Ads are a big part of your competitor’s digital marketing campaigns and should be monitored regularly.
In their ads, your competitors are telling you what they’re thinking (without telling you). The biggest platforms for ads are Google, Meta platforms, especially Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
You should be able to answer these questions when monitoring your competitor’s ads:
What type of ads are they publishing?
What is the tone and angle they’re using in ads?
When and where are they running those ads?
But before you can find the answers to these questions, you first have to know how to find your competitor’s display ads.
Which brings me to this guide. I’ll talk about how you can efficiently spy on your competitor’s display ads on major platforms and save time and effort in hunting down their ads.
What are display ads?
Display ads are digital ads composed of copy and visuals (can be images, videos, or GIFs) that are posted on websites or apps. You can often find a display ad on the top or at the bottom of a website or in the middle of an article.
Aside from websites, display ads are posted on social media and ad networks like Google Display and Facebook.
A display ad contains a link leading to a landing page or a separate web page where a potential customer can learn more about the product or service being advertised.
Some examples of display ads are:
- Banner ads
- Retargeting ads
- Pop-up ads
- Interactive display ads
- Video display ads
Why track display ads?
Display ads help you learn how your competitors target your potential customers at each stage of the funnel. It also uncovers how your competition builds brand awareness online, as opposed to native or sponsored ads, which can go undetected.
Furthermore, your competitors are testing and tweaking their ads according to audience preferences and what gets the most results. That could mean they switch up their copy or CTAs. It could also mean they run multiple versions of the same “base” ad to see what acquires the most engagement and conversions.
Monitoring your competitor’s display ads regularly gives you a peek into their thought process and what copy and tactics work best for them.Any serious business would want to know how their competitors promote their products and services.
What are Google Display ads?
This brings us to Google ads, a type of display ad.
Google Display Ads are a type of paid placement, usually a combination of text and images, that help you visually showcase your product or service on various online platforms.
It can help you promote your business when people are browsing online, watching YouTube videos, accessing Gmail, or using mobile devices and apps.
Why should you consider running Google Display ads for your business?
Running Google Display Ads can help your business reach a significant number of potential customers since they appear on the Google Display Network (GDN), a group of two million websites, videos, and apps.
Since these types of ads are highly visual, you can capitalize on these by including engaging graphics to catch the eyes of busy internet users.
Google Display Ads also have a high targetability, a big plus for companies in small niches or local businesses that only need to reach part of the internet.
You can customize and target your desired audience based on location, gender, income, interest, etc. So if you have a very specific audience, you can still consider running Google Display Ads.
Additionally, Google Display Ads allows you to run powerful retargeting campaigns. Google can easily track viewers who have previously shown interest in your brand. Retargeted audiences have a higher chance of conversion.
Now that you know how beneficial Google Display Ads can be for your product promotion, the next thing you want to do is to see if your competitors are utilizing this channel too and from that point, gain insights into their strategies.
How to view competitors’ Google display ads
Gaining actionable insights to help improve your advertising strategies requires tedious work. But with the right tools and processes, you’ll learn that digging for treasure can be a no-sweat task.
You can look up your competitors' Google Ads using Google Ads Transparency Center.
You just need to type your competitor's name or their website in the search bar. Click on the best match to generate search results.
Now, you'll be able to see all the active ads published on Google by a specific competitor.
To refine your search, you can apply extra filters such as the date the ad was published, the country, the platforms where it's shown, and the format (image, text, video).
With this, you can gather the data you need to gain actionable insights to improve your ad performance.
However, this might not be enough for your competitive analysis.
What if you have a lot of competitors in the market? What if there are other competitors or brands you’d want to track?
For instance, if you have at least 10 competitors, checking their Google Display ads might take you several hours of manual work.
Here's how Panoramata can help make your life easier when tracking ads.
How to view competitors’ display ads on Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
- Go to the Meta Ad Library.
- On the homepage, go to the Search ads module.
- Select your country and add category.
You can also choose All countries and All ads.
Type your competitor’s name on the search bar. If it doesn’t come up, find their advertiser name and use that instead.
View the results.
Apply filters, if needed.
Click on “See ad details” to view detailed information for each ad.
How to view competitors’ display ads on LinkedIn
- Go to LinkedIn Ad Library.
- Type your competitor’s name or a keyword.
- Select a country.
- Select a date range.
- Click on Search.
- View the results.
Click on View details to find out more about a certain ad (impressions, targeting parameters, etc.).
How to view competitors’ display ads on TikTok
- Go to TikTok Ad Library.
- Select a target country, ad type, and ad publishing date range.
- Then, type in your competitor’s advertiser name.
- Click Search.
- Use the filters to sort results.
How to view all your competitors’ display ads on one platform
On a single platform, you can track the ads your competitors are publishing on social and display networks.
Panoramata is the ultimate marketing intelligence platform that allows you to track your competitors' digital marketing strategies.
Things you can do on Panoramata to gain valuable insights into your competitors' ads:
Check if your competitors are running Google Display ads
There are two ways of searching for ads published by your competitors. One is by going to a specific brand's page on Panoramata to track all the ads run by this brand.
Go to the Ads section.
Panoramata monitors ads on several platforms (Facebook, Pinterest, TikTok, Instagram, etc) so you need to apply a filter to view a brand’s Google Display Ads.
Apply extra filters to ease your search and refine search results.
If you are looking for more specific results, you can apply the available filters such as the type of Assets, sort by Date, Popularity, or whether the ad is Active.
You can also narrow down your search by including keywords.
For example, if you want to search for summer ad campaigns containing images that Brooklinen published on the 1st of June and are currently active in Google Display, then your search should look like this.
Another way to monitor your competitors' ads is by doing an Advanced Ads Search on Panoramata. This can help you and your team save time and effort tracking several brands in one search and a few clicks.
Instead of manually doing it one brand at a time, you can use the platform's Ads Search feature to generate results covering several brands in one search.
Using the Ads Search feature, you can view the ads published by a set of brands and apply filters however you want.
You can choose the set of brands from the list of brands you follow, from a benchmark, or from a list you created on the platform.
In applying filters, always select the Display option under the network filter since you're looking for Google Display ads.
Other important filters you can use are asset type (image, video, carousel, text), country, language, industry & subindustry, and publishing date.
Share ads with your team
All ads can be shared with your team and even with non-subscribers by generating a shareable link.
Save assets to your list
Finally, if you want to organize the mine of marketing inspiration you’ve just gathered, you can create a list and save these assets to it.
Gaining actionable insights to help improve your advertising strategies requires tedious work. But with the right tools and processes, you’ll learn that digging for treasures can be a no-sweat task.
Ready to start your own competitive analysis? Grab your free competitive analysis template below. If you’d like to learn more about Panoramata, book a demo with us or take it out for a spin by signing up here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are display ads?
Display ads are digital advertisements that combine text and visuals (images, videos, or GIFs) and appear on websites, apps, and social media platforms.
Why is it important to track competitor display ads?
Tracking these ads helps you understand how competitors target customers, build brand awareness, and discover what ad content and strategies are working for them.
How can a business benefit from Google Display ads?
It is important to consider Google Display ads for your business for a lot of reasons including the huge percentage of internet users you can reach through this type of advertising, its high targetability even for small niche businesses, its powerful retargeting on previously engaged audiences, and its ability to catch attention through visuals.
Can I track all my competitors' display ads in one place?
While individual platforms offer their own ad libraries, marketing intelligence platforms like Panoramata aim to consolidate this tracking for multiple brands across various ad networks.
