13 Meta Ad Library Insights to Drive Results & 4 Pitfalls to Dodge

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For many ecommerce marketers, running ads is only part of the job. To maximize ad performance, you have to pay attention to the details. This means analyzing data, targeting the right audience, and getting your copy and visuals just right. But what happens when your ad isn’t performing well? Instead of throwing money at the problem, consider looking for answers in the Meta Ad Library. This tool lets you peek behind the curtain of other businesses’ Facebook ads to help you get your ecommerce marketing campaigns back on track. In this article, we’ll explore the Meta Ad Library and how you can leverage it to optimize your ad strategies, avoid common mistakes, and achieve better targeting and higher ROI in your campaigns.

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What is Meta Ad Library and Its Importance for Entrepreneurs

The Meta Ad Library is a free, searchable public database of all active ads across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Created to address Facebook’s 2016 political ad controversy, the social media giant launched Meta Ads Library (named Facebook Ad Library at the time) to ensure transparency across all ads across Meta’s platforms.

You can see every ad published in the last seven years. Since Meta launched the tool, marketers and advertisers across multiple industries have used Meta Ads Library as a competitor analysis tool. If you want to create better ads on social media, you should, too.

Why the Facebook Ad Library Matters

The Facebook Ad Library is important for several reasons, such as:

Transparency in advertising

Competitive analysis

For finding inspiration for your own ad campaigns

Here’s why the Meta Ad Library matters:

Transparency in Advertising

It provides a level of transparency that is crucial in today's digital environment. Users can:

Scrutinize the ads being presented

Fostering accountability among advertisers, especially in political contexts.

This transparency helps to prevent misleading or harmful advertisements and ensures that users can see who is behind a particular message, promoting trust and integrity in advertising practices.

Competitive Analysis

Marketers leverage the Ad Library to monitor competitors' advertising strategies. By analyzing what types of ads competitors are running, advertisers can identify successful tactics and adapt their own strategies accordingly.

This access to competitors' data can reveal valuable insights into ad spend, targeting approaches, and creative direction, allowing businesses to refine their campaigns and improve their market position.

Inspiration and Creativity

The Ad Library serves as a rich source of inspiration for advertisers. With access to a diverse range of ad types, from image-based to video ads, users can explore creative approaches that resonate with their target audience.

It allows marketers to discover fresh ideas, innovative designs, and messaging styles that can be adapted and personalized for their own campaigns, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of their ad content.

Advanced Filtering Options

The platform offers extensive filtering features, enabling users to segment data effectively. This allows for a granular analysis of:

Ad performance and trends

Helping advertisers to make informed decisions based on real-time data

These factors helps users pinpoint exactly the kind of information they need, streamlining the process of campaign analysis like filters such as:

Ad type

Active or inactive status

Geographic targeting

Market Trends Insight

By regularly revisiting the Ad Library, users can stay updated on emerging trends and shifts in advertising strategies within their industry, ensuring they remain competitive in a rapidly changing market.

This continuous monitoring of market trends helps advertisers spot new opportunities, adjust their messaging to align with consumer behavior, and maintain a forward-thinking approach in their marketing efforts.

Meta Ad Library Features for E-Commerce Marketers

The Meta or Facebook Ad Library is packed with features that make it a marketer’s best friend, and it’s here to help you navigate the ad jungle like a pro. Let’s break down its key features and see how they can transform your advertising game:

Basic Features

Users can search for ads by advertiser name, keywords, and other criteria to see both active and inactive campaigns:

Keyword search: The Ad Library will fetch you all relevant inactive and active ads. It’s like having a detective at your disposal, ready to uncover marketing secrets. Just like you do on Google, type in any one specific keyword related to your:

Sector
Competitor
Niche markets

Exact phrase search: The necessity for precision is felt once in a while. That’s when Exact Phrase Search will be your best friend. Just scrunch your search query up in quotes, and the ads that come up will have that exact phrase you want to look at.

Filtering by media type: Want to see only video ads or just memes? No problem. This is incredibly useful when you need specific creative inspiration. The filtering system allows you to sort through ads by their media type, whether it’s:

Images
Videos
Memes

Active status: Active status can be filtered to sort ads currently running or those that ran before. This can give you ideas about active campaigns and strategies that might be working well right now.

