Facebook Ad Library Search
Search Meta's public ad transparency library by keyword or advertiser — see the exact ads brands are running on Facebook and Instagram right now, without logging in.
3 free searches per day, no sign-up. Results come straight from the official ad transparency libraries via the Captapi API.
How to use it
- 1
Enter a keyword or brand
A product niche (“skincare”) or a competitor's name.
- 2
Pick a country
Ads are shown per market — start with your target country.
- 3
Study the ads
Creatives, copy, run dates, and advertiser for each result.
- 4
Go deeper via API
Pull the same data as JSON for dashboards and automations.
How to spy on competitor Facebook ads (legally)
Every ad running on Facebook and Instagram is public by design. Meta's Ad Library exists so anyone can see who is advertising what — which makes it the single best free source of competitive intelligence for paid social. The workflow that works: search your niche keyword, note which advertisers appear repeatedly, then search those brands directly and sort their ads by how long they've been running. An ad that has run for months is almost certainly profitable; a creative style a brand keeps duplicating is one their data says works.
What to look for in the results
- Longevity: start dates far in the past signal winning creatives worth deconstructing.
- Variations: many near-identical versions mean the brand is scaling that concept.
- Hooks: the first line of copy and first frame of video are where the testing happens.
- Offers: discounts, bundles, and guarantees show what converts in your market.
When you need this at scale — tracking dozens of competitors weekly, feeding an AI analysis pipeline, or building your own ad spy dashboard — the Facebook Ad Library API returns these same results as clean JSON, plus company lookups, ad details, and even video ad transcripts.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Facebook Ad Library?+
The Facebook Ad Library (now Meta Ad Library) is Meta's public transparency database of every ad currently running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network. Anyone can search it — this tool queries the same public library and shows the results in a cleaner, faster interface without requiring a Facebook login.
Is searching the Facebook Ad Library legal?+
Yes. The Ad Library is a public transparency tool Meta is required to provide (reinforced by the EU's Digital Services Act). Searching it for competitor research is exactly what it exists for.
Can I see how much a Facebook ad spends?+
Exact spend is only shown for political and issue ads. For regular commercial ads, the library shows the creative, start date, platforms, and versions — you can infer scale from how many ad variations a brand runs and how long ads stay active.
How do I find a specific brand's ads?+
Type the brand name into the search box and pick their country. You'll see every active ad with its creative and a link to the full entry in Meta's library. Long-running ads are usually the profitable ones worth studying.
How is this different from searching on facebook.com/ads/library?+
Same underlying data, faster workflow: no login walls, a cleaner result grid, and it runs on the Captapi API — so when you need the data programmatically (for a spy dashboard, spreadsheet, or AI agent) you can call the same endpoint with an API key.
How many free searches do I get?+
3 free searches per day without an account. For unlimited programmatic access, sign up for a free API key with 100 credits — each ad-library search costs 2 credits.
Tracking competitor ads at scale?
Captapi's Ad Library APIs cover Facebook/Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Google — search ads, advertiser lookups, ad details, and video transcripts as clean JSON. Start free with 100 credits.
- 100 free credits, no card required
- 178 endpoints across 32 platforms
- Clean JSON — MCP, CLI, and n8n ready