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Key findings:
Ad libraries are a competitive intelligence goldmine
For affiliates, ad libraries reveal exactly what’s running successfully in the market right now. By studying active ad longevity, creative styles, and funnels, marketers can identify profitable campaigns, reduce guesswork, and launch with higher confidence.
Pair research with high-value offers
Using ad library insights alongside strong affiliate programs, such as the Text Partner Program, creates a powerful combination. This approach allows affiliates to model proven ad strategies while promoting trusted products that offer recurring commissions, building long-term and scalable revenue streams while simultaneously enlarging an ad’s reach.
What you’ll learn in this article:
In affiliate marketing, timing is everything. The difference between a profitable campaign and a wasted budget often comes down to how quickly you can spot what’s already working in the market. That’s where the ad library becomes your secret weapon.
By giving you direct access to the ads your competitors — and even top affiliates — are running right now, an ad library lets you reverse-engineer proven campaigns, identify high-converting creatives, and uncover new angles before they’re saturated.
This guide explains exactly how affiliate marketers can use ad libraries to confidently research, model, and scale campaigns.
What an ad library is
An ad library is a searchable database where you can see the ads currently running on a specific advertising platform. It’s a transparency tool — created partly to meet legal and policy requirements — but for affiliate marketers, it’s an intelligence goldmine where search results allow you deeper analysis. You can use the ad library to search for other ads created and get inspired for your own branded content.
Think of it like a public “window” into your competitors’ campaigns. Instead of guessing what creatives they’re using to run ads or which offers they’re pushing, you can view the exact ads they’re running, the time period when they started, what formats they’re using, and often even where they’re sending traffic.
Most major platforms now have some version of an ad library:
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Meta (Facebook) Ad Library – Covers Facebook page and Instagram ads.
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TikTok Creative Center – Shows all the ads top-performing on TikTok and trends.
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Google Ads Transparency Center – Displays Google Search, Display, and YouTube active ads.
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Pinterest Ad Transparency – Shows promoted pins and creatives.
For affiliate marketers, these libraries aren’t just about curiosity; they’re about cutting down on expensive guesswork. If you can see what’s already working for others in your niche, you can:
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Validate offers before running your own tests.
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Spot seasonal trends (like Black Friday product discounts, back-to-school gadgets in August).
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Identify winning creatives and funnels you can adapt to your own campaigns.
Instead of shooting in the dark, the ad library hands you a flashlight and a map.
Why affiliate marketers use ad libraries
For affiliate marketers, every campaign is a gamble — and the stakes are high. Advertisements’ spending is real money, competition is fierce, and consumer attention is short. The ad library turns that gamble into a more calculated bet by giving you deeper analysis on what’s already performing in your niche.
Here’s why it’s so powerful:
Spot winning campaigns early
With an ad library, you can search your niche keywords and instantly see which ads have been running for weeks or even months. Longevity often means profitability — nobody spends money on an unprofitable ad for long. By identifying these “evergreen” ads early, you can jump on trends before they saturate.
Reverse-engineer competitor funnels
Most ads in the library link directly to their landing pages. That means you can follow the same path a customer would, studying the ad copy, the offer positioning, the page design, and even the upsell sequence. This insight lets you model proven funnels without reinventing the wheel.
Validate offers before spending a dime
Instead of guessing whether a product or offer will convert, you can see if other affiliates are running it successfully. If multiple advertisers are pushing the same offer in different creatives, there’s a good chance it’s converting well.
Track seasonal and event-driven trends
Affiliate niches can shift with the calendar — fitness in January, holiday gift ideas in Q4, travel gear in summer. Ad libraries let you watch how other marketers adapt their campaigns to seasonal spikes, giving you a roadmap for your own timing.
Find creative inspiration
From video hooks to ad headlines, the ad library is full of creative angles you might never have considered. Even if you’re not copying exact ads, you can borrow ideas for structure, tone, and visual style that resonate with your audience.
Looking for a beneficial partnership?
Join our Solution Program to unlock a new revenue stream and stand out from the competition.
How to use an ad library, step-by-step
Knowing an ad library exists is one thing — using it like a pro is what separates casual browsers from affiliates who consistently search ads and launch profitable campaigns. Here’s a repeatable workflow you can follow.
Step 1: Choose the right ad library for your niche
Meta Ad Library
The Meta Ad Library is a free transparency tool from Meta that allows anyone to search and view active ads running across Facebook and Instagram. It provides details such as the ad’s start date, creative format, copy, and sometimes the geographic regions where the ad is being shown.
For affiliate marketers, it’s a valuable resource to study competitor campaigns, identify winning angles, and track which offers are being actively promoted.
