10 Tips for Free Competitor Research Using Ad Libraries
With so many different tools available for competitor research it can be a bit overwhelming.Â
Iâve lived and breathed paid ads over the past eight years, and in this article Iâm going to share with you 10 tips on how to conduct competitor research for free using ad libraries.Â
Grab a notebook and letâs dive in!
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Tip #1: Familiarise yourself with all the available ad libraries
- Tip #2: Leverage time and location filters
- Tip #3: Estimate platform demand by volume of creatives
- Tip #4: Build a swipe folder of ad inspiration
- Tip #5: Research brands in adjacent industriesÂ
- Tip #6: Build a matrix to document your competitorsâ movements
- Tip #7: Build a checklist to uncover strategic insights
- Tip #8: Review the ad formats being usedÂ
- Tip #9: Clickthrough to review landing pages in use
- Tip #10: Review your competitorsâ UTM string
Tip #1: Familiarise yourself with all the available ad libraries
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The first step is to know what options you have available.
Here are the primary ad libraries available for the top 3 ad platforms:Â
LinkedIn Ad Library
Meta Ads Library
Google Ads Transparency Center
Within each library you can study creatives for your competitors and relevant brands.Â
Using them on a quarterly basis to spy on your competitors is a key habit to develop.Â
Tip #2: Leverage time and location filters
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You can filter by time and location within each ad library to understand:Â
- Which markets are my competitors investing in?
- How many creative variations are my competitors testing?
- Are they testing localised campaigns outside of english?
You wonât know exactly how much your competitors are investing but you can use the volume of ads as a proxy to estimate the level of investment, and interest for a given market.Â
If you spot certain markets where youâre finding organic traction AND you see your competitors have gone through the commitment of localising these regions,these are great signals for you to consider running a pilot campaign.Â
Tip #3: Estimate platform demand by volume of creatives
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We touched on using the volume of as a proxy to estimate the level of investment for a market.
The same logic applies to also understanding the demand for a specific ad platform.Â
Letâs use a hypothetical example, imagine you see the following for your competitor:
- LinkedIn Ads = 20 active ad variations in the past month
- Meta Ads = 10 active ad variations in the past month
- Google Ads = 5 active ad variations in the past month
Based on the volume of ads you can assume LinkedIn could be their primary platform followed by Meta, and finally Google. Look up your competitors and take note of their volume of ads by platform.
Youâll never know with 100% certainty but itâs a good approximation for at least the effort they are expending on each channel, if not their level of success.
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Pro tip: get buy-in from leadership to test new ad platforms by showing them how active your competitors are within those channels, this creates FOMO which is quite powerful.Â
Tip #4: Build a swipe folder of ad inspiration
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A swipe folder is a simple collection of screenshots of ads, landing pages, and offers that stand out.
As youâre going through the ad libraries take note of the ads that catch your attention from competitors, relevant brands, and from scrolling through social platforms. Â
Inspiration comes from all sources and by building this swipe folder you can:
- Better communicate and share guidance with your creative team
- Avoid reinventing the wheel with tested concepts
- Reduce the time to produce new creatives
This can be as simple as a folder in a Google Drive, it doesnât need to be complicated.
If you want to be organised about it you can also group ads by concept, such as:
- Social Proof
- Thought Leadership
- Product Marketing
The most important piece to takeaway from this is you have some sort of folder to refer to.Â
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Pro tip: create a shared slack channel for people across teams to upload examples of great ads they come across to crowdsource inspiration.Â
Tip #5: Research brands in adjacent industriesÂ
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Oftentimes your competitors might be behind the ball when it comes to advertising.Â
In these instances researching them wonât be very helpful or worthwhile.Â
Instead what you can do is research brands in adjacent industries, for example:
- eCommerceÂ
- E-learning
- RetailÂ
You can take what works in other industries and adjust it to fit in yours.Â
Creativity is often taking what works from one sphere and applying it to another.Â
Tip #6: Build a matrix to document your competitorsâ movements
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If you want to take your competitorsâ research to the next level, build a documented matrix.Â
This can be as simple as:
- Competitor Namesome text
- Month/Year
- Channel
- Ad Count
It will take a bit of work to put this together but the primary benefit is you can now monitor your competitorsâ activity by ad platform on a quarterly basis.Â
Hereâs a simple example of what this can look like in Google Sheets:Â
Pro tip: if youâre looking for a role in paid media, do a competitor research analysis on the brand youâre applying for. It's a great way to differentiate yourself against other candidates.Â
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Tip #7: Build a checklist to uncover strategic insights
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When reviewing your competitorsâ ads in the library youâll want to think deeper than just the surface level of the styles and examples of ads in front of you to uncover strategic insights.Â
Create a simple checklist to remind yourself to think about:Â
- Are the ads running to gated or ungated content?
- Is there a mixture of content that focuses on demand creation or capture?
- What stage of the funnel are their ads focused on? (ex: ToFu, BoFu)
- What mixture of offers are they testing? (ex: Conferences, Webinars)Â
- Are they driving to a landing page or lead form?Â
Compare the insights you uncover against your current approach.
