Have you always wanted to know exactly where your competitors are advertising on Facebook? Well, now you just might be able to find out this information.
Facebook have released that they are testing a new Ad Transparency feature, allowing you to see where Pages for Businesses are advertising on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. This feature has come as a result of the USA electoral process, where advertisers lacked honestly in their political ads. Zuckerberg have stated that a good level of transparency is not only good for democracy, but increasing honesty of advertisers.
The feature, being rolled out next month, will have a ‘View Ads’ option on an advertiser’s Page. This will then show users where advertisers are showing themselves on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
In addition, when the new feature is released, any advertiser making an ad on these platforms will be required to have a Facebook Page. This feature will not only show the current ads being shown, but ones that are archived from up to four years previous.
In terms of marketing strategy, users will be able to see the total amount spent on adverts, the number of impressions achieved and the demographics used by the advertisers, such as location and interests.
So, what are the benefits?
Besides giving you the chance to be nosey or stake out your competitors’ marketing strategy, there are many benefits to this new feature. Firstly, you can assess which ad types have worked best for your competitors in previous years. This information can then be harnessed in your company’s marketing. Loved that advert that Tesco used in 2015? You can now see how much it cost them and the performance it gave.
Secondly, you can mimic the demographic targeting used by competitors to advertise to the same groups of people. This can allow you to reach the most appropriate, relevant types of people. With audiences that have worked well previously for other businesses, you can benefit from other advertiser’s targeting groups.
But what are the cons to this new feature?
Alongside being able to spy on your competitors advertising, this means they can do the same to you. Though you had a genius, unique demographic? Not for much longer. Every new feature has pros and cons, this will give transparency for everyone however, there is the risk of others imaging your strategy.
This new feature promises to be an excellent source of honesty and transparency from advertisers, with the added bonus of having insights into your competitors marketing strategy.