Is the Meta Ad Library free to use?

Yes. Anyone can search the Meta Ad Library without logging in or running ads. You can see active ads running across Meta's apps, with the creative, the start date and the platforms. Spend ranges are only shown for political and social issue ads. Commercial ads delivered in the EU and UK show reach and targeting details, but not spend.

Does an ad that has run for 30 days mean it's profitable?

Not on its own. It's a prioritisation rule, not proof: an advertiser who keeps an ad running for 30 or more days is a good reason to study it first. But a small budget, a brand campaign or simple neglect can keep an ad live too. Treat longevity as a way to prioritise, not as proof.

Can I see a competitor's ad spend in the Meta Ad Library?

Not for ordinary commercial ads shown only outside the EU and UK. You'll see the creative, the start date and the platforms, but not spend, reach or targeting. Political and social issue ads show spend and impression ranges. Commercial ads delivered in the EU and UK show reach and audience breakdowns.

How do I use competitor ads without copying them?

Separate the idea from the execution. Note the customer concern the ad addresses, the type of proof it uses and the action it asks for. Then build a new concept from your client's own product, evidence and brand. Write fresh copy, shoot or make original visuals and approve the concept before production.

How often should an agency check competitor ads?

Weekly is a good default for active accounts. Revisit the same advertisers with the same filters, update the ads you already logged and add anything genuinely new. End every check with a decision: an idea to test, a piece of evidence to get from the client or a reason to keep watching.

How to research competitor ads in the Meta Ad Library

To research competitor ads in the Meta Ad Library, pick the country, search each competitor by name and by keyword, then filter by platform, media type and active status. Log every useful ad with its start date, angle, hook, format and offer. Study the long-running ads first, then turn the patterns you find into original concepts.

The Meta Ad Library is the cheapest research tool an agency has. It’s free, anyone can search it without logging in (age-restricted ads aside), and it shows active ads running across Meta’s technologies, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the Audience Network. Most teams still use it badly: someone scrolls for twenty minutes, screenshots a few ads into Slack and the findings are gone by Friday.

Here is a process that turns it into a research asset your strategists will actually use.

How do you search the Meta Ad Library?

Start with a question, not a scroll. Write it at the top of your research sheet: “How do competitors explain this product to someone who’s never used it?” Every ad you save should help answer it.

Then build two lists: direct competitors, and adjacent advertisers who solve a similar problem for the same buyer. Keep them apart. Adjacent advertisers are great for format ideas, but their offers won’t necessarily fit your client’s market.

Follow the search steps in Meta’s help centre:

Choose the country where your client advertises, such as Canada. Note it in your sheet.
Set the ad category to “All ads” for commercial research.
Search the advertiser’s name, then open their Page result and check it’s the right business.
Run separate keyword searches for the product category, the customer problem and common offer words. Meta matches keywords against ad text, names and Pages, as its Ad Library overview explains.
Open “See ad details” on anything relevant before deciding what it tells you.

Label advertiser searches and keyword finds separately, or your sheet slowly turns from “what this competitor runs” into “ads that use similar words”. And if a search comes back empty, check the country, the spelling and the Page before concluding the competitor doesn’t advertise.

Which filters should you use?

Filter to the market, channel and format your brief is about, and write the settings down so next week’s check is comparable.

Country: where the ads are delivered, not where your office is.
Platform: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or Audience Network.
Media type: image or video, so you compare like with like.
Active status: active ads for a current creative review.
Impressions by date: shows ads delivered during a date range. It doesn’t tell you when the ad first launched.

Filter options can vary by country and ad category, so work with what the library shows you. For a video brief, review the first three seconds of every video side by side. For statics, compare how the image and headline carry the offer.

How do you read start dates and multiple versions?

The date at the top of each ad is when it first started running on Meta’s technologies. Record that date and the day you looked. The difference is your “days running” estimate.

That number tells you the ad is still live after that many days. It doesn’t tell you the ad ran continuously, how much was spent or how old each variation is.

