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Competitor ad detail: analyze, create a similar ad and keep notes
The ad detail page shows one competitor ad in full. It holds the creative, its copy, how long it ran and Nexus's analysis. You can also analyse the ad, save it, create a similar ad from it and keep notes.
Problem and intended user
A creative strategist (the person who plans and makes ad creatives) sees a competitor ad in the library and needs to know why it might work. The message, the offer and the tone sit inside the ad, and a card cannot show them. A media buyer (the person who runs your paid ads) asks the same about the audience the ad targets. Without a clear read, each person judges the ad from a first impression, and the lessons stay with whoever noticed them.
Current workflow
Today you open the ad in the public ad library of Meta or Google and zoom in on the creative. You copy the headline and body text into a document. You write down the hook, the offer and the tone by hand. You paste the link into chat and add comments there, or you ask an agency for a teardown.
Prerequisites
- Data. Open an ad from Competitor Library or the Inspiration Library. The ad must belong to a tracked competitor, an Inspiration brand or an industry peer.
- Credits. Analyze and Re-analyze can use credits. See Credits and top-ups.
- Assets. Create similar ad needs an image or carousel ad.
How Nexus works
Nexus collects the creative, the copy and the run dates of each competitor ad from the platform's public ad data. Fixed rules count the days an ad ran. AI writes the analysis. When you run Analyze, it reads the ad and fills the labels and the analysis in Creative analysis.
Open the page
Click View details on an ad card in Inspiration Library > Competitors > Competitor Library or in the Inspiration Library.
What each kind of ad offers
The page changes with the source of the ad.
| Source | Tabs | Analyze | Create similar ad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitor you track | Overview, Notes | Yes | Yes, for image and carousel ads |
| Inspiration brand or industry peer ad that is not from the shared ad catalog | Overview, Notes | No. The page says "Inspiration ads are not analyzed" or "Industry peer ads are not analyzed". | Yes, for image and carousel ads |
| Ad from the shared ad catalog. Its badge can read Competitor, Inspiration or Industry peer. | Overview only | No. The page says "Catalog ads are not analyzed". | No |
The tabs about performance, segment mix, attributed orders, linked products and logs belong to your own ads. See Ad detail.
Analyze or re-analyze an ad
WARNING
An analysis can use credits. When the button shows a credit badge, the badge shows the cost before you click. See Credits and top-ups.
- Open the ad.
- Find Analyze in the page header. If the ad already has an analysis, the button reads Re-analyze. An ad with no analysis also shows Analyze this creative in the Overview.
- If the button shows a credit badge, check the cost.
- Click the button. Confirm if Nexus asks you to. If your balance is too low, Nexus offers a top-up.
- Wait while the button reads Analyzing.... The analysis cards fill in when the run ends.
Re-analyze runs a new analysis of the same ad.
Create a similar ad
Click Create similar ad in the header to open the clone setup for this ad. See Clone an ad.
Save an ad and copy its link
- Save ad keeps the ad. The button then reads Saved. Find saved ads in the Inspiration Library, under Saved ads.
- Once the ad is saved, a folder chip shows its folder, or No folder. Click the chip to move the ad to another folder. The chip also shows when you open an ad that you saved earlier.
- Copy link copies the address of this ad page and shows "Link copied". Another person on your Nexus account reaches the same ad with it.
Keep notes on an ad
Open the Notes tab. The tab shows a count badge once the ad has notes.
- Type in the box under New note. Click the emoji button to add an emoji.
- Click Post note.
- Click Reply under a note to answer it.
- Open More options on a note to Edit or Delete it. Delete asks you to confirm first. Deleting a note also deletes its replies, and you cannot undo it. To delete a reply, open Reply options on it and select Delete. It asks for the same confirmation.
Exact output
The page opens with a breadcrumb. It reads Inspiration Library > Competitors for a tracked competitor. It reads Inspiration Library for an Inspiration brand or an industry peer. The title is the ad's headline, or the first words of its text when there is no headline. Under it sit the brand and the source: Competitor, Inspiration or Industry peer. A King ad badge shows next to the title for a likely winner. Point at the badge to read the rule. The header holds Analyze or Re-analyze, Create similar ad, Save ad and a … menu with Save to folder or Move to folder, Copy link and Open landing page. When you came from the Inspiration Library, the breadcrumb reads Inspiration Library, then the ad, then Full analysis.
The Overview tab
A panel on the left shows the ad as it runs: every card of a carousel, or the video. When Nexus has no picture of the ad, the panel says so and shows the ad's text. Click the creative to enlarge it or play it. The Overview shows:
- At a glance. How long the ad has run and since when, whether it is Live or Ended, the King ad reason when it is one, and the landing page. A line under it says Nexus cannot see the brand's sales or spend, so these are signals, not results.