If you notice 3 of your competitors are promoting events and youâre not then itâs worth testing.Â
Tip #8: Review the ad formats being usedÂ
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This was touched on slightly before but it deserves to be in its own tip.Â
As youâre reviewing competitors in the library take notes of the ad formats being used.Â
For example, when it comes to LinkedIn are they testing:Â
- ImageÂ
- Video
- Spotlight
- Carousel
- Document
- Conversation
If you notice a large volume of a certain ad format itâs safe to say it must be working.Â
Compare the formats they are using against your own to inspire future experiments.Â
For videos take special note of aspect ratio, short vs long form, and other nuances like humour.Â
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Pro tip:assign your competitor research tasks to an intern or junior person as pulling these insights is quite time-consuming and can be done by an entry level team member.
Tip #9: Clickthrough to review landing pages in use
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The remarkable thing about these libraries is that you can click through on the ad and view the landing pages your competitors are using. This insight is not otherwise easily discoverable.Â
This all of sudden opens up a lot of homework for you to perform landing page teardowns.Â
- What are the calls to action on the landing page?
- How is the page structured compared to yours?
- Do they have better social proof than you?
Now suddenly your swipe folder can be filled with print screens of their entire landing pages.Â
Which can be shared with your team to test new page variations.Â
Pro tip:
If youâre using Google Chrome you can use the extension called GoFullPage to take screenshots of entire pages with the click of a button.Â
Tip #10: Review your competitorsâ UTM string
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To close out on our final tip, I wanted to share a more advanced approach.
When youâre clicking through to the landing page of your competitorsâ ads take note of the UTM string in place to potentially uncover insights on how theyâve set up their campaigns.Â
By reviewing the URL structure I might gather the following information:
- Network = g | theyâre advertising on Google Search
- Device = c | theyâre running ads on Desktop devices
- Keyword = crm software | theyâre bidding on crm software
- Matchtype = e | theyâre using exact matchÂ
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Hope you found this article helpful! đ
Connect with me on LinkedIn and letâs keep the conversation going.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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50+ Ad Specs for The Top 10 Ad Platforms
Have you ever wondered what dimensions does that ad require? đ¤
Then started searching to find the answer? (same here lol)
To save you (and ourselves) trouble, we gathered the most popular ad specs across 10 channels in one place:Â
- Google Display Ad Specs
- LinkedIn Ad Specs
- Twitter (X) Ad Specs
- Quora Ad Specs
- Reddit Ad Specs
- YouTube Ad Specs
- Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
- TikTok Ad Specs
- Meta Ad Specs
âď¸ Bookmark this article and refer back to it when you need ad specs.Â
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Google Display Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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LinkedIn Ad Specs
Source: business.linkedin.com
Browse examples at: linkedin.com/ad-library/home
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âX (Twitter) Ad Specs
âSource: business.twitter.com
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- You can request to have video lengths increased up to 10 minutes
- Carousel can use images or videos but must be in the same aspect ratio (ex: 1:1 or 16:9)
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Quora Ad Specs
Source: image ads, video ads
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Reddit Ad Specs
Source: reddit.my.site.com
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* Headlines will be truncated to 100 characters on mobile/mobile web for the conversation placement.
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Youtube Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
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Google Discovery / Demand Gen Ad Specs
Source: support.google.com
Browse examples at adstransparency.google.com
â
TikTok Ad Specs
Source: ads.tiktok.com
Browse examples at library.tiktok.com/ads
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âMeta Ad Specs (Facebook/Instagram)
Source: business.facebook.com
Browse examples at: www.facebook.com/ads/library
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Resources for Mastering B2B Advertising
Hope you found this ad specs article useful!
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
â
Hereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â 100% free access.
â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
â
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
⢠Scale their ideas
⢠Level up their careers
⢠Make a positive impact
â
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously I timed it đ)
3 Powerful Strategies For Scaling SaaS Google Ads You Need To Know
Google Ads is a blessing and a curse.
