How to Access Facebook Ads Library

Ever wondered what ads your competitors are running right now? It's one of the most common questions marketers have, and for a long time, the answer was locked away. Today, you can access a massive, searchable database of every ad running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network, all for free. This guide will show you exactly how to access the Facebook Ads Library and, more importantly, how to use it to generate fresh ideas, understand your competitors, and build a stronger marketing strategy.

What is the Facebook Ads Library, Anyway?

The Facebook Ads Library (now officially under the Meta Ad Library umbrella) is a public repository containing all active ads across Meta's family of apps. It was initially launched in 2018 to increase transparency, particularly for political and social issue advertising, but Meta has since expanded it to include all active ads from all advertisers. For marketers, creators, and business owners, this is an absolute goldmine of information.

Think of it as the ultimate open-book test. You can see your competitors’:

• Ad copy and messaging angles
• Visuals they’re using (images, videos, graphics)
• Calls-to-action (CTAs)
• Platforms where their ads appear (Facebook vs. Instagram, etc.)
• Which campaigns are new and which have been running for months

This isn't about copying what others are doing. It's about learning, getting inspired, and finding your own unique ways to stand out. And the best part? Accessing it is incredibly simple.

How to Access the Facebook Ads Library: A Step-by-Step Guide

Getting into the library is easy. The real power comes from knowing how to navigate it and filter for the information you need. Here’s exactly how to do it.

Step 1: Go to the Official Meta Ad Library Website

There's no need to log in or create an account. Simply open your web browser and navigate to the official Meta Ad Library page: facebook.com/ads/library. Go ahead and bookmark this page right now, you'll be coming back to it often.

Step 2: Choose Your Location and Ad Category

Once you’re on the homepage, you’ll see a few initial options. Start by selecting the country in which you want to search for ads. This helps narrow down region-specific campaigns.

Next, you’ll pick an Ad Category. You’ll see two main options:

• All Ads: This is the default and the category you'll use 99% of the time. It includes all commercial advertisements for products, services, brands, and more.
• Issues, Elections or Politics: This category is designed for transparency around social issues, political candidates, and related topics. These ads are archived for seven years and contain more detailed spending information.

For most marketing research, keep it set to "All Ads."

Step 3: Search for an Advertiser or Keyword

This is where the discovery begins. You can search in two primary ways:

Search by Advertiser Name

Type the name of a specific brand or Facebook Page into the search bar. As you type, a dropdown list will appear with matching Pages. Let's say you're in the project management software space and want to see what monday.com is up to. Start typing "monday.com" and select their official Page from the list.

Search by Keyword

You can also search for a broad topic or keyword that might appear in the ad copy or on the advertiser’s Page. For example, if you run an ecommerce store that sells sustainable products, you could search for terms like "eco-friendly," "bamboo bedding," or "zero-waste." This is a fantastic way to find new competitors or see how a variety of brands are approaching a particular subject.

Step 4: Filter and Analyze the Results

After you search, the Ad Library will display all the active ads matching your query. Now it’s time to refine the results using the "Filters" button, usually located in the upper right. This is where you can dig for specific insights.

The available filters include:

• Platform: Want to see only Instagram Reels ads? Or just Facebook feed ads? You can filter for Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Meta Audience Network to see where brands are putting their ad dollars.
• Media type: Is your competitor banking on video content, or are they sticking to static images? You can filter for images, memes, images & memes, or videos. Seeing the proportion of video ads versus images gives you a clear signal about their current strategy.
• Creative language: Select the primary language for ads to analyze ads in particular countries.
• Active status: By default, it shows "Active ads," but you can also toggle to "Inactive ads" to see completed campaigns (this data is more readily available for political ads, but still sometimes useful).
• Impressions by date: Want to see only the ads they’ve started running in the past week to spot new A/B tests? You can set a date range here. Pay close attention to the "Started running on" date beneath each ad. Ads that have been running for weeks or months are likely strong performers worth studying.

Beyond Access: 4 Smart Ways to Use the Facebook Ads Library for Marketing Mastery

Finding the ads is step one. Step two is turning that knowledge into action. Here are four practical ways to use the library to improve your own marketing.

1. Competitive Intelligence: Uncover Your Rivals’ Strategies

This is the most direct use of the tool. Systematically look up your top three to five competitors and analyze what they are doing. Don't just glance - get detailed in your notes.

Ask yourself:

• What pain points are they targeting in their ad copy? Are they focused on saving time, saving money, or achieving a specific feeling?
• What types of visuals are they using? Is it user-generated content (UGC), slick corporate videos, simple "talking head" explanations, or animated text?
• What are their primary calls to action? Are they pushing for "Learn More," "Shop Now," "Sign Up," or "Get Quote"? This tells you a lot about their immediate goal for that ad set.
• Where are they sending traffic? Click on the ads to see their landing pages. Are they sending people to a product page, a free trial signup, a blog post, or a lead magnet download?

A good practice is to do this once a quarter. Create a simple sheet to track what your competitors are doing, and over time, you’ll notice shifts in their strategy that can inform your own.

2. Ad Creative Inspiration: Break Your Creative Block

Staring at a blank document trying to write killer ad copy is frustrating. The Ad Library is the ultimate cure for creative block. It gives you a direct look into what's currently working in any given industry.

Here’s a great exercise: search for a keyword related to your industry and scroll through the first 50 ads. Look for patterns.

• Do all the video ads start with a strong hook in the first three seconds?
• Are influencers or UGC popular right now?
• Do top-performing brands use short, punchy headlines or longer, more descriptive ones?

You can also look outside your industry for inspiration. If you sell direct-to-consumer skincare, for example, look at how top fashion or wellness brands structure their ads. Their approach to visual storytelling or copy might spark a new idea for your own campaigns.

3. Market Research: Identify Untapped Angles

The best marketing strategies often come from finding a gap in the market. The Ad Library can help you spot these opportunities. If you search for a popular keyword in your niche and see that all your competitors are hammering the same one or two angles, you’ve found an opening.

For instance, if every coffee brand is advertising based on "great morning taste," maybe there's an opportunity for an ad campaign focused on its benefits for afternoon productivity, your sustainable sourcing methods, or the community aspect of your coffee shop experience. By seeing what’s already being said, you can figure out what is not being said and own that conversation.

4. Monitoring Industry Trends

Keep a pulse on the big players - not just your direct competitors, but the leaders in marketing overall. How is a powerhouse D2C brand like Allbirds creating ads for their new shoe line? How is a tech giant like Microsoft advertising its latest software update to small businesses? These brands have huge budgets and extensive testing data, so their creative direction can often signal wider trends in the advertising landscape.

Pay special attention to the adoption of new formats. If you see the largest brands in your space suddenly launching tons of ads as Instagram Reels, that's a signal that the format is gaining traction and you should probably dedicate more of your planning and creation energy towards creating short-form video content as well.

Final Thoughts

The Meta Ad Library gives you an unfiltered look behind the marketing curtain of nearly any business in the world. It’s a powerful tool for analyzing competitors, sparking new creative ideas, and staying aware of industry trends. By moving beyond simple access to active analysis, you can turn this free resource into a strategic advantage for your own social media efforts.

After gathering all that inspiration, the next step is translating it into a concrete content plan for your own social channels. At Postbase, we built our platform to make this process feel effortless. We focus on tools that actually matter today, like a visual calendar for planning and native support for short-form video formats like Reels and TikToks - because getting inspired is only half the battle. Our goal is to make it easy for you to take that creative spark and turn it into content that gets published reliably, every time.