If you haven’t used social media ads libraries to scope out the competition, you're missing out on important insights that could help your creative and social media strategy. For agencies, it can also be a great tool to pitch additional platforms to clients.
That being said, not all social media platforms have an ads library (unfortunately), so I’ll be going over the only ones available: Meta, TikTok and Reddit.
Meta Ads Library
Source: Facebook Ads Library
How Facebook Ads Library Works
This was the OG ads library. Currently you are able to filter ads by country, ad category, and by keywords or advertiser. Once the user sets their parameters, Facebook Ads Library pulls up all relevant Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp placements in chronological order.
After Facebook shows the relevant ads, users can add additional features such as: ad status (active vs not active), advertisers, platforms, language, and impression date.
Users can also download reports to see overall spending and details by advertisers. This is only available for ads that are part of Special Ad Categories (housing, credit, employment, and issues, elections, or politics).
Customizing your own search with the Ad Library API is another feature for developers. It can help advertisers build custom searches using parameters like estimated ad audience size, counties, or language. This tool is only available for Special Ad Category ads.
You can also search for branded content to find paid partnership ads on Facebook and Instagram. Users can search by brand or by content creator.
Source: Facebook Ads Library
Users do not need to be logged into Facebook ads library to use it.
Facebook Ads Library Review
If there are ads by a specific advertiser that you want to look for, Facebook Ads Library can be really helpful. However, its keyword function leaves much to be desired. Users can search exact terms by putting them in quotation marks to see more qualified ads but it doesn’t always work.
I like that there is an option to create your own report for special ad category ads, but it's inconvenient that advertisers have to utilize another API on top of conversions API and lean on their developer teams.
TikTok Ads Library
TikTok is unique in that it has an ads library, top ads dashboard, and top ads spotlight as three different entities. I’ll go through each of them.
How TikTok Ads Library Works
Source: TikTok Ads LIbrary
TikTok Ads Library
When users visit the TikTok Ads Library page, they can filter ads by target country, ad type, date range and keywords. Unfortunately, you are only able to see results from a limited number of countries, and the United States is not included.
Each ad shown will highlight when it was first and last shown and estimated range of unique users who saw the ad. Users do not need to be logged in to the platform to use TikTok Ads Library.
How TikTok Ads Dashboard Work
Source: TikTok Ads Dashboard
TikTok Ads Dashboard shows you which ads performed the best. You can filter by county, industry, objective, set day ranges, languages, formats, and likes. This dashboard has more countries available to select, including the United States.
Once you set up your parameters you can sort by: ‘For You’ (based on your activity and business information), reach, CTR, 2 second views rate, 6 second views rate, conversion rate, and likes. The search results will also highlight likes, CTR, and budget (low, medium, and high).
If users click ‘see analytics,’ they are shown the ad’s targeting region, industry, objective, brand’s name, landing page, ad caption, ad performance metrics, and video analysis.
Source: TikTok Ads Dashboard
The video analysis is more like a script analysis of the voice over of the ad and it calls out all the things that are successful.
If users scroll down, they can even see interactive analysis for CTR, conversion rate, clicks, conversions, and time remaining.
Users must be logged into TikTok Business Center to use TikTok Ads Dashboard.
How TikTok Ads Spotlight Works
Ads highlighted in TikTok Ads Spotlight are handpicked by creative experts each month. Out of the tools, this has the least of customizations and filters. Users can only filter by industry.
Source: TikTok Top Ads Spotlight
Once a user selects the industry, it will show videos as well as their likes, CTR rankings, and budget. If a user clicks ‘see analytics,’ it will mirror what is seen on the TikTok Ads Dashboard.
Just like with TikTok Ads Dashboard, users need to be logged into TikTok Business Center.
TikTok Ads Library/ Dashboard/ Spotlight Review
I’m unsure why TikTok Ads Library doesn’t show United States ads, especially since US revenue on the platform was $16 billion in 2023. Regardless, TikTok Ads Dashboard is the best one because you can get qu granular in your filter selection and reporting and there are more country options available.
How Reddit Ads Library Works
Launched in September 2024, Reddit’s ads library is the newest and it's called ‘Reddit Ads Inspiration Library.’
This library is a collection of top-performing Reddit creative that resonates with different communities on the platform.
Source: Reddit Ads Inspiration Library
Users can filter by industry, budget (low, medium, high), format, placements, and optimization events (conversions, awareness, traffic, etc).
Once a user clicks an ad, they can see what best practices the copy meets. Users do not need to be logged in to use the Reddit Ads Inspiration Library.
Source: Reddit Ads Inspiration Library
Reddit Ads Inspiration Library Review
This ad library works in a similar way as the previously mentioned. However, I think it shines because Reddit’s AI goes through the text copy and highlights where it identifies which best practices are being met and helped with the ad’s performance. Full transparency, I feel that copy is more important than the visual for most placement types on Reddit.
Final Thoughts
Even though Facebook Ads Library was the original, it seems lacking compared to TikTok and Reddit. Despite that, Facebook Ads Library is still an important tool to see what your competition is doing. In 2024, it is estimated that Meta will make up over 20% of US digital ad spend.
When you’re doing a competitive analysis, these platforms do have different demographics and user behavior. Looking at these libraries can help develop a full funnel strategy as well as creative that can help achieve your goals.
If you need help achieving your digital marketing goals or want to expand into additional social media platforms, contact us today!
