Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center: A Competitor Research Guide

A new client signs on a Thursday. By Monday they want to know what their three biggest competitors are running, and you have no access to anyone's ad account but theirs. Two free tools answer most of that question: the Meta Ad Library and the Google Ads Transparency Center. Both are public, both work without a login, and both are more limited than most people assume once you get past the creative.

Everything below is checked against Meta's and Google's own help pages and the tools themselves, as of October 2026.

What the Meta Ad Library shows, and what it hides

The library lives at facebook.com/ads/library. According to Meta's help centre, it contains every active ad shown across Meta technologies, plus active branded content labelled as a paid partnership on Facebook and Instagram. Anyone can view and search it. A new ad appears within 24 hours of its first impression.

The catch is the word active. Once a normal commercial ad stops running, it drops out, with three exceptions:

• Political and social issue ads stay for seven years, active or not.
• Ads that delivered in the EU stay for one year after their last impression, a requirement of the Digital Services Act.
• Ads that delivered in the UK stay for one year too, for ads that ran after 1 July 2025.
• Rejected or disabled ads in those archives stay listed, with a shield over the creative.

To search, pick a country, set the ad category to All ads (the other option is Issues, elections or politics), and type a Page name or keyword. The Filters panel narrows by language, advertiser, platform (Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads), media type, active status and impression dates. Each result card shows a Library ID, the date the ad started running, the platforms it runs on, and a note when the ad has multiple versions.

How much more you see depends on where the ad ran:

• Political and social issue ads: a spend range, an impressions range, age and gender split, locations, estimated audience size and the disclaimer.
• Ads delivered in the EU or UK: run dates, the advertiser's age, gender and location targeting, and reach in those regions by age and gender. EU ads also name the advertiser and payer. No spend.
• Everything else: the creative, the copy, the start date and the platforms. No spend, impressions, reach or targeting.

So for an Australian competitor that only advertises in Australia, you get the creative and nothing about its delivery. If the same brand also runs ads in the UK or Europe, those ads carry the extra detail.

What the Google Ads Transparency Center shows

Google's version is at adstransparency.google.com. Per its FAQ, it includes ads from verified advertisers served across Search, Play, Maps, Shopping and YouTube, kept for one year from the date each ad was last shown. Ads from unverified advertisers are included only in Europe and Turkey. Election ads stay for up to seven years.

Search by advertiser name or website, then set the region. Results filter by date range, platform (Google Search, YouTube, Google Shopping, Google Play, Google Maps) and format (text, image or video). Each ad page shows the advertiser, the last date it was shown, its format, and up to five common variations.

A few details matter for research:

• Search by website, not name. A domain search returns every advertiser account with ads pointing at that domain, which surfaces resellers and affiliates bidding alongside the brand.
• The agency stays hidden. Google shows the advertiser and, if different, the payer, never the agency that built the ads.
• It lags. An ad can take 48 to 72 hours to appear, and dates run on Pacific Time.
• Ads aren't clickable. Google has permanently removed click-through to landing pages, so you see the ad, not where it goes.
• Impression data is thin. Impression ranges appear only where Google publishes them, after a 90-day delay. Ads shown in Europe and Turkey, and political ads, carry extra detail such as topic and audience selection.

The only spend figures are in the Political ads view, where each election ad shows a spend range and how many times it was shown. For commercial advertisers, Google's ads transparency page describes what you get: the advertiser's verified name and location, who paid, and the ads they served over a period.

The four ad libraries side by side

LinkedIn and TikTok run their own libraries. Both are worth a look for B2B or younger-skewing clients, with limits worth knowing up front.

The LinkedIn details come from the LinkedIn Ad Library FAQ; advertisers can't opt out, and searches cover advertiser, payer, keyword, country and date. TikTok's come from the Commercial Content Library FAQ. TikTok's library is built around European regulation, so a brand that only advertises on TikTok in Australia or the US won't have ads there to find.

A competitor research workflow for agencies

An hour across both main tools is enough for a first brief. This is the order that wastes the least time.

1. Build the competitor list from data

   Start with the rivals the client names, then add whoever shows up in Google Ads Auction Insights on the brand and top generic campaigns. Clients often name the competitor they resent, not the one taking their auctions.

2. Search Google by domain

   Enter each competitor's website, set the region to the client's market and the date to the last 30 days. Note how many ads they have, which platforms they appear on, and whether text, image or video dominates.

3. Read the text ads for offers

   Filter to Google Search and text. Headlines show the offer, the proof points and the call to action they lead with. The variations Google shows for each ad, up to five, hint at what they're testing.

4. Search Meta by advertiser

   Set the client's country, search the competitor's Page name, and use the Advertiser filter to keep only their ads. Keep active status on, compare formats with the media type filter, and note each ad's start date.

5. Flag the long-running ads

   An ad that has run for months is one the advertiser keeps paying for. That isn't proof it works, but it's the best signal the library gives you. Ads with multiple versions show where they're still testing.

6. Check for EU or UK detail

   If the competitor also advertises in Europe or the UK, open those ads for targeting and reach. It's the closest you'll get to seeing who they're aiming at.

7. Write a one-page brief and repeat monthly

   Offers, angles, formats, platforms, and anything new since last month. Keep screenshots, because Meta commercial ads disappear once they stop running.

What neither library tells you

The libraries show what a competitor says. They don't show whether it's working. For commercial ads outside Europe, neither tool shows:

• what any ad cost, or the advertiser's total budget
• clicks, conversions, CTR or return on spend
• the keywords a Google text ad is bidding on
• audience targeting, unless the ad ran in the EU or UK
• where a Google ad sends people, since landing pages aren't clickable

That's the right place to stop. Competitor research shapes the message and the offer. Whether your own spend lands where it should is a separate job, and the numbers for it live in your accounts, not theirs.

That second job is the one Pace does. It doesn't read the ad libraries or track competitors. It manages your own budgets across eight ad platforms, and on Meta it shows how each of your ads compares with the ads competing for the same audience.

Use the libraries to decide what to say. Use your own account data to decide what to spend.

Frequently asked questions

Jordan Parrello

Founder of Pace. Ran an agency pacing sheet by hand for years before building the thing that checks it every 5 minutes. About Pace or LinkedIn