TikTok Creative Center
The TikTok Creative Center is TikTok’s free ad library and trend hub, showcasing top-performing ads, trending hashtags, songs, and creative insights from the platform. It allows marketers to explore ad examples by industry, region, and objective, making it easier to understand what resonates with TikTok’s audience.
For affiliates, it’s a powerful tool to gather inspiration for short-form video ads, spot viral trends early, and model creatives that already capture attention.
Google Ads Transparency Center
The Google Ads Transparency Center is Google’s official ad library that lets users search and view ads running across Google Search, YouTube, and Display Network. It shows information such as who paid for the ad, when it ran, and which regions it targeted, helping improve ad transparency and accountability.
For affiliate marketers, it’s a useful resource to analyze how competitors structure search and display campaigns, discover creative trends, and validate offers being promoted on Google’s vast network.
Pinterest Ad Transparency
The Pinterest Ad Transparency tool allows users to view all active ads that a business is running on Pinterest, providing greater visibility into creative formats and messaging. It helps marketers analyze how brands position their products visually, which is especially valuable in niches like fashion, home décor, beauty, and lifestyle.
Affiliates can use it to spot trending visual styles, seasonal campaigns, and creative approaches that resonate with Pinterest’s highly inspiration-driven online audience.
💡 Pro Tip: If you run multi-platform campaigns, check several libraries to see how the same offer is adapted across channels.
Step 2: Search by keyword or brand
Enter a product name, niche keyword, or competitor brand. For example:
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Keyword: “live chat”
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Brand: “LiveChat”
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Pain point: “increasing first response time”
The goal is to surface ads relevant to your niche so you can see both direct competitors and adjacent offers.
Step 3: Filter for freshness and relevance
Most ad libraries let you filter by:
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Country: Focus on your target GEOs.
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Date range: See what’s new this month or what’s been running for months (a sign of profitability).
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Ad type: Video, image, carousel, or other.
💡 Pro tip: In affiliate marketing, ads running 30+ days with consistent spend are usually worth paying attention to — the advertiser is clearly getting a return on ad ran.
Step 4: Analyze the creative
Look at:
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Headline and hook: What’s the first ad impression that grabs attention?
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Visuals: Are they lifestyle shots, product close-ups, or UGC (user-generated content)?
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CTA (call to action): “Shop Now,” “Learn More,” or something curiosity-driven?
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Copy style: Emotional storytelling, problem-solution, urgency-driven?
Step 5: Follow the funnel
Click the ad link and study the landing page:
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Ad targeting: What’s the product or service shown to the target audience?
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Price and positioning: Is it low-ticket, high-ticket, or a lead magnet?
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Page layout: Long-form sales letter, short-form page, or advertorial?
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Upsells and downsells: Are they pushing complementary products or bundles?
Step 6: Document and categorize
Keep a swipe file (Google Drive, Notion, or Trello) with:
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Screenshots of the creative
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Notes on hooks, angles, and funnels
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Observations on audience targeting (inferred from imagery, copy, and language)
💡 Pro tip: Organize by niche, season, and platform so you can quickly pull inspiration when launching new campaigns.
Step 7: Test, don’t copy
Use the insights to inspire your own new ads — adapt angles, test similar hooks, or model the funnel structure. Copy-pasting is not only lazy, it’s a fast track to account bans.
This process turns the ad library from a curiosity tool into a competitive intelligence system that feeds your affiliate campaigns with proven angles and offers.
Going beyond official libraries
While official ad libraries from platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Google are powerful, they come with limitations — often by design. They show you what’s running, but they don’t always reveal additional information on performance metrics, targeting details, or the full competitive posts landscape.
That’s where third-party ad intelligence tools — often called “spy tools” — come in. These platforms are built specifically for marketers who need deeper, more actionable insights.
📚 Check more about the tools every marketer needs for competitor research!
Why use spy tools alongside ad libraries
Official ad libraries are great for transparency and compliance, but:
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They don’t show engagement data like CTRs, conversions, or estimated spend.
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Their search capabilities are limited (like keywords matching might miss related campaigns).
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They rarely store historical data beyond a certain dates.
Spy tools bridge those gaps by:
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Tracking ads across multiple networks.
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Providing performance report (likes, shares, comments, estimated traffic).
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Offering historical archives so you can study long-term trends based on times recorded.
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Allowing advanced filters like affiliate network, landing page technology, and funnel type.
Popular ad spy tools for affiliates
Adplexity
Adplexity is a premium ad intelligence tool widely used by affiliate marketers to track ads across multiple traffic sources such as native, push, mobile, desktop, and pop.
It provides deep insights, including GEO targeting, ad duration, and even the ability to download landing pages for full funnel analysis. Affiliates rely on it to cut down on testing costs by modeling campaigns that are already proven profitable in the market.
BigSpy
BigSpy is an ad spy tool designed for affiliates and marketers who want to track ads across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Google, Pinterest, and more.
