These tools can help you analyze PPC competitors, track search trends or design ad creative – all without spending a dime.
Plenty of tools promise to offer excellent PPC data and insights. However, they usually come at a cost. But if you know where to look, you can gather a wealth of data and insights without spending a dime.
In this article, I’ll share a list of free tools I use to manage client accounts and optimize campaigns across paid channels.
Competitor and market analysis tools
Analyzing the competition is crucial when planning and managing your paid media ads. You also need to keep up with what is happening in the market.
The tools below offer free insight into just this.
1. Google Ads Transparency Center
Google Ads Transparency Center is a relatively new tool that enables users to see what ads any verified advertiser is running across Google networks.
The tool was released as a privacy measure to create a “safe and open internet.” But for advertisers, it also works as a great way to see your competitors’ ads.
Ads Transparency allows you to search for any advertiser, specify a date range, location and ad format and see what ads are or have been running.
You can use this feature to check the messaging, visuals and offers your competitors are using to better understand how you can make your own ads more enticing.
If you see a change in performance in your ads, it works as an additional place to check to see if a competitor has adjusted their offering or started/stopped ads.
2. Facebook Ads Library
Similar to the Ads Transparency Center is the Facebook Ad Library. The Ads Library allows you to search all ads currently running across Meta platforms from any advertiser.
To use it, you just need to search for a specific advertiser or keyword, select the ad category (employment, political and a few others fall into special categories), and Facebook will do the rest.