Facebook ads have always been kind of a black box. Advertisers can boost posts that are published on a Facebook Page, but the other ads are known as dark posts. This means there is no way to see another advertiser’s Facebook ad unless you happen to be targeted by that ad within your own News Feed. Now we’ve reached a point where Facebook ads can no longer be invisible to the general public. In response to the discovery of election interference through Facebook ads, dark posts will soon be viewable by everyone. There will be a “view ads” icon on every Facebook Page that will show which ads are linked to that page. Facebook has announced that this change will be rolled out to the U.S. by summer 2018 prior to the midterm elections.

Facebook plans to build an archive of historical ads and active ads for any federal election-related ads. Federal election-related ads will also disclose the dollars spent, impressions delivered and demographic information on the audience targeted. It is not clear whether this level of transparency will be applied across all advertisers. In the initial test in Canada, Facebook will only post active ads to the page.

So, should we be concerned that our competitors will be able to see which ads we are running? Well, it’s a two-way street. Advertisers will be able to research the creative strategy of their rivals, but in return will give up the same intel to their competitors. We will no longer have to follow our competitors on social or visit their website to try to become a part of their retargeting pool. We will have the insight that we have always tried to find on Facebook. Overall, it will allow for brands to think more creatively on how to set themselves apart from their competitors.