Whether you are running Facebook ads, or just need content inspiration, the Facebook Ad Library tool is a really useful way to see what your competition is up to.
The Ad Library lets you see active ads across all Facebook apps and services. You can also filter by both active and inactive ads relating to social issues, elections or politics, including spend, reach and funding entities for as far back as seven years.
To perform competitive Facebook Ads intelligence, you simply enter your competitor’s name in the search box:
By clicking into See Ad Details, you can view more detailed information about the ad including additional assets and content (i.e. links and text).
Unfortunately, you can’t get performance metrics. So, you can’t see which ads are earning the most engagement, clicks, and conversions (but that would take all the fun out of it). But it is a great way to find inspiration.
I would also encourage you to perform ad intelligence beyond your direct competitors, as well as, on businesses outside of legal. While it’s useful to see what competitors are up to, the available inventory for your direct local competition might be limited. Be sure to “spy” on the larger law firm players, other professional services firms (i.e. doctors, accountants, therapists, etc) and even direct to consumer advertisers that tend to focus on lead generation. Oftentimes, the creativity outside of legal can provide a huge competitive advantage in an uninspired competitive environment.
