Are you willing to revamp your Facebook ads strategy? Then you must know about Facebook Ad Library (aka Meta Ad Library), a transparency tool from Meta that allows people to get insights on ads strategies for any industry and geographical location. The best part? It is free!
Facebook generated around 114 Billion USD in advertising revenue in 2022, and this figure is estimated to escalate to 127 Billion USD in the coming three years, Statista reported. This is enough to highlight why advertisers must look up to Facebook for advertising and the Meta ad library can serve as a great help in this regard.
The ad library provides an abundance of opportunities for marketers and creative agencies to discover ideas on making their ad campaigns a success. You can explore a plethora of ideas for a particular ad concept by just entering a search term in the ad library. But that’s not the end. In this article, we’ll dive deep into the uses of Meta Ad Library and discover how it can fetch you the desired results.
What Is Facebook Ad Library?
Launched in 2018, Facebook Ad Library (or Meta Ad Library) is a free tool that allows users to search and see active and inactive advertisements from advertisers. The Ad library shows ads and relevant information like who ran it, at what date and time it was published and for how long, etc. This tool serves the motto of transparent advertising.
These are the key details that the Facebook Ad Library shows:
- Ads active on Meta Technologies from any advertiser.
- Ads that have run in the past. Ads data for the past 7 years is stored in the library whether ads are active for the time being or not.
- Details of issues related to social, elections, and political ad campaigns.
The Ad library from Meta which was originally released to maintain transparency in the social, political and election-related issues, was later made open for users to help them boost their ad campaign performance.
Learning how to use the Facebook Ad library can assist you in many ways. For instance, if you are starting with Facebook ads for the first time or to get some ideas on how the strategy you’re willing to execute has worked for any advertisers before. Experienced creative companies can also utilize this app to revamp their ad strategies.
How To Use Facebook Ad Library?
Facebook Ad Library was opened for app users across the world to provide ad transparency allowing businesses and creative directors to discover what’s going on in the online market and create ads like the best-performing ones.
(i) To start with, visit this link: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library.
(ii) In the search bar, select a country, select All Ads, and then provide your competitor’s business name (or industry name for which you want to search ads).
(iii) Press Enter and you’ll see ad results for reference with their status (active or not) when the ad started, the time period for which the ad was active, and the Meta platforms where the ad is/was active.
On an ad of your interest, click on See Details. On the right-hand side, click on the drop-down button next to European Union Transparency. It’ll show you the data related to the ad reach, by location, age, and gender. In addition, you’ll find two more options (i) About the advertiser (ii) Beneficiary and Payer. However, you may not necessarily get all these details for all the ads due to certain campaign specifications.
Filter Your Results
Meta Ad library provides a comprehensive list of filters using which you can manage to see ad data based on specific language, region, media type, impressions by date, etc. Let’s discuss them in detail below.
- Language: Facebook allows you to fetch data in English and other languages.
- Advertisers: You can choose a particular advertiser in this field to get their ads as a result.
- Platforms: This feature of the Ad library allows filtering of ad results for a particular Meta-owned platform (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network and Messenger).
- Media Type: You can sort ad results by media type (images, memes, videos, images and memes, not image or video) to get the one you need.
- Active Status: This helps see ad results separately for Active Ads, Inactive Ads and both Active and Inactive Ads.
- Impressions By Date: Facebook allows users to discover how well an ad has performed and how many impressions it got in a specified time.
With all these specifications, you can have an idea of how to set out a strategy for your ad campaign so that you can launch it when it is most likely to fetch the reach and desired results.
How To Do Competitor Analysis Using Facebook Ad Library?
Facebook ad library provides transparency on ad strategies of your competitors.
With access to ad details like what kind of ad formats your competitors are using, in which country they are running ads and how they are approaching their target audience, etc. you can analyze how they are ahead of you. Let’s have a look at the ad campaigns of Tata 1mg in which they have promoted their services.
You can go through all the active ads they are running. In addition, you can filter the results to see how they are targeting a specific country, which platforms they utilize, which media type they use the most, etc. Furthermore, it also provides ad data for the past 7 years which can be analyzed to assess the difference in their present-day strategy. This is a great possibility that you get to know which strategies deliver their message effectively and resulted in their growth.
Ways To Use Facebook Ad Library
Here is how you can leverage this vast ad library from Facebook:
1. Geo-specific Targeting
Ad library provides ad ideas based on different locations. This means you can search for the best and most creative ideas based on your requirements and strategies for expansion in a particular country. Although the Meta ad library presents a clear picture of active and inactive ads in a particular country, for now, we hope to see region-specific filters in future.
2. Get Performance Review Of Multiple Versions
Another crucial part of an ad campaign is its different versions. The ad library from Facebook provides details about different versions of an ad creative.
Furthermore, it also shows metrics and details of ad creatives that have used the same or similar image or text.
This can help you in testing multiple ad versions and choosing the one that has a higher possibility of performing.
3. Get Ad Inspirations
Interesting and captivating creatives aren’t just visually appealing, they also have informative content and catchy sayings or phrases. No doubt you should decide on your ad design only after properly analyzing which creatives have the most exposure, reach and interactions. In addition, you must pay attention to avoid using overused ad hooks because they can lack freshness.
Facebook ad library provides a vast ad database to get new ideas and fresh insights on how other businesses in your niche are promoting their offerings. You can discover enticing ad hooks and avoid using sayings that have been used too often. This will help you increase audience engagement and avoid using platitudes that have a chance of getting overlooked or aren’t compelling.
4. Get A Hold Of Trends
In today’s cut-throat competition, keeping up with trends has become a mandatory requirement for businesses to fulfill. The meta ad library is an open platform where you can discover what trend is actively followed by businesses in your industry. It is also a great way to stay ahead of your competitors.. Furthermore, you can save spending on ad formats or areas that aren’t very likely to perform positively and stay relevant.
5. Access Source Verification
Facebook provides the details of About the advertiser in its ad library. This assists users to confirm whether an ad has been shared from a legitimate source or not which can help decide its authenticity.
6. Analyze Ways To Convey Your Message
With the Facebook ad library by your side, you can evaluate various ad types, formats and graphics. In essence, this vast library liberates users to discover a plethora of ad creatives and analyze their themes and how they work. For instance, Blue42Agency has created a buzz for their upcoming posts with this creative followed by 3 video posts in a line.
Tired of juggling through multiple Facebook ad ideas and still can’t figure out which one is right for your business? Need assistance in formulating Facebook ad campaign strategy? Then Mind Mingles can help you because we are an established Facebook Marketing Agency serving clients from distinct business industries. We’ve 10 years of experience in designing and managing customized ad campaigns for Facebook. With us, you get the insights of experienced experts and leverage advanced tools for advertising on the #1 social media platform.
Conclusion
Facebook has eased the job of online advertising with its Ad Library tool that provides transparency in currently active and previous ads. It also allows detailed analysis based on filters, geo-targeting, source verification, and much more. Users can utilize this platform to research competitor’s advertising strategies and reform their campaigns with best strategies.
Gurleen Kaur is a Content Writer at Mind Mingles. She has presented her work in International Conference On Guru Nanak Dev Ji: Life, Philosophy and Legacy held at Mata Sundri College For Women and was awarded by the title of “Best Paper Presenter” under College Student Category for the same (Dated: 27th and 28th September, 2019) Has a strong grip over creating interesting, unique and informative content pieces for a wide range of niches. Firm believer that words have an impact.
