How to Spy on Your Competitors' Facebook Ads (And What to Do With What You Find)

Most e-commerce brands treat competitive research as an occasional curiosity. They might browse a competitor's Instagram feed once in a while or notice a sponsored post in their own newsfeed. But that is not competitive intelligence. That is accidental observation.

Real competitive ad analysis is systematic, repeatable, and directly actionable. Since 2019, Meta has made every active ad on Facebook and Instagram publicly visible through the Meta Ads Library. This means you can see exactly what your competitors are running right now: every creative, every headline, every call-to-action, across every platform and placement.

The problem is that most brands do not know how to use this information effectively. They look at competitor ads, feel a mix of inspiration and anxiety, and go back to doing what they were already doing. This guide changes that. You will learn how to conduct a structured competitive audit, extract meaningful patterns from what you find, and translate those patterns into creative briefs that make your own ads better.

If you have not already audited your own Meta Ads account, start with our complete Facebook Ads audit guide for e-commerce first. You need to understand your own performance baseline before competitive insights become useful.

The Meta Ads Library: A Complete Walkthrough

The Meta Ads Library (formerly Facebook Ads Library) is a free, publicly accessible database of every active ad running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Audience Network. Meta created it for political transparency, but it has become the most powerful competitive research tool in paid social.

How to Access and Navigate the Ads Library

Go to facebook.com/ads/library. You do not need a Facebook account to use it, though being logged in provides a slightly better experience. Here is how to get the most out of it:

1. Set the country filter. The Ads Library shows ads by geography. Select the country or countries where your competitors are advertising. If they run ads in multiple markets, check each one separately because creative strategies often differ by region.
2. Choose "All ads" as the category. Unless you are researching political or social issue ads, select "All ads" to see the full commercial library.
3. Search by advertiser name. Type the brand name or Facebook Page name of your competitor. The library will show every active ad associated with that Page. If the brand runs ads from multiple Pages (common for large brands or those with multiple product lines), search each Page individually.
4. Filter by platform. You can filter to see only Facebook ads, only Instagram ads, or ads running on Messenger or the Audience Network. This is useful because some brands run different creative strategies on different platforms.
5. Filter by media type. Narrow results to images, videos, or memes (carousel is included under images). This helps when you want to specifically analyze video strategy or static creative approaches.
6. Note the "Started running on" date. This is the most important data point in the library. An ad that started running 8 or more weeks ago and is still active is almost certainly profitable. Meta's algorithm would have killed it otherwise, or the advertiser would have paused it. Longevity is a strong signal of performance.

What the Ads Library Does Not Show You

Understanding the limitations is just as important as knowing the features. The Meta Ads Library does not reveal:

• Ad spend or budget. You cannot see how much a competitor is spending on any individual ad or across their account.
• Performance metrics. No CTR, CPC, CPM, ROAS, or conversion data is available.
• Targeting. You cannot see who the ad is targeted to, including custom audiences, lookalikes, or interest-based targeting.
• Historical ads. Once an ad is paused or deleted, it disappears from the library. You can only see what is currently active.
• A/B test variants. You can see multiple versions of an ad if they exist as separate ads, but you cannot see which variant is winning.

Despite these limitations, the Ads Library gives you more competitive intelligence than any other free tool in digital advertising. The key is knowing how to interpret what you see.

Manual Analysis Techniques: Reading Between the Lines

Raw data from the Ads Library is only useful if you know how to interpret it. Here are the manual analysis techniques that turn observation into insight.

1. The Longevity Test

Sort competitor ads by how long they have been running. Any ad active for more than 6 to 8 weeks is a strong performer. This is the single most reliable proxy for ad performance available through public data. When you find these long-running ads, study everything about them: the hook, the format, the copy structure, the offer, the landing page destination. These ads are winners, and they reveal what messaging resonates with the audience you are trying to reach.

2. Creative Volume Analysis

Count how many active ads each competitor is running. A brand with 5 active ads is managing Meta Ads very differently from a brand with 50 or 150. High creative volume usually indicates aggressive testing, a dedicated creative team, or use of Advantage+ Shopping campaigns (which perform better with more creative variety). Low volume might indicate a smaller budget, less sophistication, or a brand relying on a few proven winners.

3. Format Pattern Recognition

Categorize each competitor's ads by format: static image, video (short-form under 15 seconds vs. long-form), carousel, collection ad, or UGC-style. Track the ratio. If a competitor has shifted heavily toward short-form video over the past few months, that tells you something about what is working in your category. If they are running 20 carousel ads, they have probably found that format effective for their product type.

4. Messaging Theme Mapping

Read through the ad copy and categorize each ad by its primary messaging angle. Common themes include: pain point agitation, social proof and testimonials, price or promotion, product feature demonstration, lifestyle or aspiration, founder story, urgency or scarcity, and comparison to alternatives. Mapping these themes across competitors reveals which messaging approaches the market is converging on and, more importantly, which angles are underexplored. The gaps are your opportunities.

5. Landing Page Reverse Engineering

Click through competitor ads to see where they land. Are they sending traffic to collection pages, dedicated landing pages, product detail pages, or quizzes and funnels? The landing page strategy reveals their funnel approach and conversion optimization thinking. Pay attention to the messaging continuity between the ad and the landing page. Brands with tight ad-to-landing-page alignment tend to have better conversion rates, and you can learn from how they maintain that consistency.

The Competitive Audit Template: A Systematic Approach

Casual browsing is not competitive analysis. You need a structured template that you fill out for each competitor so you can compare findings side by side. Here is the framework we use at BTB Media for every competitive audit:

Fill this template out for your top 3 to 5 direct competitors. Then add 2 to 3 aspirational brands: companies in adjacent categories that are known for excellent Meta Ads execution. The aspirational brands often provide the most creative inspiration because they are solving similar problems with different products.

