The Best Facebook Ads Research Methods to Boost Campaigns

While you're scrolling through your Facebook feed for inspiration, your competitors are already using advanced ad spy tools to analyze and outperform your campaigns. 

Instead of hoping for the best...

Build a solid foundation with Facebook Ads research.

Conducting thorough Facebook ads research takes time. Things worth doing often do. In this case, doing your research feeds into your ROI, so it’s worth it.

Ad research is a great method for gathering new campaign ideas and expanding on your existing ones.

Once you've got a cool idea for your next Facebook ad campaign, take it to the Meta Ad library. There, you can verify if similar tactics have worked for others in your industry. 

When you use the ad library and other tools to do proper research, you might be able to avoid mistakes made by other brands—instead of focusing your effort on what works.

Humans are funny creatures, and our brains work against us sometimes. There is a laundry list of biases that steer us one way or the other. But thorough research—over at least a day or two—gives you the opportunity to evaluate and substantiate your research.

One of the biases, anchoring bias, happens when people rely too heavily on the first pieces of information they find. We tend to weight primacy heavier than other bits in a series. We anchor first things as the battling ram against which all other things compare. We are more strongly influenced by them so that subsequent things we find seem more supplemental.

If you rush your research, you’ll run with the first “brilliant idea” you find, only to discover later that it was the wrong information. In short, it’ll screw your ad performance and burn through your budget.

So give research time to sink in.

Remember: There's a fine balance between being rational and dismissing great ideas. Looking at what's working for other advertisers is an efficient litmus test for your Facebook ad strategies.

One of the keys to successful research is having a clear focus or goal.

Don’t have one yet? No problem—but before you go Sherlock on your competitors' Facebook ads, be sure to make a list of your spying goals. This step, while simple helps you avoid piling up the competitive intelligence you won't need.

A few key areas to consider in your research process include: 

• All things ad: This category covers your creatives, copy, and offers. Use your research here to gather inspiration for your own launches.
• Running trends: Consider ad formats, messaging, and promotions by industries. 
• Audience information: Understanding demographics, interests, and behaviors is the foundation of advertising success. Be sure to include these in your research process to further contextualize your search.
• Bidding and budgets: Research these elements across ads that have run, and use the data to help you develop benchmarks and averages. 
• Landing pages and funnels linked to the ad: The research process isn’t complete until you follow the funnel to the end. Consider landing pages or funnels linked to researched ads and see what’s new—maybe there’s design or copy inspiration there just waiting to be discovered. 

1. Which ad types have the highest engagement? There are plenty of ways to engage, like photo ads, video ads, story- and Messenger-based ads, and carousel ads. You can also create slideshow-style ads if you have enough content. 
2. Which ad placements are my competitors using? Think desktop and mobile placements, for example.
3. What types of ad images are working for my competitors? Are they using stock photos or custom designs? What are the most prominent colors used in competing ads?
4. Are there any innovative ad design elements to apply to future campaigns?
5. What are my competitors' strongest value propositions? Ask yourself: How do their messages differ from mine?
6. Which offers are my competitors promoting on Facebook? Are they playing up direct sales, or are they playing the long game and lead nurturing or  remarketing.?
7. How many Facebook ad tests are my competitors running? What are they testing?
8. What about landing pages? Consider: Are my competitors using them? How well do the landing pages align with the ad offers? Are there any golden ideas to steal?

There's no need to limit your Facebook ad research to competitors. There are plenty of other inspiring Facebook ad examples from other unrelated industries, especially if you're just starting out.  

Remember: Facebook ad success has three parts:

1. Audiences
2. Ads
3. Landing pages

And it takes all three to make for a successful campaign.

Your research process is ultimately the tool that helps you uncover the best-performing ad designs and “secret” landing pages to reference as you build your own. However, we can’t forget the third part of the equation (and arguably the most important one)—your audience

Why and how is it the most important, you ask?

Simple: You can't tell for sure which Facebook ad hacks will work unless you know the target audience.

Studying your audience starts with putting yourself as an audience member. As you find ads currently running across Meta or your favorite platforms, ask yourself: “Why am I seeing this?” and “Is this actually compelling?” 

