Meta Ad Library: A Complete Beginners Guide

In today’s fast-paced digital world, staying ahead of the competition is crucial for any business. Understanding what your competitors are doing can make all the difference in building a successful online marketing campaign. That’s where the Meta Ad Library comes in. This powerful tool gives you access to a treasure trove of information on ads running across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, the Meta Ad Library can help you gain valuable insights to refine your ad strategies.

The Meta Ad Library isn’t just a collection of ads; it’s a window into your competitors’ strategies. By exploring the ads they’re running, you can see what’s working in your industry and find inspiration for your campaigns. Combine this with the Facebook advertising dashboard, and you’ll have all the tools you need to monitor ad performance and make data-driven decisions. Best of all, accessing these insights is completely free, making it an essential resource for anyone looking to boost their brand’s online presence.

What Is Meta Ad Library?

Once known as the Facebook Ad Library, it’s a massive virtual reservoir of highly useful information in the advertising universe. It offers marketers a better understanding of the strategies and movements taken by their competitors. Simply put, the library contains ads that have ever been on Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. It’s like gaining access to a backstage concert where you have a view of what everyone’s up to. 

The Meta ad library was created in response to the rising concerns over ad transparency, particularly those around Facebook political ads in 2016. In a bid to make everything transparent, Meta, the Facebook parent company, made it possible for marketers to view any ads dating back to the last seven years. It gives you the power to see advertisers, what they’re advertising, to whom, and their advertising cost. 

This is the gold mine for every marketer, researcher, and the plain old nosy neighbor type whose only concern is to see how the other side is doing. 

Why Should You Care About Meta Ad Library?

Of course, you do understand the importance of leveraging Facebook advertising. But why should even bother with the Facebook advertising library? Is it worth giving it your time and attention? Absolutely, and here’s why:

✔️Competitor Analysis

Every business owner is curious about what other businesses are up to. This library allows you to spy on their marketing campaigns without getting noticed. Through this, you can gain useful insights from their creative strategies, targeting, and messaging. 

✔️Ad Transparency

If you’re in the world of PR or marketing, understanding what’s out there can be crucial in staying on top of the industry trends and avoiding duplicating your efforts. 

✔️Creative Inspiration

If you feel stuck in a creative rut, you can browse the ad library for ideas that will power your next big ad campaign. Just think of it as window shopping for ads!

✔️Political Ad Monitoring 

For those interested in politics, the Meta ads library offers detailed information about issue-based ads. You’ll be able to know who funded the ads and how much it cost them. 

✔️Research and Analytics 

Data geeks and those who like to stay on top of trends will find the ad library quite useful. It’s a treasure trove of information that you can use to make data-backed decisions. 

How To Access and Use Meta Ad Library

So, we’ve had enough of the basics about the Facebook ad library, let’s move on to how you can actually use it. Understanding the library and its filtering capabilities is essential as this can reveal your competitors’ secrets and their digital advertising strategies. 

Accessing the Meta Ad Library

Accessing the portal is straightforward; you don’t need to sign in once you’re already in your Facebook account. Simply go to the Meta Ad Library and you’ll find everything you need from the competitors. 

Enter Your Search Terms 

You’ll be presented with a search bar that you can use to filter the ads. Start by choosing the location from the dropdown, followed by the ad category, and then type in your keyword in the search field. The keyword could be a product, service, or just a general term that you’d like to see ads related to. You can also search for a specific brand if you’d like to spy on them.  

Filtering the Results 

Let’s assume you’d like to see ads in beauty products with “skincare” as the search keyword. When you press enter to run the search, you’ll be presented with numerous ads. Now, the filter feature helps you make sense of all these ads. 

You can filter by language, platform (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network), media type, active status, and impressions by date. 

Analyzing the Ads

Browse the ads and click one that attracts your attention. You’ll be presented with a breakdown of all its key details, including:

✅Ad creatives: You’ll see the videos, images, and carousels employed in the ad.

✅Ad copy: This is the text used in the ad.

