Did you know that Facebook gives you the tools to snoop on your competition?
Yes, you can spy on your direct competition. Not only competitors, but you can also investigate others who you want to learn from and get inspired by.
Competitive intelligence is a vital component of your research into what's working (and what's not) in your target market.
Read on to discover how to become the newest Facebook "Spy Master".
Then click on the option "Why Am I Seeing This Ad?"
Facebook will tell you the criteria that advertiser used to put that ad in front of your eyeballs.
It will let you know if you are on a list. It will tell you which country that advertiser is targeting. It will also show you what age range and interests the advertiser is focusing on.
Grab someone else's phone (with their permission, of course!) and check out their feed. Notice the different advertisements which are shown to them, as they will have a different surfing history. In other words, the ads shown to women can be quite different from those shown to men. More, ads shown to parents differ from those displayed to teens.
Know a business in your niche that's likely advertising on Facebook?
Most likely there is a business (or several businesses) in your niche that has a Business Page on Facebook.
Now you can find out exactly what ads they are running.
You can use #hashtags in the search field or simply write in the name of your competitor to find their Facebook Business Page.
Then search for "Page Transparency" on their page. This is usually positioned on the left (but Facebook has been changing its layout recently, so just look out for it).
If you click on the link "See All" it will show you some interesting things. A little pop-up shows, then click on "Go to Ad Library". This way you can see what ads other businesses are spending money on.
If you don't see some ads immediately you might need to change the filters. For example, businesses might only want to show their ads in the USA or only in the UK. You can also select to only see the Facebook ads versus Instagram ads.
And you can filter by date.
You might suspect that this business is going to run some special ads leading up to Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Changing the date range might just reveal their end-of-year campaigns.
Notice the date that their ad started. Long-running ads are likely to have some cut-through.
Check out the:
Yep, it's 💯% possible!
This way you can emulate elements that you like.
Obviously, do not copy them!
Say there are a few competitors that you want to watch.
Think if of it as kinda like a virtual stake-out. :-)
You can.
I can track what @TableTennisAustralia and @TableTennisVictoria and @TableTennisQueensland and others are doing.
Click on these pages and you can see which is the most popular post this week.
You can see:
To add a Business Page to your "Watch List" then click on the button "Add Pages".
Check out their top posts and see what seems to be working.
Are they posting videos or a photo or a collage of photos?
So there you have it, three tricks to help you become a new Facebook Spy Master!
With these three tricks, you can channel your inner spy and change the way you advertise on Facebook.
Let us know what your investigations reveal.
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