--- title: "How to use the Meta Ad Library for competitor ads" description: "Search any brand's live Facebook and Instagram ads, spot the ones that are working, and save them before they get switched off." source: https://savepad.app/blog/meta-ad-library --- [Blog](https://savepad.app/blog) · 27 November 2024 # How to use the Meta Ad Library to see every ad your competitors run Search any brand's live Facebook and Instagram ads, spot the ones that are working, and save them before they get switched off. *A Savepad folder of saved ads from the Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn ad libraries, filterable by platform* **TLDR** - The [Meta Ad Library](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/) shows every ad running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network, for any brand, for free, no login needed. - Filter by country, then search the brand’s page name. Sort out the ones that have been running for months: those are the ones making money. - Outside the EU, ads disappear from the library when they stop running. Save the good ones the day you see them. - TikTok, LinkedIn and Google have their own libraries. Same idea, different buttons. ## Why it exists After 2018, Meta started publishing every ad on its platforms for transparency. It was meant for journalists looking at political ads. It turned into the best free competitive research tool in marketing. ## How to search it 1. Go to [facebook.com/ads/library](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/). 2. Pick a **country**. Ads are shown per country, so pick where your competitor actually sells. “All” works too. 3. Pick **All ads** as the category (the other option is political and social issue ads). 4. Type the brand’s name and pick their **Page** from the dropdown. Searching a keyword instead finds ads that mention it, from anyone. Useful, but noisier. You get a grid of every ad that Page is running right now. ## What to look at Each ad card shows more than you’d think: - **“Started running on”** a date. This is the big one. Brands kill ads that don’t work, often within a couple of weeks. An ad that’s been live for four months is almost certainly profitable. - **“This ad has multiple versions”.** They’re testing. Click through and you can see the variants side by side, which tells you what they’re testing (headline? image? offer?). - **Platforms.** Facebook only, Instagram only, or everywhere. - **The landing page.** Click the call to action and you land where their customers land. Save that too. The ad without the page is half the story. Filters worth using: **Active status** (active only), **Media type** (video, images, or memes, apparently), and **Platform**. *A running shoe ad from the Meta Ad Library* 0716 · meta · running since March *A meal kit ad from the TikTok ad library* 0813 · tiktok · 5 months live *A cold brew ad from the LinkedIn ad library* 0910 · linkedin · 3 versions Three ads from the library, saved with where they came from. The TikTok one has been running for five months, which tells you more than the ad does. ## The EU is different If the ad was shown in the EU, the library keeps it for a year after it stops, and shows a bit more: roughly how many people it reached, and the age and gender breakdown. That’s thanks to the Digital Services Act. Set the country to an EU one (Germany, France, Spain) to see it. Everywhere else, commercial ads vanish from the library once they stop running. Which is the whole reason to save them. ## The other libraries - **TikTok** has [Top Ads in the Creative Center](https://ads.tiktok.com/business/creativecenter/inspiration/topads/pc/en), sorted by industry and objective, and a separate [ad library](https://library.tiktok.com/ads) for ads shown in Europe. - **LinkedIn** has an [ad library](https://www.linkedin.com/ad-library) you can search by company. Great for B2B, where Meta tells you very little. - **Google** has the [Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com/) for search, YouTube and display ads. Searching one brand across all of them is a lot of tabs, so we made a free tool that does it: [every ad library in one place](https://savepad.app/free-tools/ad-library-search). Type the brand and a country and it builds all the searches for you. ## Save them before they go Screenshotting ads works until you have 300 screenshots called `Screenshot 2024-03-20 at 11.02.47.png` and you’re looking for “the one with the dog”. In Savepad, paste the ad’s library link and it saves the creative, the copy and the landing page together, with the platform and the date. Screenshots get their text read, so searching “free shipping” finds every ad that says it, even the ones you screenshotted. Sort them into a Paid social folder, tag them by hook (`#ugc`, `#before-after`, `#offer`), and next time someone asks for “ad ideas” you’re not starting from a blank Figma file. More on setting that up in [how to build an ad swipe file](https://savepad.app/blog/ad-swipe-file), and if you want to see what’s working right now, [Facebook ad examples sorted by what they’re doing](https://savepad.app/blog/facebook-ad-examples). [Join the waitlist](https://savepad.app/#waitlist) ## Read these next - [Facebook and Instagram ad examples, sorted by what they're doing: Ten ad formats that keep showing up in the Meta Ad Library for months at a time, what makes each one work, and how to make your own version.](https://savepad.app/blog/facebook-ad-examples) - [How to build an ad swipe file from the ad libraries: Where to find ads worth saving, how to spot the ones that are working, and how to sort a paid social swipe file so you can find a hook in 30 seconds.](https://savepad.app/blog/ad-swipe-file) - [How to build a copywriting swipe file: What to save, where to find it and how to sort it, so the next blank headline field takes ten minutes instead of an afternoon.](https://savepad.app/blog/copywriting-swipe-file)