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Facebook has introduced new ad transparency tools as part of its ongoing effort to improve its reputation after numerous privacy and fake news scandals. Ad transparency tools are designed to allow anyone to see who is running an ad they encounter. They also allow any user to see all of the ads a particular company is running. If they work as intended, they should help restore a degree of accountability to social media discourse.

More importantly, they’re a gift to business owners.  Here’s how to find and use Facebook’s Ad Transparency tools to build your business.

Find Facebook’s Ad Transparency Tools

To see Facebook’s Ad Transparency Tools, visit any business page – your own or someone else’s. Click on the Info and Ads tab. This will bring you to a page that displays all of the ads that are currently visible in your area. If a company has ads running in many locations, or internationally, you’ll be presented with a drop-down menu of regions that allows you to pick which ads to view.

Ways to Use Facebook’s Ad Transparency Tools to Build Your Business

How many times have you heard the advice to shop your competition? With the new Ad Transparency tools, this entire process just became much easier. Use the opportunity to view all of your competitor’s Facebook ads to learn what they’re promoting, and how they’re promoting it.

Consider the type of ads they run, the imagery and language they’re using, and what kind of messaging tactic they’ve chosen. It’s important to do this for companies who are doing better than you are in the market, as well as those who are trying to catch up with and surpass you. You can take the insights you’ve gathered to influence your own marketing strategy and operational decisions.

Another way to use Ad Transparency tools to build your business is to leverage them as customer service tools. It’s not unusual for a customer to see a Facebook ad a few times but then, when they want to act on it, they can’t find it! When they reach out to you for help, you can turn to your own Ad Transparency tools as an archive to quickly find and share the ads with them.