You know the feeling you get when you see a competitor's ad and think "damn, wish I'd thought of that"? Happens all the time. Here's the thing, you don’t have to wait for their ads to show up in your feed to actually get an idea about their creative ideation and ad concepts. 

You can actually go see every single ad a competitor is running right now, their entire paid media strategy laid out. Facebook has an Ad Library where you can pull up any page and see all their active campaigns. Google has one too, and so does LinkedIn. It's all just sitting there, completely open to the public.

This guide breaks down where you can find competitor ads to see what's working in your space so you're not flying blind when you build your next campaign. We’ll also cover how you can ethically perform competitor ad research to identify gaps in your ad creatives and overall brand messaging.

Why spying on competitors’ ads makes sense

If your competitors are running ads, it means they're testing something out. Maybe it's working, maybe it's not. But you can learn from their efforts either way.

The whole point of looking at competitor ads is to skip the guesswork. You get to see what messaging actually shows up in the market, what visuals people use, and how aggressive or soft the CTAs can be.

After you've looked at a dozen ads from competitors, you'll start seeing patterns, like the prevalent ad type, format, and tone. That kind of knowledge matters when you're building your own campaigns. It can actually save you from testing things that probably won't work.

A point you should note though, there's a difference between getting inspired and just ripping someone off. Don't copy headlines, and don't steal creatives. Use what you see to inform your strategy, not replace it. That's how you actually get better at this stuff.

Where to find your competitors' ads

So where do you actually look? The good news is that most platforms make this pretty easy. Here's a list of some prominent ad libraries.

Meta Ad Library

Facebook’s Meta Ad Library helps you search any business page and see every ad they're running. You don't even need to be logged in to your Meta account.

Go to the site, type your competitor's name or try a keyword from your industry, and boom. You can also narrow down your search by country or date if you want.

Here's what to pay attention to, if they're running like 15 versions of the same ad, that's not random. That means they're testing something extensively. Look at whether they're using video, carousels, or just single images. Check the CTAs and overall ad copy.

Pro tip: if an ad's been up for three months, it's probably doing well. If they keep swapping stuff out every few days, they're still hunting for what works.

Google Ads Transparency Center

Google's ad library is called the Ads Transparency Center. It also works similarly, you just search for a company and you'll see their search ads, display ads, and YouTube videos.

The useful part here is seeing the exact copy they're using in search. It’ll tell you what they think people are looking for and how they're trying to stand out. You can click through to their landing pages too, which can help you understand their ads landing page layout.

If you're planning to run Google Ads, this gives you a comprehensive preview of what you're up against.

LinkedIn, TikTok, and YouTube Ad Libraries

LinkedIn has an ad library but it's not as vast as Meta's or Google’s. It’s mostly useful if your business is B2B and you want to look at how your competitors are targeting B2B clients. 

You can get a sense of what tone and format people are using.

TikTok calls their ad library the TikTok Creative Center. It's less about stalking one competitor and more about seeing what's trending overall. Still useful if you're trying to crack TikTok ads.

YouTube's technically part of Google's setup, but you can also just go to a competitor's channel and look at their video ads yourself. See how they hook people in the first five seconds. Check the length. See where they're trying to send people.

Tools to analyze competitor ads

You can do a lot just by poking around ad libraries manually. But if you want to dig deeper or save time, there are tools built for this.

Free tools

Start with the ad libraries. Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok. All free, you don't need to pay for anything to see what competitors are running.

Pinterest has a trends tool that's decent if you're in eCommerce or anything visual. It shows you what people are saving and sharing, which is basically a preview of what creative might work.

Ubersuggest has a free version called Ads Grader that pulls some competitor ad info. Not a ton of depth, but it offers decent insights.

If you're bootstrapping or just testing this out, stick with the free stuff first. You can get pretty far just hanging out in Meta's ad library for an hour.

Paid tools

Paid tools give you more details, insights from historical data, spend estimates, and performance metrics.

SpyFu is good for search, it shows you what keywords people are bidding on, their ad copy, how long they've been running stuff. If you’re looking to run Google Ads, this tool is worth it.