- Details. The brand, with All their ads, the platform with its placements, the format, when the ad started and when Nexus last saw it, the advertiser, the number of variations, Ad family, Made from this ad, Same creative, Est. impressions (EU) and Est. spend (EU) when they exist, Ad library, the angle and hook, and the ad ID. Dates show as exact days.
- Ad family names the group of related ads that Nexus found for this ad. It gives the number of ads in the group and how many run now, and adds "ran longest" when this ad ran longest. The row is missing when Nexus has not grouped the ad.
- Made from this ad lists the creative batches you started from this ad with Create similar ad. It gives the number of batches, then links to the newest ones, and "and" a number "more" when there are more. The row is missing when there is no batch. It never shows for an ad from the shared ad catalog.
- Same creative reads "Used in" a count "ads (grouped by Meta)". It shows when Meta grouped the ad with copies of the same creative. It is not the same as the number of variations.
- Ad library links to the ad in the public ad library: View in Meta Ad Library or View in Google Ads Transparency Center. The link opens in a new tab.
- Reach and delivery (EU and UK) for a Meta ad, below Details. It shows the reach Meta discloses for the EU and the UK.
The Overview also holds these cards:
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Creative analysis | One card. The labels Nexus gave the ad come first. You can read them but not change them. They do not show for a catalog ad, or when Nexus has no labels for the ad. The analysis follows: Three groups and some single cards. The Creative message group holds Hook, Body and messaging and Call to action. Offer follows as its own card. A Concept and context group follows with Objection handled, Industry concept, Concept and Awareness stage. Each shows only when Nexus found it. The Audience and strategy group holds Target audience signals and Tone and emotional triggers. The Format and signals group holds Format classification and, when Nexus found them, Copywriting signals. A video ad adds Video details. Social proof, Seasonal context and Brand voice show only when Nexus found them in the ad. An "Analyzed" line at the end gives the day Nexus ran it. |
What to do with it
| What you see | Decision or action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Hook, Body and messaging and Offer | Decide which ideas to borrow or avoid, then write them into the brief. | creative strategist |
| At a glance and the run dates in Details | Decide whether the ad deserves a closer look. A long run is a hint, not proof. | creative strategist |
| Target audience signals | Compare with your own audiences. Any change to targeting happens outside Nexus, in Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads. | media buyer |
| Create similar ad | Click it to open the batch setup with this ad as its starting point, then choose your own product. | creative strategist |
| The credit badge on Analyze | Decide whether the analysis is worth the credits. | creative strategist |
| Save ad and Copy link | Keep the ad, or send the page to another person on your Nexus account. | creative strategist |
| Notes | Record why the ad matters and answer others in Reply. | creative strategist |
Expected value and measurement
The page can help you read a competitor ad in one place and brief from its analysis.
To check the analysis, read the ad yourself and compare it with Hook, Offer and the labels in Creative analysis. Nexus shows no accuracy score for an analysis. To check your own results, open Performance > Ad performance, select By ad, and compare ROAS and CPA for ads you made with Create similar ad against your other ads over the same dates. Performance does not mark these ads, so note which ads you made this way. The effect cannot be isolated. Offer, product and budget change at the same time. For the competitor ad, Nexus shows how long it ran and the estimates above, not its sales or click results.
Limitations and exceptions
What is not supported
- Analyze does not run on Inspiration, industry-peer or catalog ads. AI analysis runs only on competitors whose ads are synced for your store.
- Video ads and text ads show no Create similar ad button. Catalog ads show none either.
- Save ad does not appear for the ads of a competitor you removed from tracking.
- Ad family exists for the ads of competitors you track and for Inspiration and industry peer ads that are not from the shared ad catalog. It never shows for an ad from the shared ad catalog.
- An ad that a newer copy has replaced no longer opens. The page reads "We couldn’t find this ad". An ad of this kind that you saved stays in your saved ads.
Estimates and AI output
Est. impressions (EU) and Est. spend (EU) are estimates and show only when they exist for the ad. Ad library shows only when the ad has a link to Meta's or Google's public ad library. The analysis and the labels in Creative analysis come from AI and can be wrong. A new analysis can read the ad differently.
Messages and failures
| You see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Creative not yet analyzed | Click Analyze this creative. |
| Analysis failed | Click Retry. |
| The last analysis didn't finish, with a date | A neutral note under Creative analysis. It shows only while the ad has no analysis. It can add a reason: "The ad's media wasn't available.", "The ad's video wasn't available." or "A content filter blocked the ad." It ends with "Analyze to try again." only when the ad offers Analyze. |
| We couldn’t find this ad | The ad may have been removed, or the link is incomplete. Use the back link on the page. |
| We couldn’t load this ad | Click Try again. |
| Link copied | The link is on your clipboard. |
| Couldn’t copy the link | Copy the address from the browser. |
Demo Mode
In Demo Mode, Analyze runs a simulated analysis. Nexus blocks saving an ad and tells you so. Create similar ad opens the batch setup on sample data, and nothing is generated for real. See Demo Mode and sample data.