It emphasizes creative inspiration by letting you browse a huge library of ads with filters for industry, format, GEO, and engagement metrics. Affiliates value BigSpy for its affordability compared to other tools and its ability to uncover trending ad angles quickly across both social and ecommerce niches.
PowerAdSpy
PowerAdSpy is an ad research tool that helps affiliates and marketers analyze ads running on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google, YouTube, and more.
It offers detailed filters such as keywords, advertisers, domains, and engagement metrics, making it easier to uncover profitable ad creatives and targeting strategies. Affiliates often use it to monitor competitors, gather inspiration, and refine their own campaigns with data-backed insights.
Anstrex
Anstrex is an ad spy tool that specializes in native and push traffic. It is popular among affiliates running campaigns outside traditional social platforms.
It provides access to ad creatives, targeting data, and landing page downloads, allowing marketers to study and replicate successful funnels. Affiliates use Anstrex to identify profitable offers quickly, analyze competitor strategies, and scale campaigns with reduced testing costs.
SocialPeta
SocialPeta is a comprehensive ad intelligence and marketing analytics platform that tracks ads across channels like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more.
It provides detailed data on ad creatives, audience insights, and industry benchmarks, making it useful for both affiliates and brands. Marketers use SocialPeta to spot trending campaigns, analyze competitors’ strategies, and refine their own ad creatives with data-driven decisions.
💡 Pro Tip: Choose a spy tool that aligns with your traffic source. If you run native ads, something like Anstrex or Adplexity Native will be more relevant than a tool focused on social media.
Combining official libraries with spy tools
The smartest affiliates don’t treat it as either/or — they combine both:
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Use the official ad library to confirm that an offer is actively being run and to gather creatives straight from the source.
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Use a spy tool to see if those ads are scaling, which GEOs they’re targeting, and how long they’ve been profitable.
Cost vs ROI considerations
Spy tools aren’t free — subscriptions often run $50 – $300/month. But if you’re spending thousands per month on traffic, the time saved and bad campaigns avoided can easily cover the cost in a single test cycle.
Compliance and ethical use
Even with powerful spy tools, the rule is the same:
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Model, don’t copy: Use the data for inspiration, not plagiarism.
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Be aware of platform policies: Direct cloning can get accounts banned.
Looking for a beneficial partnership?
Join our Solution Program to unlock a new revenue stream and stand out from the competition.
Compliance and ethics
Ad libraries and spy tools are a treasure trove for research, but they’re not a free pass to copy competitors and hope nobody notices. Staying compliant isn’t just about avoiding trouble — it’s about protecting your accounts, keeping your offers live longer, and building a reputation that networks and platforms actually want to work with.
| Category | Best practices | Examples and notes |
|---|---|---|
| Model, don’t copy | Use ads for inspiration: study the structure and rebuild them in your own style and tone. Change at least three elements: hook, creative format, and CTA. | If a competitor sells memory foam pillows with a sleep-quality hook, pivot to neck pain relief instead. |
| Respect trademarks | Don’t use brand names in headlines, ad copy, or URLs unless authorized. Always check affiliate network rules, as many forbid brand bidding. | You cannot run "Buy Apple AirPods for 50% Off" unless Apple authorizes it. |
| Keep claims honest and compliant | Avoid exaggerated or deceptive promises. Be careful with health and finance niches, and avoid “before/after” images where prohibited. | Instead of *"*Make $500/day working from home," say “Discover a proven remote work method.” |
| Follow platform rules religiously | Bookmark and review Meta, Google, TikTok, and other platforms’ ad policies regularly. Each has sensitive categories you must respect. | Meta bans personal attributes, Google restricts finance and healthcare ads, and TikTok prohibits shocking or unsafe content. |
| Use ethical funnels | Landing pages must match the ad promise. Avoid fake scarcity, misleading testimonials, or hidden terms. Always include a visible privacy policy. | Ads that misalign with landing pages risk disapproval and account bans. |
| Don’t do this | Never directly rip creatives, misuse logos, or pose as an official brand. Don’t hide terms or ignore disapprovals. Avoid aggressive short-term “black hat” tactics. | These behaviors lead to account bans, constant domain replacements, audience fatigue, and missed long-term scaling potential. |
Pro tips for affiliates
The ad library can be an incredibly powerful resource, but only if you approach it with a clear strategy. One of the most effective ways to identify profitable campaigns is to pay attention to ad longevity. If a particular ad has been running for more than thirty days or one year, it’s usually a sign that the advertiser is generating a positive return. Advertisers simply don’t keep paying for losing campaigns, so long-running ads are often safe bets for inspiration.