SEMrush does search and display, plus some social media insights. However, it's more of a full marketing tool, not just ads. It's popular but it’s kind of expensive.

Adbeat is all about display and native ads. You can see placements, creatives, and how long campaigns run. Helpful if you're doing programmatic or banner stuff.

PowerAdSpy is focused on Facebook and Instagram. You can filter by engagement, see which ads got a ton of comments or shares. Pretty useful if you intend to spend most of your budget on social media.

Most of these options run $20 to $300 a month, some costing more. If you're already investing a few thousand dollars on ads, the cost usually makes sense. If you're just starting out or spending around $500 a month, maybe not yet.

How to learn from your competitors' ads

Looking at ads is one thing. Actually learning from them is another.

Don't try to memorize everything. Focus on what grabs attention first. The hook. The opening line. The first few seconds of video. If five competitors are using similar approaches, it's probably working with your audience.

Look at structure next. Do they lead with the offer or build up to it? Are they using testimonials, before-and-afters, demos? Is the copy short or detailed? That tells you what resonates.

Check the tone. Casual or formal? Funny or straightforward? This shows you what the audience expects in your space.

Pay attention to CTAs. "Shop Now" versus "Learn More" feels different. Aggressive CTAs work in some industries and bomb in others. See what your competitors use and you'll know what your audience responds to.

Look at five or ten competitors, not just one. What shows up repeatedly is what matters. One brand testing something is just an experiment. Everyone doing it means it's probably a best practice.

Also look for gaps. What's nobody talking about? Which benefits are they ignoring? That's your opportunity to stand out.

Save the good stuff. Screenshots, swipe file, whatever system works. When you're stuck on your next campaign, you'll have examples to pull from for inspiration.

Pro tips for ethical ad spying

Keep these in mind so you don't end up looking like a cheap knockoff:

• Don't straight up copy. See a good headline? Great. Now write your own version that actually sounds like your brand.

• Test ads first. A competitor running an ad doesn't mean it's working. Maybe they're still figuring it out too. Test it yourself before you go all in.

• Watch for patterns. If one person's doing something, it could be a test. If everyone's doing it, it's probably worth paying attention to.

• Keep a swipe file. Screenshot ads you like. Toss them in a folder. When you're stuck later, you've got examples to pull from.

Turn insights into better ads

Research is pointless if you don't use it.

Once you've looked at competitor ads, write down what you noticed. Which angles kept showing up? What formats were everywhere? Map it out.

Then apply it to your next campaign. Everyone using video instead of static images? Test video. Top competitors leading with a specific benefit? Try that approach.

Don't change everything at once. Pick one or two things. Test a new hook. Try a different format. Adjust the CTA. See what happens.

Use competitor research to guide your tests, not dictate your strategy. You're looking for ideas to experiment with, not a script to copy.

Build your ad brief around what you found. If competitors focus on speed, your audience probably cares about that. If they're all using testimonials, social proof matters in your niche. Let those insights shape your messaging.

And here's where it gets easier.

That's where a tool like Holo can help.

Holo is trained on 19,000+ high-performing ads and has processed over 10M+ marketing assets across industries. Instead of manually trying to decode what makes your competitors' ads click, you can use Holo to:

• Uncover proven creative patterns. Holo draws on its training data to show what kinds of messages, visuals, and formats tend to perform best in your niche.

• Generate ad ideas instantly. Get fresh copy, hooks, and visuals inspired by what's already working in the market.

• Build smarter campaigns faster. Use Holo's suggestions to shape your ad briefs or test-ready creatives without starting from scratch.

With Holo, you move from insight to execution in minutes. You're turning your competitor research into ad concepts built on real performance data.

Final thoughts

Looking at competitor ads isn't some secret growth hack. It's just basic research. You see what's out there, you learn from it, you make your own ads better.

Start with the free tools. Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center. Pick three competitors and see what they're running. You'll start gathering insights pretty quickly.

Don't make this complicated. You're not building a dossier on anyone. You're just trying to avoid guessing when you build your next campaign. The more you look, the better you get at seeing what actually works.