices here, this information is readily available to the public thanks to Facebook’s transparency policies.

We’ll just show you where to find it.

You might be thinking, why is it useful to see what ads my competitors are running?

Well, by understanding the types of campaigns, messaging and positioning your competitors are using, you can learn the ways you need to differentiate in your Facebook advertising to stand out from the crowd and achieve your campaign goals.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1:

Open Facebook.com, and visit the Facebook page of your competitor.

Step 2:

Scroll down, and look to the left hand side for the Page Transparency section.

Step 3:

Click See All, and then scroll down to the Ads Library section. Here you will find whether or not your competitor is running ads. If they are, you’ll be able to click Go to Ad Library.

Step 4:

Have a cheeky snoop around! In this library you’ll be able to see all of the ads your competitor is currently running, and exactly how they look in the feed.

You can filter the ads you see by country, platform and impressions by date.

Step 5:

Once you’ve had a look at several of you key competitors, ask yourself:

How can I create campaigns that will stand out from my competitors?
What could I do that my competitors aren’t?
How can I position my brand as different from my competitors?
What’s good about my competitors campaigns? How can I use that for inspiration?
What bad about my competitors’ campaigns? How can I improve it?

How to See What Ads Your Competitors Are Running