Native Ads Spy Tools: How to See Taboola and Outbrain Ads

A native ads spy tool is a database of ads captured from native ad networks such as Taboola, Outbrain, MGID and Revcontent: the "recommended for you" and "around the web" boxes under news articles. Unlike Facebook, those networks have no public ad library, so the only practical way to see a competitor's native ads at scale is a tool that crawls publisher sites and records what appears.

The ad is only half of what you are paying for. The landing page behind it is usually the valuable part. Native campaigns typically send clicks to a long advertorial or quiz page, and those pages hold the persuasion that the thumbnail headline only teases.

What is native advertising, briefly?

Native ads are paid placements designed to sit inside editorial content. On a news site, they are the grid of thumbnails with headlines like "Doctors are surprised by this simple habit" at the bottom of an article. On other sites they are "sponsored" tiles styled to match the page.

The big networks buy space across thousands of publishers and sell it by the click. Advertisers upload a thumbnail image and a headline, and bid for placements.

The format rewards curiosity headlines and pre-selling. A typical native funnel runs:

Thumbnail + headline on a publisher site

Advertorial or quiz landing page

Offer page or product page

Checkout

That structure is why native research is different from Facebook research. On Meta, the ad carries much of the message. On native, the ad is a doorway, and you need to see the room behind it.

How do native ads spy tools work?

They collect ads in roughly the same way: automated browsers visit large numbers of publisher pages, from different countries and devices, and record every native widget they see. Each captured ad is stored with:

• The thumbnail and headline
• The network it ran on
• The publishers and countries where it was seen
• First seen and last seen dates
• The click-through chain and the final landing page, often with a saved copy of that page

The first-seen and last-seen dates do the same job as the "Started running on" date in the Meta Ad Library. An advertiser who keeps buying the same native headline for months is getting a return from it. If you want the underlying idea, our post on what an ad spy tool is explains how these databases are assembled generally.

Which tools cover native ads?

A handful of tools specialise in native, and a few broader spy tools include it as an add-on. The names you will come across most:

• AdPlexity sells separate products by traffic type, with a native product alongside its social one. Our AdPlexity review covers what the index is good at.
• Anstrex focuses on native and push ads, with landing-page downloads.
• PowerAdSpy is primarily social, and its pitch is breadth across several ad networks. It starts from $69/mo, and higher tiers add platform coverage, so confirm that the plan you pick actually includes native before buying.

I am deliberately not quoting native module prices here. Pricing for native products changes often, is frequently sold per module, and roundup sites contradict each other. Check the vendor's own pricing page for the exact product you would use, and assume that each additional traffic type is an additional subscription.

What most well-known Facebook spy tools do not do is native. AdSpy ($149/mo), Foreplay (from $59, or $49 billed annually), Minea (from $49) and BigSpy (from $9, with a free tier) are built around social platforms. Our best ad spy tools comparison sorts tools by which networks they actually index.

Is there a free native ads spy tool?

Not in any complete sense. There is no free, official native ad library, and the paid tools rely on expensive crawling.

There are three free approaches that go surprisingly far:

1. Browse publishers yourself. Open the big news and entertainment sites in your target country, scroll to the native widgets, and note repeated advertisers. Repetition across sites and days is a signal on its own.

2. Follow the click. When a native ad interests you, click it and save the landing page. Our guide on finding competitor landing pages covers how to record the full redirect chain and the final page.

3. Check the same brand on Meta. Many native advertisers also run Facebook and Instagram ads, and those are fully public in the Meta Ad Library. The advertorial angle usually shows up on Meta too, often as a long-text ad pointing at the same page.

The third one is my usual starting point. It's free, it's complete for Meta, and it tells you quickly whether a native competitor's message is working elsewhere.

What should you look for in a competitor's native campaign?

After the headline has caught your eye, most of the value is in the pages behind it.

The headline families. Native advertisers test dozens of headline variations on the same theme. Group them. The theme that keeps getting new variations is the one that works.

The advertorial structure. Note the order of the story: the hook, the problem, the discovery, the proof, the offer. That skeleton transfers across products far better than any single line of copy.

The pre-sell to offer handoff. Where does the advertorial send people, and what changes on the way? A soft quiz leading to a discount is a different strategy from a long story leading to a full-price product page.

Thumbnail style. Native thumbnails lean on odd, curiosity-driven images. Note which kinds persist.

Geography. If an advertiser runs native in one country for months and then appears in three more, they have found something scalable.

How does native research fit with Facebook research?

For most brands, it's a supplement, not a replacement. Native volume is concentrated in particular categories: health, finance, insurance, home improvement and a lot of direct-response ecommerce. If your competitors are not in those, native tools will feel empty.

If they are, the combination is powerful. Native shows you the long-form argument. Meta shows you how the same argument gets compressed into a scroll-stopping ad.

On the Meta side, the Ad Library is free, but it has no download button and ads disappear when they stop running. Our free Meta Ad Library downloader saves a competitor's whole library into one ZIP with a searchable index, so you can keep the Meta half of a funnel alongside the saved advertorial. The step-by-step for saving videos is in how to download Facebook Ad Library videos.

Whatever you collect, the rule is the same across networks: learn the angle and structure, then write your own. Copy the angle, not the asset. This is not legal advice.

When is a native spy tool worth paying for?

Only when native is part of your media plan or your client's. Concretely:

• You buy native traffic. Then a spy tool pays for itself by skipping headline tests others have already lost.
• You run affiliate or lead-gen offers. Those verticals live on native, and advertorial research is the job.
• You write advertorials. Copywriters in direct response use native libraries like a swipe file.

If you only run Meta and Google, a native tool will mostly show you categories you are not in. Put the money into creative instead.

If you're unsure, run the free approach for two weeks first. Browse the major publishers in your market daily and note repeat advertisers in your category. If you find several, a paid tool will probably earn its keep. If you find none, you have your answer without spending anything.

FAQ

What is a native ads spy tool?

It is a database of ads captured from native ad networks like Taboola, Outbrain and MGID. It records the thumbnail, headline, where it appeared, first and last seen dates, and usually the landing page behind the ad.

Is there a free native ads spy tool?

There is no complete free option, because native networks have no public ad library. You can research manually by browsing publisher sites, clicking through to landing pages, and checking the same advertisers in the free Meta Ad Library.

Can I see competitors' Taboola or Outbrain ads?

Yes, either by seeing them on publisher sites yourself or through a paid native spy tool. Neither network publishes an official searchable library of advertisers' ads.

Do Facebook ad spy tools cover native ads?

Most do not. Tools like AdSpy, Foreplay and Minea focus on social platforms. Tools that cover native, such as AdPlexity, usually sell it as a separate product.

Are native ads spy tools worth it?

They are worth it if you buy native traffic, run affiliate or lead-gen offers, or write advertorials. If your competitors are not advertising on native networks, the database will have little to show you.