How to Use the Meta Ad Library for Competitor Research in Australia

The Meta Ad Library is a free, public database that shows every ad currently running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the Audience Network. You do not need an account, a budget or a login to use it. For any Australian business running or planning paid social, it is the most direct way to see exactly what your competitors are spending money on right now.

Which matters in Australia more than most markets, as its reported around 19 million Australians use Facebook every month and roughly 12 million use Instagram. With social media penetration sitting near 77.7% of the Australian population (about 21 million active users), the odds are high that both your customers and your competitors are inside Meta’s ecosystem every single day.

This guide covers what the Meta Ad Library shows, how to use it step by step, which signals actually matter and where its blind spots are.

What is the Meta Ad Library?

The Meta Ad Library, still commonly referred to as the Facebook Ad Library or Facebook Ads Library, is a searchable database of active advertisements running across Meta’s platforms. Meta originally launched the Ad Library in 2019 to increase transparency around political and election-related advertising. However, marketers quickly recognised its value as a source of competitive intelligence. In response, Meta expanded public access to the library, making it possible to view active ads from all advertisers.

For a standard non-political ad you can see the creative (image, video or carousel), the ad copy, the date it started running, which platforms it appears on and whether the advertiser is running multiple versions of it. For ads about politics or social issues, Meta discloses more, including spend ranges and impression data.

You will find it at facebook.com/ads/library. There is no app and no paywall. One rule shapes everything: you can only view active ads, once a campaign is paused or runs out of budget, the ad drops out of the library.

Why the Meta Ad Library matters for Australian businesses

The Meta Ad Library is completely free to use, making it an accessible alternative to dedicated competitor intelligence platforms that can cost hundreds of dollars per month. It provides a real-time view of competitor advertising activity across Meta’s platforms at no cost, giving businesses valuable insights into how others are attracting and engaging customers.

This level of market intelligence is particularly valuable in Australia, where social media usage is among the highest in the world and consumers are active across multiple platforms. Facebook continues to reach a significant share of Australian social media users, while Meta’s combined Facebook and Instagram ecosystem remains one of the primary channels for digital advertising and customer acquisition. If your competitors are investing in social media advertising, a substantial portion of that activity is likely visible through the Ad Library, allowing you to monitor campaigns, identify creative trends and uncover new opportunities in your market.

The Meta Ad Library can help you uncover:

• Which offers, promotions and price points your competitors are pushing right now.
• How aggressively they are advertising. A brand running 200 ads is likely investing heavily in testing and optimisation, while a brand running only a handful of ads may be taking a more conservative approach.
• Which creative formats, messaging angles and hooks they consistently return to across campaigns.
• When they launch seasonal or promotional campaigns, allowing you to plan ahead rather than simply react to market activity.
• Emerging trends in your industry and the types of content that appear to be resonating with customers.

How to use the Meta Ad Library step by step

1. Open the library. Go to facebook.com/ads/library. No login is required, though signing in gives you a smoother experience.
2. Set the country to Australia at the top of the page. This is the single most important filter for local research, because ad delivery and disclosure vary by country.
3. Keep “Ad category” on “All ads” unless you are specifically researching political or issue advertising.
4. Search by brand or by keyword. Enter a competitor’s Page name to audit one business, or a category term (for example “meal delivery”, “conveyancing” or “activewear”) to map everyone advertising in that space.
5. Apply the filters that carry signal. The two most useful combinations are 1) video only, to study a competitor’s hooks and user generated content style, and 2) filtering by platform to see whether they lean on Facebook or Instagram.
6. Click “See ad details” on any ad. This is the step most people skip and it reveals every variation of that ad, so you can see the advertiser’s A/B testing approach.

A faster route to a specific competitor: open their Facebook Page, go to the “About” or “Page Transparency” section and click through to their active ads.

What to look for (and the myth to ignore)

Most people browse the Ad Library for creative inspiration and stop there. The real value lies in identifying patterns.

Watch for Replication: Look for ads that have been running for a long time and ideas that appear repeatedly across multiple creatives. If a competitor keeps testing variations of the same message, offer, or hook, it’s a strong sign that the approach is working for them. One ad may be an experiment. Ten versions of the same concept suggest a proven strategy.

Start Dates: Pay particular attention to ad start dates. Ads that remain active for months are often delivering results, as advertisers typically pause poor performers quickly.

