A key part of the marketing mix, advertisements are an underused tool that holds loads of potential value for professional services firms.

A great refresher on current best practice in advertising is the IPA's advertising effectiveness guides and the IPA in general.

As firm's begin to take advantage of the opportunity that advertising presents, it will be useful to see what they are doing in the ad space. Here are 2 key places to look to keep on top of your competition.

Google Ads Transparency Center

For the purposes of transparency (but infinitely helpful for marketers), Google provides its Ad Transparency Center. Here you can search for a firm and see the type of ads they are running across Search, Display and YouTube. 

LinkedIn Company Page > Posts > Ads

In the depths of a corporate LinkedIn page, you'll find a selection of ads that a company is running. You won't be able to see when they were published or any statistics but you can see whether a firm is focused on talent ads, brand or something else.

Both of these tools are an endless source of inspiration and "what if". I do thoroughly recommend understanding some of the principles of advertising first before diving in head first. 

Some helpful further reading:
- IPA's advertising effectiveness hub
- Share of voice and its impact in Professional Services
- Metrics and reporting in a relevant way to different stakeholders
- Long & short term thinking (relevant to advertising & marketing spend)