“This ad has multiple versions” means one ad record holds more than one execution, such as different text or carousel cards. Meta’s Ad Library API documentation describes creative fields that can contain multiple versions. Log the versions you can see. Don’t read the label as proof of a split test or a winner.

What can you see about spend, reach and targeting?

For most commercial ads in North America, you see the creative and basic details only. Spend, reach and targeting depend on where the ad was delivered and what kind of ad it is, according to Meta’s Ad Library overview.

Ad type	Spend shown?	Reach and audience data	How long inactive ads stay visible
Commercial ad delivered only outside the EU and UK	No	No	Not archived once inactive
Commercial ad delivered in the EU	No	Reach, age and gender breakdowns, targeting selections, advertiser and payer	One year after the last impression
Commercial ad delivered in the UK	No	Reach, age and gender breakdowns, targeting selections	One year after the last impression
Political, election or social issue ad	Spend ranges	Impression ranges and audience data	Seven years

The EU detail exists because of the Digital Services Act, which Meta covered in its transparency announcement. If a competitor advertises in both Canada and Europe, their European reach numbers can hint at which creatives they’re pushing, but they don’t describe their Canadian campaigns.

None of this shows sales, margins or return on ad spend. Use the library to form creative hypotheses, not to reverse-engineer a competitor’s profit.

What should your competitor ad research template include?

A shared tagging system turns a pile of links into something a strategist can decide from. Use these fields for every ad you save:

Field	What to record	Example
Angle	The reason the ad gives the buyer to care	Saves time on setup
Hook type	How the first line or frame grabs attention	Problem question
Format	The creative structure	Product demo video
Offer	What the viewer is invited to get	Free consultation
CTA	The action asked for	Book now
Funnel stage	Your read on how ready the viewer is	Comparing options (inferred)
Days running	Today’s date minus the start date	47, still active

Add the advertiser, ad ID, link, country, platform and the date checked. Keep two notes per ad: what you observed and what you think it means. “The opening shows the product being assembled” is an observation. “Their buyers fear a hard setup” is a hypothesis. Mixing them is how research turns into opinion.

Use “unclear” and “unknown” freely. A forced tag is worse than an honest blank.

Does an ad running for 30 days mean it’s working?

Treat 30 or more days as a signal to study an ad first, not as proof it’s profitable. An advertiser who keeps paying for an ad for a month likely sees something in it, and longevity is one of the few public hints you get. But a small always-on budget, a brand campaign or an advertiser who simply forgot can keep an ad live too.

So use it to put your reading list in order. Look for the same angle showing up in several long-running ads from different advertisers. That pattern says more than any single ad’s age. Keep newer ads in the set as well: a new angle from a well-run competitor is worth knowing about early.

How do you turn competitor research into original ad concepts?

Turn each pattern into a hypothesis for your client, then build an original concept around your client’s own proof.

Describe the pattern. “Three competitors open with the product being set up in under a minute.”
Guess why it works, and say it’s a guess. “Buyers may worry the product is hard to set up.”
Find your client’s evidence. Real footage or a verified fact that answers the same worry.
Write an original concept. Your client’s opening, demo, offer and CTA, in their brand voice.
Agree the test. The campaign objective, what you’ll compare it against and who approves it.

This is the research step Growthshiner’s AI researcher runs for agencies. It pulls competitors’ ads from the library, tags each by angle, format, hook type and funnel stage, and flags the ones running 30 or more days. Your strategists choose the concepts and approve the claims, and the AI ad creative QA checklist carries those decisions into production.

How do you run competitor ad research every week?

Run a short, identical check every week and end it with a decision.

Revisit the same advertisers with the same country and filters.
Update the ads you already logged. Mark any that disappeared as “not found this week”, without guessing why.
Add new ads only when the angle, offer or format is genuinely different.
Bring the strongest hypotheses to your creative lead, with links and the evidence each one needs.
Record which concept moves forward and who owns it.

Track the hours this takes alongside the concepts it produces. If the research grows but the briefs don’t improve, narrow the question. Then build those hours into your agency capacity plan.