Top 10 Facebook Ad Spy Tools to Uncover Your Competitors’ Secrets

Nowadays, it’s hard to execute any digital marketing tactic without the appropriate tools. With the right software, you can improve your decision-making and differentiate your strategy from your competitors. In fact, some tools allow you to see clearly what your competitors are doing and what you can learn from them. This is precisely what Facebook ad spy tools can do for you. 

What Exactly are Facebook Ad Spy Tools?

By using Facebook ad spy tools, you can learn more about specific ads or companies’ ad strategies. These programs analyze different Facebook ads that were served based on their target location, target gender, and other parameters. That way, you can understand what type of content similar companies were promoting during their campaigns.  

Spy tools rely on extensive ad databases to extract Facebook audience insights. They pull out ads based on specific keywords, locations, or demographics and tell you how they’re performing. By comparing these posts against your own drafts, you can determine if your future ads will yield satisfying results. You can also be inspired creatively by examining their text and imagery.

Besides analyzing the performance of individual ads, Facebook spy tools can also categorize ads based on who posted them. In other words, they can track all posts from a single account, that is, a company. This way, you can mimic competitors’ strategies as well as successful marketing campaigns from other niches. 

Benefits of Using Ad Spy Tools for Competitive Analysis

In a nutshell, these tools are much more effective than traditional A/B testing. Instead of spending hours upon hours trying different posts and analyzing their performance, these programs deliver you quick insights on demand. By using them, you can go through various ads and determine how they affect the advertiser’s business growth.

First and foremost, these tools serve as teaching aids that show you what truly matters to Internet users. You can learn more about triggers and motivators for specific people to change the appearance of your ad copy and creatives. That way, you can manipulate the actions of the target audience and convert at a higher rate. 

What to Look for in a Facebook Ad Spy Tool

The most important thing for these programs is their ability to deliver hundreds of ads within seconds. They need to have great filters so you can search posts based on keywords and other parameters. That way, you will learn what motivates people when they’re choosing certain products and services. 

Another core functionality is their ability to scrape landing pages. You can save hundreds of posts in Excel and CSV sheets and access them via links. Some of them even allow you to play videos, so you can see the entire ad. 

10 Recommended Facebook Ad Spy Tools

There are various Facebook ad tools that can help you out during competitive analysis. I’ve made a list based on the popular options, most of which I’ve had the opportunity to test myself. 

1. PowerAdSpy

This ad spy tool relies on the power of artificial intelligence to show users what their competition is doing on various platforms. Besides Facebook, the software also works for Twitter, Instagram, Google, Quora, Reddit, and various other websites. PowerAdSpy provides insights into competitors’ strategies by checking analytics within each platform.

The program gives you access to just about any ad-related statistic. For example, you can use it to check engagement, placement, CTA usage, ad types people used, and so on. PowerAdSpy comes with a free Facebook extension that will make it easier to gain detailed insights while checking the ad design and content. 

2. AdSpy

This program relies on its database search feature to analyze competitors’ ads on Facebook and Instagram. It tracks down competitor ads based on keywords, URLs, or ad text. Use the spying tool to focus on advertising campaigns based on their targeted gender, affiliate ID, network, offer ID, tool likes, daily likes, media type, and more.

AdSpy gives you valuable insights into successful and unsuccessful marketing tactics, allowing you to tweak your own advertising strategy. The software browses the Facebook Ad library within seconds and presents data within its polished user interface. I also like that the software allows you to track down posts by affiliate networks. 

3. BigSpy

BigSpy works for nine advertising platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, Google, and Yahoo! This diversity of options makes it ideal for marketers who utilize a multi-channel approach. BigSpy relies on a massive database of ads featuring 1 billion posts across different search engines and social networks. 

My favorite thing about this software is that it guides you in uncovering new campaign ideas. The program relies on advanced filters to segregate ads based on various metrics, such as date, location, format, industry, etc. Among others, BigSpy shows you user engagement for each post, so you know what works and what doesn’t. 