Turning Competitive Insights Into Creative Briefs

This is where most brands fail. They do the research but never connect it to action. A competitive audit is only useful if it changes what you make next. Here is how to translate your findings into creative briefs that your team or agency can execute immediately.

Step 1: Identify Your Top 3 Actionable Insights

From your completed audit templates, pull out the three most significant findings. These should be specific and actionable, not vague observations. Bad example: "Competitors use a lot of video." Good example: "Three of five competitors have long-running ads that use 8-to-12-second UGC-style videos showing product unboxing, and none of them are addressing the sustainability angle that our brand owns." The specificity is what makes it actionable.

Step 2: Map Insights to Creative Concepts

For each insight, generate 2 to 3 creative concepts that respond to what you found. If competitors are converging on a specific messaging angle, you have two choices: compete directly with a better version of that angle, or differentiate by owning an angle they are all ignoring. Both are valid strategies, but differentiation typically has a longer runway because you are not fighting for the same mental real estate.

Our 3-C Content Framework for e-commerce ads provides a structured system for generating creative concepts across Connection, Conversion, and Credibility categories. Use it alongside your competitive findings to ensure you are covering all three dimensions, not just the ones your competitors are focused on.

Step 3: Write the Creative Brief

A creative brief does not need to be a 10-page document. For performance advertising, a one-page brief per concept is ideal. Include these elements:

• Objective: What this ad is designed to achieve (awareness, click-through, purchase)
• Target audience: Who this ad is for, described in behavioral terms not just demographics
• Key message: The single most important thing the audience should take away
• Competitive context: What competitors are saying (and what they are not saying) that makes this angle effective
• Format and length: Specific format (static, video, carousel) and any length requirements
• Hook: The first line of copy or first 3 seconds of video, written out
• CTA: The specific call-to-action and where it leads
• Reference ads: Links to 2 to 3 competitor ads from the Ads Library that inspired or informed this concept

If you want to speed up this process, our free Content Brief Generator creates structured briefs based on your product, audience, and competitive positioning. It takes the template above and turns it into a fill-in-the-blanks workflow.

Step 4: Build a Testing Roadmap

You cannot test everything at once. Prioritize your competitive insights by potential impact and ease of execution. A rough framework:

• Week 1-2: Launch 2 to 3 new creatives based on your highest-conviction competitive insight. These should be the ads where you saw the clearest gap or opportunity.
• Week 3-4: Evaluate initial results and iterate on the best performer. Kill the losers fast. Add 2 to 3 more concepts from your second-priority insight.
• Month 2: Run your next competitive check. See if competitors have changed their approach. Add new concepts based on updated findings. By now, you should have a working feedback loop between competitive research and creative production.

Common Mistakes in Competitive Ad Analysis

Before you dive into your first competitive audit, be aware of these traps that consistently lead brands astray:

Copying Instead of Learning

The goal of competitive analysis is never to copy ads. It is to understand patterns, identify gaps, and inform your own creative strategy. A direct copy of a competitor's ad will underperform because it lacks your brand's authenticity, and it trains the market to see you as a follower rather than a leader. Extract the principle, not the execution.

Only Watching Direct Competitors

Your direct competitors are fighting for the same audience with the same messaging angles. If you only watch them, you end up in a creative echo chamber where everyone's ads look the same. Add aspirational brands from adjacent categories to your watchlist. A skincare brand can learn a lot from how a premium coffee brand uses founder storytelling. A fitness equipment company can borrow creative approaches from a fashion brand's lifestyle content.

Confusing Ad Volume With Success

A competitor running 200 active ads is not necessarily outperforming one running 15. Volume can indicate aggressive testing, but it can also indicate desperation, creative churn, or an agency billing for creative production. The longevity signal (how long individual ads have been running) is far more meaningful than total count.

Ignoring the Funnel Context

Not every competitor ad you see is a top-of-funnel prospecting ad. Many are retargeting ads, shown only to people who have already visited the site or engaged with content. Retargeting ads often look different from prospecting ads: more direct, more promotional, shorter copy. If you try to use a retargeting ad as inspiration for your prospecting creative, it will feel off to cold audiences. Always consider where in the funnel a competitor's ad is likely positioned.

Building a Competitive Intelligence Workflow

One-off competitive audits are useful. A repeatable workflow is transformative. Here is how to build competitive intelligence into your ongoing creative process:

1. Build your competitor list. Identify 5 to 8 brands: 3 to 5 direct competitors and 2 to 3 aspirational brands. Bookmark their Ads Library pages.
2. Set a monthly review cadence. Block 2 hours once per month to review all competitors using the audit template. This should be a calendar commitment, not something you do when you remember.
3. Screenshot and archive. Save screenshots of noteworthy ads in a shared folder organized by competitor and date. Since the Ads Library only shows active ads, your archive becomes a historical record that the library itself does not provide.
4. Brief your creative team monthly. Share 3 to 5 key competitive findings with your creative team or agency each month, along with creative briefs that respond to those findings. This creates a direct pipeline from research to production.
5. Track and iterate. Note which competitor-inspired concepts performed well in your own testing. Over time, you will develop an intuition for which competitive signals are predictive of performance in your own account.

This workflow pairs naturally with a structured approach to creative production. If you are struggling to maintain creative velocity, our guide on the 3-C Content Framework gives you a system for generating new ad concepts at the pace Meta's algorithm demands.

Frequently Asked Questions