The only Facebook ads spy tool you’ll ever need!

So you’re on a mission to get your hands on a Facebook ads spy tool? Well, you’re in the right place.

In this video, I’ll show you how you can access the entire Facebook ads library and check out all the ads your peers or competitors, whichever term you prefer, are running right now. But I won’t leave you hanging out to dry with just a link. I’ll walk you through the tool and give you tips and tricks on how you can get the most out of this library. And yes, this one is free and completely legal.

Buckle up agent, open your laptop and get ready to launch. I know you just waited for this... so here’s the link to access the library.

Welcome to the official Facebook Ad Library! You don’t even need a Facebook account to use it. Just type in the name of the profile you want to check out in the search bar, and you’re ready to get the data you want. That’s what I call “spy in style”.

A login isn’t required; what is mission-critical though, is a list of your peers you want to spy on based on your niche. By the way, if you haven’t nailed down your niche, you might want to watch this video here asap.

A little note for you: If you type in the name of a profile and hit enter too fast - let’s just check out Tony Robbins - you might see a page like this. Now, this is not the page you want to be on because you can only see ads that are in some way associated with Tony Robbins, but those ads aren’t his ads. Go back to the search bar. Then delete the last letter, wait until this dropdown menu expands and then select the official Tony Robbins profile. Tada. Now we’re talking ads. You know that you’re on the right page if you see the cover image, the headshot, and some page information.

So, the first thing we see on this page here is that Tony Robbins runs 620 ads right now globally. If you want to see how many ads and what kind of ads he’s running in a specific country, just click the little menu here and select the country you’re interested in. Please note that your default setting might not be “all” but rather a specific country. If that’s the case, just click the arrow and select whichever country, or if you want globally “all”, you want to see.

Next, you can see that Facebook sorted the ads based on their launch dates. The newest ones are located on the top of the page. The oldest ones are all the way at the bottom of the page.

The green dot here means that this ad is currently live and is being distributed to the audience - and if you’re part of it, you will see it on Facebook or on Instagram.

There are three things I want to point out here:

1) Some ads have a little number in a circle here, which means there are multiple versions of this ad. Click it, and then you can flick through the different versions and check out what’s different.

2) Let’s go back because some versions do have a little “i” above the ad just like this one here. If you click the see ad details link here, you can see that they’re testing currently two different images for this ad here. Now let’s go back. If you want just to see the ad full screen, just click the see ad details link just as we did previously.

3) The last thing I want to point out are the three dots... like here. This means that the preview cuts off the copy, so if you want to see the full copy, just click the three dots or click see ad details. Clicking the dots mean that you can see the full copy in the preview. Clicking the link means that you see the ad in full-screen mode.

Okay, let’s move over to the more interesting stuff. Images or videos used and their format, the copy and the headlines and the buttons. To do this, let’s hop over to another profile, the one of Brian Tracy, and let’s talk about what information you can get out of the ad library and whatnot.

Let’s start with what you can’t get out. You won’t see the placement of the ads. For example, if they’re focusing on Facebook only or on Instagram stories or if they said show desktop only; you also won’t see who or which interests they targeted nor the age or gender. You also won’t get any details about their budget or campaign objectives.

Now over to the good stuff and in my opinion the most important parts...
You see their copy - if it’s a long copy or short copy. You see their images. Let’s say native images like here or designed images with or without text overlay, rectangle or square, what headlines they use, the call to action and the button choice they made, including any ad variation.

You can also spy on which countries they focus on. So, for example, Tony Robbins focuses only on those four countries where Brian Tracy is following the more global approach and has more or less all the countries in there.

You can see that Brian Tracy is playing with different formats. Images with text overlay, cartoon style images, video teasers, and so on. And looking at this ad down here, he seems to run Instagram stories ads too. But that’s not all.

You can also check which lead magnet or opt-in is working amazingly well, so you can see that this ad, for example, is still active after two and a half years, so that means that his audience is obviously loving the 6-step book planning worksheet.

Use all this information as inspiration for your own marketing strategy. Yes, I said inspiration, don’t copy it.

Also, by clicking the ad, you can review the landing page and the structure. Check out the copy they use, how they describe the benefits, and if they use the one-step or two-step opt-in. Pretty cool stuff, right? One additional tip... if you’re in a niche that’s kinda regulated by Facebook and their wording or imagery policy, this library is your go-to place. Look at the ads of your peers and explore the angle they were using in their ads, how they worded their copy, the style they used, the words they used and the ones they avoided, to comply. You will find ads from nearly every industry. Some just need to be a little bit more creative not to get flagged. Also, be aware that the big guns have a little bit more leeway than the smaller accounts.

Were you one of the eager agents who did a little bit of research on your own while I was talking and you’ve encountered a page like the one of Kris Carr... Where are her ads? If you see a page like this, this simply means that this profile is currently or at this very moment running no ads at all. Check back at a later point in time when she’s maybe running a promotion.

But wait, Sabine, you only showed us huge accounts. What about my real peers? Don’t worry. They’re all here. Check out this one. This is Tanya Marie, she’s a relationship coach who focuses on thriving after divorce. She has under 400 likes - an emerging page, so to speak - and you can see her ad. So, it means they’re all here. You just need to look for them. So if someone has a business page, yes, you need to type in the business page title and not their real name if they’re operating under a brand, you will see their ads here as long as they are running ads right now.

Whew. What a library loaded with ads and so many insights for you to take away.

I’m curious, how do you plan to use the Facebook Ad Library for your business? Leave me a comment here. I can’t wait to hear from you.

You’ve just been promoted from a spy to an insider when it comes to your peers’ ads. Now it’s your turn to use this information and make it work for your coaching business. You can do this.

If you would like to get your hands on more tips and tricks, please subscribe to my channel and give this video a thumbs up. 

Please share this page with your friends who want to learn more about the Facebook Ad Library and check out my other videos on YouTube because they are all about how you can grow your coaching business online.

Bye for now, and I’ll see you in the next one.