The most frustrating part of ad research is that good findings scatter. You like an ad, take a screenshot, paste the link into a chat. Three weeks later, when you look at the same competitor again, you cannot tell what you have seen before and what is new.
The fix is a simple table. Every finding is a row, every row has the same columns. The table grows week by week, can be filtered and can be shared with the team. This article shows how to build that table without filling it in by hand: by sending the ads you save straight to your own Google spreadsheet.
Why a spreadsheet
The ads you save stay in your panel. A spreadsheet, on the other hand:
- Can be shared with teammates or with a client.
- Lets you add your own columns, notes and colours.
- Builds up over months; you can go back to a competitor's history.
One note: the spreadsheet is not a reporting tool. The extension writes rows to it; it does not produce charts, summaries or PDFs. You build the report from those rows. We explain how to build one in our competitor ad report template article.
1. Connect your Google account
The panel's Settings tab has a Google Sheets Integration section. First sign in with the Connect with Google button. Then press Create a new spreadsheet: the extension opens a new spreadsheet in your Google account, named "AdVantage Scope" plus the date it was created. From then on, rows are written to that spreadsheet.
The note at the bottom of the section says it plainly: the extension connects to your own Google account, and your data is written not to us but only to your own spreadsheet.
The name of the connected spreadsheet appears in the Spreadsheet row of the section. Remove in the menu next to it removes the connection; after that you can create a new spreadsheet. For now the panel only creates new spreadsheets; it does not let you pick an existing one. So once you remove the connection, you cannot go back to the old spreadsheet from the panel. If you work for several clients or projects, it is more practical to use one spreadsheet and add a client column next to the others.
2. The structure of the table
The extension writes one row per ad. The columns are fixed:
- Brand — the name of the advertiser's page.
- Domain — the domain of the site the ad leads to.
- CTA — the ad's button.
- Days running — how many days the ad has been running; the value when the card was read.
- URL — the landing page address.
- Shopify type — if the ad leads to a Shopify store, the type of page.
- Saved on — the day the row was sent to the spreadsheet.
If the spreadsheet is empty, the extension writes these headers in the first row. Every later send appends rows to the end of the table; it does not touch the old rows. The headers are written in the panel's language.
There are seven columns, and they are deliberately plain. For information such as price, offer, angle or your own notes, you add your own columns next to them. From the URL column you reach the landing page in one click.
3. Three ways to send rows
Send saved ads in bulk. The ads you saved with a double-click on the creative, or with Save in the card's right-click menu, go over in one go with the Send Saved Ads to Sheets button. You can look at your saved ads first with the Saved state filter.
Send the whole scan. The Send All Ads on Screen to Sheets button writes every ad processed in the scan, including the cards you did not save. Card filters do not narrow this send: cards that did not pass the filters go into the table too. Use it when you want the full dump of a search; if you want to be selective, save and send the saved ones.
Send one ad instantly. If you set Double-click a creative to Send to spreadsheet, double-clicking a creative adds that ad as a single row.
There is also an automatic route: with Auto-send when an ad is saved on, the ads you newly save are collected and added to the table in batches at short intervals. The same ad never enters the queue twice. Auto-send works while the side panel is open, and it needs a connected spreadsheet first.
4. Avoid duplicates
The bulk button writes all saved ads every time you press it. Press it two weeks in a row and the previous week's ads are added to the table again. There are two ways around that:
- If you work on a regular rhythm, turn auto-send on; only the ads you newly save go over.
- If you chose bulk sending, clear your saved ads after sending, or remove the duplicates in the spreadsheet.
5. Turn the table into a database
Once rows start to pile up, the spreadsheet starts answering questions:
- Filter by Brand: every ad of a competitor you have saved so far.
- Sort by Saved on: what you found in which week.
- Sort by Days running: the ads that stay live for a long time are the ones a competitor trusts. In the panel, an ad that has been running 45 days or more and is still active carries the Winner badge.
- Group by Shopify type and Domain: how many different stores, how many product pages.
If you want to keep the creative too, add your own tag column: angle, format, offer. We explain how to tag a creative archive in our creative swipe file article.
6. A weekly rhythm
A research database gains value through regularity. A simple rhythm:
- Every week, search the same competitors with the same settings and load the cards with Auto Scan.
- Set Sort to Newest Published and look at the new ads.
- Save the interesting ones with a double-click on the creative; with auto-send on, the rows are added on their own.
- In the spreadsheet, write a short note on that week's rows.
After four weeks you have a month of a competitor's ad history.
Three mistakes to avoid
- Pressing the same button twice. Bulk sending creates duplicate rows; use auto-send or clean up.
- Taking Saved on for the ad's start. That column is the sending day. The ad's age is in the Days running column.
- Sending everything. The bigger the table, the harder it is to read. Instead of a full dump, save the ones you choose and send only those.
Cost
The Ad Library is free and public. Exporting to Google Sheets is in the Starter plan. The extension's free plan scans 2,000 ads a day, the limit renews in 6-hour windows, and no credit card is required. You can compare the plans on the pricing page.
To do this with the extension: Competitor reports for agencies