Ad research
How to search the Meta Ad Library
By Jackson Gathondu. Published 1 November 2026. Updated .
The Meta Ad Library lists the Ads running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Meta's other apps. Anyone can search it without an ad account. You can search by keyword or by Advertiser, and set the country the Ads were shown in.
This guide covers both ways to search it: by hand in the library itself, and through an Assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT connected to ShortsIntel, which returns the Ads as a list you can sort by how long each one has run.
What the Meta Ad Library holds
Meta says the library holds every Ad currently active across its apps. Ads about social issues, elections or politics are kept whether they are active or not, for seven years, and Meta shows a range for how much was spent on each.
Ads delivered in the EU or its associated territories stay visible while they run and are archived for one year after their last impression. For every other commercial Ad, Meta shows no spend or impressions.
How to search the Meta Ad Library by hand
Open the Ad Library
Go to facebook.com/ads/library. The library is public, so you do not need an ad account.
Choose a country and an ad category
Set the location to the country you sell in, or to all countries. Pick all Ads for commercial work, or the issues, elections and politics category for political Ads.
Search by keyword or Advertiser
Type a product word such as mattress or meal kit, or the name of an Advertiser. When you search a brand, check you have the brand's own Facebook Page: an Advertiser in the library is a Page, and many brands run more than one.
Narrow and read the results
Use the filters on the results page to cut the list down, then open an Ad to see its details.
How to search it through your Assistant
Searching by hand gets slow once you want to compare dozens of Ads or check the same Advertiser every week. Connected to ShortsIntel, your Assistant runs the search with the search_ads tool and gets every Ad back as data it can sort and compare.
Connect your Assistant to ShortsIntel
Add the ShortsIntel MCP server once. The connect steps further down this page cover Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. No API key is needed.
Search by keyword and country
Name the product category and the country. Say whether you want active Ads only, and how to sort them.
Search the Meta Ad Library for active mattress Ads in the US, longest running first. List the Advertiser, start date and days running for each.Search by Advertiser
Give the Advertiser's name, its Facebook Page link or its Page id. A Page link or id is the safest, since several Pages can share a name.
Show me every active Meta Ad from this Advertiser in the US, longest running first: (paste the Facebook Page link)Ask for the details you need
Ask for the title, body, call to action and landing page of each Ad, or filter by media type, placement or start date. Ask for Ad analysis when you want the video or image itself read: hook, offer, format and on-screen text.
Keep only the video Ads that started after 1 June 2026 and analyse the five with the highest winner Score.Check the price first if you like
Ask for an estimate and the Assistant quotes the price in Credits without running the search or charging anything.
Estimate what it costs to pull 200 Meta Ads for protein powder in the US.
Search filters your Assistant can use
Each of these maps to a field on the search_ads tool. You do not need the field names: describe what you want and the Assistant fills them in.
| Filter | What it does | Say something like |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Searches Ad text for a word or phrase | Ads for protein powder |
| Advertiser | Every Ad from one Facebook Page, by name, Page link or Page id | Ads from this Page: (link) |
| Country | Ads shown in one country, given as a two-letter code; leave it out for all countries | in the US |
| Status | Active Ads (the default), inactive Ads or both | including Ads that have stopped |
| Kind | Commercial Ads (the default), political, issue or all | political Ads only |
| Media type | Video, image or carousel | video Ads only |
| Placement | Facebook, Instagram, Messenger or Audience Network | Ads that run on Instagram |
| Start date | Ads that started on or after, or before, a date | started after 1 June 2026 |
| Sort | Library order (the default), winner Score, days running or newest first | longest running first |
| Limit | How many Ads to return: 50 by default, up to 500 per search, with more pages after that | the first 200 Ads |
Data limits
Data limits for Meta Ad Library search
- The library shows only what Meta publishes. There is no spend or impressions for commercial Ads, and no sales for any Ad.
- Keyword searches match loosely, so a category search can return Advertisers outside it. Ask your Assistant to drop the ones that do not fit.
- Sorting by winner Score, days running or start date sorts the Ads in the page returned, not the whole library. Ask for a larger limit when you want a wider pool to sort.