You're blessed with intent and cursed with scale.Â
Itâs a powerful channel for scaling pipeline for SaaS startups but low search volume is a challenge.Â
In this article youâre going to learn 3 powerful strategies for scaling your SaaS google ads further.Â
This wonât solve your limited search volume issues that's just the nature of your target keywords and B2B SaaS but these strategies will help you squeeze more performance from your account.Â
Letâs dive into it đ
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
- Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
- Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
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Strategy #1: Broad Match Discovery
Before you click away Iâm not talking about using broad match in the traditional sense.Â
Where you let Google show your ads for WHATEVER they think is relevant.Â
Broad match discovery is where you combine broad match keywords AND an audience.Â
It essentially means youâre giving Google the flexibility to show your ads for whatever they feel is relevant but within the confines of your targeted audience.Â
I would not recommend testing this approach unless you have:
- Strong negative keyword lists
- Proven converting phrase match keywords
- Significant conversion volume (> 15/month)
The benefit is you get to scale your top keywords safely past phrase match.Â
How to implement broad match discovery:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Once youâve identified some worthwhile keywords itâs time for step 2.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted audiences
Google has 5 audience types you can leverage for targeting in your search campaigns.Â
- Your data = website visitors or contact lists
- In-market = people actively researching a given topic
- Life events = people whoâve accomplished a life milestone (ex: create a business, get married)
- Detailed demographics = industries, company sizes, education level.Â
- Affinity = people who are interested in a certain topic
You can use a mixture of all these different types of audiences to layer on top of your broad match discovery campaigns.Â
If youâre dealing with < 500 searches/month for your keywords I recommend clustering a minim of 10-15 audiences on top of your campaigns to help with delivery.Â
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Step 3: Setup a campaign experimentÂ
The safest way you can test broad match discovery is in a 50/50 experiment alongside your top converting phrase match campaign.Â
You can easily AB test in Google Ads using the campaign experiments feature.Â
Located under Campaigns > ExperimentsÂ
Using this feature build an experiment splitting the traffic by 50% for your original campaign vs the experiment version using broad match AND the targeted audiences you brainstormed in step 2.Â
Strategy #2: Advertising outside of English
English is the most competitive language in the world with the majority of advertisers.Â
Weâve seen reductions of up to 70% in our average CPC targeting other languages.Â
If your company has the resources to sell in multiple languages â take advantage of localization!
Localization campaigns are when you target keywords, write ad copy, and design landing pages that all are in your audience's native language (ex: Spanish, German, Portuguese).Â
Youâll reap the benefits of lower costs due to less competition.Â
The downside however with localization is search volume.Â
If youâre already advertising in English outside of North America and finding success, definitely recommend testing this strategy.Â
How to implement localized campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Review your performance across converting phrase match keywords to identify which youâre going to prioritize testing with broad match discovery.Â
Donât rely on âtotal conversionsâ make sure youâre viewing performance by keyword based on the custom metrics that matter for your business (ex: Demo, Trial, SQL, SAL, Opp, etc).
Step 2: Brainstorm your targeted languages
Ask your internal team what languages your sales team is able to sell in.Â
Based on your options make a list of potential languages.
Next, if youâre advertising outside of North America, review the top performing countries and identify their local languages and see if you have the internal resources that can speak that language.
If you canât sell in this language then this strategy wonât make sense.Â
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Step 3: Hire a local translator Â
Donât make the mistake of relying on Google Translate to perform the bulk of your translation.
Youâll want to hire a translator that grew up in the area in which you want to advertise.Â
For instance, if youâre advertising in Portuguese.Â
The dialect for Europeans living in Portugal and those living in Brazil is very different.Â
A local brazilian can tell if itâs not their dialect just like a native portuguese.Â
I recommend hiring locals off Upwork can be as low as $12/hour depending on the language.Â
These translations will make a world difference in your ad and landing page copy.Â
Strategy #3: Industry campaigns
Industry campaigns can be great for coverage and quality.
This is where youâre going to bid on a desired keyword and add a related industry term.Â
For example, letâs say bidding on the keyword âcrm softwareâ hereâs how you can modify this keyword to make it industry specific:
- healthcare crm software
- crm software for fintechÂ
- crm software for small businesses
The benefits of industry campaigns:Â
- Personalized ad copy that can yield greater CTRs
- Higher quality leads due to a more qualified search term
- Lower cost per click prices due to less competition
The downside however is search volume (the constant struggle of Google for SaaS đ ).
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How to implement industry campaigns:Â
Step 1: Find proven converting phrase match keywordsÂ
Just like the other strategies weâre going to identify proven keywords first that we can create industry variations for.Â
Step 2: Brainstorm your target industries
Run a win rate analysis in your CRM and understand which industries have the shortest sales cycles and largest deal sizes? Based on your findings, prioritise the industries in which you want to target.Â
Step 3: Build and prevent keyword overlap
Once you have your keywords and target industries youâre ready to build your campaigns.Â
Make sure to add your industry terms as negative keywords in your generic non-brand campaigns.
Otherwise you can have people seeing your generic ads for your industry terms.Â
Hope you found this article helpful!Â
Best of luck scaling your Google Ads campaigns for your SaaS.Â
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Resources for mastering B2B advertising
If youâre serious about mastering B2B advertising then you definitely need to join 1,000+ B2B marketers leveling up their paid advertising skill sets in AdConversion.Â
âHereâs 4 reasons why you should consider joining. Every one of our on-demand courses are:
â Â 100% free access.
â Â Taught by vetted industry experts.
â Â Have workbooks, resources, and templates.
â Â Less than 10 minutes per lesson.
We believe every marketer should know how to scale paid ads so they can:
- Â Scale their ideas
- Level up their careers
- Make a positive impact
Click Here to Join 1,000+ B2B Marketers Today and start leveling up your advertising skill set.
Takes < 90 seconds to sign up (seriously we timed it đ)
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