Are you curious about what ads your competitors run on Facebook? Do you want to spy on them and see the exact formats, ad creatives and ad copies they use? You can also get inspiration from the most successful advertisers without paying for any kind of premium software. Meet Facebook Ad Library.
In this article, we will go over what Facebook ad library is, how you can use it to improve your own Facebook ads, and many more. At the end of the article, we will also answer the most frequently asked questions about Facebook ad library.
What is the Facebook Ad Library?
Facebook Ad library is a free searchable database of all the ads that are currently active on Facebook, Instagram and on the Messenger platform.
You can search for any Facebook page and you can see all of their active ads if they currently run ads. You don’t even need a Facebook profile to be able to use Facebook ad library.
If you want more information about Facebook Ad lLbrary, keep reading, or you can also check out this video:
Where can you find the Facebook Ad library?
You can access Facebook Ad library by clicking on this link.
You can also find the ads that are currently run from a Facebook page by opening their Facebook page, scroll down a little to the Page Transparency, click on See All and Under the Ads from this Page click on Go to Ad Library.
Facebook Ad library: Ads about social issues, politics
There are certain types of ads where Facebook is providing even more transparency for the public for obvious reasons. (you might remember the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal or the 2016 US election and how Facebook ads financed by foreign governments is speculated to have influenced the elections).
These are the ads about social issues, politics and elections where you get way more data about these Facebook ads. You can not only see the ad creative and the copy, but also get more information about the amount spent, the number of impressions on that specific ad and some demographic and location information where the ad was shown.
Facebook Ad library reports and API
You can even use Facebook Ad library report or search for certain keywords via Facebook API for these types of special ad categories. These can be really useful for journalists or academics studying advertising of politicians and political parties on Facebook.
How to Use the Facebook Ad Library?
There are two great ways how you can leverage the Facebook ad library to improve your own Facebook advertising. You can spy on your direct competitors and see what kind of ads they run and also check other non-competing brands who are well-known for being very successful on Facebook pay per click advertising.
Spy on your competitors’ Facebook ads
Spying on your competitors has never been easier. With Facebook Ad library, you can get similar insights as marketing would be still 100% offline. You can see all the ads, promotions and products that are the main focus of your competitors on Facebook right now.
You can also get more insights by clicking to the links of the ads and see if they are sending the traffic to a custom landing page with exclusive offers, pages and offers you wouldn’t see as a direct user on their website.
From the ad creatives and copies you can also conclude how much emphasis they put on remarketing vs attracting brand new customers.
Get ideas from successful Facebook advertisers
If you know any brands in your industry that are crushing with Facebook ads, (and they don’t even have to sell the same type of products) it is worth checking out their ads in the Facebook ad library.
You can get many Facebook ad creative and copy ideas by just scrolling through the ads they run, such as a type of ad format you haven’t yet taken advantage of, or a new ad angle you could try in the future.
Facebook Ad Library – Frequently Asked Questions
How to see the ad library of a Facebook page?
You can either see it by going to https://www.facebook.com/ads/library or open the Facebook page, scroll down a little and you can see a section called Page Transparency. Click on See all and you can click through the Go to Ad library link to reach the Ad library page of that Facebook.
I can’t find the Ad library page of a Facebook page, what can I do?
You can also access the ad library page of a Facebook page directly from the Facebook page.
Why can’t I see ads in Facebook ad libraries?
If you can’t see ads in Facebook ad library for a specific page, it means that no ads have been run for the last 90 days from that particular Facebook Page.