- Ad analysis covers the first 50 Ads of a search.
- This guide covers Meta. The TikTok Ad Library is separate and covers Ads shown in the EU/EEA, the UK, Switzerland and Turkey only, and the Meta filters above (country, status, kind, media type) are refused on a TikTok search.
What your Assistant gets back
Real responses from our own account, trimmed to the fields an Assistant reads and to the first Ads of each list. The Advertiser search asked for 10 Ads and cost 10 Credits. The keyword search asked for 50 Ads and cost 50 Credits.
The second sample shows the loose matching mentioned above: the second Ad in a dog food search comes from a health Page, not a pet brand.
Meta Ad Library, via MCP server
search_ads: library meta, advertiser "634050770016568" (the Facebook Page id of a fresh dog food brand), country US, status active, order_by days_running, limit 10
{
"run": { "kind": "ads_search", "status": "completed", "charge_credits": 10 },
"result": {
"library": "meta",
"items": [
{
"url": "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=907487392096359",
"advertiser": { "id": "634050770016568", "name": "The Farmer's Dog" },
"creative": {
"title": "Sign up now for 50% off your order!",
"body": "Dog food should be food, not burnt brown balls. Switch to a smarter, healthy pet food today and get 50% off your first box.",
"cta": "Shop now",
"link_url": "https://www.thefarmersdog.com/ad50fb"
},
"media_type": "image",
"placements": ["FACEBOOK", "INSTAGRAM", "AUDIENCE_NETWORK", "MESSENGER", "THREADS"],
"first_shown": "2026-03-26T07:00:00.000Z",
"days_running": 220,
"is_active": true,
"variant_count": 1,
"winner_score": {
"score": 67,
"inputs": { "days_running": 220, "variants_added": 0, "advertiser_ads": 22, "snapshots": 2 },
"confidence": "high"
}
},
{
"url": "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=1932982077338407",
"advertiser": { "id": "634050770016568", "name": "The Farmer's Dog" },
"creative": {
"title": "Get 50% off your first box",
"body": "Their recipe for a long, healthy career? Fresh food that’s clinically shown to support healthy aging in dogs. Get 50% off your first box today!",
"cta": "Shop now"
},
"media_type": "image",
"first_shown": "2026-03-26T07:00:00.000Z",
"days_running": 220,
"is_active": true,
"winner_score": { "score": 67, "confidence": "high" }
},
...
],
"next_cursor": "eyJjIjoi..."
}
}
(10 Ads in all, from 220 down to 130 days running; media URLs and other fields trimmed)Meta Ad Library, via REST API
POST /v1/ads/search: library meta, query "dog food", country US, status all, order_by winner, limit 50
{
"run": { "kind": "ads_search", "status": "completed", "charge_credits": 50 },
"result": {
"library": "meta",
"items": [
{
"advertiser": { "name": "The Farmer's Dog" },
"creative": { "title": "Sign up now for 50% off your order!", "cta": "Shop now" },
"media_type": "image",
"first_shown": "2024-11-30T08:00:00.000Z",
"last_shown": "2025-11-28T08:00:00.000Z",
"days_running": 363,
"is_active": false,
"winner_score": { "score": 100, "confidence": "low", "reason": "single_snapshot" }
},
{
"advertiser": { "name": "Cholesterol Relief Community" },
"creative": { "title": "Natural Relief in Weeks", "cta": "Learn more" },
"media_type": "image",
"first_shown": "2026-06-01T07:00:00.000Z",
"days_running": 153,
"is_active": true,
"winner_score": { "score": 100, "confidence": "low", "reason": "single_snapshot" }
},
...
],
"next_cursor": "eyJjIjoi..."
}
}
(50 Ads in all; bodies, media URLs and other fields trimmed)How to read the results
Start with days running. An Advertiser who keeps paying for an Ad for months is usually getting a return from it, and one who adds new versions of an Ad is usually scaling it. The winner Score combines the two, measured against the Advertiser's other Ads, on a scale of 0 to 100.