When you find promising ads, don’t just save them haphazardly. Build a swipe file that is actually useful. Organize it by ad category, niche, season, and platform so you can quickly find relevant examples when you need them. For each ad, include notes on the hook style, the type of funnel it leads to, and what you can infer about the targeting based on the creative elements. Over time, this will become your personal library of tested marketing angles.
It’s also worth studying how the same offer is promoted across multiple platforms. A Facebook page ad for a product may look entirely different from its TikTok version, even though the underlying offer is identical. These creative adjustments reveal how marketers tailor their approach to fit each platform’s audience and content style. By comparing these variations, you can see what works in different formats and adapt your own campaigns accordingly.
While the creative is important, the real magic often lies in the funnel. Follow the ad to its landing page, study the layout, and note how the offer is presented. Pay attention to the steps after the main pitch: upsells, cross-sells, and even follow-up emails or retargeting ads if you can trigger them. Mapping out the full customer journey gives you a blueprint you can adapt for your own campaigns.
Seasonal and event-based angles are another area where the ad library shines. By monitoring ads over time, you’ll notice patterns. Keeping a seasonal marketing calendar based on these observations allows you to prepare relevant campaigns in advance rather than reacting at the last minute.
As you examine campaigns, look for subtle signals about ad spend and testing strategy. Large advertisers often run multiple variations of the same ad creative, changing small details like colors, headlines, or background images. This is usually a sign they are running A/B tests at scale, a tactic you can adapt by testing small changes before making big creative overhauls.
Finally, remember that the ad library becomes even more powerful when paired with paid spy tools. The free data from the library shows you what’s live now, while spy tools provide deeper insights into targeting, historical performance, and even the ability to download full landing pages for analysis. Using both together gives you a complete picture of a campaign’s life cycle.
Still, never assume that a campaign’s success will automatically translate to your own results. Always run small-scale tests before scaling your budget, and only push spend once you see solid ROI in your own targeting and traffic sources.
How the Text Partner Program can help with at least one impression
While the ad library is a powerful tool for finding winning campaigns, you still need strong, reliable offers to promote. One program worth considering is the Text Partner Program, which allows you to earn commissions by promoting Text’s customer service and communication solutions.
Text offers a robust SaaS product used by businesses around the world to connect with customers through real-time messaging, AI-powered agents, and advanced customer engagement tools. This makes it an attractive offer for affiliates because it appeals to a broad range of industries: from ecommerce and SaaS companies to service providers and agencies.
As a partner, you can earn recurring commissions for every paying customer you refer. This is significant because it’s not just a one-time payout; you receive ongoing revenue for as long as your referrals remain subscribed. The recurring model means your affiliate earnings can build over time, turning each successful referral into a long-term income stream.
📚 See how one of Text partners, Tooltester, grew because of the Affiliate program!
From a marketing perspective, the ad library can help you study how other affiliates and businesses are promoting similar SaaS products. You can analyze ad creatives that target business owners, agencies, or entrepreneurs, and use these insights to shape your own campaigns for the Text Partner Program.
For example, you might find effective approaches that focus on increasing sales conversions, improving customer support efficiency, or integrating AI tools into business workflows — angles that resonate strongly with Text’s target audience.
Because Text is a trusted and established brand, you can confidently position it in your campaigns without worrying about product quality or support issues. This trust factor, combined with the recurring commission model, makes it an ideal offer to pair with your ad library research and ad impressions testing process.
Looking for a beneficial partnership?
Join our Solution Program to unlock a new revenue stream and stand out from the competition.
Conclusion
For affiliate marketers, the ad library is more than just a transparency tool; it’s a window into what’s working right now in the market. It gives you the chance to study proven campaigns, understand the creative decisions behind them, and uncover profitable angles before they become oversaturated. When used strategically, the ad library report can shorten your testing phase, reduce wasted ad spend, and help you launch campaigns with a much higher probability of success.
The key is to treat the ad library as a source of insight, not a shortcut for copying. By modeling what’s proven, adapting it to your own brand voice and audience, and combining it with your own data, you can build compliant and competitive campaigns. Pairing the free resources of the ad library with the deeper analytics of paid spy tools will give you an even greater edge, allowing you to spot trends early and scale with confidence.
Affiliate marketing will always involve some degree of risk, but the ad library gives you a way to turn guesswork into an informed strategy. Use it consistently, document your findings, and apply the lessons you learn, not just to individual campaigns, but to your entire marketing approach. Over time, you’ll develop an intuition for what works, and the ad library will become less of a research tool and more of a creative partner in your business growth.
Ready to turn your research into revenue?
Start using the ad library today to uncover profitable campaigns, adapt proven angles, and launch with confidence. Pair those insights with a high-converting, recurring commission offer like the Text Partner Program, and you’ll have both the strategy and the product you need to build long-term affiliate income. Don’t wait for trends to pass you by. Start researching, testing, and scaling now. Your next winning campaign could be just one ad library search away!