The key myth to ignore is that ad longevity alone guarantees success. The Ad Library does not show spend, clicks or impressions for commercial ads, so a long-running ad is only a signal, not proof. Use it to identify promising ideas, then test them in your own campaigns.

To make the most of the Ad Library, keep a swipe file of strong examples, note recurring trends and weaknesses and review competitor activity regularly. A monthly review is usually enough to spot meaningful patterns without getting distracted by day-to-day changes.

A 15 minute competitor review you can repeat

You do not need a full afternoon to get value from this. A short, repeatable routine beats an occasional deep dive.

1. Minutes 1 to 3. Search your three closest competitors by Page name, one at a time, with the country set to Australia. Note how many active ads each is running. A jump from four ads to forty is a signal that someone has increased budget or launched a campaign.
2. Minutes 4 to 9. Open “See ad details” on the ads that appear multiple times. These replicated angles are your competitors telling you what is working, for free.
3. Minutes 10 to 13. Filter to video only and watch the first three seconds of each. The hook is where paid social is won or lost and patterns become obvious fast.
4. Minutes 14 to 15. Screenshot two or three standout ads into a shared swipe file and write one line on why each works.

Do this monthly and you build a living picture of your category rather than a one-off snapshot. Over a year, that record shows you which competitors test constantly and which have gone quiet, which is often the earliest sign that a rival is pulling back or a new one is scaling up.

The limits you need to know

The Ad Library is a snapshot tool, not an analytics platform. Being aware about the Libraries limits may keep you from drawing the wrong conclusions.

• No spend or impressions for commercial ads. Those figures are only disclosed for political and issue advertising.
• Active ads only. Paused campaigns disappear, so you cannot see a complete history of everything a competitor has tried.
• No built-in export. You can save creatives manually or screenshot them, but there is no download button.
• The Ad Library API is limited for commercial ads. It exists, but for standard business ads it exposes far less than the visual interface, which is why most competitor research still happens by hand.

For history, volume trends or cross-advertiser tracking, you would need a paid intelligence tool layered on top. For most Australian businesses, the free library still covers the majority of what you need to develop strong creatives. 

Turning research into better campaigns

Competitor research is only valuable if it improves the campaigns you launch. The process is simple: identify the angles your competitors keep repeating, uncover the opportunities they’re overlooking and then test your own version with a compelling offer and a strong creative hook.

The challenge isn’t finding insights. It’s turning those insights into campaigns that generate leads, sales and measurable growth. Many in-house teams simply don’t have the time or resources to consistently research competitors, develop creative and optimise performance.

That’s where we can help. As a digital marketing agency, we turn competitor intelligence into high-performing campaigns across Meta, Google and other digital channels, helping you stay ahead of the market rather than chasing it. See how we approach Facebook advertising and Instagram advertising, or take in the bigger picture with our social media marketing and paid advertising services.

Discover how we create high-performing  Facebook advertising and Instagram advertising, or explore our full suite of services social media marketing and paid advertising services.

Want to know exactly what your competitors are doing, and how to beat it? Get a free marketing audit and we will show you where the gaps are in your paid social, or book a call with our Sydney team to build a plan around them.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Meta Ad Library free to use?

Yes. The Meta Ad Library is completely free, with no account, subscription or advertising budget required. Anyone can access it at facebook.com/ads/library from a desktop or mobile browser.

Can I see how much a competitor is spending on Facebook ads?

Not for standard commercial ads. Meta only discloses spend ranges and impression data for ads about politics and social issues. For regular business ads you can see the creative, copy, start date and platforms, but not the budget.

Why do some competitor ads disappear from the Ad Library?

Commercial ads only appear while they are actively delivering. When an advertiser pauses a campaign or it runs out of budget, the ad drops out of the library. Political and issue ads are the exception and are retained for longer.

What is the difference between the Facebook Ad Library and the Meta Ad Library?

They are the same tool. Meta renamed the Facebook Ad Library to the Meta Ad Library, and it covers ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the Audience Network from one database and one URL.

How often should I check competitor ads?

A monthly review suits most Australian businesses. Checking too often makes individual launches feel more important than they are, while a monthly cadence surfaces the patterns that matter, such as which angles competitors are scaling and when they run seasonal pushes.