Are you feeling confused and wondering what kind of campaigns your competitors are running, or where they get those high-converting ad creatives? This is a question many inexperienced advertisers struggle to answer.
Some advertisers attempt to copy by grabbing images and content from ads that appear in their news feed. However, this isn’t the most effective method. Our team has a gift for you: an effective method that saves you a lot of time searching for successful Facebook ad creatives. You can see all the ads your competitors are running, all in one centralized place. This blog post provides a detailed guide on how to spy on Facebook Ads like a pro.
In this guide, you’ll learn exactly what the Meta Ad Library tool is and how to use it effectively to copy your competitors’ ads.
What is the Facebook Ad Library?
Launched in 2019, the Meta Ad Library was initially created to bring transparency to political ads. However, over time, this tool has evolved into a powerful marketing weapon, allowing anyone to easily spy on Facebook Ads and discover a wide range of ad creatives running on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
Whether you’re a small business, a marketing expert, or a professional advertiser, the Meta Ad Library provides a comprehensive view of both active and paused campaigns. This allows you to quickly grasp what your competitors in the industry are doing—and learn from their most successful campaigns.
What are the functions of the ad library?
+) Spy on Facebook Ads in Facebook Feeds, Stories, Marketplace, and Reels.
+) Displays placements on Instagram Feeds, Stories, Reels & Explore.
+) Ads on Messenger & sponsored messages.
No registration is needed. No special tools are required. Just access the library, enter a keyword or brand, and uncover a wealth of detailed ad information in seconds.
How to use the Meta ad library to spy on Facebook ads from competitors
Step 1: Open the Meta Ad Library and scroll down to the “Search Ads” section.
Step 2: Select the geographic location. For example, if you’re in the United States, you can choose that country. You can also view all ad categories or a specific one.
Step 3: In the search bar, you can type a specific company’s name or keywords related to your industry.
Step 4: Apply filters to refine your search.
For example, let’s say you bought recovery shoes from a brand called Cane Footwear and think their ads are great.
To spy on their Facebook ads, you have to type “Cane Footwear” into the search bar, select the correct advertiser, and wait a few seconds. All their ads will appear.
You can also view:
- The ad copy
- The call to action (CTA)
- The video creative they are using
- If a company is running dozens or hundreds of ads, use the advanced filters to save time and effort.
You can:
- Filter by the ad’s start date
- Filter by media type: image, meme, video, etc.
- Filter by platform: Facebook, Instagram, or Audience Network
How to spy on Facebook Ads like a pro
The Meta Ad Library is an incredibly easy tool for new advertisers to use to spy on Facebook Ads from competitors. After finding the competitor ads you want to emulate, you can analyze and replicate them using these steps:
Step 1: Analyze your competitor’s content
You can see what prices they’re highlighting, what language they’re using, and what competitive advantages they’re leveraging. All of this is information you can use to do better than they.
Here’s a great time-saving trick:
- Highlight all the content on the Meta Ad Library page.
- Copy all the information.
- Open an AI tool like ChatGPT, Claude, or Google Gemini.
- Enter the prompt: “Organize these ads into a table” and paste the content you copied.
- I just did this with Google Gemini, and it automatically arranged all the ad content into a table, including columns for the title, main content, landing page (if applicable), and more.
Step 2: Use AI prompts for in-depth analysis
In this case, I’ll use the following example prompt:
“Tell me what’s working and what’s not in my competitor’s ads, and show me how I can make mine better.”
I copied that prompt and pasted it into Google Gemini.
The result was a detailed analysis from Gemini:
Strengths: The ads have social proof with over 12,000 5-star reviews; many comments show interest and emphasize family values; branding is consistent, etc.
Weaknesses: Repetitive content; a lack of a clear call to action; some ads have superficial information, etc.
Gemini then provided specific suggestions to help you outperform the competition, such as:
Storytelling: Connect with customers on an emotional level by sharing authentic stories about how the product has helped them.
If your competitors use generic content, you can use more insightful content to stand out.
Final thoughts
Spying on Facebook Ads from competitors isn’t as hard as you might think. With just a few clicks in the Facebook Ad Library, you can find high-converting ad creatives. Furthermore, you can use AI tools to copy and transform your competitors’ ads into your own.
Frequently Asked Questions
To see a Page’s ads:
Go to the Page by tapping Page’s name in your Feed or searching for the Page. Tap to see all under Page Transparency.
