The Facebook Ad Library Is Free. Here Is How to Actually Use It.

Go to facebook.com/ads/library. Select your country and category. For most media buyers, pick "All ads" to see everything. You do not need a Facebook account to search, but being logged in helps.

Type a brand name in the search bar. You will see every active ad they run. Sort by newest or filter by platform (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network). This is the fastest way to spy on a specific competitor.

Search keywords related to your product. "Dog food" shows every ad mentioning dog food. "Weight loss" shows that niche. The results are not great for broad terms but work well for specific products.

Switch the country filter to see what ads run in different markets. An ad killing it in the UK might work in the US. Or vice versa. Cross-market research is an underused advantage.

Each ad shows when it started running. Ads that keep running for weeks are worth studying first, because advertisers usually stop ads that do not work. Running time is a signal, not proof of profit, so weigh it alongside how many variations the brand runs.

Look at the image or video. Read the copy. Check the headline and CTA. Note the format (single image, carousel, video). Ask: what hook are they using? What emotion does this trigger? What is the offer?

Copy the ad link or take a screenshot, and keep it somewhere you will actually search later: a Notion database, a Google Drive folder, or a swipe file tool. With the Tartol Chrome extension, a Save ad button on each ad sends it straight to a Saved Ads board. Tag it by niche, format, and what caught your eye. Your swipe file is only useful if it is organized.

Brands often run 5-20 variations of the same concept. Scroll through all of them. See what they test: different hooks, different images, different CTAs. This tells you their creative testing strategy.

The Ad Library shows ads one search at a time. A research tool adds what it leaves out: saved filters and presets, landing pages, brand tracking over time, and organized boards. Tartol Discovery searches Meta ads that way, and you can clone a strong reference into an ad for your own product.