Microsoft Ads Library: How to Spy on Bing Ads Free

The free way to spy on Bing ads is the Microsoft Ad Library at adlibrary.ads.microsoft.com, where you can search any advertiser's name or words from their ad copy and see the ads they ran. The catch is that it only covers ads served in the EU and EEA, so for US, UK, Indian or other markets you still have to search Bing yourself, in a private window, set to the location you care about.

I run paid search alongside Meta for a few accounts, and Bing is the channel people forget to check. Competitors forget too, which is why their Bing ads are often stale copies of their Google ads.

How do you see a competitor's Bing ads?

There are two free routes and one paid route.

1. The Microsoft Ad Library. Official, free, no login. Search by advertiser or keyword and you get the ad text, the destination URL, dates and, for some ads, targeting and reach details. EU and EEA only.
2. Search Bing yourself. Type the queries your customers would type, in a private window, and note who shows up in the sponsored slots. Works in any country but only shows you what is live right now, for you, at that moment.
3. A paid keyword-spy suite. Tools like SpyFu, Semrush, iSpionage and Similarweb estimate which keywords a domain bids on and archive the ad copy they have seen. Most of them are built around Google data first, so check how much Bing coverage a given tool has today before paying for it.

For most small teams, the first two are enough.

What is the Microsoft Ad Library?

Microsoft describes it as "a public transparency tool that allows you to view all ads shown on Bing.com." It exists because Bing is designated a Very Large Online Platform under the EU Digital Services Act, which requires big platforms to keep a public repository of the ads they serve. Microsoft's own DSA information page points EU users to it as the "EU Advertising Repository."

Microsoft announced it in 2023 alongside advertiser verification. According to Microsoft's developer documentation, the library has recorded impressions from the EU and EEA since June 2023, and it notes plainly that the library "contains only advertisements served within the European Economic Area" and is "primarily intended for regulatory visibility rather than performance analysis."

In other words, it is a compliance archive that happens to be useful for research.

Some third-party write-ups say it also includes ads from MSN and the Microsoft Audience Network. Microsoft's own description talks about Bing.com, so treat wider coverage as possible but check the ads you find rather than assuming.

How do you search the Microsoft Ad Library?

Go to adlibrary.ads.microsoft.com and type either an advertiser name or a word or phrase that would appear in their ad copy. You do not need an account.

I mostly use advertiser search. Verified advertisers show their legal name, so you may need the company name rather than the brand. Keyword search is better for category research: search "accounting software" and you see whoever has that phrase in their copy.

You can narrow by date range and by EU or EEA country. The country list covers the 27 EU members plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. If you sell in Germany, filter to Germany and you get a cleaner picture of what local buyers are actually seeing.

What fields does the Microsoft Ad Library show?

For each ad, Microsoft's documentation lists:

• Advertiser name and the country the advertiser is registered in, plus whether they are verified
• The ad title and description (the actual copy)
• The display URL and the real destination URL
• Image assets, where the ad has them
• "Paid for by," if someone other than the account owner paid

Open a single ad and you can see more detail: the first and last date the ad recorded an eligible impression, a total impressions range across the EU and EEA, the share of impressions by country, and which targeting types were used at any point (gender, age, location, Microsoft audiences, or the advertiser's own audiences like remarketing and customer lists). If an ad was restricted, the reason can show up too.

Two caveats from Microsoft's own notes. First, the start date is when the library first recorded an impression, so an ad that has been running since before June 2023 will look newer than it is. Second, there can be a delay of one to three days before new impressions show, so the end date on a live ad may lag.

The destination URL is the field I care about most. It tells you which landing page they are sending paid traffic to, and that page usually says more about their offer than the ad does. I use the same habit on every channel, which is covered in finding competitor landing pages.

Can you download ads from the Microsoft Ad Library?

Not with a download button that I have found in the web interface at the time of writing. What Microsoft does offer is a public Ad Library API at adlibrary.api.bingads.microsoft.com, which returns the same data as JSON. According to the docs, you can call it without signing up, but unauthenticated requests get stricter rate limits. For higher limits you need a Microsoft account, a Microsoft Advertising account and a developer token.

If you can write a script, the API is the cleanest way to pull a competitor's history into a spreadsheet. Third-party scrapers also export it to CSV; check their terms and freshness first.

How do you see competitors' Bing ads outside the EU?

