Experts say that as much as 80% of Facebook Ads fail.
Facebook Ads Library is one of the most powerful tools advertisers overlook. With over 17 million ads in the library, it gives you a front-row seat to every active ad your competitors are running, the copy they’re testing, the creative styles they rely on, and even which platforms they’re betting on. Instead of burning your budget trying to guess what works, you can reverse engineer strategies that are already driving results.
The real advantage is that you’re not starting from zero. If a brand has been running the same ad for months, it’s usually because it’s profitable. You can take that insight, borrow the framework, and apply it to your own campaigns. You can even pull inspiration from adjacent industries or study ads running in other countries to uncover fresh angles before your competitors do.
In this guide, we’ll break down what the Facebook Ads Library is, why it’s a competitive advantage, and how to use competitor research to build ad campaigns that actually convert.
The Facebook Ads Library is a free, searchable database of every active ad running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Facebook Audience Network.
Here’s what it looks like:
You can look up and creative by brand name, keyword, ad category, or country, and instantly see the exact creatives, copy, and CTAs other advertisers are using.
You can also see:
Getting into the Facebook Ads Library is simple, and you don’t need a Facebook account to use it.
From here, you have several ways to start your research. Search by advertiser name to see all ads a specific brand is currently running. Or search by keyword or product type to find ads from multiple advertisers in your niche. You can also search by industry category if you want to see a broader set of ads.
These filters can help zero in on specific ads you might have in mind.
The value of Facebook Ads Library comes from turning the examples you find into campaigns that can drive sales for your business. Here are 9 ideas you can use to dig deep into Facebook Ads Library and pull out profitable insights.
Facebook Ads Library doesn’t just show you what ads competitors are running, it also shows you where they’re running them. If you notice a competitor is putting most of their spend on Instagram Reels or Messenger placements, that’s a signal they’ve tested and found those channels profitable.
You can use this insight to:
This will be one of your biggest low-effort insights. If a brand has been paying to run an ad for months, it’s likely generating strong results. Scroll down to the oldest ads the business is still running.
Keep an eye on the creative format (video, carousel, static), opening hooks, CTAs, and recurring patterns among their oldest ads.
Look for ads running on several platforms. This often signals that the creative is performing well across different user behaviors and formats. Brands may use this approach to keep messaging consistent, reach different audience segments without building separate campaigns, or test whether a single creative concept can work across platforms before scaling.
Additionally, try to identify brands that focus on one platform. If your competitors only advertise on Instagram for example, look closer to figure out what they know that you don’t.
Consider taking the framework (structure, style, and flow) your competitors are using and rebuilding it for your audience.
You can:
Consider taking the framework (structure, style, and flow) your competitors are using and rebuilding it for your audience.
You can:
Tools like Foreplay and Magic Brief let you save and organize ads directly from the Facebook Ads Library so your team can reference them during brainstorming. They also make it easier to save ideas for future reference.
You can choose to tag ads by style, industry, or campaign type for easy retrieval.
Look at the CTAs that show up again and again in your industry. “Shop Now,” “Sign Up,” and “Learn More” might sound basic, but if they appear across multiple top advertisers, they’re likely proven winners.
Test these CTAs in your own campaigns, using the A/B test button text, placement, and color to see which drives conversions.
Ads that crush in one market may not have been tested in another. Or, they may contain fresh angles that won’t give your audience ad fatigue. Search by location in the Ads Library to see what’s working internationally. You might find creative angles, offers, or hooks that feel completely fresh to your audience.
If you’re selling something brand new, direct competitors may not exist yet. In that case:
For example, if you’re launching a luxury, bulletproof backpack targeted at business travelers, chances are, “bulletproof backpack” won’t return much in the Facebook Ads Library. But, you can search for tactical gear, high-end travel bags, or even armored car services to uncover interesting ideas.
You can spend hours inside the Facebook Ads Library finding great ideas, breaking down competitor strategies, and building high-performing creatives. But if your ads are being clicked by bots or fake accounts, all of that work can go to waste.
Facebook ad fraud drains budgets fast. Automated scripts, click farms, or even competitors can rack up clicks without any real intent to buy. That means your great finds from the Ads Library could become ineffective. Or worse, you could end up pausing campaigns that might have been profitable.
That’s why protecting your Facebook Ad Campaigns is just as important as researching them. Tools like Fraud Blocker automatically detect and block invalid clicks, so your ads are shown to real people who have the potential to convert.
The result: cleaner data, better targeting, and ad spend that actually drives revenue.
If you want to make sure the clicks you pay for are from a real person, try Fraud Blocker for free for 7 days.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew Iyiola
Matthew is the resident content marketing expert at Fraud Blocker with several years of experience writing about ad fraud. When he’s not producing killer content, you can find him working out or walking his dogs.
Matthew is the resident content marketing expert at Fraud Blocker with several years of experience writing about ad fraud.