If you would consider interacting with the ad (whether it’s running across Meta technologies or elsewhere), chances are it speaks to you as an audience member…you just have to determine what does, how it’s used, and how you’ll take this inspiration and translate it to your audience. 

 Facebook will show you one or more reasons why the ad is displayed in your Newsfeed. It’s a solid choice to turn to if you don’t have the time or resources to explore other tools. 

To start your research process, scroll until you find a sponsored post—then click the ellipses (the three dots) in the upper right-hand corner of the ad. This’ll bring you to the menu you see above. You’ll then scroll to the bottom section’s clickable “Why am I seeing this ad?”

Click it, and you’ll get something like this:

In this case, the profile in question had interacted with content about productivity. When clicking into the Advertiser choices, the ad also specifies that the advertising party, Upwork, set their audiences to those over the age of 18 who have a primary location in the United States. (At least for this localized ad). As the company has a global presence, we can safely assume there are plenty of variations.  

You can also use Facebook data from multiple sponsored posts to uncover your competitors' ad targeting strategies.

But how do you get your competitor's ads to show up in your Newsfeed?

Easy.

You start by visiting several competitors' websites. To further contextualize what you’ll find, consider also visiting their social profiles—and work to find posts, stories, videos, and other assets to further inspire your work.

Not only will you get to see their remarketing campaigns, but you'll also notify Facebook that you're interested in specific topics—further tailoring your personal feed (or the feed of whatever profile you’re using!).

Lastly, as you notice the first remarketing ad by the competitor in your Newsfeed, you can tell Facebook that this ad is useful to you by clicking and engaging with the ad. Facebook takes note of that activity, which ultimately helps Meta decide which ads to show you on later dates.  

Once you've got competing ads showing up in your Facebook Newsfeed, amplify your findings by inspecting past ad campaigns.

While you absolutely can (and should) choose an ad category and use the library for this as you can, you don’t have to right now. Our team scrolled for hours upon hours so you don't have to. 

That’s right, we've gathered over 200 of the best Facebook Ad examples from a range  of industries throughout 2025.

The best part?

We've organized the ad examples mentioned in our post so you can get exactly the type of inspo you're looking for—seamlessly.

Looking for Instagram ad examples in particular? We've got those too.

Facebook (Meta) released a tool called the Facebook Ad Library in 2019 to provide more transparency for users who want to see the active ads that brands are running. It’s an incredibly helpful tool if you want to search for ads or branded content from your competitors—and it’s even easier to use. 

Simply choose an ad category to start with, pop in your location, and see what’s new with your competitors or brands of interest. 

This is a fast and free way to see what is making their Facebook ads work across locations and competitors. 

The downside? Competitors can also audit (and spy) on your ads.  

Here are a few other little-known “marketing secrets” you can play with in the Ads library. 

• Download information and track spending: The Ads Library keeps information on the spending totals and details for certain ad types—such as those about social issues or global politics. With just a single click, you’ll find detailed ad information and spend totals across competitors.
• Customize your own search: The Ad Library API is incredibly user-friendly—and customizable. Search using unique parameters (think audience size or language), and pull up thousands of ads for inspiration. 

Spying on your competitors with Facebook ad spy tools isn't limited to the ad types, copy, and design.

Marketers also spy on landing pages using the Facebook Ad Library. All you have to do is click on the Facebook ad example to go to the ad's landing page.

For example, we clicked on this ad by Calvin Klein...  

 And we checked out the associated webpage for the offer: In this case, a product description page optimized for conversion. 

Rinse, repeat, get inspired, and LOVE the Ad Library API. 

Now that you know how to “hack into the mainframe,” here’s a quick punch list of three questions to ask as you’re doing your spy work: 

• What is your competitor's strongest value offer? The unique value offer (UVP) is your strongest selling point, the one you'd recite during a 30-second elevator pitch. Learn theirs, then compare yours. 
• What landing page best practices are they using? Is their landing page text-heavy or light in copy? What's the average landing page length? Is your competition using specific call-to-actions? Take notes. 
• Can you detect any discount offers? It's good to know if your competitor's offering special discounts to their Facebook audience members, as you might want to match their offer. (Or better yet, make it way, way better). 

You’ve spied, you’ve stalked, you’ve made your list AND you’ve checked it twice: but how do you know if the landing page elements you’ve seen actually translate to conversions?