The library will not show the US, UK or most other markets, so you search Bing yourself. My routine:

1. Open a private (incognito) window. This keeps your own search history and any cookies from shaping results.
2. Set the location. Bing localises ads by where it thinks you are. Use Bing's region and location settings, or a VPN set to the city you sell in. Results change a lot between countries and even between cities for local services.
3. Search the money keywords. Your brand name, competitor brand names, and the three to five commercial phrases your customers use ("best crm for small business," "emergency plumber near me").
4. Screenshot the sponsored results. Note the advertiser, headline, description, extensions (sitelinks, callouts, prices) and click through to the landing page.
5. Repeat at different times. Budgets cap out, so a competitor missing at 4 pm may have been there at 9 am.

One thing to avoid: do not keep clicking competitors' ads to see the landing page. That costs them money and is the kind of thing that gets flagged as invalid clicks. Copy the display URL and type it in, or use the destination URL from the Ad Library if they also run in the EU.

If you advertise on Microsoft yourself, the Ad Preview and Diagnostics tool lets you preview results for a keyword and location without generating impressions, and auction insights show which domains compete on your keywords.

What won't the Microsoft Ad Library show you?

• No ads outside the EU and EEA. A US-only advertiser will not appear at all.
• No keywords. You see words in the ad copy, not the keywords they bid on.
• No spend or clicks. You get an impressions range for some ads, not budgets or results.
• No history before June 2023.
• Dynamic ads are a snapshot. For responsive and dynamic ad types, Microsoft says the title, description and assets may be one recent, representative version, not every combination that served.
• Limited targeting detail. You see which targeting types were used across the ad's life, not the exact audiences or locations.

None of that is unusual. Every official ad library hides spend and keywords for commercial advertisers, and paid tools can only estimate them.

How does Microsoft's Ad Library compare with Google and Meta?

Google's equivalent is the Ads Transparency Center, and it is the more useful of the two for search ads because it is not limited to Europe. It shows ads from verified advertisers across Search, YouTube, Display and more, with regions and dates. I wrote up how it works in the Google ads library guide, and the step-by-step for competitor research is in how to check competitors' Google ads. If a competitor runs on Google, their Bing copy is very often an import of the same campaigns, so checking Google first can tell you most of what is on Bing.

Meta's Ad Library is the richest of the three for creative. It shows every active ad from any advertiser worldwide, with a "Started running on" date for each, and in the EU it adds inactive ads and some targeting data. The Meta Ad Library guide is the full tour.

A Bing check is one stop in a wider audit. If you are mapping every channel a rival uses, where are my competitors advertising walks through the full list.

How do I fit Bing into my competitor research?

My order is Meta for creative, Google for positioning and offers, and Bing as a quick check. Bing rarely reveals a new angle, but it often reveals a different offer or landing page.

For Meta, I download competitors' ads so they do not vanish when switched off, using our free extension, which adds a download button to the Meta Ad Library and can export a whole search as one ZIP with a searchable swipe board and a CSV. If you want the manual methods too, downloading Facebook Ad Library videos covers every option.

Whatever you collect, copy the angle, not the asset. Studying public ads is standard practice. Reusing someone's copy or creative in your own ads is not. (This is not legal advice.)

FAQ

Is there a free Bing ads spy tool?

Yes. The Microsoft Ad Library is free, needs no login, and lets you search ads by advertiser or ad text. It only covers ads shown in the EU and EEA, so for other countries searching Bing in a private window with the right location is the free option.

Does the Microsoft Ad Library show US ads?

No. Microsoft says the library only contains ads served within the European Economic Area, recorded since June 2023. A competitor that only advertises in the US will not appear unless their ads also served in Europe.

Can I download ads from the Microsoft Ad Library?

There is no download button in the web interface at the time of writing. Microsoft offers a public Ad Library API that returns ad data as JSON, with higher rate limits if you authenticate with a Microsoft Advertising account and developer token.

Does the Microsoft Ad Library show keywords or spend?

No. You see the ad copy, destination URL, dates, an impressions range and targeting types, but not the keywords bid on or the budget. Keyword and spend estimates only come from paid suites such as SpyFu, Semrush or iSpionage, and those are estimates.

Is spying on competitors' Bing ads allowed?

Viewing ads in a public transparency library or on Bing's results page is normal competitive research. Avoid repeatedly clicking competitors' ads, which costs them money, and do not reuse their copy or creative in your own ads. This is not legal advice.