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The Meta Ad Library

Every ad your competitors run is public. Very few people use that well.

Sevenam installs a Meta advertising system on your own ad account and runs the technology that operates it — written decisions at 7am every morning telling you exactly what to do that day. One fixed setup fee, a fixed monthly, priced to the work rather than your media budget.

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What it actually shows you.

The Ad Library lists the ads any advertiser is currently running, along with when each started. It does not show spend, results, or audience for ordinary commercial ads — those details are only published for political and social issue advertising.

That limitation matters, because the most common misuse is treating a competitor's ad as proof that something works. You cannot see whether it is working. You can only see that it exists.

Every live ad from any advertiser, with its start date.
No spend, results or audience data for commercial ads.
Searchable by page name, and filterable by country.
A competitor's ad is evidence of a decision, not of a result.

The one signal worth reading.

Duration. An ad that has been running continuously for months is almost certainly earning its place, because advertisers turn off what loses money. An ad that appeared last week tells you nothing at all.

So scan for longevity, not for volume — then look at what those long-running ads have in common structurally. Hook, format, length, the first three seconds. Take the mechanism and build your own version; copying the execution just puts you second in someone else's test.

Sort your attention by how long an ad has been live.
Long-running ads are the closest thing to a public result.
Read the mechanism — hook, format, pacing — not the surface.
A wall of new ads usually means a competitor is still searching.
Check your own library too: it is what your customers see.

Questions people actually ask.

Is the Meta Ad Library free?

Yes, and it needs no login for basic searching. It is at facebook.com/ads/library.

Can I see how much a competitor spends?

Not for ordinary commercial advertising. Spend and reach ranges are published only for political and social issue ads.

Can competitors see our ads?

Yes, all of them, while they are running. That is worth remembering before you put an aggressive offer in an ad rather than behind a click.

Should we copy ads that have run a long time?

Copy the mechanism, not the ad. Running a close imitation puts you in a worse position than the original — same idea, less credibility, and no idea which part actually did the work.

How often should we look at it?

Monthly is plenty for most businesses. It is a creative research input, not a performance signal, and treating it as the latter leads to a lot of reactive churn.

Keep reading
Creative testingWhat to do with the ideas. What are Meta ads?The fundamentals. GlossaryEvery term, in plain English.
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