✅Targeting info: Discover the targeted audience according to their age, gender, and location. Note that this won’t be specific, but you’ll get a general idea. 

✅Impressions and ad spend: In the case of issue-based and political ads, you’ll also view the amount spent on the ad and the number of impressions it received. 

It’s important to note that the Meta ad library is not static, but an evolving repository that changes with the digital advertising landscape. So, regularly revisiting the library is important if you want to stay on top of new ad campaigns and creative trends. Spying on your competitors regularly will also help you move with the changing marketing strategies in your industry. 

Spying on Your Competitors with Meta Ad Library

Enhancing your marketing strategies on Facebook and Instagram begins effectively by evaluating your competition using the Facebook ad library. To start examining the active ads of your competitors, navigate to the Ad Library tab and select the country ad targeting, then specify their brand name. 

Note that these are linked to their Facebook and Instagram pages and will often have the same name. The library can also suggest a list of marketers based on the name that you key in. With this approach, you can view every ad connected to a particular advertiser for the last seven years. 

Most marketers will perform an A/B test on their ads. If your competitor has multiple versions of the same ad, it just reveals the testing approach they’re using. Copy their strategy to optimize the performance of your own ads. 

How to Extract Valuable Information from Competitor Ads 

Nothing is challenging about navigating the Meta ad library. The real challenge is to obtain valuable information and insights from the different competitors’ ads to enhance your campaign. To overcome this challenge, you can use an Excel spreadsheet to organize and analyze the extracted data. 

This tactic lets you do a direct comparison of your Facebook and Instagram ads against your competitors. Through this, you can develop more powerful strategies for running more effective ad campaigns. 

More importantly, it’s also a good idea to check out what your competitors post organically without paid ads. You can discover more insights into their campaign and implement them into your strategies without having to pay a dime. After all, the goal is to acquire more traffic with the minimum effort and expenditure possible. 

The Best Practices for Using Meta Ad Library to Boost Sales 

Now that you’ve grasped the basics of the Facebook advertising library, let’s find out how you can make the most out of it. It’s more than just a tool for spying into your competition’s advertisement on Meta platforms. It’s a powerful tool you can use to enhance your Facebook Ads marketing strategy. Here are a few tactics that you can employ to boost your sales with the Meta ads library.

Keep a Swipe File 

As you explore the library, you’ll come across many interesting ads, whether from your competitors or those brands that you admire. Have a “swipe file” that you can save those ads. With time, this file will grow and become a valuable resource for brainstorming your ad campaigns. 

Always Analyze Your Competitor’s Trends  

Don’t just stare at the individual ads, rather, analyze trends. Are most of your competitors going for static images or video content? Are there any specific consistent themes, language, or colors? Once you understand these patterns, you can combine their approaches to come up with more effective campaigns. 

Keep Tabs on Industry Trends 

As mentioned earlier, the Meta ad library is dynamic and is updated constantly with new advertisements. So, create a habit of checking in regularly to ensure you’re on top of the trends in your industry. This can give you a more competitive advantage by letting you react faster to new threats or opportunities. 

Generate Content Inspiration from Meta Ad Library

Do you find yourself running out of ideas for your social media or blog content? The Facebook ad library can be a goldmine. Explore the messaging employed in the ads and think about how you can expand on those themes when creating your content. For instance, if you discover that the majority of the ads are themed around sustainability, it might be a good idea to align your content with this trend. 

Wrapping Up

In the world of digital advertising, you cannot afford to disregard advertising on social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram. Combined, these Meta platforms offer access to the largest audience (over 5 billion users). But as attractive as they are, reaching the right target amidst the competition is not easy. That’s why the Meta ad library was introduced in 2019 to help advertisers see what their competitors are onto. 

The ad library offers ways to see how the competition is currently utilizing ads in their campaigns. You can access the active ads to get a better sense of what your competitors are doing at the moment. Secondly, you can use the Facebook ad library as inspiration by running specific keywords in your industry to see the type of content others are using. So, dive into the world of Meta advertising with the help of this powerful repository to enhance your advertising game.