Ok, maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic, maybe a better title is, how to find every Facebook ad from this current year. Either way, there’s this thing that a lot of people don’t necessarily know about, called Facebook Ad Library.
I’m old, I don’t have to call them Meta. I can still call them Facebook, since I was actually in college when there was such a thing as a paper facebook. Though I don’t think we had one at my alma mater. Either way, this tool is excellent.
Content Marketing Use Cases for Facebook Ad Library
Here’s some of the many use cases for this free, no account needed, tool.
- Competitor ad research
- Ad runtime research
- Ad inspiration
- Market research for ad landscape in given industry
- Get coupons for stuff you want to buy*
Competitor ad research has never been easier on Facebook thanks to this tool. You can drill down what USP your competitor is pitching, what ad format they are running, and so much more.
Ad runtime research follows the old adage, follow the money, follow me? No more puns, I promise. But I did know a man once that owned a business that told me that if you saw a business, retail this was, open for more than a year it was probably making money. At least earning enough cash to stay open. Take this simple concept into FB Ad library land and you have a treasure trove of data to help you understand which ads are working, since they’re running the longest. Though not always the case, a good formula could be something like the older the ad the more likely it is successful.
Ad inspiration is really probably the best use case here. I’m always amazed at the incredible creativity, and often lack of polish, that Facebook ads offer. Sometimes the absolute best ads on the platform are shaky cell phone videos of someone pitching something people need, meeting them where they are w.o all the pretense. People still connect with people, and this is tool lets us see that in droves.
Market research is another great use. Demand generation is a very corporate term for marketing, but demand research is a very smart term for saving a lot of pain and suffering in the future by seeing if there is any market for your product or service to begin with. Not everything everyone thinks people would want is actually marketable. If a category is really slim on ads, or full of them, let that count as votes for potential demand.
Get coupons for stuff you want to buy, because they can’t always be found elsewhere. This of course has nothing to do with content marketing, and thus the * above.