Guide
The Meta Ad Library is the most powerful free ad research tool there is — every active Facebook and Instagram ad, searchable by anyone. Here's how to use it well, what it won't tell you, and how to fill that gap.
A free, official database Meta built for ad transparency. It shows the ads any advertiser is currently running across Facebook and Instagram — no login, no cost. It's the foundation most paid Facebook ad spy tools are built on.
For most advertisers, the library shows the creative and roughly how long it's run — but not spend, targeting, or performance. So it answers "what's running" and never "is it working." Long run time gets mistaken for proof, but ads coast on autopilot all the time — see how to tell if a competitor ad is working.
The library finds the ad; attention scoring tells you whether it's good. Take any ad you find, score it for Hook Strength and where attention drops, and you can separate genuine winners from long-running duds — then pre-test your own version before you spend. More context in ad spy tools.
Score any ad you find in the Meta Ad Library for attention. First analysis free.
Score an AdThe Meta Ad Library is a free, official, public database of ads running across Facebook, Instagram, and Meta's other apps. Built for advertising transparency, it lets anyone search by advertiser or keyword and see the creative currently running — no account required.
Go to the Ad Library, pick a country and category, then search by a Page name to see all of that advertiser's active ads, or by keyword to see ads mentioning a term. You can filter by platform and media type, and open each ad to view the creative and how long it's been running.
It shows that an ad exists and, for most categories, roughly how long it's run — but not spend, performance, targeting, or results (except for political and social-issue ads, which show more). So it tells you what's running, never how well. Judging whether an ad works means analyzing the creative itself.