How to see your competitors' Facebook and Instagram ads
Every ad running on Facebook and Instagram is public in Meta's Ad Library. How to find a competitor's ads, and what the library won't tell you.
Guide2 min read
Every ad that runs on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads is public. Meta publishes them in its Ad Library, so anyone can see who advertises what, without an account and without paying.
Find a competitor's ads in four steps
- Open the Meta Ad Library at facebook.com/ads/library.
- Choose a country (or all of them) and the All ads category.
- Type the competitor's name or their Facebook Page, and pick the Page in the list.
- Filter to Active ads to see what is running today. Each ad shows its start date, the platforms it runs on and its text, picture or video.
For an ad shown in the European Union, See ad details adds the reach Meta publishes under the Digital Services Act: how many accounts in the EU saw it, by country, age and gender.
What the Ad Library won't tell you
The library is a search box. It finds one advertiser at a time and lists their ads. It does not tell you:
- Who is scaling. There is no ranking, and no history of how many ads someone ran last week against this week.
- What an ad costs. Meta publishes no spend for commercial ads, only for political and social issue ads.
- Where the ad sends people. You get a link, not the page behind it, what it is built with or what it sells.
- Which promises keep working. Each ad stands alone, so a hook forty creators repeat looks like forty separate ads.
- Reach outside the EU. US and UK ads show no reach at all.
Reading a market instead of one advertiser
Whosprinting reads the same public library every day and adds the parts it leaves out: creators ranked by active ads with a 14-day trend, every running ad scored from 0 to 100, a screenshot of the page each ad sends to, an estimated spend range, and the promises creators repeat. You can start free and check your own niche before you pay.
Is it fair to look?
Yes. Meta publishes these ads so that anyone can see them, and studying a market is what the library is for. Copying someone's ad word for word is a different thing, and not something we help with: every thumbnail in Whosprinting links to the original ad.