When you start looking at a competitor, the first question is simple: how many ads do they run right now, and what are they? The Meta Ad Library answers it, but not in one go. The list loads piece by piece as you scroll. With a large advertiser it is easy to look at the first few screens and stop; your research then samples your patience, not the competitor.
This article shows how to load an advertiser's list to the end, how to tell that the list has really ended, and how to keep only that brand's ads in the result. If you are new to the library, start with our Meta Ad Library guide.
What you will see, and what you will not
The library shows each ad's start date, copy, creative and the address it links to. It does not publish spend, impressions or results for commercial ads. So when we say "all the ads" we mean the ads the library shows for that search, not the competitor's budget.
1. Set up the search
In the panel's Meta Search section, type the brand name into the Search Term box; its placeholder says the same thing: "Brand or keyword". Then check three settings:
- Target Country. The country the competitor sells in. If they sell in several countries, looking at each one separately gives a cleaner result.
- Status. For what is live today, Active. To also see what the competitor tried in the past, All; to see only what they switched off, Inactive.
- Search Type. Keyword (any order) looks for your words in any order, Exact Phrase looks for the phrase as a whole. If the brand name has two words, Exact Phrase narrows the result. In the panel this choice is on the Starter plan; the same setting is free in our search link builder.
Pick the settings and press Search on Meta. This is not a card filter: a new query goes to Meta, the cards on screen are cleared and it counts against your scan limit. So set everything first, then search.
Know one thing from the start: a keyword search may not return only that brand's ads. Other advertisers whose copy mentions the brand name can end up in the result too. We will separate them below.
2. Load the list to the end
Instead of scrolling by hand, use Auto Scan. It scrolls the page for you, turns every loaded ad into a card with its days running and stage, and never counts the same ad twice. Start scan in the bottom bar is enough to begin; the settings live in the Auto Scan section:
- Limit and Limit Mode. The limit is how many cards to stop at. In Total mode every scanned card counts. In Filter mode only the cards that pass your filters count; if you only want video ads, for example, the scan keeps going until it finds that many videos. To see all of a competitor's ads, use Total mode and keep the limit above the number of ads you expect.
- Speed. Slow, Medium or Fast. The panel's own note says Meta may temporarily slow the page down on Fast; for a long list Medium or Slow is safer.
- Gentle scan. Adds random waits between scrolls. Keep it on for long scans.
- Wait. How long the scan waits for new ads once it reaches the bottom of the page. If the page loads slowly, raising this keeps the scan from deciding too early that the results are over.
- Notification sound. Plays a short sound when the scan finishes or stops; useful when you work in another tab.
To cut a scan short, use Stop; pausing and resuming where it left off is on the Pro plan. If you start the scan again on the same page, in Total mode the limit is added on top of the cards already loaded, so the second round brings new cards.
3. Read why the scan stopped
The answer to "has the list ended?" is in the reason the scan stopped. Auto Scan stops in four cases:
- It reached the card limit. The list may not be over; raise the limit and start again.
- It reached the end of the page. The panel says "End of Page Reached!". The scan waited at the bottom for the Wait time and no new ads came. For that search, this is the end of the list.
- Your plan limit ran out. The panel says so separately. The list is not over; you can continue when your scans renew.
- You stopped it.
So only the "End of Page Reached!" message tells you the list has ended. In the other three cases you hold a sample, and you should read the results that way.
While the scan runs, the strip at the top of the panel shows the number of scanned cards live. With a filter on, it also shows the cards left on screen and the share filtered out.
4. Keep only that brand's ads
If other advertisers are in the result, three tools do the job:
- Top Advertisers. The Analytics tab lists the five advertisers with the most ads in the search, with their ad counts. Click your competitor's name and the cards are filtered by that text.
- Search card text. Searches the ad copy, headline, description, brand name and domain. Typing the competitor's domain is the cleanest way to drop brands with similar names.
- Group Same Advertisers. Collects several ads from the same advertiser under a single card and writes the ad count on it. You see at a glance how many advertisers are in the result and what share is your competitor's.
These are card filters: they send no new request to Meta, they only filter the cards on screen.
5. Read the list
You now have the competitor's ads for that search. Two easy ways to read them:
- Set Sort to Longest Running. The ads at the top are the ones the competitor has kept the longest. An ad that has been live for 45 days or more and is still active carries the Winner badge.
- Set Sort to Newest Published. The ads at the top are the ideas the competitor is testing right now.
If you searched with All, switched-off ads are in the list too. An ad of the same age that has been taken down carries the Ended badge; that is how you separate the ideas the competitor dropped.
The same competitor may run different ads on different platforms. Change the Platform chips and repeat the search; we cover the Instagram side separately in how to see a competitor's Instagram ads.
Three mistakes to avoid
- Settling for the first screen. The list loads as you scroll; if the scan did not stop at the end of the page, you have not seen the whole list.
- Taking the card limit for the result. A scan that stops at the limit does not say "there are this many ads", it says "I scanned this many cards".
- Counting other advertisers. A keyword search can bring in other brands; read the numbers after you separate them by domain or grouping.
Cost
The Ad Library is free and public. On the extension's free plan you scan 2,000 ads a day, the limit renews in 6-hour windows, and no credit card is required. If you scan large advertisers often, you can compare plans on the pricing page.
To do this with the extension: Meta Ad Library auto scroll