Date range: Want to analyze ads from the last holiday season or a specific promotional period? Finally, you can use the date range filter to drill down and determine exactly when an ad was running so you can spot those important seasonal trends and timing strategies.

Location filters: Whether your ads are targeted to New York, Paris, or Timbuktu, the location filter will assist in fine-tuning ads for a given place. It is invaluable for understanding local tactics used in markets and how brands personalize their message for different geo-located audiences.

Language filters: Advertising in multiple languages can be a headache, but with the language filter, it’s a breeze. View ads in your preferred language, or analyze the crafting of ads for non-English-speaking audiences. This is perfect for global campaigns or for understanding multicultural market strategies.

2. Ad Details

Provides information about individual ads, including:

The creative content

The campaign’s duration

Basic data about the advertiser

3. Multi-Platform Viewing

Meta Ads aren’t just limited to Facebook. You can turn on filters to see the same ad across:

Facebook

Instagram

Audience Network

Messenger

This cross-platform view will help you understand where your competition is focusing its efforts and how it may be modifying communications for different audiences.

Advanced Features

1. Granular Data Reporting

The Ad Library report allows for deep dives into data, focusing on specifics often with additional details in certain regions like the EU, such as:

The amount spent

Political ads

Social issues

These can help so much in this amount of detail to realize the strategy behind not necessarily what ads are running. It’s like having a spy in their marketing department. It consists of:

Granular data breakdown by the advertiser

By amount spent

By location

2. Saving Searches and Organizing Ads

Users can save ads of interest and organize them into collections for easy reference, facilitating better planning and strategy formulation. The Ad Library is like your personal Pinterest board, but for ads. It lets you save ads you find interesting and organize them into collections for easy reference later on.

It’s really useful when planning future campaigns, so you can pull up examples of what inspired you or demonstrated a great strategy in practice.

3. Integration with Other Tools

Meta Ads Library is compatible with various extensions and tools, such as Ads Library or Foreplay. It enhances functionality and user experience by allowing ads to be saved directly to personal boards or shared with teams.

Harnessing the Meta Ad Library for Data-Driven Advertising Success

The Meta Ad Library is more than a tool – it’s an insight treasure house. View all-rounded with powerful and detailed search and filter functionalities, including exact-phrase search and detailed location/language filters. Whether you’re a master of advertisement or just starting, these will help you make data-driven decisions, optimize the ad strategy, and watch the competition.

E-Commerce Advertising

Ecommerce Sales Strategy

Ecommerce Monitoring

Ecommerce Search Metrics

Competitive Product Analysis

Ecommerce Marketing Budget

Ecommerce Marketing Ideas

13 Strategies to Unlock the Benefits of the Meta Ad Library

How to Use the Meta Ad Library Like a Pro

The Meta Ad Library is a free tool that lets you see ads running across Facebook platforms. You can search any business, nonprofit, or organization to see what they’re promoting with Facebook ads. Gaining insight into competitors’ ad creatives and copy can help you improve your own campaigns, making the Meta Ad Library a vital resource for any ecommerce business.

Using the Meta Ad Library to gain valuable insights into the ads of your competitors involves first selecting the country and category, then searching for a brand or keyword, and using advanced filters to narrow your search.

Here’s how to use the Meta Ad Library for the best results.

1. Select Country and Category

Before searching for ads, you need to pre-define your search. You can choose to search for ads in a specific, singular country. This can be helpful if you have a product or service that changes based on location.

Then you can limit your search based on the ad category. If your search is limited to the USA your options are:

All Ads

Issues Elections or Politics

Housing

Employment or Credit

Any other country filter will only display the first two listed.

Maximizing Ad Discovery with Strategic Filters in the Meta Ad Library

Pro Tip: To get the most ad results, choose Country: All, Ad Category: All Ads.

Once you’ve chosen the country and category, you can then further refine your search by searching for specific brands or keywords.

