Facebook competitor analysis: a practical Page audit

Facebook competitor analysis in 2026 is less about a rival's posts and more about what Facebook discloses about the Page behind them: when it was created, what it used to be called, where its managers are, every ad it is running, the groups it runs and how customers rate it. Most of that takes ten minutes to read and almost nobody reads it.

Posts still matter, but for message and rhythm rather than reach.

Is organic Facebook still worth watching?

Meta publishes how US Feed views break down. In the second quarter of 2026, posts from Pages and public profiles people chose to follow accounted for 14.8% of Feed views. Recommended posts from sources people did not follow made up 36.6%, and only 1.1% of views included a link to a site outside Facebook (Meta's Widely Viewed Content Report).

Two conclusions for competitor work. A competitor's follower count says little about how many people see its posts. And a competitor that suddenly gets far more views per post than its followers would explain is being recommended, which usually means short video.

So watch their posts monthly, for what they say and how often. Watch their ads and their Page details more closely, because that is where money and strategy show.

Step 1: read their Page transparency

Facebook's help currently gives the path as: click the Page name below the cover photo, then Transparency and privacy policy (Meta's help page). Menu names move, so if your screen differs, look in the Page's About information for the transparency section.

What it shows, and what each item tells you:

Meta lists these fields in its Page transparency help. The name history is the item people skip and should not. A Page that was called something else eighteen months ago has changed its positioning, and its old name is a search term worth running everywhere else.

Step 2: their ads in the Meta Ad Library

In the same transparency panel, below Ads From This Page, choose Go to Ad Library. It opens the ads that Page is running now in your country, and you can switch country. Or go straight to the Meta Ad Library and search by name or keyword.

What you get depends on where the ads run (Meta's Ad Library help):

Filters cover country, ad category, active status, platform (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger and Threads), media type and a date range.

Outside the EU and UK, ordinary ads disappear from the library when they stop. Screenshot a competitor's ads monthly or you will have no history. The Meta Ad Library guide covers the filters in detail, and how to tell if a competitor is outspending you covers what ad counts can and cannot tell you about budget.

Step 3: their posts, measured properly

Count posts in the last 30 days by format: Reels, photos, text and link posts. Facebook renamed the Videos tab to Reels in June 2025, and each reel shows its view count below the Like button (Meta's help page).

Facebook rates are small, so measure engagement per 1,000 followers rather than as a percentage:

Engagement per 1,000 followers = (reactions + comments) ÷ followers × 1,000, for each post, then take the median.

Reel views per follower = reel views ÷ followers.

A worked example

Say you run a gym and two made-up rivals post on Facebook. Over the last 30 days:

Rival A posts almost daily to a large, quiet audience: 18 ÷ 12,400 × 1,000 = 1.5. Rival B posts once or twice a week to a small Page and gets nearly nine times the engagement rate: 41 ÷ 3,100 × 1,000 = 13.2.

The reel numbers say more. Rival B's median reel is watched more than one and a half times per follower, so most of those views come from people who do not follow the Page. That is recommendation, the same mechanism behind the 36.6% of Feed views above, and it is the one organic route on Facebook that still grows an audience. Rival B is the competitor to study, despite having a quarter of the followers.

Step 4: groups and events

A Page can be the admin of up to 200 groups, and those groups are listed on the Page (Meta's groups help). A competitor that runs a customer group has a channel you cannot see in its posts. If the group is public, read it: member questions are a list of what their product does badly, written by their own customers.

Pages can also host events. Note what kind, how often and whether they are online or in person. A local competitor running monthly in-person events is buying loyalty you will not beat with posts.

Step 5: reviews and recommendations

Click Reviews below the cover photo. A rating only appears if the Page has recommendations turned on and at least five reviews, and only public recommendations count (Meta's reviews help). A competitor that has turned reviews off has made a decision worth noting. For Google and Trustpilot, the review monitoring guide covers what to track.

Step 6: Meta's own Benchmarking

If you run a Facebook Page, Meta Business Suite has a free Benchmarking view that compares you with businesses in the same category that have a similar 28 day organic reach (Meta's Benchmarking help). You can also build a list of businesses to watch in your category and see how much they post and how many followers they have.

It is limited to businesses in your category, and Meta's help pages do not say how many you can add. Use it as a quick sense check, not a replacement for the audit above.

The Facebook competitor analysis on one page

Put the numbers in the social media competitor analysis template so next month's audit compares against something.

If you want the posts and ads collected for you

Ours, Figo, so judge accordingly. Figo records each competitor's new Facebook and Instagram posts once a week and their Meta ads from the Ad Library, beside their Google and TikTok ads, website changes, pricing and reviews, in a Monday briefing from $49 a month for three competitors. It does not read groups, events or Page transparency, and it does not calculate engagement rates, so the checks above remain yours.