Are you wondering how your competitors are investing on social media? Would you like to see the creativity of their ads, the texts used and the strategies?
It may seem impossible, but it can be done and it’s very easy!

For about a year, thanks to Facebook Library Ads you have been able to carry out targeted searches and analyze all the paid ads activated and deactivated on any page.

This new feature seems to have been created by Facebook to remedy the numerous slips made in recent years regarding the privacy regulations for the protection of its users. Zuckerberg’s company, following the Cambridge Analytica scandals and the presidential elections won by Donald Trump in 2016, has in fact inaugurated this new tool, with the aim of ensuring greater transparency on advertisements.

In the first version launched in May 2018, this tool was only accessible for social and economic content. For this type of advertisement, more information has always been mandatory and made public, such as the disclaimer (i.e. the funder of the campaign).

Today, the Facebook Ads Archive looks like a real search engine.
Anyone (even those who are not subscribed to the social network) can search for a page by writing the full name in the search bar.

Numerous filters are available to facilitate your search, including: country, active or inactive listings, platform and impressions by date.

This type of advertisement has a lot of information that can help us.
First of all it is possible to know:

• The disclaimer, which is the funder of the post (always visible);
• The amount he spent on sponsoring the post;
• The total budget invested;
• The date the page was created;
• Administrators, their number and country of residence.

In addition, other important information can be obtained such as:

• the page creation date and name changes;
• if the ad has been disapproved by Facebook (and the reason);
• the characteristics of the public to which it is addressed.

The ad creative is saved in the library for seven years.

Facebook Library Ads is a useful tool both to study your competitors and to perform a competitive analysis, understanding the tone of voice, creativity and the type of advertisements they use, monitoring their activity on social networks and updates to their advertisements. .
It is also useful to see the different creatives used according to the target and the reference countries and above all… To “draw inspiration”!