How to Use an Ad Spy Tool (Step-by-Step Workflow)

Here is how to use ad spy tools properly: pick a short list of real competitors, filter their Facebook and Instagram ads by how long they've been running, shortlist the long-runners, save them, and break each one down into hook, offer and angle before you brief your own version. The tool matters far less than the workflow, and the same six steps work in the free Meta Ad Library or any paid tool.

Most people open a spy tool, scroll for twenty minutes, screenshot three ads they like, and change nothing. This is the routine I actually use.

What is an ad spy tool actually for?

An ad spy tool shows you ads other brands are running, so you can see what the market is testing and what is surviving. If you want the full definition first, start with what an ad spy tool is.

The point is not inspiration in the loose sense. The point is to reduce the number of creative tests you waste by starting from angles that are already paying for themselves in someone else's account.

For Facebook ad spy work, the baseline tool is the Meta Ad Library at facebook.com/ads/library. It's free and shows every active ad from any advertiser worldwide. Paid tools sit on top of that idea and add things the library doesn't have.

Which ad spy tool should you start with?

Start with the free Meta Ad Library. It covers most of this workflow, and you'll learn what you're actually missing before paying for anything.

Here's how the common options compare, with prices as verified in August 2026:

Each paid tool has a real strength. AdSpy is known for depth of search. Foreplay is built around saving and sharing. BigSpy is the cheapest way to try a database. For a fuller comparison, see our roundup of the best ad spy tools.

How to use ad spy tools: what's the step-by-step workflow?

Here's the ad spy workflow end to end. It takes about an hour the first time and twenty minutes a week after that.

1. 1
   Define competitors5-10 brands selling to your buyer.
2. 2
   FilterLongevity first, then format and country.
3. 3
   ShortlistKeep only ads running for weeks.
4. 4
   SaveDownload before they get paused.
5. 5
   Break down and briefHook, offer, angle, then your version.

Step 1: Define your competitors

Don't search your category keyword and take whatever comes back. Write down five to ten brands that sell to the same buyer at a similar price.

Include two types. Direct competitors, who sell what you sell. And adjacent brands, who sell something different to the same customer. Adjacent brands are often where the freshest angles come from.

In the Meta Ad Library, search each brand's Page name, not a keyword. Keyword search is exact-match and clunky, so you'll miss ads that don't use your exact words.

Step 2: Apply the filters that matter

Most spy tools offer dozens of filters. Three do the heavy lifting.

Longevity. How long the ad has been running. Every card in the Meta Ad Library shows "Started running on". This is the practical performance signal, and I'll explain why below.

Format. Video, image or carousel. Filter to the format you can actually produce. A beautiful studio video is useless as a reference if your budget is phone footage.

Country. Set it to the market you sell in. Ads running in your country are being tested against your audience and your costs.

Step 3: Shortlist the winners

Now be ruthless. From each competitor, keep only ads that have been running for at least a few weeks. I use roughly 30 days as my first cut, then look harder at anything past 60 or 90.

Pay attention to clusters. If a brand is running five variations of the same concept, all started at different times, that concept is being scaled. It's a stronger signal than any single ad.

We cover the reasoning in more detail in Facebook ad longevity.

Step 4: Save and download what you shortlisted

This step is where most people's research quietly dies. They find a great ad, don't save it, and two weeks later it's gone from the library.

Paid tools like Foreplay save ads into boards for you. In the free library, you need to download the files yourself. The manual method is in our guide to downloading Facebook Ad Library videos.

I use our free extension, the Meta Ad Library downloader, which adds a Download button to each ad in the library. It saves videos in original HD, full carousels, and whole searches as one ZIP with a searchable swipe board and a CSV.

Step 5: Break each ad down into hook, offer and angle

A saved ad is raw material. It becomes useful when you write down why it works. For each shortlisted ad, I note:

• Hook: the first line of copy and the first two to three seconds of video.
• Angle: the core reason to buy. Saving time, fixing a specific problem, status, a comparison with an alternative.
• Offer: price point, discount, bundle, guarantee, free shipping.
• Proof: reviews, UGC, founder story, demonstration, numbers.
• Format: UGC talking head, static, carousel, demo.

After ten ads, patterns show up. Three competitors leading with the same pain point tells you more than any single creative. Our guide to finding winning ad angles goes deeper on this step.

Step 6: Brief your own version

Now write a creative brief that takes the angle and rebuilds it with your product, your proof and your customers.

A simple brief has five lines: the angle, the hook you'll test, the format, the proof you'll show, and the offer. Brief two or three hooks per angle so you're testing ideas, not one guess.

Competitor long-runner

Hook, angle, offer noted

Your own brief

Your own creative

How do you know if a competitor's ad is working?

For normal commercial ads, you can't see spend or engagement. The Meta Ad Library shows that only for political and social-issue ads, and the EU shows limited reach data. So you rely on proxies.

Longevity is the strongest proxy. After that, look for repetition: the same concept in several variations, or the same creative relaunched with a new start date. Both suggest the advertiser is putting more money behind it.

Likes and comments are the weakest signal. They're easy to inflate, and a funny ad can collect engagement while selling nothing.

What mistakes do people make with ad spy tools?

These are the four I see most often, including in my own early work.

Copying the asset. Downloading a competitor's video and running it, or cloning their creative frame for frame. Beyond the ethical and legal problems, it rarely works, because their ad is built on their brand, their proof and their audience's trust.

Chasing likes. Filtering by engagement and treating high-comment ads as winners. Engagement tells you an ad is interesting. Longevity tells you it's profitable.

One-day snapshots. Looking at a competitor once and drawing conclusions. You need at least a few weeks of watching to see which ads survive and which get cut. A weekly check of the same list is worth more than one deep dive.

Researching without briefing. A swipe file with 500 ads and zero briefs is a hobby. Set a rule: every research session ends with at least one brief.

How often should you run the workflow?

Weekly for your core competitor list, monthly for a wider sweep of adjacent brands.

The weekly check is quick. Open each competitor, note new ads, note which older ads are still running, save anything that's crossed your longevity threshold. The ads that survive week after week are your real shortlist, not the ones that looked good on day one.

Before a big creative sprint or a seasonal push, run the full six steps again from scratch. Markets shift, and a list of competitors from six months ago may be missing the brand that's now outspending everyone.

FAQ

How do you use an ad spy tool?

Pick five to ten real competitors, filter their ads by longevity, format and country, and shortlist the ones running for weeks. Save those ads, break each down into hook, angle and offer, then brief your own version with your product and proof.

Is the Meta Ad Library a free ad spy tool?

Yes. It's free and shows every active ad from any advertiser on Facebook and Instagram, with the date each ad started running. It doesn't let you download or permanently save ads, which is what paid tools and extensions add.

What filters matter most in an ad spy tool?

Longevity first, then format and country. Longevity shows which ads advertisers keep paying for, format keeps your references realistic for your production budget, and country keeps you focused on your own market.

How do you know if a competitor's ad is working?

Look at how long it has been running and whether the brand keeps launching variations of the same concept. Spend and engagement aren't shown for normal commercial ads, so longevity and repetition are the best available signals.

Is it legal to spy on Facebook ads?

Viewing ads in the public Meta Ad Library and saving them for research is standard practice. Reusing another brand's creative in your own ads is different and can infringe their rights. This isn't legal advice.

Can I copy a competitor's ad?

Copy the angle, not the asset. Use their hook structure or offer idea as a starting point, then build a new ad with your own footage, copy, product and customer proof.