How to See Facebook Ads of Competitors

Studying a competitor’s Facebook ads is one of the fastest ways to understand their marketing strategy, from their core messaging to the offers they think will win over customers. This guide will walk you through exactly how to find their ads using Meta’s own tools, as well as a few other clever tactics to see what your competition is up to.

Why Peeking at Competitor Ads is a Game-Changer

Before we get into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Competitive ad research isn't about copying what others are doing. It's about gathering intelligence to make your own marketing smarter, more creative, and more effective. It's a fundamental part of building a resilient brand and a winning social media strategy.

Here’s what you can learn by analyzing competitor ads:

• Messaging & Positioning: How do they talk about their products? What pain points do they focus on? Are they communicating value, luxury, convenience, or something else entirely? Their ad copy is a direct line into their brand positioning.
• Offers & Promotions: Are they running sales? BOGO deals? Free trials? Seeing their offers helps you understand the competitive landscape and how aggressive they’re being to attract customers. You can then decide whether to match their offers or differentiate with a non-price-based value proposition.
• Creative Strategy: What do their ads look like? Are they using user-generated content (UGC), slick studio photography, relatable short-form video, or animated graphics? This gives you A+ inspiration for your own creative direction. You might spot a format you haven't tried or realize UGC is the norm in your industry.
• Target Audience Clues: While you can't see their exact targeting setup, the messaging, imagery, and style of an ad give you strong hints about who they're trying to reach. An ad targeting young professionals on Instagram will look and feel very different from one targeting retirees on Facebook.
• Funnel Stages: Are their ads focused on brand awareness (telling a story, reaching a broad audience) or direct response (hard-sells, "shop now" buttons)? Seeing the variety of ads they’re running can give you a rough idea of what their marketing funnel looks like.

The Step-by-Step Guide to Using the Meta Ads Library

The most powerful tool for this job is completely free and provided by Meta itself: The Meta Ad Library. Originally launched to increase transparency in political advertising, it has become an indispensable resource for marketers everywhere. It’s a searchable database of every ad currently running across Meta’s platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network).

Here is exactly how to use it.

Step 1: Go to the Meta Ads Library

It's easy to find. Just search for "Meta Ad Library" or go directly to: facebook.com/ads/library.

You’ll land on a simple page with a search bar. You don't need a Facebook account to use it, but being logged in can sometimes provide a smoother experience.

Step 2: Choose Your Location and Ad Category

Before searching, you'll need to configure two things:

• Location: Choose the country you want to see ads from. If your competitor targets multiple countries, you may need to run a few separate searches. For most, starting with your primary market (e.g., United States) is the way to go.
• Ad Category: For most company research, you’ll select "All Ads." If you want to research ads specifically related to social issues, elections, or politics, you can choose that category instead.

Step 3: Search for Your Competitor

In the main search bar, type the name of the competitor’s brand or Facebook Page. As you type, a dropdown will appear with matching Pages. Select the correct one. Once you click their name, the library will load every single active ad they are currently running.

Step 4: Filter and Analyze the Results

If your competitor is running dozens or even hundreds of ads, a giant wall of content might seem overwhelming. This is where filters become your best friend.

You can use the Filter button to narrow your search by:

• Platform: Want to see only their Instagram Stories ads? Or just their Facebook feed ads? You can select Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger to pinpoint where they’re focusing their budget and creative efforts. This is incredibly useful for understanding their platform-specific strategy.
• Media Type: Filter to see only images, memes, videos, or ads with no media. If you're looking for video inspiration, this is the fastest way to get it.
• Active Status: You can see ads that are active, inactive, or both. Sticking with "Active ads" shows you what they're spending money on right now.

Once you’ve filtered the results, it's time to analyze.

Reading Between the Lines: What to Look For in the Ads

Don't just scroll - dig in. Click on "See ad details" for a closer look. Pay attention to a few specific elements in each ad:

1. The Hook (First 3 Seconds)

For video ads, what happens in the first three seconds? Is it a question? A bold claim? An interesting visual? This is their attempt to stop the scroll. For image ads, what's a big, bold text overlay or the most eye-catching part of the picture? That's their hook.

2. The Offer

What are they actually asking people to do or offering them? Is it a discount code? A free shipping offer? A prompt to sign up for a webinar? A "Learn More" call to action to a blog post? This tells you whether the ad is aimed at immediate sales (direct response) or education (lead generation/brand building).

3. The Creative Angle

Are they using professionally shot videos or something that looks like it was filmed on an iPhone? Is it user-generated content showing a real customer's testimonial? Are they using carousels to show off different features of a single product? Note the different types of creative they are testing. You can often spot A/B tests in real time, where they run multiple ads with the same copy but different images or vice versa.

4. Ad Copy and Messaging

Read the copy closely. Are they using long, storytelling captions or short, punchy sentences? Do they use emojis? What is the one core benefit they are highlighting? The language and tone give you big clues about their brand voice and the customers they’re trying to attract. Note any recurring phrases or value propositions - that's likely their core message.

Going Deeper: Advanced Tactics for Ad Intelligence

The Meta Ads Library is your main tool, but there are other smart ways to get an even clearer picture of a competitor's strategy.

1. Become Their Target Audience

The best way to see a competitor's retargeting ads is to act like one of their potential customers. Advertisers often use the Meta Pixel to show ads to people who have visited their website. You can trigger this yourself:

• Visit their website: Spend some time browsing different pages.
• View their products: Click on specific product pages, showing interest.
• Go to their pricing page: This is a strong signal of purchase intent.
• Add a product to your cart: The ultimate buying signal! If you abandon the cart without buying, you are almost guaranteed to see retargeting ads in your social feeds within a day or two.

When you start seeing their ads appear naturally in your feed, it tells you what they show to "warm" audiences - people who already know who they are.

2. Check the Page Transparency Section

This is a slightly different (and older) route to the same information. You can go directly to a competitor's Facebook Page, scroll down the left-hand menu, and find the "Page Transparency" box. Click "See All." In the popup window, you'll see a section that says "Ads From This Page." If the page is currently running ads, you'll see a button that says "Go to Ad Library." This link takes you directly to a pre-filtered view of all ads from that specific page.

3. Use the "Why Am I Seeing This Ad?" Feature

When you do see a competitor's ad in your feed, don't just scroll past. Click the three little dots (...) in the top-right corner of the ad, and then select "Why am I seeing this ad?"

Facebook will give you some basic information about why that ad was shown to you. It won’t reveal all their targeting secrets, but it might say something like:

• "This advertiser is trying to reach people interested in [e.g., small business marketing]."
• "You visited their website recently."
• "This advertiser is trying to reach people ages 25-40 who live in California."

This is a small but powerful way to get a glimpse into their targeting choices, helping you better understand who they consider their ideal customer.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to see competitor ads moves you from guessing what works to knowing what’s being tested in your market right now. Putting the Meta Ads Library, your own social feeds, and on-page tools to work, you can gather the valuable insights you need to build a smarter, more effective advertising strategy that truly connects with your audience.

Of course, insights are only half the battle, execution is what turns good ideas into real growth. Once your research helps you ideate better ads and organic content, having a streamlined workflow is what really saves time. That’s actually a big reason we built Postbase. To create a central place where you can take all that competitive intel and map it out into a beautiful content calendar, schedule posts across all your platforms reliably, and manage all your new DMs and comments from one unified inbox a lot easier. It's about making your entire social media process, from planning to posting to engagement, feel less chaotic.