The Game Has Changed – Facebook Now Showing Your Competitors’ Ads

This change has been flagged for a while but may have caught quite a few by surprise with the quick announcement and rollout. Effectively Facebook have made sweeping changes that allow you to see any ads that a business page is currently running. The true intention is to increase transparency and avoid major issues such as what happened with the 2016 US Election. If you are keen to find out more, check out the Facebook official release .

We believe that when you visit a Page or see an ad on Facebook it should be clear who it’s coming from. We also think it’s important for people to be able to see the other ads a Page is running, even if they’re not directed at you. That’s why today we’re announcing important changes to the way we manage ads and Pages on Facebook as well as Instagram. These are designed to increase transparency and accountability, as well as prevent election interference. – Facebook

This however has much bigger implications. For any savvy digital marketer this now means you can view, analyse and compare ads from any of your competitors, industry leaders or just a quicker way to review your own ads across pages. We at AusGarage knew this was coming but had picked that like a lot of functionality it may have only been rolled out in the US initially.

What does this mean for your business?

• These changes give you one of the best opportunities you have had to do effective market research. Being able to see current ads will show you market trends, current sales priorities etc
• All of your ads will be completely visible. This shouldn’t worry you though, if you are attacking social ads correctly they should be changing constantly and be personalised to your brand tone.
• Consumers will have greater control on what they see in their news feed. This isn’t TV or Print. You can’t pay just to hammer your message at consumers. Now, more than ever there is a pressure on nailing engaging content and genuinely interacting with your audience.
• Retargeting with follow up discounts will be more obvious to the more tech savvy consumers.

What you can’t do

• You cannot currently see engagement on the ads
• You also cannot access budgets or precise targeting of these ads.

How do I see this?

Simply go to any Facebook Business Page. Hit the new menu item which is called “Info and Ads” and start scrolling.

This page will also show you extra details such as page creation date, whether it has changed names etc.

Struggling with how to make sense of these updates?

Get in touch and we can walk you through it and how it may affect your business.