How to See Competitor Ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google and LinkedIn

Every major platform publishes an official ad library, so you can see your competitors' ads for free. Use the Meta Ad Library for Facebook and Instagram, the Google Ads Transparency Center for Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps and Play, and the LinkedIn Ad Library for LinkedIn. Search by the advertiser's name or website, set the country, and filter by platform or format.

Below is the exact process for each library, what it shows, and what none of them will tell you.

The three official libraries at a glance

• Platform — Tool — Search by — What you see — How long ads stay
• Facebook, Instagram and other Meta apps — Meta Ad Library — Keyword or advertiser — Active ads, start date, platforms, creative and copy — Active ads; political and issue ads 7 years; EU and UK ads 1 year
• Google Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play — Google Ads Transparency Center — Advertiser name or website — Ad creative, format, region, date last shown — 1 year from the date last shown
• LinkedIn — LinkedIn Ad Library — Company, payer, keyword, country, date — Advertiser, format, creative — 1 year after last impression

All three work without an ad account.

How to see competitor ads on Facebook and Instagram

Meta's library covers "all of the ads currently running across Meta technologies", as the Ad Library itself states, and that includes Facebook and Instagram.

Step by step

1. Open the [Meta Ad Library](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/).
2. Set the country to the market you want to see. Results only cover ads delivered there.
3. Choose "All ads" as the ad category. The other category is for ads about social issues, elections or politics.
4. Search for the advertiser, not a keyword. Start typing the brand's Page name and select it from the dropdown. A plain keyword search returns any ad that mentions the word, which in practice means affiliates, resellers and marketplace listings mixed in with the brand's own ads.
5. Open Filters. You can filter by language, advertiser, platform, media type, active status and impressions by date. To see a competitor's Instagram ads only, set the platform filter to Instagram.
6. Read each ad card. Every card shows the date the ad "Started running", and some show total active time. When several ads share one creative, the card says how many ads use that creative and text. That tells you the advertiser is running it in multiple ad sets or variations.
7. Click "See ad details" for the full creative and, where available, more information.

What the Meta Ad Library shows and hides

Per the Ad Library page, beyond active ads you can also search ads about social issues, elections or politics from the past seven years, ads that ran anywhere in the EU in the past year, and ads that ran in the UK in the past year after 1 July 2025. Meta's Transparency Center adds that spend, reach and funding information is provided for social issue, election and political ads. For ordinary commercial ads outside the EU and UK, you see the creative and the dates, not the spend or the results.

According to the library itself, new ads appear within 24 hours of their first impression, so a weekly check will not miss much.

For a deeper walkthrough of every filter and the things the library cannot do, read our guide to searching the Meta Ads Library. The library has no save or download button. To keep the ads you find, the Meta Ad Library downloader saves the video or image files.

How to see competitor ads on Google (search, YouTube, Shopping)

Google launched its Ads Transparency Center in March 2023 as a searchable hub of ads from verified advertisers. It shows which ads an advertiser has run, the regions they appeared in, the last date an ad ran and its format.

Step by step

1. Open [adstransparency.google.com](https://adstransparency.google.com/).
2. Search by advertiser name or website. Searching the website domain is usually cleaner, because brands often advertise under a legal company name that differs from the brand. A domain search can also return several advertiser accounts that point ads at the same site, which you can then filter individually.
3. Set the region (the "Ads in" control). Results only include ads shown in that region.
4. Filter by date, platform and format. The platform filter covers Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Google Search and YouTube. The format filter covers image, text and video.
5. Open an ad to see its creative and the date it was last shown.

What the Transparency Center shows and hides

The Transparency Center's own FAQ says it includes ads from verified advertisers served across Search, Play, Maps, Shopping and YouTube for one year from the date the ad was last displayed, plus ads from unverified advertisers in Europe and Türkiye. It also notes that information can take 48 to 72 hours to appear after an ad is shown. Ads are not clickable through to their landing pages, because the center is moving to static screenshots. Impression ranges by platform are published for some ads, with a 90-day delay.

