Facebook’s ad library provides transparency into the ads running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network. The ad library shows active ads, inactive ads that ran in the past, and details about those ads such as targeting, budget and more.
Who can access the Facebook ad library?
The Facebook ad library is free and available to anyone with an internet connection. You do not need a Facebook account to access the ad library. It is a public searchable database that allows anyone to see what ads are running on Facebook’s platforms.
What information does the ad library provide?
For each ad, the Facebook ad library shows:
- The ad’s creative (image or video)
- Ad text
- Page name that ran the ad
- Disclaimer text
- Paid for by information
- Potential reach of ad
- Impressions
- Ad spend range
- Demographic distribution of audience reached (age, gender, location)
- Dates ad ran
- Ad ID number
This provides full transparency into the content and targeting of ads running on Facebook. You can see exactly what ads a Page is running, how they are targeting audiences and how much they are spending.
Active vs. inactive ads
The ad library shows both active and inactive ads. Active ads are currently live and running on Facebook. Inactive ads previously ran on Facebook but are no longer active.
For inactive ads, the ad creative (image/video), text, and targeting details are available for up to 7 years in the US. Some information may be available for inactive ads in other countries.
Searching for ads
The Facebook ad library allows you to search for ads in a few different ways:
- By Page name – See all ads that a Page has run
- By ad text – Search for keywords in the ad text
- By Pages category – Search for ads run by Pages in certain categories like news, politics, etc.
- By country – View ads delivered in a specific country
- By dates – See ads delivered during a date range
This flexibility allows you to find the ads you are interested in analyzing based on Pages, text, targeting, or timing.
Ad statistics
For each ad, the ad library provides statistics like:
- Potential reach – The estimated number of people the ad could have reached based on its targeting and placement
- Impressions – The number of times the ad was displayed on screen
- Ad spend range – The estimated amount spent to run the ad, shown in ranges like less than $100, $100-$500, $500-$1000, etc.
- Demographic distribution – The age, gender and location distribution of the audience that the ad reached
This helps provide a sense of the scale of the ad campaign and who it reached. However, it does not show more detailed engagement metrics.
Targeting details
The ad library provides information about how each ad was targeted, including:
- Location
- Age
- Gender
- Detailed targeting – interests, behaviors, etc.
- Placement – News Feed, Instagram Stories, etc.
- Devices
However, it does not show the full targeting parameters. Facebook says they only show “salient” targeting to protect advertisers’ strategy while providing meaningful transparency.
Limitations
While the Facebook ad library provides useful transparency, it has some limitations:
- No engagement data – It does not show clicks, conversions, or other engagement metrics for ads.
- Incomplete targeting data – Only “salient” targeting details are shown.
- Delayed updates – New ads may not appear immediately.
- No API access – The data cannot be easily exported.
- Spend ranges – Ad spend shows estimated ranges, not precise figures.
Use cases
Here are some examples of how people commonly use the Facebook ad library:
Researching competitors’ ad strategies
Businesses can look up competitors to see what kind of ads they are running and analyze their targeting, creatives, and spending levels to inform their own strategy.
Monitoring political ads
Politicians, journalists, watchdog groups and voters can search for political ads to analyze messaging, targeting tactics, and spending transparency.
Monitoring issue-based ads
Similarly, people can search for ads about social issues, elections, and politics to understand influence campaigns.
Analyzing trends
Analysts look at aggregated ad data to identify trends in spending, formats, targeting and more across industries, advertisers and periods of time.
Researching Pages
See what ads a Page is running to learn about what they promote on Facebook.
Checking for scam ads
Search by keywords to try to identify sketchy/scammy ads on Facebook.
Providing customer support
Advertisers can use the ad library to provide ad examples when communicating issues or questions with Facebook’s support teams.
Ad library usage statistics
Here are some statistics on usage of Facebook’s ad library since it launched in 2018:
- Over 100,000 people have visited the ad library website
- The ad library website has received over 600,000 searches
- Over 30 partners including news organizations, watchdogs and academics have accessed the ads API to do deeper analysis, totaling over 500,000 searches.
- The most searched for keywords include Trump, Biden, Senate, election, vote, inauguration, and politics.
- News Feed is the most common ad placement that people search for.
This shows that there is significant public interest in analyzing ads running on Facebook’s platforms.
Should advertisers be concerned?
Some advertisers have expressed concerns about how much transparency the ad library provides into their ad strategies and metrics. However, Facebook designed the ad library to balance transparency for users with protection of advertiser interests:
- Ad creative and text are shown, but detailed targeting parameters are not fully revealed.
- Only ad spend ranges are shown, not precise figures.
- Engagement metrics like clicks and conversions are not shown.
While competitors can potentially glean some useful intelligence on strategy, they do not have access to advertisers’ full metrics or bidding and targeting tactics. The ad library aims to provide meaningful transparency without compromising advertisers’ competitive advantage.
Pros of the ad library
Some pros of Facebook’s ad library include:
- Promotes ad transparency
- Helps hold advertisers accountable
- Allows monitoring for misinformation
- Useful for research and analysis
- Free access for anyone
Cons of the ad library
Some cons of Facebook’s ad library include:
- Does not show full targeting parameters
- No engagement metrics like clicks or conversions
- Ad spend shows estimated ranges, not precise figures
- New ads can take time to appear in the system
- No API access for most people
Perspectives on Facebook’s ad library
Facebook’s ad library has prompted debate weighing transparency vs. protection of advertiser data. Here are some perspectives:
Positive opinion
Supporters argue the ad library strikes a reasonable balance and provides useful transparency compared to the previous lack of any accessible ad data.
Critical opinion
Critics argue it provides a misleading veneer of transparency while obfuscating detailed targeting data advertisers actually use day-to-day.
Advertiser opinion
Most advertisers feel it reveals enough competitive intelligence to be concerning, but not enough to fundamentally compromise campaigns.
Academic opinion
Academic researchers have used the ad library extensively to analyze political ad spending but caution that its limitations prevent full accountability.
The future of Facebook’s ad transparency
Facebook has faced ongoing pressure from regulators, academics, public interest groups and users to provide more transparency into ads on its platforms.
Some possibilities for future ad transparency features include:
- Adding engagement metrics for ads like clicks and conversions
- Revealing more precise targeting parameters
- Reducing delays for new ads appearing in the system
- Adding an API for expanded access to approved researchers
- Showing exact ad spend figures instead of ranges
- Adding transparency for Custom Audience targeting segments
However, Facebook will likely resist changes that it feels reveal too much competitive intelligence about advertisers’ strategies. The company must attempt to balance demands for transparency with protecting its business model.
Conclusion
Facebook’s ad library provides useful transparency into ads running on their platforms, allowing the public, media, regulators and researchers to analyze ad content, targeting, reach and spending. However, it has limitations in the depth of data provided. Facebook aims to strike a balance between meaningful transparency and protecting advertiser data.
Ongoing debate continues around whether the ad library provides sufficient transparency, or if Facebook should reveal more detailed data to hold advertisers fully accountable. But for now, the ad library remains a central pillar of Facebook’s efforts to add transparency to its advertising ecosystem.