Successful marketers understand the power of the written word. Boosting visibility requires compelling ad copy that speaks to customers in new and interesting ways. If this sounds like it might spark blank page syndrome when you sit down to craft ad copy, don’t fret: You don’t have to start from scratch.
Ad copy monitoring can help you optimize your creative assets. By understanding what works (and what doesn’t) in competitor ads, you can find and fill gaps while enhancing your ad performance, improving conversion rates, and gaining a competitive advantage in your industry.
What is ad copy monitoring?
Ad copy monitoring is the process of tracking the performance of competitor ad campaigns in order to find opportunities for your brand’s ad copy to stand out. This includes monitoring messaging on Google Ads, social media ads on sites like Facebook or YouTube, and any other campaigns out in the world. By researching metrics like engagement and impressions for your competitors’ campaigns, you can set better marketing benchmarks for your own ads as you work on converting potential customers into paying ones.
Why monitor ad copy?
There are many reasons to track competitor ads. Knowing what’s out there and how well it’s working makes refining your own marketing and campaign strategies easier. Monitoring other advertisers’ ads can help you:
Understand how your competitors use platforms
Every advertising platform is different, which is why it’s important to observe what kind of language resonates best with different audiences. Monitoring ad text across channels like TikTok, Meta, Google Ads, and YouTube can reveal how other brands optimize their messaging for platform-specific success.
For example, an active clothing brand might lean into the more casual nature of TikTok with a script and caption about the joy of running; the same brand might pivot its messaging to running tips on Meta. A white noise device could talk about improving sleep for older adults in its Meta ads but shift the focus of its copy to helping moms get their babies down for a nap on TikTok or YouTube ads.
Stay ahead of market trends
Observing what your competitors are saying (and how they’re saying it) can help you stay ahead of the game. For example, if you run an ecommerce store that sells dishwasher detergent, you might notice other brands leaning into language like “eco-friendly” and “free from toxins,” indicating customer values that might be worth reflecting in your own ad copy. You can also see if a trend is becoming oversaturated to the point that it doesn’t feel original anymore.
Ad copy often has two elements that set it up for success: relevance and timing. By keeping your finger on the pulse of shifting trends, you can better position your messaging to either jump in at the right moment or pivot to something more innovative.
Find inspiration
Checking out the competition can not only spark creative ideas but also help you avoid looking and feeling the same as other brands. Competitor ads are essentially a searchable bank of unlimited data to see different creative executions of keywords and imagery related to your product.
For example, if you run a pet accessories store and search the keywords "pet accessories," you might find that a competitor is running three variations of an ad across Meta platforms. The ads could range from more hard-hitting product information about how their accessories benefit pets to a more emotional ad featuring pet owners and their stories. Then, if you look up the same brand on Google Ads, you might notice the language there revolves around the store’s latest sale and uses stock photography.
Seeing another brand’s campaign unfold like this could help you dial in where your language could be more creative, where it can be a bit more direct, and how you can write various options to test. You’ll also get ideas for how to switch up video editing and imagery that best pairs with your copy, depending on where you place the ad.
5 tools to monitor ad copy
Whether you have the budget for a paid tool to monitor ads or you’re looking for something easy and free, there are plenty of options out there to help you see what drives sales for your competitors:
Meta Ad Library
The Meta Ad Library is a searchable database of current and previous examples of ads running across Meta’s platforms—including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. It offers a simple search bar and the option to filter results by language, platform, media type, whether the ad is active or a past campaign, and timeframe, to help you research various messages.
By exploring results for different filters, you can see how other brands switch up their messaging from videos to text on images, or how they might message differently during certain times of the year for holidays or seasons. Each ad also links to a landing page, so you can see how the ad copy aligns with the product detail copy.
Pricing: Free.
Google Ads
The Google Ads Transparency Center allows you to search by company and sort by the following details: formats, timeframes, and different Google platforms, like Maps or Google Shopping. When you click on an ad, you’ll see all of this information, plus click through the variations of the ad to see how the ad text changes in each version.
Pricing: Free with a verified Google account.
TikTok Ad Library
The TikTok Ad Library allows you to search by keywords or brands and filter by criteria including country, industry, ad objective (such as video views or reach), and even how many likes an ad got (filter by the top 1% to 10%, for example). TikTok also provides some rich metrics when you click on an ad, including comments, shares, and its click-through rate.
For videos with scripts, TikTok automatically transcribes the video, so you can see the exact copy, and analyzes key creative elements of it, like how the language addresses a relatable problem. Each ad also links to a landing page, so you can see how the ad copy aligns with the product detail copy.
Pricing: Free.
Semrush Ads History
If you’re running Google Search Ads, Semrush offers useful tools. You can type in a keyword and see an entire list of domains that placed bids on that keyword. Plus, you can see ad traffic, price, and the number of ads competitor domains ran. This information can give you a better understanding of what competitors are bidding on and if there are keywords they’re missing out on that you can use.
Pricing: Plans start at $139.95 per month.
BigSpy
Rather than visiting each social platform individually to gain insights, you could use a platform like BigSpy that monitors nine major platforms at once. It has a huge database of ads, allowing you to search more than one billion ads across platforms like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. You can see detailed information about each ad, including impressions, specs, format, and dates the campaign ran.
BigSpy can also help you ideate new ads by creating a word cloud to reveal the most common keywords related to your product or category. Understanding the data BigSpy delivers can help you refine your own creative ideas, uncover emerging trends, and improve your ad targeting for a better return on investment (ROI).
Pricing: Plans start at $9 per month.
Monitor ad copy FAQ
What is display copy in advertising?
Display copy in advertising is any text used in an ad, whether it’s a digital banner, on social media, or in sponsored search results. This copy is used to attract new customers and convert them into paying customers. You see ad copy in the form of headlines, scripts for social media videos, caption copy on Instagram or Facebook ads, and any other digital ads you encounter online.
How do you write display ad copy?
Writing good ad copy involves understanding your audience and their preferences enough to shape the messaging. Highlight key benefits that tie back to customer needs with clear, concise messaging that avoids mixing too many ideas together. Having a good understanding of various platforms can help you refine headlines that hook your audience. On social media in particular, it’s important to understand what works best for hooks, like clearly setting up the problem you’re solving within the first five seconds of your video.
How do you monitor ad copy?
There are many free and paid tools you can use to observe what your competitors are doing. Free tools include the TikTok Ad Library, Google Transparency Center, and Meta’s Ads Library. Paid tools include SEMrush Ads History and BigSpy. SEMrush also provides insights on SEO optimization for certain keywords and backlinks, while BigSpy allows you to observe campaigns across many platforms at once.
