How to View Your Competitors’ Facebook Ad Audiences
Here are three tips to help you: Quickly find your competitors’ Facebook ad audiences
1. What Are UTM Parameters?
These are links used when running Facebook ads. By tracking these links, you can determine where traffic originates, how ads perform, and which content users engage with. Most professional advertisers include UTM parameters in their ad links, leaving us valuable “clues.” Master the five standard UTM parameters and learn to analyze them carefully.
For example:
- utm_source: Traffic source (e.g., facebook)
- utm_campaign: Campaign name
- utm_medium: Link type (ad / cpc / paid)
- utm_content: Content type (e.g., 15secvideo / 1minvideo)
- utm_term: Keyword audience
If competitors are using UTM parameters, you can see how they segment video tests, ad structures, and more.
2. Tap the “three dots” on ads in your news feed
This is the simplest, most direct, yet most authentic approach. While scrolling through Facebook, you’ve already been “tagged” by countless advertisers. Whoever’s ads you see is inherently a signal. Steps: Actively visit competitors’ websites, click around pages, browse products.
Wait a few hours, then return to Facebook and refresh your News Feed.
Once their ad appears, click the “…” in the top-right corner.
Facebook will reveal:
Why you’re seeing this ad
Whether they’re targeting by interests, age, location, or retargeting
If they’re using Lookalike Audiences or broad audience targeting Key takeaway
If you see the ad, it means:
They’re running retargeting campaigns. You triggered their behavioral event, and you’re now a sample in their ad system.
Not only can you see how they position you, but you can also observe how those brands in your industry that excel at advertising actually approach their positioning.
This is the most authentic form of market education.
3. Access Facebook Ad Library to see what ads your competitors are currently running
If you want to figure out exactly what a competitor is doing: Just check their Ad Library.
This is Facebook’s official transparent ad repository where you can see:
- Which ads they’re currently running
- Every ad variation (one creative might be split into 5–20 ads)
- Creative style: User-generated content? Reviews? Comparisons? Pain point appeals?
- Copy structure: Benefits? Promotions? Features? Emotional appeal?
- Ad duration (longer runs indicate stable performance)
- Extensive A/B testing (multiple versions signal aggressive experimentation)
Advertisers won’t waste budgets on “ineffective creatives”:
In other words:
- Which angles are effective
- Which benefits resonate with people
- Which types of videos/graphics deliver the lowest conversion costs
- What creative ideas they deem “worth investing in”
All of this can be instantly identified in the ad library. These are my three approaches—hope they help!