Facebook Ad Library: How to find your competitor’s ads

With almost 3 billion active monthly users, there is no doubt that Facebook is a powerful marketing platform for companies worldwide; 3 million brands take advantage of the social media giant for advertising. With these numbers, creating ads that perform better than your competitor’s can be challenging.

VistaCreate’s Facebook templates make it easy to create your ad. The Facebook ad library allows you to study competition, in order to design an advertisement that blows theirs out of the water.

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What is the Facebook ad library?

Until 2019, there was no easy way to find Facebook ads from your competitors. You had to go through the effort of manually searching and scouring the site. It was tedious, and it could also potentially send the algorithm the wrong message.

After Facebook got a lot of flak about transparency in 2016, particularly regarding political ads, the company developed a database of all ads running on the platform. Political and issue ads remain available for seven years, but every other one listed in the Facebook ads gallery is current at the time you search. Anyone can access the database, even if they don’t have an account.

The Facebook ad library is an invaluable tool to help you design ads for the social media platform. Unless your brand is based on politics or issues, it may seem like only having access to current ads is a disadvantage at first glance. 

However, it can make your life easier when comparing competitor ads to discover what they’re doing right now and how to make your campaign stronger and even more effective.

Staying on top of your competitor’s campaigns is critical to running yours. If you know what other brands are doing, you have an edge when developing your own marketing campaigns. Once you know how to conduct a Facebook ad library search, you can use the information to create an ad using VistaCreate’s templates, creative assets, and features.

How do you conduct a Facebook ad search for competitors’ ads?

You can access the library right from your browser since Meta (the platform’s parent company) has made it accessible to everyone. You won’t need to open the Facebook website or sign into your account. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to find ads on Facebook using the Facebook ad library.

1. Open the Facebook ads library link

You can get to the Facebook ads database by following the link here. The site will open to the homepage for your country. However, you can search for ads in any country where Facebook has a presence when you conduct your Facebook ad search.

2. Select a Facebook ad library category

After you open the page, you’ll see the search box at the center of your screen. Start by selecting the country you want to search in.

If your brand reaches multiple countries, you’ll want to do separate searches for each one. We recommend creating a spreadsheet to help you effectively use the library as a Facebook ad tracker for competitor campaigns in different locations.  

After you choose the country, select an ad category. The ads library Facebook will now let you narrow your search if your brand happens to fall within one of the specialized categories, which are as follows:

• Issues, elections, or politics
• Housing
• Employment
• Credit

If you and your competitors don’t fall within one of these categories, choose the “All ads” option from the dropdown box.

3. Enter a company name or keyword into the Facebook ad library search box

The next step to finding your competitors in the Facebook ad library is to enter search terms in the search box. There are two approaches, and we recommend you try them both to see what results you come up with.

Here’s how to see competitor Facebook ads using the advertiser search function:

If you search using a keyword instead, you’ll see a list of advertisers using that keyword in their ad campaigns.

4. Click on a Facebook ad search result to find out details

After you hit the return key on your keyboard, a page will open with your Facebook ads list results. You can choose an ad from the list to get more details. Simply click on the “See ad details” button.

The ads library Facebook tool lets you see the ad’s image and text. You can also find out how many followers the advertiser has and how well the ad performs based on the number of likes it has.

5. Narrow down with Facebook ad library results filters

You can narrow down your Facebook ad library search results by applying filters. Find the Filter button below the search box, either on the home screen or at the top of the results page.

When the filter window opens, choose which ones you want to apply. You can filter by ad language, platform, media type, active status, and impression date range.

6. Use the library as a Facebook ad tracker

You can use the ads library Facebook provides to track Facebook competitor ads and your own. You can pull up all your current campaigns if you enter your brand into the search box. It’s easy to compare results based on the number of likes between your ads and your competitor’s ads.

How can you leverage the Facebook ad library to create your own killer ads?

If you’re wondering how to use the Facebook ad library to help you create marketing materials with impressions, click-throughs, and conversions, VistaCreate’s features make it easy.

Use Facebook competitor ads for research and inspiration

Once you find your competitors’ Facebook ads, you can use them as inspiration for your own. Before you create a new ad campaign, conduct a Facebook ad search for your competitor’s current campaigns.

Study the successful ones to see what types of graphics, colors, and copy are often used. Find out whether images or videos perform better — don’t worry; in addition to royalty-free photos, we also have more than {number} videos in our library that you can use to create a video ad!

Create your ads using VistaCreate’s templates

While the competitor ads you find in the Facebook ad library can serve as inspiration, you want your ads to be even better and more unique. When you use VistaCreate, you can create a compelling, eye-catching, and original ad in no time.

We have templates that are already in the correct format for a Facebook ad. Choose one with a layout and style you like, then open it in the editor.

Edit it to make it match your style and message

You can make any changes you desire based on your discoveries and the specifics of your brand and campaign. Alter or add text; insert objects; and change the photo, video, or background.

You can also change the color theme by clicking on the “Styles” icon in the menu on the left side of the frame. When you choose a new color ramp, the editor automatically applies the theme colors. Each time you click on the ramp, the editor shuffles the color distribution in your ad.

Learn more about creating ads that convert in our articles:

➡️ How to use design to sell more: A practical guide to boosting your business

➡️ Impactful ad design: Insights from Dr. Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy, a neuromarketing expert at Neurons Inc

Once you’ve made edits, you can download the advertisement for your campaign.

Test your ads and adjust as needed

You might want to try several different ad versions to see what works best for you. You can use VistaCreate’s editor to duplicate an ad and make changes to it, or create a new one using a different template. After you test your ads, you can easily access projects from your VistaCreate account and make adjustments to improve any ad’s performance.

Monitor campaigns to gauge their effectiveness

No matter how awesome your ads are, you’ll want to monitor them to see how effective they are over time. It isn’t unusual for marketers to freshen up a campaign to avoid viewer fatigue. We recommend using the ad library as a Facebook ad tracker throughout your campaigns.

Stay on top of Facebook competitor ads

You don’t want to just use the Facebook ad library one time and move on! Advertising trends evolve rapidly, so you should regularly use the Facebook search advertising tool to stay on top of competitor ads and spot emerging trends. Fortunately, when the trends change, you can pop back into your VistaCreate account and whip up a new killer ad in no time!

To wrap it up

You’ve done research in the Facebook ad library, and now your head is swimming with creative campaign ideas. Great! You can start designing your ads right away with a free VistaCreate account.

We have everything you need to design a Facebook ad. Our drag-and-drop editor simplifies the process, and you can access all the tools and features right from the editing window. Are you ready to get started?

Learn more about Facebook advertisement and marketing in our articles:

➡️ How to advertise on Facebook in 2023
➡️ How to grow your business with Facebook
➡️ Facebook marketing for small businesses in 2022: The ultimate guide