Yes, the Facebook ads library is a free tool that allows anyone to see ads running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network. The ads library provides transparency into the ads and Pages on Facebook platforms, including paid ads about social issues, elections or politics.
What is the Facebook ads library?
The Facebook ads library is a public, searchable database of advertisements running across Facebook’s platforms. It was launched by Facebook in 2018 to provide more transparency into political and issue advertising on its platforms. The ads library allows anyone to search and browse active and inactive ads about social issues, elections or politics.
The ads library contains data on:
- All active ads running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network
- Inactive ads about social issues, elections or politics that ran in the last 7 years
- Information about the ad’s funding entity, targeted audience and time range
- Demographic data such as age, gender and location about an ad’s audience
- The number of impressions an ad received
This level of transparency into ads and ad targeting provides accountability for advertisers, especially for political and issue-based ads. The ads library is part of Facebook’s efforts to prevent election interference and improve the transparency of political advertising.
Who can use the Facebook ads library?
The Facebook ads library is free and available to the public. Anyone can search and browse active and inactive ads in the library without a Facebook account. There are no restrictions on who can access and use the tool.
Here are some examples of who may find the ads library beneficial:
- Researchers and academics studying political ads and issues
- Journalists reporting on social issues, elections and politics
- Watchdog groups monitoring election and political influence campaigns
- Campaigns and political groups analyzing opponents’ ad strategies
- Regular Facebook users interested in seeing ads related to social issues or politics
- Global citizens concerned about election integrity in their country
The public nature of the ads library makes it a valuable tool for promoting transparency, education and research around political and social issue ads on Facebook’s platforms.
What information can you find in the ads library?
The Facebook ads library provides detailed information about ads and advertisers, including:
- The ad’s content – text, images, videos
- Ad impressions and spend
- Dates the ad ran
- Ad target audience – age, gender, location
- Page name that ran the ad
- Funding entity behind the ad – verified Page owner, organization or person
For social issue, electoral and political ads, even more information is available:
- “Paid for by” disclaimer
- Full text of the ad creative
- Reach and frequency of ads
- Topic categories like immigration, civil rights, taxes, etc.
This amount of ad data enables scrutiny from journalists, researchers and regulators. It also promotes accountability among political advertisers.
How to search the Facebook ads library
The ads library has a searchable interface that allows lookups by keywords, Pages, organizations, locations, age and gender. Here are some tips for navigating the tool:
- Use keywords like “election”, “candidate name”, “proposition #” to find relevant ads
- Filter by location to see ads targeted to a specific country or state
- Filter by age and gender to analyze targeting strategies
- Browse ads from verified Pages and view their contact info
- Search by funding entity name to see all associated ads
- Compare ad creatives, spend and impressions for different advertisers
The ads library retains data for up to 7 years, so you can also search historical ad campaigns. This allows longitudinal tracking of advertisers and their strategies over multiple election cycles.
Limits of the Facebook ads library
While the ads library provides useful transparency, there are some limits to its capabilities:
- No data on hyper-targeted ads – Only high-level age, gender and location breakdowns are shown.
- No information about ad micro-targeting strategies and custom audiences
- Spend and impression data are not exact figures.
- Data coverage gaps – Ads library does not contain all ads run globally on Facebook’s platforms.
- Hard to verify ad content – There are concerns about factual accuracy of some ad claims.
Researchers have also noted technical issues in capturing data from the tool. Overall though, the ads library represents a major increase in transparency from Facebook’s past policy.
Conclusion
The Facebook ads library is free, public and contains comprehensive data on political, election and social issue ads run on Facebook platforms. It enables journalists, watchdogs and everyday users to analyze ad campaigns and advertiser strategies. Despite some data and technical limitations, the tool represents a big step for Facebook in providing more transparency around ads and reducing election interference risks. The ads library advances Facebook’s accountability to global regulators and democracies.
The free ads library database will likely expand in coverage and capabilities over time. It reflects Facebook’s response to criticism of its poor ad transparency prior to 2016 elections. While more progress can still be made, the ads library provides a helpful new view into the world of online political advertising.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Facebook ads library available worldwide?
Yes, the Facebook ads library contains data on ads run worldwide across Facebook’s platforms. However, due to data retention policies, ads run in some countries may not show up in searches.
What are some best practices for using the Facebook ads library?
Here are some tips for using the ads library effectively:
- Use precise keywords and filters to narrow your search
- Browse archived ads to analyze trends over time
- Compare statistics between advertisers side-by-side
- Check ad creatives for factual accuracy
- Follow large Pages to monitor their new ad campaigns
- Export results to analyze data offline
What types of ads are included in the Facebook ads library?
The ads library contains data on all active ads running on Facebook platforms. For inactive ads, it only has data on ads related to social issues, elections or politics.
How often is the Facebook ads library updated?
The ads library is updated in real-time with all active ads running on Facebook platforms. Inactive political/issue ads are updated on a 24-hour delay from when the ads stopped running.
Are Instagram ads included in the Facebook ads library?
Yes, the ads library contains data on ads run on Instagram, in addition to Facebook’s platforms like Messenger and Audience Network. Instagram is owned by Facebook.
Example Data Tables
Top Spenders on Political Facebook Ads – 2022 US Midterms
| Advertiser | Amount Spent | Impressions |
|---|---|---|
| Senate Majority PAC | $10 million | 156 million |
| Club for Growth Action | $6.7 million | 92 million |
| NRSC | $5.3 million | 124 million |
| NRCC | $5 million | 87 million |
| Planned Parenthood Votes | $4.8 million | 70 million |
Locations Targeted by MyCampaign’s Facebook Ads
| State | Number of Ads | Spend |
|---|---|---|
| California | 35 | $42,000 |
| Texas | 25 | $31,000 |
| Florida | 21 | $27,000 |
| New York | 13 | $19,000 |
| Illinois | 8 | $11,000 |
Conclusion
In summary, the Facebook ads library is a free, searchable database of ads running on Facebook platforms. It provides transparency into political, election and social issue advertising for researchers, journalists and the general public. The tool contains detailed targeting data, creatives, and impression statistics to enable analysis of advertiser strategies and misinformation campaigns. While the ads library has some data limitations, overall it represents a major step towards accountability and openness from Facebook. For anyone interested in online political ads, the Facebook ads library is an indispensable resource.