2. Search a Brand or Keyword

You can search the Facebook Ad Library to reveal your competitors' ads using two different strategies. The first option is more focused on competitor research. Search for a specific brand/company name. This will load a dropdown list where you can select the exact brand.

After clicking on the brand, you will see every ad that company is running under that account. The main limitation to this approach is that larger brands sometimes have different ad accounts for each geographical market.

Finding Creative Inspiration with Keywords and Exact Phrase Search in the Meta Ad Library

If you use the Facebook Ad Library to find new ad inspiration more broadly, you can simply type in a keyword that aligns with the product or service I am trying to market. For example, if we were creating a new campaign for Vessi Shoes, we could search “waterproof shoes” to discover how all the brands selling this product are approaching this market.

Pro Tip: As of January 19, 2019, Ad Library introduced a new feature called “Exact Phrase Search.” To use it, place quotes around search terms to see results containing the same group of words in the same order.

3. Filtering Your Ad Library Search

As of 2024, Facebook has added extensive filtering features to the Facebook Ad Library. Filters help you properly segment the data you are viewing.

With filters you can see when your competitors are choosing to run ads, the platforms they are using, and the styles of creatives they produce. Let’s take a look at the different filters available.

Available Facebook Ad Library Filters

Active Status: Active status will show you ads currently being displayed to users. It is important to note that Facebook Ad Library does not show all Inactive Ads forever, if you want to save an ad forever, consider using a tool like Foreplay to save ads from Facebook Ad Library.

Impressions by Date: Using impressions you can see when an ad was running and use that information to infer how successful the ad was. For example, if today’s date is Feb 1, 2024 and I created a filter for On or before: Nov 1, 2021 the search results will only display ads that started running 3 months ago. If I pair this filter with the Active Status: Active, I will see ads running actively for 3 months, meaning the ad is working or the brand is okay with burning money.

Media Type: Media type allows you to display ads by the ad creative style. Luckily this year Facebook has added some exciting new media types for us to filter by, such as images, memes, and more. Here are the media types you can filter by:

Images - images with little or no text
Memes - images with text: "waterproof...”
Images and Memes - this combines the first 2 filter options.
Videos - display videos containing your keyword within a video transcript or ad copy: "waterproof...”
No image or video - ads that are only text posts. This style of ad is very uncommon.

Advertiser: The advertiser dropdown will only show when you are running a keyword search. Use this multi-select filter to display ads from only a few specific advertisers.

Platform: Facebook has multiple different platforms to display ads. This multi-select filter allows you to narrow down your search by All platforms:

Facebook
Instagram
Audience Network
Messenger

Language: Simply filter by language. Note that ads that contain more than one language will not appear in results when this filter is applied.

With your search as narrow as possible, it’s time to analyze your findings.

4. Analyzing Ad Creatives

Once you have narrowed your search to find impactful Facebook advertising inspiration, it is important to draw some insights and conclusions from my findings. Here is a little cheat sheet we created to properly answer my questions as a marketer using Facebook Ad Library data.

Q: Is this ad performing?

A: Look at the “Started Running” date. If the ad has been actively running for a decent amount of time, you can assume it is profitable or at least hitting the metrics that the brand requires.

Q: Where are they running this ad?

A: The platforms list shows where the advertiser is running the ad. This can give you insights into not only the ad's format but also the potential audience that the advertiser is trying to target.

Q: Did they select Manual or Automatic Placements?

A: If you see a note about 'Multiple versions', the ad uses Dynamic features. Multiple formats, visuals, copy, or dynamic ads are being used. If it’s missing, it’s not dynamic.

Q: Who is the ad targeting?

A: Most brands use UTM parameters to track their advertising performance better. Although not required, if you find a UTM parameter at the end of a link, it can tell you some additional information about the ad set or audience being targeted.

For example, if you see something like utm_campaign=mof-retargeting you could assume this is a retargeting ad that is MOF or “Middle of Funnel”. Some other keywords to look for would be TOF (Top of Funnel), BOF (Bottom of Funnel) etc.

