TL;DR: Search a brand in the Ad Library, pick its Page, filter by date, platform and media type, and read each ad's text, start date and platforms. For a commercial ad the library never shows spend or results. How long an ad has been running is the best public signal of whether it works.
What the Ad Library covers
Meta's own description of the scope, from the library's about page: all the ads currently running across Meta technologies, plus three archives. Ads about social issues, elections or politics stay for seven years. Ads that ran anywhere in the EU stay for a year. Ads that ran in the UK after July 1, 2025 stay for a year too.
An ad appears in the library within 24 hours of its first impression, and any change to it shows within 24 hours as well. Meta removes ads from the library only in limited cases, such as serious Community Standards violations or a valid government request. An ad that breaks Meta's advertising policies can still appear, behind a warning.
The library is no performance report: for ordinary commercial ads it holds no spend, impressions or results. Nor does it keep old commercial ads. Once a commercial ad stops running, it leaves the library, unless it reached the EU or the UK within the past year.
Step 1: find the advertiser
- Open the Ad Library and set the country. "All" works, but a single country keeps the list short.
- Leave the category on "All ads". The other four categories (issues, elections or politics; housing; employment; financial products and services) only narrow the search.
- Type the brand name. The results show matching Pages first, each with its ad count.
- Pick the right Page. Same-name Pages are common, so check the profile picture and the follower count before you open one. Once you are on the Page's ads, every filter below applies to that Page only.
If a brand runs ads from more than one Page, one per country for example, repeat the search for each.
Step 2: filter to what you want
The library searches the text of an ad, the text inside its images, the audio of its videos and the call-to-action button. It does not translate, so search in the language of the ads you want. A space between words means "and"; a search for an exact phrase is a separate option.
The filters that matter for creative research:
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Active status | Running now, no longer running, or both. Inactive ads only exist for political ads and for ads that reached the EU or the UK |
| Media type | Image, video, meme (an image with text laid over it), or no media |
| Platform | Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger, WhatsApp, Threads, Oculus, streaming services |
| Language | The language of the ad text |
| Start date | Ads that started on or after, or on or before, a date |
The combination that pays off most often is one Page, active ads only, sorted by start date, oldest first. The ads at the top have run the longest, and an advertiser keeps paying for an ad only while it works.
Step 3: read one ad
Each ad card shows the Library ID, the start date (and the end date, if the advertiser set one), the platforms it runs on, and the ad itself. Behind one ad there can be more than one version: different primary texts, different cards in a carousel, different link titles and descriptions. The library lists every version, which is where a brand's testing shows.
For ads that reached the EU or the UK, the card also shows estimated reach across the EU. It shows the age range and gender the advertiser chose, and the locations included or excluded. The same three targeting fields exist for political ads shown in Brazil.
For ads about social issues, elections or politics, and only for those, the library adds more. It shows who paid for the ad, a spend range, an impressions range, and a breakdown of the people reached by age, gender and region.
What to take from a competitor's ad, once you have it open, is the subject of a separate post on Facebook ad examples.
What the Ad Library does not tell you
- Spend and impressions for commercial ads. The spend and impressions ranges exist for political and issue ads only. Nothing in the library says what a brand pays.
- Results. No clicks, conversions, cost per result or return on ad spend, for any ad.
- Reach outside the EU, the UK and Brazil. The reach figure covers the whole EU, or the UK, or Brazil, never one country inside them and never the US.
- The audience, beyond the EU and UK targeting fields. Interests, custom audiences and lookalikes are not disclosed anywhere.
- Why an ad is missing. A commercial ad that stopped running leaves the library, and Meta can remove an ad for a policy violation or a government request. A brand that advertises only outside the EU and the UK shows active ads only, with no history.
The one public signal of an ad's success is time. An advertiser who sees the numbers you cannot has paid for every one of the 90 days that ad has been running.
The API, for people who run many searches
Meta's Ad Library API returns the same ads as the website, with the same filters, for up to ten Pages per query. Two rules shape what you get. Commercial ads come back only if they reached at least one EU location. Ads that never reached the EU return only when they are about social issues, elections or politics. Every result carries a snapshot address that shows the ad with its uncompressed images and video. You may download that creative for analysis under Meta's terms, one ad at a time.
If you work from Claude, ChatGPT or Perplexity, the Adsap connector runs these searches for you. It shows the ads as a gallery with a day count per ad, and the tool page lists the filters.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The library is a public page on facebook.com and opens without a login. The API is free as well, once you have completed Meta's access steps.
No. Spend ranges exist only for ads about social issues, elections or politics. For a commercial ad, the library shows the ad, its start date and its platforms. If the ad reached the EU or the UK, it shows an estimated reach too. The best public signal of success is how long the ad has been running.
Four common reasons. The ad stopped running and never reached the EU or the UK, so it left the library. The brand runs it from a different Page. You searched in a different language from the ad. Or Meta removed the ad for a policy violation or a government request. An ad also takes up to 24 hours to appear after its first impression.
Each ad has a snapshot page that shows its uncompressed images and video. Meta's API reference allows you to download one ad's creative for analysis under Meta's terms. There is no batch download.
Sources
All Meta pages read on 19 October 2026.
- Meta Ad Library, about page and search tips. The scope: ads currently running, political and issue ads for seven years, EU ads for a year, UK ads after July 1, 2025 for a year. The 24-hour delay, the five ad categories, the Ad Library Report and the branded content search.
- Meta Help Center, What is the Meta Ad Library and how do I search it. Active ads for all categories, inactive ads for political and issue ads only, the seven-year retention, the removal cases and the policy warning.
- Meta Graph API reference, Ad Library API (ads_archive), v26.0. What a keyword search matches, no translation, the filters, up to ten Page IDs. The rule that ads which did not reach the EU return only when they are about social issues, elections or politics.
- Meta Marketing API reference, Archived Ad, v26.0. The fields of one ad, which of them exist only for EU, UK, Brazil or political ads, the snapshot address and its download terms.
- Adsap docs, Search Meta Ad Library and Show Ad Library ad.