It shows the advertiser, not the agency that made the ad, and the payer if that is a different entity. It does not show budgets, bids or keywords. To see which ads appear for a specific search term right now, you have to search it yourself. Google's Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool is not a competitor research tool: its help page describes it as a way to check whether your own ads are eligible to show.

Display banners are a special case, covered in our guide to tracking competitor display and YouTube ads.

How to see competitor ads on LinkedIn

Step by step

1. Open the [LinkedIn Ad Library](https://www.linkedin.com/ad-library). You don't need a LinkedIn account; the library's FAQ says anyone can explore it, with or without one.
2. Search by company or advertiser, or by payer or keyword.
3. Set the country and date. The date filter offers the last 30 days, this month, this year, last year or a custom range.
4. Open each ad to see the creative and format.

What the LinkedIn ad library shows and hides

According to the library's own FAQ, it covers ads created on or after June 1, 2023, keeps ads for one year after their last impression, and doesn't let advertisers opt out. For every ad it shows the advertiser, the format and the creative. For ads targeted to the EU, it also shows impressions, the dates the ad ran and the top three targeting parameters the advertiser chose. That makes EU-targeted ads the most informative on any of the three platforms. If your competitor runs campaigns in Europe, you can see who they are aiming at.

LinkedIn also lets you search organic posts that creators have labelled as brand partnerships. It's the closest you'll get to seeing a B2B competitor's influencer program.

What none of these tools show you

• Performance. No clicks, conversions or return. An ad being live is not proof it is profitable.
• Spend, except for ads about social issues, elections or politics on Meta.
• Targeting, except the top targeting parameters LinkedIn shows for EU-targeted ads.
• Every variation a competitor tests. You see what ran in the region and date range you chose.

Longevity is the best free signal. An ad that has run for months is one somebody keeps choosing to pay for. Our guide to turning competitor ad research into a creative brief covers how to read that signal without over-reading it.

A 20-minute weekly routine

1. Keep a list of five to eight competitors with their Page names and website domains.
2. Once a week, check each in all three libraries for your main market. Note new ads and ads that have stopped.
3. Save anything new and interesting to a swipe file with the date you found it.
4. Once a month, look for patterns: a new angle several brands adopted, an offer that keeps reappearing, a format shift.

Related guides in this series

• Competitor ad research into briefs: how to log what you find, read long-running ads as a signal, and turn it into your own creative brief.
• How to analyze a competitor ad: a teardown checklist for taking one ad apart, with worked examples.
• Tracking competitor display and YouTube ads: what display and video ads reveal over time and how to monitor them.

FAQ

How do I see competitor ads on Facebook?

Open the Meta Ad Library at facebook.com/ads/library, set the country, choose "All ads", then type the competitor's Page name and select it from the dropdown. You will see every ad that Page is currently running, with start dates. Use the filters to narrow by platform, media type or date.

Can I see competitors' Instagram ads?

Yes. Instagram ads sit in the same Meta Ad Library as Facebook ads. Search for the brand's Page, open Filters and set the platform to Instagram. The platform icons on each card show where that ad runs.

Can I see how much a competitor spends on ads?

Generally not. Meta shows spend only for ads about social issues, elections or politics. Google and LinkedIn do not show spend for commercial ads. Some impression data is available for EU-targeted ads on LinkedIn and for some ads in Google's Transparency Center, but that is reach, not budget.

Do I need an account to use these ad libraries?

No. The Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center and LinkedIn Ad Library are all public. Google notes that some individual ads require signing in to view, but searching and browsing work without an account on all three.

Is it legal to look at competitor ads?

Yes. These libraries exist so the public can see who is advertising and what they say. What you do next matters more: borrowing an angle or a format is normal practice, but copying a competitor's actual copy, footage, images or trademarks is not.

Start your swipe file today

Pick your three closest competitors, run them through the Meta Ad Library, and save the five ads with the earliest start dates using the free Meta Ad Library downloader. Then compare them against real winners in the HookAds swipe file, where each ad is broken down by hook, angle and psychology.