5. Save Ads From Facebook Ad Library As Inspiration

One of the main limitations to the Facebook Ad Library is that ads are not available to view forever. If you are using Ad Library as an inspiration tool, it is important to save, organize and share ad inspiration forever without links expiring.

The following is a partial list of what businesses can do with the Facebook/meta ad library. Nevertheless, it’ll help marketers proceed in the correct direction.

1. Peek Over The Fence

Using the Meta/Facebook ads library primarily gives a better picture of the competition and market standards. Running a social media ad campaign requires strategizing on multiple fronts. For an ad campaign strategy to achieve business objectives, businesses need to determine what they’re up against. Competitor analysis can help businesses learn concrete ideas and improve the performance of their Facebook ad copies.

Learning from Competitors: Leveraging Insights to Refine Your Ad Strategies

It is not always about agreeing with the competitor’s strategies and following a similar approach. Also, analyzing what’s out there in the market can be a great learning or evolving curve. Insights from competitors’ data will tell brands what to do, and what not to do. Besides, brands can always look for loopholes in their strategy and ensure the same doesn’t happen with their plans.

2. Spot The Difference With A/B Testing

Facebook ads library enables brands to see different versions of the same ad that competitors use for split testing. A/B testing is crucial for the success of Facebook campaigns. The task is simple: brands need to identify the difference between the elements being tested.

A different copy of the same image?

Different call to action?

The Facebook/Meta ads library makes building a checklist of ad features easy to A/B test for the next ad.

Pro Tip: Establish a formal feedback loop from your A/B testing results back into your Meta Ad Library research to refine and focus future hypotheses based on proven outcomes.

3. Watch Out for Trends And Longevity

Facebook ads library helps businesses pick on trends in design, layout, offers, and more.

Are video ads more popular?

Why are other brands using more carousel and image ads?

What is the current average Facebook ad copy length?

The Meta ads library can help answer all these questions. It also shows ads that have been live for a long time, which is valuable insight into what ads are working and how well they perform.

4. Get The Jump On Competitors With Timing Cues

Creativity and copy are primary aspects of any Facebook ad. Even so, running times are also crucial for campaign success. If the ad is premature, the audience will not be ready, and brands may miss the opportunity.

The Facebook ads library can help brands take cues from successful advertisements in the space and apply them to their campaigns. The historical data on the Facebook ad library can also help brands time upcoming campaigns accurately.

5. Funnel Mapping

Advertisements are typically built with a customer funnel in mind. The ad drives traffic to a landing page finely drafted to trigger an action from the visitor. The Facebook ads library enables businesses to follow this funnel by clicking through. Businesses can find answers to everything:

Where is the ad taking the customers?

Is it a Facebook page or an external website?

Do the competitors ask for an email address to access high-value information?

Is it a custom-designed landing page with a free trial offer?

Businesses can also get a decent idea about the Facebook ad copy examples that work. Furthermore, they can experience the entire thing from a customer's perspective and use the insights to fuel their ad campaigns.

6. Learn About Ad Compliance

Familiarizing yourself with the compliance status of active ads across Meta platforms helps ensure your campaigns adhere to advertising standards and regulations. While it is not directly possible to access competitors’ ads flagged or removed due to privacy and platform policies, monitoring trends and changes in active campaigns can provide valuable insights.

Ensuring Compliance with Meta Guidelines: Training and Best Practices for Ad Success

This approach helps you stay informed about the changing Meta guidelines on content and privacy issues, guiding you to maintain the integrity and effectiveness of your advertising efforts and avoid potential legal pitfalls.

Pro Tip: Regularly schedule compliance training for your marketing team, using real-world examples from the Ad Library to highlight common pitfalls and best practices in ad content creation.

7. Examine Successful Ad Copy

Pick a successful ad copy in the Meta Ad Library and analyze it to understand which words or phrases drive engagement and conversion. Analyze the tone, language, and calls-to-action that lead to high-performing competitors’ ads. This insight is invaluable for crafting compelling copy that resonates with your audience.

Studying variations in ad copy among different demographics can inform more personalized and effective advertising strategies.

Pro Tip: Create an internal repository of effective ad copy categorized by objectives such as:

Awareness

Engagement

Conversion

This resource can be a quick reference guide during ad creation.

