A Facebook Ad Library alternative: what SellWinners adds to Meta's library

The Facebook Ad Library, which Meta calls the Meta Ad Library, is Meta's own record of the ads on its apps, built for transparency. Ad research asks other questions: which ads have run the longest, how far they reach, what they cost and which store they sell for. This page shows where an alternative helps with those, and where Meta's library stays the better tool.

Facebook Ad Library vs SellWinners, row by row

Meta's library shows different data for different ads: ads about social issues, elections or politics, ads delivered to the EU, ads delivered to the UK, and every other ad. Most e-commerce ads that run only outside Europe fall in the last group. "Not stated" means we did not find the fact on Meta's pages.

What does the Facebook Ad Library do well?

Start there, and keep it open. It is free and needs no account. It holds the active ads running across Meta's apps, you can search one country or all of them, and you can narrow a search to one app, Instagram for example, which SellWinners cannot do. It also groups the copies of an ad, so one creative run many times does not fill the page.

For some ads it shows data that SellWinners does not have. Ads about social issues, elections or politics stay for seven years, active or not, with the amount spent and the impressions as ranges, the audience reached and a disclaimer of who paid, and the downloadable Ad Library Report adds up that spending. Ads delivered to the EU or the UK stay for one year after their last impression, with their total reach split by age, gender and location and the targeting the advertiser chose. EU ads also name the advertiser and the payer.

The EU part comes from law: Article 39 of the Digital Services Act requires very large online platforms to keep a public, searchable ad repository until one year after an ad was last shown (Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, read on EUR-Lex on October 23, 2026). Our guide on how to use the Facebook Ad Library walks through its search, its filters and what it shows for one ad.

What does a Facebook Ad Library alternative add?

For a commercial ad that never reached the EU or the UK, Meta's library shows the creative, the Page that ran it, the date it started and the apps it ran on, with no reach, no spend and no archive once it stops. These limits follow from the library's purpose, transparency, and from the rules for each type of ad. They do not make its data less reliable; they make it slower to use for research.

An alternative adds the cuts research needs. Here is what SellWinners adds, with the API call behind each one. Explore, the web app, does the same without code.

Filter and sort by days running

Every Meta ad in SellWinners carries its days running. Set a floor of 30 days to keep the ads a brand has kept paying for, add Status active, and sort by longest running. Duplicates work the same way: a brand that runs one creative many times is betting on it, and you can filter or sort by that count. Ad rank, an ad's place among its page's ads, shows which ads a brand pushes, and rank gained over 7 days shows what moves up this week.

# Search Meta ads
curl "https://api.sellwinners.com/v1/ads?search=dog%20bed&status=active&minDaysRunning=30&sortBy=longestRunning&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET /v1/ads Parameters and fields in the docs

Run length is a signal, not proof that an ad makes money. The Meta ads library page shows how to read it with copies, rank and reach growth.

Reach day by day and an estimated spend

For each ad shown in the EU or the UK, SellWinners gives its reach, the countries that reach came from and an estimated spend. It also keeps that reach day by day, so you can see when an ad took off or faded, and you can sort a search by reach growth over 7 days. Spend is an estimate, made for comparing ads and brands, not an audited figure.

# Daily reach of one ad
curl "https://api.sellwinners.com/v1/ads/AD_ID/reach-history?limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET /v1/ads/{adId}/reach-history Parameters and fields in the docs

An ad that reached no one in the EU or the UK has no reach and no spend in SellWinners either. To compare brands rather than single ads, the top Facebook advertisers search adds up each Facebook page's ads, reach and spend.

The store behind the ad

Meta's library ends at the landing page link. In SellWinners, an ad's Shop tab names the store it sells for, and the store's record gives its monthly visits and 30-day growth, its estimated monthly sales, its best sellers with prices, and its apps, pixels and theme. Sales figures are estimates, made for comparing stores. On Free you search a store by domain and open its overview. The Shopify store analytics page lists what a store record holds.

It works the other way round too. Filter Meta ads by the store behind them: its monthly visits, its traffic growth, its Shopify apps, its pixels or its theme. This call keeps active dog bed ads from stores with at least 50,000 visits a month:

# Search Meta ads with advanced filters
curl -X POST "https://api.sellwinners.com/v1/ads/query" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "dog bed", "status": "active", "minMonthlyVisits": 50000, "limit": 10}'

POST /v1/ads/query Parameters and fields in the docs

Google and TikTok ads in the same place

Meta's library covers Meta. SellWinners adds the Google ads library, with YouTube video ads among them, and the TikTok ads library, with organic TikTok posts next to the ads. One account searches all three, and the ad spy tool page shows them together.

Your code and your AI agent

Every Meta ad filter is also a REST API parameter, by name, and the Meta ads API reference lists each one. This is the SellWinners API, not Meta's Ad Library API: it is not limited to political and EU ads, and you do not need a Meta developer account to use it. The Free plan includes the web app and the MCP server (150 credits a month), without the API.

Over the MCP server for AI agents, ask Claude, Cursor or VS Code for "active dog bed ads that have run the longest". The agent calls search_ads, then scan_ad for one ad's full record, transcript and hook included. A tool call costs the results it returns, from the same credits as the API.

When is the free library enough, and when do you need more?

Use Meta's library on its own when you want to:

• check whether a brand is running ads today, as Meta shows them;
• study ads about social issues, elections or politics, with their spend and audience;
• read the targeting and reach of an ad delivered in the EU or the UK, and the payer of an EU ad;
• keep to one of Meta's apps, Instagram for example.

Reach for an alternative when you need run length, ads after they stop, reach over time, spend on commercial ads, the store behind an ad, Google and TikTok, or the data in your own code or an AI agent. To try it on your own niche, open the Meta tab in Explore with the longest running ads first.

Open active Meta ads, longest running first

What does SellWinners not cover?

SellWinners has no political ad archive with spend and no Ad Library Report. It shows no payer for an ad, and it has no placement filter. Meta reach is EU and UK reach and spend is an estimate, so an ad shown only outside Europe has neither. Searching needs an account, and the web app has no file export. On paid plans: the API; Google ads, TikTok and brand emails; advertiser pages and brand trackers; product search; full shop analytics, shop filters and sorting; boards, favorites and share links.

Which other Facebook Ad Library alternatives are there?

Several ad spy tools search Meta ads with their own filters, and some cover other networks too. We compare them with SellWinners on dated facts from their own pages: BigSpy alternatives, Minea alternatives, AdSpy alternatives and PowerAdSpy alternatives. Our list of the best ad spy tools puts them side by side. Run the same niche through Meta's library and one or two alternatives before you pay: the difference shows in what you can sort, filter and keep.

Everything SellWinners does with Meta ads is on the Meta ads library page, and you can compare the plans when you are ready.

Meta, Facebook and Instagram are trademarks of Meta Platforms, Inc. BigSpy, Minea, AdSpy and PowerAdSpy are trademarks of their owners. SellWinners is not affiliated with Meta, Google, TikTok or any of these tools, and it is not Meta's Ad Library.