Check the confidence on each Score. It is low when the Advertiser runs only a few Ads or when we have seen the Ad only once, as in the keyword sample above. The competitor ad research hub covers how to turn a shortlist of long-running Ads into a brief.
What a search costs
A Meta search costs 1 credit per Ad delivered, so 50 Ads cost 50 Credits. Analysing an Ad adds 20 credits. An Advertiser lookup, which reads the Page's profile and Ad counts, costs 15 credits.
Credits are prepaid at 1,000 credits per US dollar, with no subscription. New accounts get 1,000 credits free, valid for 90 days. A Run that fails costs nothing, and a partial one is charged only for what finished. Every price is on the pricing page.
Connect your Assistant
The server address is the same for every Assistant. You sign in to ShortsIntel and choose which organization pays.
Claude.ai
Web and desktop. No API key: Claude signs in to ShortsIntel for you.
- Open Claude's add connector page with ShortsIntel filled in, and choose Add. Or go to Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector, and paste the endpoint below.
https://www.shortsintel.com/api/mcp - Sign in to ShortsIntel, approve the connection and choose the organization whose Balance pays for Runs.
- In a chat, turn the ShortsIntel connector on and ask your question.
ChatGPT
Web and desktop, in Developer mode. No API key: ChatGPT signs in over OAuth.
- Open ChatGPT's connector settings and switch Developer mode on.
- Create a connector named ShortsIntel, paste the endpoint and choose OAuth.
https://www.shortsintel.com/api/mcp - Sign in to ShortsIntel and choose your organization.
- In a new chat, choose the + next to the message box, then Developer mode, and turn ShortsIntel on.
Claude Code
One command, then sign in from Claude Code.
- Add the server in your terminal.
claude mcp add --transport http --scope user shortsintel https://www.shortsintel.com/api/mcp - Run /mcp inside Claude Code, choose shortsintel and sign in.
Codex
One command; Codex signs in on first use.
- Add the server in your terminal.
codex mcp add shortsintel --url https://www.shortsintel.com/api/mcp - If no browser window opens to sign in, start it yourself.
codex mcp login shortsintel
Cursor and VS Code
One-click install links; each asks you to confirm.
- In Cursor, open the Cursor install link.
- In VS Code, open the VS Code install link.
- Sign in to ShortsIntel when the editor asks.
Prompts to try
Paste any of these once your Assistant is connected. Swap in your own category, country or Advertiser.
- Search the Meta Ad Library for skincare Ads in the UK that started in the last 30 days and list the offers they lead with.
- Show me every active Ad from this Facebook Page in the US, longest running first: (paste the Page link)
- Find video Ads for meal kits that run on Instagram and have run for more than 60 days.
- Pull 200 Meta Ads for budgeting apps in the US and group them by Advertiser.
- Analyse the three Ads with the highest winner Score and tell me what their first three seconds have in common.
Related reading
Questions
- How do I search the Meta Ad Library?
- Open facebook.com/ads/library, choose a country and an ad category, then type a keyword or an Advertiser's name. Connected to ShortsIntel, Claude or ChatGPT can run the same search for you and return the Ads as a sorted list.
- Can I search the Meta Ad Library by advertiser?
- Yes. In the library, search the Advertiser's name and pick its Facebook Page. Through ShortsIntel, give your Assistant the Page link or Page id, which avoids mixing up Pages that share a name.
- Can I see ads from one country only?
- Yes. Set the location in the library, or tell your Assistant the country. Leave the country out to search every country.
- Does the Meta Ad Library show ad spend?
- Only for Ads about social issues, elections or politics, where Meta shows a spend range. Commercial Ads carry no spend or impressions, so run time and the number of versions are the closest public signals.
- Do I need an ad account to search it?
- No. The library is public. ShortsIntel reads it the same way and never connects to your ad accounts or social accounts.
- How much does a search cost through ShortsIntel?
- 1 credit per Ad delivered, plus 20 credits for each Ad you have analysed. New accounts get 1,000 credits free, valid for 90 days. A Run that fails costs nothing, and a partial one is charged only for what finished.
Try it in your Assistant
Connect ShortsIntel to the Assistant you already use and ask the question this guide answers, or try the calls in the Playground first.