8. Refine Retargeting Approaches

Observing how competitors use retargeting ads can provide clues on improving your strategies to increase conversion rates. Identify timing, frequency, and content patterns of retargeting ads that keep customers engaged.

Learning from the successes and failures of these strategies can help optimize your own approach to retargeting, ensuring that your running ads are more likely to convert previous visitors into customers.

Pro Tip: Implement dynamic creative optimization (DCO) tools to automatically adjust retargeting ads based on user behavior and interaction patterns noted from your and your competitors’ campaigns.

9. Analyze Geographical Performance

Use the Ad Library to analyze ads based on their geographical performance. This can help identify which regions respond best to certain ads or messages, allowing for more targeted and effective regional or global campaigns. Insights into regional preferences and behaviors can inform localized marketing strategies that resonate more deeply with local audiences.

Pro Tip: Use GIS (Geographic Information Systems) tools to overlay ad performance data with socio-economic data, offering deeper insights into geographical trends and opportunities.

10. Explore Budget Allocation Strategies

By studying the frequency and scale of running ads from various advertisers, infer how competitors allocate their budgets across different campaigns and periods. This analysis can help you understand industry benchmarks for ad spend and identify opportunities to optimize your own budget allocation for maximum impact.

Pro Tip: Adopt predictive analytics to model potential ROI based on different budget allocation scenarios inspired by your findings in the Ad Library.

11. Adjust for Event-Driven Advertising

Analyzing how new ads change during events or seasons provides insights into the timing and thematic adjustments that could benefit your own campaigns. Use the Ad Library to identify successful event-driven advertising strategies that capture audience interest at peak times, such as holidays or major sporting events.

Pro Tip: Develop an event calendar integrated with your marketing platform that triggers ad campaign reviews and adjustments based on upcoming significant events spotted in the Ad Library.

12. Understand Brand Positioning

Explore how different brands position themselves in their ads to discern how you might uniquely position your own brand to stand out. Understanding the messaging angles and brand values that resonate with audiences in your market can inform your broader marketing and brand strategy.

Pro Tip: Use sentiment analysis tools on ad copy and user comments from ads in the library to gauge public perception and emotion towards different brand positioning strategies.

13. Find Gaps in the Market That You Can Fill

A great way to use the Facebook ad library is for market analysis. What kind of ads your competition or adjacent small businesses are running provides a lot of insight into their overall marketing strategy:

Their product launches

Offers

Creative strengths

Use this information to give your audience what’s missing in the market. For example, if you notice that most brands in your industry only put ads on Instagram, find out why that is the case. Experiment with running ads on other platforms in Meta’s technologies, such as Facebook and Messenger. Maybe there’s an untapped market there.

Standing Out in the Feed: Crafting Ads That Resonate with Your Audience

Extract how you can stand apart from other ads in the feed. If most ads in my niche are branded and scream “advertisement.” Try to create ads that blend into the feed using user-generated content as ads. If video ads are lacking, experiment with them to see if they get more engagement.

This isn't advice to zag when everyone zigs, but to dig deeper and try to understand what your audience needs. See how these ads appear from a consumer's perspective. What are they missing? Fill that gap.

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4 Common Meta Ad Library Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

1. Copycat Syndrome: Inspiration is Fine, But Don't Replicate

While copying a successful ad verbatim is tempting, resist the urge. Not only is it ethically questionable, but your audience will also probably catch on, and nobody likes a copycat. Take inspiration, not replication.

2. Analysis Paralysis: Don't Overthink It

It's easy to get caught up in the details of each ad—color schemes, button placement, etc.—but don't lose sight of the overall strategy. Are your competitors running a series of related ads? What’s the broader message?

3. Assuming What Works for Others Will Work for You

Just because a particular approach is successful for a competitor doesn’t mean it will be for DriftLead. Different audiences have different preferences; what sings to one may scream to another.

4. Overestimating Your Competition

We often assume that if a business is bigger or has been around longer, they must do everything right. Not true! Even industry leaders make mistakes. Take your observations with a grain of salt and trust your own data and instincts.

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