Facebook Advertising for Law Firms: How Law Firms Can Use Facebook’s Ad Library

If you’re using Facebook Advertising, then you have a wealth of valuable resources at your fingertips. The Facebook Ad Library offers legal marketers several hacks, including seeing competitor ads and getting inspiration for new ideas. The Facebook Ads Library (or Meta Ad Library) can significantly improve your marketing ROI. Here’s how to use the ad library to improve Facebook advertising for law firms. 

Facebook Advertising for Law Firms

What is the Facebook Ad Library?

The Facebook Ad Library – sometimes referred to as the Meta Ad Library – is a searchable database containing every ad currently on Facebook. The library displays information about who created the ad, the date it was published, and what creative is included. Any ad that has been published in the Facebook library will remain in the library for up to seven years. 

The ad library was created in 2016 as a response to controversy over political advertising. The goal of the library is to improve transparency and give consumers insight into what ads have been active on the platform. In short, it’s a way for consumers to see what Facebook is up to when it comes to hosting advertising.

For marketers, the Ad Library ended up being a gold mine of information. Some of the most helpful features of the Ad Library are: 

• The ability to see advertising from around the globe
• Insight into competitor advertising, for market research and new ideas
• Transparency around political lobbying or other industry issues
• Access to inspiration for future marketing

How You Can Use the Ad Library to Make Your Advertising Better

When the Ad Library was created, it was designed to be accessible to everyone and intuitive. The idea is that even a first-time user could access the database and find helpful information. To get started, go to ​​facebook.com/ads/library/ and choose your location, category, or keywords. You can also include specific names in your search. Once you input your category and a competitor firm, for example, you’ll be able to see every ad they’ve run for the past seven years (along with other information like the dates published). 

Some of the best ways to use this data are to: 

1. Look up Your Competitors’ Ads

Seeing what competitive firms are doing is a great way to get new ideas and see what you should be doing. You can perform ad research as part of a larger competitive analysis, or just to get new ideas about keywords, messaging, or imagery. Then you can adjust your own strategy to make the best use of what’s working well (and avoid what’s not). With this information, you’ll be in a better position to make decisions about adjusting your budget, changing your targeting options, or trying new ad types. 

2. Take Advantage of Reporting

If you’re interested in finding even more granular data points, the Ad Library has functionality to help with that. For example, you can filter by certain categories and look for ads that focus on particular issues. You can also break down advertising by advertiser, spending amount, or geographic location. Pulling various reporting shows you how Facebook ads are being used, and reviewing this information can provide new insights. 

3. Find Other Ads in Your Region

Filtering by location is particularly helpful for law firms. In this way, you can see what your direct competitors are doing to promote their services. You can get a better feel for who the target audiences are in your region and the right messaging to reach them. Note: right now, you would need to type your city into the keyword box in the ad library. This will bring up any ad that includes your city in the headline of copy. 

4. Filter for Specific Media Types

One of the newer features of the Ad Library is the ability to search by media type. Narrow ads down by those containing images, video, memes, etc. This is a great way to see what is resonating with your target audience. For example, if you’ve been considering adding a meme to your ads, you can look up that media format and see how it looks in a real advertising scenario. 

5. Filter by Date to Better Time Events

You don’t want advertising that’s similar to your competitors’ to show up at the same time. Understanding when and what your competitors are running can help you to time certain things. For example, if you plan to host a webinar, you can perform a search to see if any competitors are advertising an upcoming web event as well. If there is any seasonality to your business, you can run a search to see what competitors are doing during specific timeframes.

6. Take a Closer Look at Campaign Messaging

Your ad creative is one of the most important elements to your Facebook advertising success. Get inspiration for new messaging by browsing other ads. 

7. Find Out What Competitors are Testing

A/B testing is very important to digital marketers. There are so many things to test, it can be hard to know where to start. You can always take a look at the Facebook Ad Library to get ideas on different components to test. 

Takeaway: 

The good news about the Facebook Ad Library is that anyone can access it. Even if you’re new to Facebook advertising for law firms, you have a lot of information at your disposal to help you be more creative and make better marketing decisions. If you need more tips on using social media platforms creatively and efficiently, reach out to our team today for a free consultation.