After all: There's no way to be 100% sure whether a smart hack from a competitor's landing page will justify its application on your website.

However: if you can keep track of your competitors' landing page changes and A/B tests, you could definitely benefit from mirroring the winning option. Just saying. 

Enter our favorite landing page spy tool Stillio, which captures screenshots of your chosen website and landing pages every hour, day, week, or month.

Whenever your competitor's testing a new value proposition, headline, or new design elements, you'll be the first to notice via a timestamped email, complete with the newly-updated images.  

You can also keep track of all the changes to a particular Facebook Page, making it easier to see when a competitor shares a new post or whenever they decide to remove one. Here’s what it’ll look like when you set up your first Facebook page for ongoing monitoring:

If you’re looking to go deeper than the Ad Library report takes you, use a tool like Fanpage Karma to see information about your competitors' Facebook Page performance and fans.

Once you log in, you’ll be able to benchmark multiple Facebook Pages against each other to detect the high-performers among your competitors and see how you compare to them.  

You'll also be able to see the prime posts that have received the highest engagement and also the worst-performing shares.  

Finding a perfect target audience is just as important as nailing your Facebook ad bidding and ad visuals.

As you create your range of ads, feel free to experiment with Meta’s audience tools. Start by creating a sample target audience based on people's interests, location, demographics, behaviors, past website activity—and then, test and iterate from there. As you do this, Meta will show you your ad’s estimated audience size off to the right; giving you an idea of how much reach you’ll have with each ad set. .  

As there are over 3.98 billion monthly active Facebook users, this can be a great way to determine how far your budget will stretch…just remember that more reach doesn’t always equal more engagement or conversions. As audience best practices differ by agency, you’ll need to take the time to lean into experimentation and find out what works for you. 

Remember: The more customer insights you have, the better chance you'll have to target your ad campaigns to potential buyers.

Audience Insights is a tool in the Meta suite that’s designed to help advertisers learn more about their target audiences, including information about geography, demographics, and purchase behavior.

The Audience Insights tool is accessible from the  Ads Manager. Simply select “Insights” from the main menu, and navigate to the Audience tab. There, you can toggle between your linked Meta properties, including Facebook and Instagram page(s), in the upper right toolbar.

Facebook ads constantly change. New features, formats, and targeting options are added all the time. Here’s how to stay ahead:

Stay informed about new features and best practices by subscribing to email updates from Facebook and other industry leaders. 

Learn from experts and network with other advertisers by attending webinars and conferences.

Keep up with the latest trends and developments by following industry blogs and news sites (like ours. Hint hint.) 

Connect with other advertisers and share knowledge and best practices by joining online communities and forums. You’ll get a global view of what’s working, what’s not, and the in-between.

Being a top spy can be dangerous. You can never be 100% sure whether your new intel only seems too good to be true or if it really is too good to be true.

Remember: What works for your competitors may not always work for you. So, take all the new insights with a grain of salt and try to understand the why behind what your competitors are doing, applying it to your specific use case.  

You can always test new approaches with small budgets before turning the new Facebook campaigns to the full volume.

(Or, you can turn your ad account over to the master Meta marketers at Klientboost, and put your ROAS on autopilot. We won’t tell anyone.)  

Meta's Ad Library has become an essential tool for Facebook ads research, allowing marketers to analyze competitor campaigns, identify targeting strategies, and uncover successful ad formats. By studying active ads across different markets, advertisers can better understand what resonates with their target audience and optimize their campaigns accordingly.

Facebook Audience Insights remains one of the most powerful research tools for advertisers, providing detailed demographic data, behavioral patterns, and interest-based information. This tool helps marketers create more precise targeting strategies and develop audiences that are more likely to convert.

Successful Facebook advertising isn't just about the ad itself - it extends to landing page optimization. By analyzing competitor landing pages through tools like Stillio and tracking A/B tests, advertisers can identify winning elements that drive conversions and implement similar strategies in their own campaigns.

Understanding the impact of different ad placements - from desktop News Feed to Instagram Stories - can significantly affect campaign performance. Research shows that strategic placement decisions based on competitor analysis and historical data can lead to better engagement rates and lower cost per conversion.