How to Use Facebook Ad Library for Research (Guide)

Facebook Ads It’s a great way to find out where your customers are. Facebook Custom AudiencesSetting up a bidding strategy and putting together ad creative takes a lot of work. The most successful advertisers start with a little research to guide their execution.

One free tool you can use to research your approach to advertising is the Facebook Ad Library (now officially called Meta Ad Library), which allows you to see what other advertisers are advertising and gain insights that you can apply to your own ads.

What is the Facebook Ad Library?

The Facebook Ad Library is a searchable digital database that contains information about ads currently running on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other Meta platforms. Issue, election, and political ads are also included in the database, regardless of whether they are currently active or not.

Why and when to use the Facebook Ad Library

There are many reasons to use the Ad Library, for example, if you’re getting ready to create and launch your first campaign, you can check out real campaign inspiration and create your own. Facebook Advertising StrategyOr maybe you want to validate an idea or find ways to optimize a campaign that’s already running. Either way, browsing the Facebook Ad Library is a great way to spark your creativity and get a sense of what your audience is seeing.

How to use the Facebook Ad Library

Below, we’ll explain how you can use Facebook Ad Library for your business.

Search for keywords related to your business

If you want to see ads relevant to your business, choose a few keywords related to your industry, brand, or product and see what comes up when people search for them. This will not only give you an idea of ​​the messaging already out there, but it will also help you spot trends you should focus on as a priority for your business.

Vegan Food Brands Pazarcia Since your brand sells “vegan condiments,” you might search for this keyword, and you might also try other keywords related to your specific product, like “vegan tzatziki” or “vegan mozzarella.”

A quick search for “vegan condiments” reveals the problem Pazarcia faces.

Not sure what keywords to search for? Ad Library isn’t an SEO tool, but you can use your SEO keyword research skills to find phrases to search for in Ad Library. The following resources can help you do this:

Check out your competitors

If you’re keeping an eye on your competitors, or you just want to check out the competition and see what your ads are competing against, you can focus on specific Facebook pages and advertisers rather than doing keyword searches.

To see what ads your competitors are running, search for your brand name in the Facebook Ad Library or visit the brand’s Facebook page and view their ads from there.

Want to know what organic skincare and cosmetics brands are like? Blendy Lee For example, if a business is advertising, visit their business page and scroll down to the “Page Transparency” section.

Once you click on “See all”, a pop-up window will appear. Scroll down and go to the “Ads on this page” section. There you can easily see if the page has ads. Now that we know Blendily has ads, we can click on “Go to Ad Library” to see what kind of ads they have.

Each business page has its own Ad Library page where all of its active ads are listed. In this case, Blendily only has one Facebook ad running. Other brands may have a whole collection of ads to check out. If you have multiple active ads, the Ad Library organizes and groups them by the month the ads ran.

Filter ads by country

If you Selling internationallyMaybe you run different ad campaigns for customers in different regions. Or maybe you focus on a specific region even if you don’t sell internationally. Either way, filtering your ad search by country can help you see ad creative that’s relevant to you and the regions you target.

To view ads for a specific country, click the drop-down menu (on the left) to reveal a list of countries, then scroll to find the country you want or type the country name in the search box.

You can also filter ads by country from a specific advertiser’s page. For example, if you want to see ads for natural skincare brands, Common heirs Held in other countries Brand Ad Library Page Then filter from there.

Filter ads by impressions

Facebook counts an impression each time someone sees your ad in a feed or anywhere else it appears. This is an influential metric because it tells you how many people other advertisers are targeting. A high number of impressions could mean a larger target audience, a bigger budget, or both.

To filter ads by impressions, perform a search, click the “Filter” button on the right and scroll down to the “Impressions by Date” section at the bottom of the pop-up window.

You can now choose the dates for which you want to see which ads received the most impressions. You can choose a single date, a date range, “Before,” or “After.” For example, if you want to see which ads received the most impressions during the winter holidays, you can choose a date range from September to December.

See ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger

various Types of Facebook AdsIn fact, advertising on Facebook doesn’t just mean that your ads will appear in your Facebook feed or timeline. Some ads will appear in stories, the right column, or Messenger. Facebook (now Meta) also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, and you can choose to show your Facebook ads on various platforms within the Meta ad network.

When you look at your ads in the Ad Library, you’ll see what type of ad and placement each ad is in. Look at the ad details that appear above the ad creative. You’ll see the active status, start date, and a list of platforms. The Ad Library uses icons to indicate where your ad is placed.

In the examples below, the first ad (left) serves on Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, and Messenger, the second (center) serves only on Instagram and Audience Network, and the third (right) serves on Facebook, Instagram, and Audience Network.

This will give you an idea of ​​what types of ads to consider for your own campaigns. If you notice that your competitors aren’t running Messenger ads, it might be worth experimenting to set yourself apart.

Find out how long your ads have been running

In the screenshot above, you can also see the start date of each ad. This gives you an idea of ​​how long people have seen this ad and how long the advertiser has put their budget into it. If the ad has been running for a while, it is likely that the ad is performing well or the advertiser has not prioritized updating and optimizing the ad.

Report ads that violate Facebook’s terms

If you come across ads that violate Facebook’s Terms of Service, you can report those instances using the Ad Library. Clicking on the button that says (View Ad Details) will take you to a larger version of the ad. Here, you’ll see three clickable dots in the top right corner. Clicking on that will give you the option to report the ad.

From there, Facebook will ask you for more details about the ad in question and why you think it should be reported. You’ll have to choose from the following reasons:

• Misleading or deceptive content
• Sexually inappropriate
• Aggressive violence
• Prohibited Content
• spam
• Fake news
• Political candidates or issues
• Housing Employment
• credit
• other

Be sure to use this option if an advertiser is making false claims about your business or infringing on the copyright of your assets.

See other ads from the same advertiser

If you’re scrolling through Facebook and see an ad that catches your eye, you can use the Ad Library to see other ads running on the same page. To access ads on a page, scroll down to the Page Transparency section.

When you look at the ads for a particular page holistically, you may notice trends. You may notice that advertisers are using similar imagery or copy, which could mean that their creative is performing well. You may also notice that they’re using a lot of the same types of ads, which could be an indication that they’re working well for your advertisers.

See if the advertiser talks about social or political issues

In its ongoing efforts to increase transparency and improve its social image, Facebook has also created a special feature to identify ads related to social and political issues. Misinformation is rampant online, and Facebook is “flagging” these types of ads to allow users to do their own research and learn more about the people behind the ads and their true intentions.

So while you can’t narrow your search by industry, you can filter out ads about social issues or politics. This can be important if your brand has strong values ​​and it makes sense for it to speak out about current issues — and in fact, some consumers would like to see brands do more of this. 70% of respondents in a survey More brands say they want to take a stand, especially if your competitors are joining in on these conversations.

Know how much advertisers spend

If you are looking for how much Facebook Ad Cost To help you decide how to set your own budget and bids, you can use the Ad Library to see how much others have invested. While not available for all ads, some offer a fairly detailed budget breakdown, like this one:

You can see how much advertisers spent on advertising their ads, who their target audience was, and how many impressions their ads received. This data can help with targeting as well as budgeting.

Facebook Ad Library FAQs

Does the Ad Library show all ads?

Is the Facebook Ad Library accurate?