Further Reading: Facebook Ads Cost: How Much Should You Be Spending?

4. Social Peta

This software gives you AI-assisted insights into publishers, advertising networks, and advertisers. Probably the best thing about this ads spy tool, and the thing that separates it from the competition, is that it analyzes more than 80 platforms. There’s also cost analysis tool, which is perfect for your budgeting.

I also love that Social Peta covers e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Shopify. The tool gives you insightful analysis of competitors’ text, materials, and other elements. As with other tools, all information is in real time, which makes all the difference for business owners who want fast results and reliable data.

5. AdPlexity

AdPlexity allows you to perform a magic search based on keywords, advertisers, images, or ad placement. The Facebook ads spy tool also tracks compelling campaigns on various publishers’ sites and what works on different platforms. One of the best things about its competitor analysis is that it shows how a post performs on certain days, devices, or locations.

With AdPlexity, you can export landing pages from a variety of sources and modify them for your ads campaigns. Alternatively, you can download the landing pages in JavaScript or CSS and use them later. There’s also a cool feature that alerts you each time one of your biggest competitors posts a new ad on Facebook. 

Further Reading: 11 Handy Facebook Ads Cost Calculators to Help Maximize Your ROI

6. Dropispy

By using Dropispy, you can break down various campaign elements for each Facebook ad. The software shows you how long an ad has been running and what reactions it received from users. Besides these basic metrics, you can expand this list to gain even more decisive insights such as age, sex, and country of people who interacted with it.

With Dropispy, you can perform in-depth research based on page name, keywords used, media type, post creation, etc. The software relies on fast servers for simple and quick navigation. My favorite thing about Dropispy is its free plan (albeit without advanced filters and no insights into recent ads). 

7. AdsLibrary

This tool is a perfect solution for creating an ad library on your device. It scrapes posts from Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, allowing you to manage them from a single dashboard. Use various search parameters, such as tag, ground, brand, and status, to find specific posts and make informed decisions.

You can use the platform to group several posts, which is vital for your analysis process. Find similarities and differences between advertisements, allowing you to ideate a creative strategy for your business. My favorite advanced feature is the status tracker; use this function to monitor when a company stops running a specific ad.

Further Reading: What is the Facebook Ad Library and 13 Ways How to Use it for Facebook Marketing

8. Social Ad Scout

Social Ad Scout allows you to filter social and search advertisements based on images, videos, ad type, device, and other parameters. Perhaps the best thing about the software is its advanced targeting. You can type in the precise category of users you want to focus on (French men between 20 and 30 living in the UK).

The tool’s real-time analytics are simply amazing. They show you how long an ad has been running, which demographics interacted the most with it, where these users come from, etc. Social Ad Scout gives you granular access to ads, showing you screenshots and allowing you to play video ads. You even get a link to actual ads for additional manual analysis.  

9. Minea

Minea is a phenomenal ad and product research tool. These two features work well in conjunction, allowing you to streamline the entire production and marketing process. Minea monitors user engagement on Facebook and offers insights from the top industry experts.

I love Minea’s AI feature. The tool generates AI images and text for your ads while tracking down posts with similar elements. You can also use it to download entire posts, in the form of screenshots, to your device.

10. AdFlex

AdFlex taps into Facebook, TikTok, Google, and Native advertisements database and analyzes various posts. The software assesses performance in search engines and social platforms, including ads’ regions, target audience, placement, headlines, and various design elements. 

Besides analyzing individual ads, it also performs competitive analysis for brands. It assesses the entire creative strategy of a company, putting emphasis on the traffic they’re trying to acquire. When it comes to Facebook, in particular, AdFlex assists you in creating better CTAs, improves publishing speed, and selects optimal placement. 

Further Reading: 11 Powerful Facebook Ad Examples for Your Next Retargeting Campaign

Next Steps

If you’re looking to improve the performance of your Facebook ads, you have to implement one of these solutions as soon as possible. Most of them come with free trials, so there’s no risk involved for your company. 

Hero Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash