Meta Ad Library: how to check a new client's competitors before launch

The Meta Ad Library is Meta's free, public search of the ads running on Facebook, Instagram and Meta's other apps. Open facebook.com/ads/library, pick a country, and search for an advertiser's name or a keyword. You don't need to log in. For an ordinary business ad shown in the US, you see the creative, the copy, the Page that runs it and the date it started. Meta does not publish what those ads cost, who they target or how they performed.

That is still plenty to work with before a new client's first launch. This guide covers what the Library shows and hides according to Meta's own help pages, how to search it, and the 30-minute competitor check we run for a local client before we build anything.

What the Meta Ad Library is and what it covers

Meta describes the Ad Library as a transparency tool. It holds all active ads shown across Meta technologies, plus active branded content on Facebook and Instagram that carries a paid partnership label, and anyone can view and search it. You can type any term, name or Page, and Meta says any ad that contains the term, or runs from a Page whose name contains it, may come up.

You will also hear it called the Facebook Ad Library or the Meta Ads Library. Meta's help pages say "Meta Ad Library", and the steps below work whichever name you searched for.

Three related tools sit beside the main search, and people mix them up. The Ad Library Report is a downloadable summary of spending on ads about social issues, elections or politics, country by country. The Ad Library API gives programmatic access, and Meta says it covers ads about social issues, elections or politics plus ads delivered to the EU and associated territories, which leaves ordinary US business ads out of it. Branded content search finds paid partnership posts on Facebook and Instagram created on or after 17 August 2023, by Page or Instagram profile.

If your client runs a dental practice, an insurance agency or a roofing company, the main search is the part you will use.

What you can see for a US business ad, and what you can't

Meta publishes a table of what the Library stores for each kind of ad. Here it is cut down to the rows an agency asks about. "Ordinary US ad" means an active ad that is not about social issues, elections or politics and does not deliver to the EU or the UK.

Source: Meta Business Help Centre, "About the Meta Ad Library", read 5 November 2026.

Two rows matter most for a competitor check. An ordinary ad drops out of the Library once it stops running, so you only ever see what a competitor runs today, and any history has to come from your own notes. There is also no spend, reach or result data for these ads. Anyone who says a competitor's ad "spent $20,000" according to the Library is reading a political ad or guessing.

Meta hides some creative from people who are not logged in or are under age, namely ads with age-restricted content such as alcohol or gambling. Log in first if you research the competitors of a bar or a liquor store.

How to search the Meta Ad Library, step by step

These steps match the Library as it looked on 5 November 2026, logged out, with the United States selected.

1. Pick the country

Open facebook.com/ads/library and choose a country. Meta's instruction is to use the country selector to view ads from a specific country, so for a client in Austin you pick the United States. There is no city filter here, and that is why the steps below lean on Page names.

2. Pick the ad category

The category menu offers All ads, Issues, elections or politics, Properties, Employment, and Financial products and services. Leave it on All ads for most clients.

If your client sells insurance, mortgages or loans, run a second search under Financial products and services. Property clients can do the same under Properties. Those are Meta's special ad categories, and the Library labels ads that run in them, so you see what competitors publish under the same rules your client will face.

3. Search by advertiser as well as keyword

The search box takes a keyword or an advertiser. Keyword search is loose because it matches words in the ad text and in Page names. When we searched "dentist austin", the Library returned about 190 active ads, and the second result came from a pet vaccination clinic whose ad listed a stop at a Houston dental office.

Start with the Page names of the competitors you already know, and use keywords to find the ones you don't. Pick the advertiser from the drop-down as you type and you get that Page's active ads on their own.

4. Narrow it with filters

The Filters panel offers Language, Advertiser, Platform, Media type, Active status, and Impressions by date (a single day or a date range). Platform helps when your client only cares about Instagram. Media type splits images from videos, which tells you what a competitor is producing before you brief the creative.

5. Read each result card

Each ad in the results shows:

• •Active, with a Library ID you can quote back to a colleague.
• •"Started running on" and a date.
• •Platforms, the Meta apps the ad runs on.
• •"This ad has multiple versions", when the advertiser runs variations of the same ad.
• •See ad details, which opens more about the ad. For a lead ad, Meta says this includes more information about the lead form.
• •The ad itself, with the Page name, copy, image or video, headline and call-to-action button.

6. Open the Page view

Click through to the advertiser to see every active ad from that Page in one list, along with the Page's history. Meta shows when the Page was created and any name changes it went through. If a competitor's Page was renamed three times in a year, you want to know that before your client goes head to head with it.

The 30-minute competitor check before a new client's first launch

Page one stops at the buttons. An agency with a new local client needs to walk into the strategy call knowing what the market already looks like, and this is the routine we use to get there.

Step 1: list ten competitors

Ask the client for the five businesses they lose jobs to. Then search their service and town on Google Maps and take the next five with the most reviews. Ten gives you a pattern without eating the afternoon.

Step 2: search each one in the Library

Set the country to the US, the category to All ads and the status to Active ads. Search each business by Page name. Some will have no ads at all, and that is worth writing down too, because it means the field is open or paid social did not work for them.

Step 3: fill in one row per competitor

We keep it in a spreadsheet with these columns.

Both rows are made-up examples that show the format. Neither is a real advertiser.

Step 4: read the long runners first

An ad that started months ago and is still active is an ad the advertiser keeps paying for. On our reading, that is the closest thing to a performance signal the Library gives you for a US business ad. Treat it as a hint rather than proof: Meta shows no results, and some small businesses leave a weak ad running because nobody checks the account.

Look at what the long runners have in common. In our experience the shared part is usually the offer, while the designs vary a lot. If three of ten dentists lead with a free consultation and their ads have run since spring, your client's first test should take that offer seriously.

Step 5: count the versions

"This ad has multiple versions" tells you a competitor is testing variations. A business testing five versions of one ad has someone working the account, while a business with one ad from 2023 probably doesn't. That changes how hard your client's first month will be.

Step 6: note where the click goes

Lead form or website? Open See ad details on a few lead ads to see what Meta shows about the form. When every competitor sends people to a three-question lead form, a long website form will look like hard work by comparison.

Step 7: write the gap in one sentence

Finish with one line for the client about what nobody in their market is saying. "Nobody shows a price." "Nobody runs video." "Everybody offers a free quote and nobody offers same-week service." That sentence becomes your first angle, and you can show the client the ads it came from.

What the Library can't tell you, and what to do instead

The Library shows creative and leaves out results. Four gaps come up with every client:

• •Spend: not shown for ordinary US ads, so judge the market from your own client's first two weeks of results.
• •Targeting: hidden unless the ad delivers to the EU or UK. Plan your client's audience from their customer list and service area; our notes on lookalike audiences and broad targeting cover both.
• •Performance: none at all.
• •History: ordinary ads drop out when they stop, which is why you keep your own screenshots and dates and let cost per lead from your own launches decide what scales.

Meta lets you download Ad Library searches, but only when you are logged in to Facebook and have agreed to its terms.

Your client's own ads are in the Library too

Every active ad your client runs will be public in the Library under their Page name, and Meta offers no setting to hide an active ad from it.

So competitors can run this same check on your client. Expect a good offer to be copied within a quarter, and plan the next angle before you need it.

Meta also says an ad it rejects or disables after it has run is covered by a shield in the Library. When a client tells you their ad "disappeared", check the ad account before you assume the Library is wrong.

Mistakes we see agencies make with the Library

• •Copying an ad line for line: the point is to learn what the offer and the format are doing, then argue it better for your client. Lifting another business's creative also invites a copyright or trademark complaint, and those can get an ad taken down.
• •Reading run time as profit: a long runner is a hint, so test it before you build a client's whole month around it.
• •Searching with the wrong country selected: the selector starts wherever Meta guesses you are, so check it before you decide a competitor runs nothing.
• •Searching only by keyword: loose matches bury the ten Pages you care about, and Page names find them faster.
• •Stopping at the image: read the copy, the headline, the button and the destination, because the offer usually lives in the copy.

From the Library to a launched campaign

Once the check is done you have an angle and a format. The next job is turning that into ads for your client.

You can write first drafts with our free Meta ad copy generator and compress images to a file size Meta accepts with the image optimizer, which runs in your browser. Our notes on ad creative cover what to test first.

If you run many local clients, AdLauncher's copilot has an Ad Remix mode built for this step. Paste a screenshot of a competitor's ad and it names what is doing the work in it, then writes versions for your client's offer. It keeps the structure and leaves the lines behind. You save the version you approve as a blueprint. Your client launches it from their portal without touching Meta, and because every campaign is created paused, nothing spends until you switch it on.

Sources

• •Meta Business Help Centre, "About the Meta Ad Library", read 5 November 2026.
• •Meta Ad Library, searched logged out with the United States selected on 5 November 2026 (category menu, Filters panel, result cards and the "dentist austin" search).