How to use the Facebook Ad Library: search, filters and what it hides

The Facebook Ad Library is Meta's public, searchable record of the ads that run on its apps. If the term is new to you, start with what an ad library is. This guide walks through the library as it worked on October 23, 2026: how to open it, how to search it, which filters to set, how to read one ad, and where its data stops.

How to open and use the Facebook Ad Library without an account

Go to facebook.com/ads/library in any browser. The page says what the library holds:

• every ad running right now across Meta's apps;
• ads about social issues, elections or politics that ran in the past seven years;
• ads that ran anywhere in the EU in the past year;
• ads that ran in the UK in the past year and after July 1, 2025.

You do not need a Facebook account. The library's own FAQ says anyone can explore it with or without one, and we ran every search in this guide logged out. A few things do need a login: reporting an ad, viewing adult content, and downloading a search, which also asks you to agree to Meta's terms. Meta's help page adds that the creative of an age-restricted ad, such as one for alcohol or gambling, stays hidden from people who are underage or not logged in.

The library is close to live. Meta says an ad appears within 24 hours of its first impression, and changes to an ad show up within 24 hours as well.

How to search the Facebook Ad Library by keyword or advertiser

The search box stays locked until you set two things. Then you choose between two kinds of search.

1. Pick a country. The country selector keeps the ads shown in that country. Choose All to search every country at once.
2. Pick an ad category. The choices depend on the country. All ads and Issues, elections or politics are always there, and some countries, such as the United States, add Housing, Employment, and Financial products and services. For product and competitor research, choose All ads.
3. Type a keyword. By default the library matches your words in any order. Put a phrase in quotes to match it word for word. Meta's help page says a keyword brings up ads that contain it, and also ads from Pages whose name contains it.
4. Or pick an advertiser. As you type, a list opens under the box. Its first line offers to search the exact phrase. Under it, an Advertisers list shows matching Pages with their handle and follower count. Pick one to see that Page's ads only.

Which filters does the Facebook Ad Library have?

Above the results sit two buttons, Filters and Sort by. Country and ad category stay at the top of the page, next to the search box. The Filters panel holds six more.

Sort by has two orders: Impressions, high to low, which is the default, and Most recent. There is no order by how long an ad has run. For ads about social issues, elections or politics, Meta's help page lists more filters, such as the disclaimer, delivery by region and estimated audience size.

How to read an ad in the Ad Library

Each result is a card. Above the creative, it shows a few lines that tell you more than they seem to:

• Active or Inactive. Whether the ad is running today.
• Library ID. The ad's number in the library. Quote it when you share the ad with a teammate.
• Started running on. The date the ad started. An inactive ad shows its first and its last date instead.
• Platforms. Icons for the Meta apps the ad runs on.
• EU transparency. The ad reached the EU, so its details hold more data (see below).
• This ad has multiple versions. The ad comes in several versions of its creative or copy.
• 2 ads use this creative and text. The advertiser runs the same creative and copy as several ads, and the card's button reads See summary details.

Two readings matter for research. An ad that started weeks ago and is still active is one the advertiser keeps paying for. A creative that runs as several ads is one the advertiser chose to run again. Neither proves the ad makes money, but both are worth a closer look. Press See ad details to open the full card. For an ad that reached the EU, it adds sections called Transparency by location, About the advertiser, and Advertiser and payer.

See every ad a competitor runs on Facebook

To see a competitor's Facebook ads, use the advertiser search, not a keyword search, so ads from other brands stay out.

1. Set the country to All, or to the market you share with the competitor, and the category to All ads.
2. Type the brand's name and pick its Page under Advertisers. Check the handle and the follower count, because fan Pages and copycats can share the name.
3. The Page's view opens with a count of results, an Ads tab and an About tab. The Active status filter starts on Active ads.
4. Remove that filter, or set Active status to Inactive ads, to add the stopped ads the library kept.
5. Sort by Most recent to see what the brand launched last. Use Platform and Media type to split its Instagram ads from its Facebook ads, or its videos from its images.
6. Open the About tab for the Page's background. Meta's help page says the library shows when a Page was created and how its name changed.

Three limits apply. The library works one Page at a time, so a brand that advertises from several Pages needs one search per Page. Creator posts that carry a paid partnership label are not in the ads search: they sit in a separate branded content search, which covers content created on or after August 17, 2023 and asks you to pick Facebook or Instagram and a date range. And a stopped ad shows only if the library kept it, which, outside political ads, means it reached the EU or the UK.

