Google Ads Transparency Center: see an advertiser’s Google ads

The site: Google Ads Transparency Center. Cost: Free. Useful for: marketing and search.

What it is

Google announced the Ads Transparency Center in March 2023 as a searchable hub of all ads served by verified advertisers. It covers ads on Google Search, YouTube and Display.

For an advertiser, you can see which ads were shown in a certain region, the last date an ad ran and the format of the ad. It grew out of Google’s advertiser verification programme, which asks advertisers to confirm who they are. Together with the Meta Ad Library, it gives a free view of much of a competitor’s paid digital advertising, though neither shows budgets or results.

Use it for

• Seeing the search, video and display ads a competitor runs
• Checking which regions an advertiser’s ads were shown in
• Collecting ad copy and creative ideas for your own campaigns
• Confirming who is behind an ad you have seen

It is especially handy before you start paid search, when you want to know what rivals already say in the space you are about to buy.

How to use it

1. Open adstransparency.google.com.
2. Search for the advertiser’s name.
3. Set the region you are interested in.
4. Browse the ads shown, noting their format.
5. Open individual ads to see when they last ran and where they were shown.

Check each market separately, because what an advertiser shows in one region can be very different from another. Keep a simple log of the date, the region, the headline and the offer for each ad you study. After a few weeks the log shows which messages a competitor keeps and which it drops, which is often more telling than any single ad.

Example

Before launching search ads for an accounting software product, a marketer can look up the two leading competitors and set the region to the United Kingdom. The ads shown give a quick sense of the headlines and offers they use and whether they lean on text, image or video formats.

Watch out for

• It shows ads, not budgets, clicks or results.
• Only ads from verified advertisers are included.
• Results depend on the region you choose, so check each market separately.

It works well alongside Meta Ad Library, Google Trends and Similarweb.