A carousel ad carries several images or videos in a single ad. People swipe sideways through the cards. Advertisers use the format for things a single image cannot say: a product's different colours, the pieces of a collection, a step-by-step use, a before and after.
When you want to see competitors' carousel ads, the first obstacle is this: the Meta Ad Library has no option that separates them. Results mix single-image, video and multi-card ads. You find the carousels among hundreds of cards by opening them one by one.
This article shortens that job: separating multi-card ads with a card filter, flipping through their cards without opening them, and moving the ones you like into an archive. It makes no claim about whether carousels work better than single images; the answer to that question is in your own account's tests, not in the library.
A note: the word "card" means two things here. In the panel every ad appears as a card; each image or video inside a carousel ad is also one of the carousel's cards. To keep them apart, we call the ad itself an "ad" and the pieces inside it "cards" or "creatives".
1. Keep the search broad
The Media Type options in the panel's Meta Search section are: All, Video, Images Only, Viral Visuals, All Visuals and No Image or Video. There is no carousel option among them. So leave the media type at All in the Meta search; you will separate the carousels once they are on the screen.
Set the search term, country and status as usual. If you want to see the carousels a competitor is using right now, set Status to Active.
2. Load the cards
Auto Scan scrolls the page for you and never counts the same ad twice. Carousels are only part of the ads in a category, so it helps to load a few more cards than usual. You set the card limit and speed in the panel.
3. Separate the multi-card ads
The Creative Count (Carousel) filter on the Filter tab counts how many separate images or videos a card has, and filters by a lower and upper limit. Set the minimum to 2 and single-creative ads drop out; only multi-card ads remain.
It is a card filter: it does not send a new request to Meta, it works on the cards on the screen and it is on the free plan. The number next to the label shows how many cards in the scan have more than one creative. After a filter is applied, the numbers next to the options switch to a "before → after" form; that is where you read how much the list narrowed.
Two distinctions help:
- Creative count is not variation. Creative count counts the cards inside one ad. The variation on a card is the number of ads that use the same creative and copy. An ad can have a single image and many variations; a carousel can run on its own.
- The upper limit matters too. Short carousels and long carousels do different jobs. A low upper limit isolates short sequences; a high lower limit isolates long catalogues.
4. Combine it with media type
The Media Type options in the card filters are Video, Images Only, Viral Images, All Visuals and No Image or Video. Used together with creative count, they let you ask finer questions: carousels made only of images, or ones that include video?
If you want to measure how much room video takes in your category, our video or image article builds a format-level comparison with the same filters.
5. Flip through the cards without opening them
To judge a carousel you need to see all of its cards. The extension makes that easier in two ways.
With Swipe Hover Media Carousel on, the carousel's cards appear one after another as you move the mouse sideways over the creative, with indicators showing which card you are on. This setting is on when you start. The Max Media Limit next to it sets up to how many cards an ad can have for this to work.
If the setting is off, or the ad has more cards than the limit, you get the classic view: forward and back arrows, a counter in the form "1 / N" and dots.
Hover over the creative and the card grows to the size you chose in the Zoom setting. With the When enlarged setting you choose between Show whole and Fill frame. To read the text on every card of a carousel, showing the whole image is usually better.
6. What to read
Ask three things when you look at a carousel:
- What does the order say? Is the first card there to catch attention or to show the product? Does the last card end with an offer or a call to action?
- Are the cards connected? Some carousels are built so the cards join up as you swipe; others put independent products side by side.
- How long has it been running? The card shows how many days the ad has run. An ad that has been running 45 days or more and is still active carries the Winner badge. Set Sort to Longest Running to bring the carousels a competitor has kept on for a long time to the top.
Running for a long time is not a performance measure, but it tells you the competitor has not switched that ad off. Rather than individual carousels, it is when you see the same structure repeated across different brands that you can talk about a pattern.
7. Move them into an archive
Save the carousels you like with a double-click on the creative, or right-click the card and choose Save; the Saved state filter shows only those. The Double-click a creative setting decides what a double-click does; its default is Save.
Carousels work well as a separate shelf in a creative archive. We explain how to set up and tag the archive in our creative swipe file article.
Three mistakes to avoid
- Narrowing the media type in the Meta search. If you pick only video, carousels with image cards may drop out; if you pick only images, carousels with video may drop out. Search broad, then narrow with the card filter.
- Confusing creative count with variation. They are separate filters and answer different questions.
- Copying a single carousel. Do not treat a structure as a template until you have seen it repeat across the category.
Cost
The Ad Library is free and public. Creative Count, Media Type and the card browsing settings are on the extension's free plan. The free plan scans 2,000 ads a day, the limit renews in 6-hour windows, and no credit card is required. You can see the plans for paid features on the pricing page.
To do this with the extension: Competitor creative research