Most agency pitches are about the agency: the team, the case studies, the process. The prospect listens, but has only one question in mind: do these people understand my business?
The strongest answer to that question is to show the prospect their own category from an angle they have not seen before. Which ads their competitors keep live right now, which promises they repeat, which formats they lean on, and where the prospect stands in that picture. All of it is public in the Meta Ad Library. All it takes is to collect it in one session and turn it into a story you can present.
This article describes that session. It is different from a monthly client report: the report tracks change with the same template every month, while the audit is done once and serves a single decision point. We cover the monthly report template in our article on competitor ad reports.
What the audit can and cannot say
Nothing loses trust in a pitch faster than pretending to know something that cannot be known. The library does not publish spend, impressions, results or targeting for commercial ads. So the language of the audit is the language of behaviour: who is advertising, for how long, in which format, with which message.
Say this plainly at the start of the pitch. "Everything on these pages comes from a public source, taken on this date, for this country." That sentence is not a weakness; it shows the method is transparent.
Preparation: the category and the competitor list
Before the session, decide two things:
- The category term. Write what the prospect sells in the words stores use in their ads. That lets the library build the competitor list for you.
- The country. The market the prospect sells in. It stays fixed for the whole audit.
Note the competitors the prospect already knows about, but do not limit the list to them. One of the most valuable findings is often a brand the prospect does not count as a competitor but which advertises heavily in the library.
Step 1: scan the category
Enter the category term in the Meta search in the side panel, pick the country and set the status to active. Auto Scan loads the whole list and never counts the same ad twice. The library keeps the search settings in the address bar: build this search's link with our search link builder and bookmark it; after the pitch you can reopen the same picture with the same settings.
Step 2: who is talking?
The Top Advertisers list in the Analytics tab shows the five brands with the most ads in the scan. Click a brand's name and the cards are filtered to that brand's ads.
This list is the first page of the pitch: "These are the five brands talking the most in your category right now." Whether the prospect is on that list sets the tone for the rest of the pitch.
If one brand floods the list, turn on Group Same Advertisers. A brand's cards collect into one group and you see more brands side by side on the screen.
Step 3: for how long?
Each card shows how many days the ad has been running and a stage badge. Set Sort to Longest Running. The Winner badge marks an ad that has been running 45 days or more and is still active.
The second page of the pitch: "The ads your competitors have not switched off for months." Pick one or two Winners per competitor and write one sentence next to them: what do they have in common? The same promise, the same format, the same button?
Step 4: what are they saying?
The Analytics tab summarises the ad copy in bulk:
- Top Keywords — the words used most often in the category.
- Top CTAs — the five most used buttons and their shares.
- Offer language — the share of ads promising free shipping, a percentage discount, cash on delivery, limited stock, a money-back guarantee or buy-one-get-one.
The third page of the pitch is the language of the category: "Everyone says the same three things." The real value is in the next sentence: "And nobody says this." To find that gap, compare the keyword list with the prospect's real strengths. We explain the copy reading method in detail in our article on ad copy research.
Step 5: in which format?
The Total, Active and Inactive counts and the video versus image share in the Analytics summary give you the category's format picture. If you open Media Type on the filter page and set Stage to Winner, you also see each format's share among the long-runners.
The fourth page can be short: "Video share in the category is this; among long-runners it is that." The difference is the rationale for the creative direction you will propose.
Step 6: where does the prospect stand?
Now search for the prospect's own brand. If it has no active ads, that is a finding too, but one to deliver gently. If it does, ask the same questions for it: how many ads, running for how long, what language, what format.
The fifth page is a comparison table. Rows for the prospect and three or four competitors; columns for active ads, Winners, dominant button and dominant offer. You fill in the table; the sources are in the panel.
Step 7: keep the evidence
Save every ad you will show in the pitch with a double-click on the creative. The Saved state filter shows only those; if a question comes up during the pitch, you can go straight back to the ad. In the Starter plan you can export saved ads to Google Sheets; each row carries brand, domain, button, days running, landing page URL, Shopify type and the date it was sent. That sheet becomes an appendix you can leave with the prospect after the pitch.
The skeleton of the pitch
- Method — source, date, country, search term. One sentence.
- Who is talking — the five brands with the most ads.
- What holds — competitors' Winner ads and what they share.
- What is being said — the category's language and the gap.
- In which format — video and image share, the difference among long-runners.
- Where you stand — the comparison table.
- Three hypotheses — three things you propose to test in the first three months, each tied to a finding.
The last page matters most and is deliberately called "hypotheses". The library does not tell you what will work; it tells you what is worth testing.
Three mistakes to avoid
- Estimating spend. The library does not show spend. Put a number on the page and the first question will be about its source.
- Belittling the competition. The prospect's competitors are often people they know. Present the findings neutrally.
- Building a screenshot gallery. A hundred ad images are not a finding. Give each page a one-sentence conclusion and let the visuals support it. We explain why a single list says little in our article on competitor ad analysis.
Cost
The Ad Library is free and public. 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 which plan suits several prospects and clients on the pricing page.
To do this with the extension: Competitor reports for agencies