Once you have the ads, the work is to read them: the angles, offers, hooks and landing pages. Our post on analyzing a competitor's Meta ads covers that step, and our guide to e-commerce competitor analysis puts the ads next to the store, its products and its emails.

EU ads: reach, targeting and who paid

Ads delivered in the EU show more than any other commercial ads, because the law requires it. Article 39 of the EU's Digital Services Act, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, applies to very large online platforms. It asks each one to keep a public, searchable repository of its ads, also open through APIs, for as long as an ad runs and until one year after it was last shown. The repository must hold at least:

• the content of the ad, with the product, service or brand;
• the person on whose behalf it is shown, and the person who paid for it when that is someone else;
• the period during which it was shown;
• whether it targeted particular groups and, if so, the main parameters, exclusions included;
• the total number of people reached and, where relevant, the numbers by member state for the targeted groups.

We read the regulation on EUR-Lex on October 23, 2026. Meta's help page says the library displays and archives ads that deliver an impression in the EU because of the Digital Services Act, and does the same for the UK as a commitment of its own. So an ad delivered in the EU or the UK shows its reach and its targeting, and an EU ad also names the advertiser and the payer. Only ads about social issues, elections or politics show spend and impressions, as ranges. Our page on the Facebook Ad Library alternative lays out what Meta's library shows for each kind of ad.

For an e-commerce brand that sells in Europe, this is the richest data the library gives: how many people an ad reached there, split by age, gender and country, and whom it targeted. If you search a US brand that only advertises at home, you get the creative, the Page and a start date. Our glossary explains what ad reach measures.

What the Facebook Ad Library does not show

The library is built for transparency, and research needs other cuts. Here is what you will not find in it:

• How long an ad has run, as a sort or a filter. You sort by impressions or by date, and an active ad shows only the day it started. To find the ads that have lasted, you count the days yourself, one card at a time.
• Spend and impressions for most ads. Only ads about social issues, elections or politics show them, as ranges.
• Reach for commercial ads outside the EU and the UK. Only ads about social issues, elections or politics show a reach split elsewhere.
• Most stopped ads. An ad that never reached the EU or the UK and is not political leaves the library when it stops.
• Results. No clicks, no conversions and no sales, for any ad.
• The store behind the ad. You follow the link and judge the store yourself.

Meta also runs an Ad Library API for ads about social issues, elections or politics and for ads delivered in the EU, according to its Transparency Center page on Ad Library tools, checked on October 23, 2026. Our guide to an ad library API compares it with an API built for e-commerce research.

How to research Facebook ads at scale

Use Meta's library to check one ad or one Page: it is free and it is the official record. When you need to compare many ads, rank them by how long they have run or connect them to stores, a research tool does that part. Our page on the Facebook Ad Library alternative sets the two side by side, row by row.

In SellWinners, open Ads in Explore and stay on the Meta tab. Each check above has a filter or a sort there:

• Run length. Set Days running to at least 30 and sort by Longest running, so the ads that lasted come first.
• One competitor. Type its shop or its Facebook page in the Brand field to list every ad of that brand, sorted your way. To find the brands first, the advertiser search lists the top Facebook advertisers in a niche.
• Stopped ads. Set Status to inactive, or to all.
• Reach and spend. Ads shown in the EU and the UK carry their reach and an estimated spend. Spend is an estimate, useful for comparing ads, not an audited figure.
• The ad in full. Open an ad for its copy, its video transcript and hook, its reach day by day, and a Shop tab that leads to the store it links to.

Results cover Facebook and Instagram together, with no placement filter, so you cannot keep Instagram ads alone. Google and TikTok ads sit next to Meta's in the same ad spy tool.

Open active Meta ads, longest running first

Meta ads take 111 filters in all. On the Free plan, each shop's page lists the Meta ads of its own pages in Explore; the search across every brand, with its filters and sorts, is on paid plans. The Free plan includes the web app and the MCP server (150 credits a month), without the API. Over the MCP server, an AI agent such as Claude runs the same Meta ad searches with search_ads. See the Meta ads library page for every filter and sort. Compare Free with the paid plans to see what each plan includes.

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