Facebook Ads Library: How to Use Meta's Ad Library to Study Competitors

Before we plan ads for any brand, one of the first things we open is Meta's Ad Library. Say you sell home textiles in Egypt. In ten minutes you can see every ad your three biggest competitors are running on Facebook and Instagram right now: their offers, their videos, their prices, how long each ad has been live and whether they're speaking Egyptian Arabic or English. That's free market research, and most businesses never look.

The Ad Library is Meta's public archive of ads. Anyone can search it, no account needed. It won't show you anyone's sales or exact budget, but it shows you what they're putting money behind, which is often the best clue to what's working for them. If you'd like us to do this research as part of a campaign plan, it's built into our paid ads and media buying service.

Here's what this covers:

• What the Ad Library shows and what it doesn't
• How to search it step by step
• What to look for in a competitor's ads
• Reading the signals of a winning ad
• Using it for your own planning
• What not to do with it
• A 30-minute exercise to try this week

What the Ad Library shows and what it doesn't

For every active ad on Meta's platforms, the library shows the creative itself (image, video, carousel), the text, the call-to-action button, the date it started running, which platforms it's on (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network), and whether it has multiple versions. You can also see transparency details about the page, like when it was created and if it changed its name.

What it doesn't show, for normal commercial ads in Egypt:

• How much the advertiser spent.
• How many people saw it or clicked.
• Who it's targeted at.
• Old ads that have stopped running.

Two exceptions. Ads about social issues, elections or politics are archived with spend ranges and impressions. And ads delivered in the European Union come with extra data on reach, age, gender and location, because of EU rules. If you're studying a competitor that also advertises in Europe, that can be useful. For local Egyptian brands, you'll mostly see the creative and the dates.

How to search it step by step

1. Go to facebook.com/ads/library. You don't need to log in.
2. Choose the country. Pick Egypt to see ads shown here, or All to see everything an advertiser runs worldwide.
3. Choose the ad category. For commercial brands, use All ads.
4. Search by keyword or advertiser. Type a brand name and pick their page from the dropdown, or search a keyword like "bedsheets" or "dental implants" to find ads that mention it.
5. Use the filters to narrow by active status, platform, media type (images, videos, memes and so on), language and date range.
6. Click "See ad details" on any ad to see its versions and more information.

Keyword search is underrated. Searching "تقسيط" (installments) or "شحن مجاني" (free shipping) in Egypt shows you who in your category is leaning on those offers, including competitors you didn't know about.

What to look for in a competitor's ads

Don't just scroll and say "nice." Look at each competitor with specific questions:

• The offer: discount, free delivery, installments, gift with purchase, free consultation? What's the main reason they give to buy now?
• The format: mostly video, carousel or single image? Vertical Reels-style videos or square posts?
• The language: Egyptian Arabic, formal Arabic, English, or a mix? Who are they clearly talking to?
• The faces: real staff, customers, influencers, or no people at all?
• The destination: WhatsApp, Messenger, a lead form, or their website? That tells you how they sell.
• The volume: two ads or fifty? A brand running dozens of variations is testing seriously.

Write the answers down for each competitor. After three or four brands, patterns jump out: maybe everyone in your category uses the same tired discount banner, and nobody is showing the product being used. That gap is your opening.

Reading the signals of a winning ad

The library doesn't tell you which ads perform. Businesses rarely keep paying for ads that lose money, though, so a few signals are worth trusting:

• Long-running ads. An ad that started running three months ago and is still active is probably doing its job.
• Many versions. When an ad says it has multiple versions, the advertiser is testing variations of something they believe in.
• Reused concepts. If the same idea shows up in new videos month after month, it's working for them.
• Seasonal patterns. Check competitors before and during Ramadan, Eid and White Friday. What they launch in those weeks shows how they plan.

None of this is proof, but before you spend your own money, a strong hint is worth a lot.

Using it for your own planning

The library is useful beyond spying.

Before a shoot, it helps you brief the creative team: "Our competitors all use studio product shots. Let's do real homes in Zayed and Maadi with real families." Before a campaign, it helps you choose formats and offers to test. It also helps you plan targeting angles, which we cover in our ad targeting guide.

You can also check your own page. It's a quick way to confirm which of your ads are live, spot old ads you forgot to turn off, and see what customers see when they look you up.

If you're setting up campaigns afterward, our Meta Ads Manager guide walks through the next step.

What not to do with it

The worst use of the Ad Library is copying. Lifting a competitor's video idea frame for frame or their exact wording makes you look like a cheaper version of them, and Egyptian customers notice. It can also land you in trouble if you copy their images, music or trademarks.

The second mistake is assuming what works for a big brand will work for you. A national chain with a huge budget can run awareness ads that a small store can't afford. Look at competitors your size, or slightly ahead of you.

And don't treat the library as the whole picture. You can't see their organic content, their influencer deals, their Google ads (Google has its own Ads Transparency Center for that) or their sales numbers.

A 30-minute exercise to try this week

Pick three competitors and one keyword from your category. For each competitor, note their two longest-running active ads, their main offer and their main format. For the keyword, note any advertisers you didn't know about. Then ask: what is everyone doing, and what is nobody doing?

That last answer is usually where your next ad comes from. If you want a team that turns that research into a campaign plan, ads and media buying, see our paid ads service. For a wider view of how all this fits, read how to market your business on Facebook and Instagram.