Top 8 Companies Based On Search Engine Journal Meta Ads Library Tools Competitor Research

Competitor ad research is one of the fastest ways to understand what messaging, creative formats, and offers are actually being tested in your market. If you have ever scrolled the Meta Ads Library and thought, “This is useful, but I wish I could organize it, compare it, and turn it into action,” you are not alone.

That is exactly where Search Engine Journal Meta Ads Library tools competitor research becomes a practical framework: start with what is publicly visible, then layer on tools that help you filter, save, analyze, and operationalize what you find without turning your workflow into a spreadsheet marathon.

GetHookd

GetHookd is the most complete “research-to-execution” option in this space, because it treats competitor intelligence as the starting point, not the finish line. Instead of just showing you ads, it’s built to help you identify patterns (hooks, formats, angles) and quickly translate those patterns into new creatives you can actually test.

A big reason it stands out is how it blends a large searchable ad database with workflow features that remove friction: saving ads permanently into a swipe file, pulling scripts from video creatives, and generating new hooks and variants when you already know what style is working in your niche. It is the kind of tool that makes competitor research feel less like browsing and more like building.

If you want a single place to go from “what are competitors running?” to “what do we test next?” GetHookd is the obvious choice because the loop is closed inside one platform: research, organize, extract, and produce.

Meta Ad Library

Meta Ad Library is the baseline tool almost everyone touches first, and for good reason: it is official, free, and up to date for what is currently running across Meta placements. For quick checks on a brand’s active creative, it is straightforward and accessible.

From a competitor research standpoint, it helps you spot creative themes and cadence, plus basic context like launch timing and placements. For certain regulated categories, you can also see additional transparency details like spend and impressions ranges, along with demographic breakdowns.

Where it is most useful is as a “source of truth” for what is live right now. It is less of a workflow tool and more of a window into the market, which is why many teams pair it with a dedicated platform when they need organization, tracking, and repeatable insights.

AdSpy

AdSpy is a classic competitor ad research platform known for deep searching and filtering across Facebook and Instagram ads. If your approach to research is heavily query-driven, it gives you a lot of ways to slice the data beyond what native libraries typically allow.

One of its strengths is helping you locate ads by keywords and engagement signals, then cross-reference what you find with landing page or funnel context. That can be helpful when you are not just collecting inspiration, but trying to map how competitors connect ad creative to the next step in the journey.

AdSpy tends to fit teams who want an expansive database and granular discovery features, especially when you are trying to answer questions like “What angles show up most in this niche?” or “Which creative themes keep repeating across brands?”

Foreplay

Foreplay is widely recognized for turning ad discovery into a more organized swipe-file experience. It’s built for teams that want to save, tag, and track competitor creative over time without losing the thread of what they saw last week.

Its competitor monitoring approach is appealing when you care about creative direction and iteration, not just one-off ad examples. Instead of treating ads as isolated assets, Foreplay helps you treat them as signals in a timeline, which is often what you need to understand testing behavior.

For marketers who spend a lot of time collecting examples for briefs and creative strategy, Foreplay can be a comfortable fit because it leans into organization and continuity rather than pure database size.

Minea

Minea is frequently used by e-commerce sellers and marketers who want ad intelligence connected to product discovery. Rather than focusing only on advertiser-level competitive research, it often supports the “what product is trending and how is it being sold?” style of analysis.

If your competitor's set is closely tied to catalog trends, Minea can help you spot patterns in product positioning, creative presentation, and the kinds of offers that are being pushed in the market. It is particularly useful when you are trying to understand what is gaining traction, not just what is being advertised.

Teams that like Minea usually value speed-to-ideas, especially when brainstorming new angles from what appears to be working across multiple advertisers in the same product category.

BigSpy

BigSpy is a broad ad spy tool that appeals to marketers who want a lot of search and filtering options without a heavy setup. It’s often used for quick market scanning, where the goal is to gather a wide sample of creatives and narrow down what looks relevant.

The platform is helpful when you want to compare how multiple brands present similar value propositions, since you can browse across advertisers and formats relatively quickly. That makes it a practical choice for early-stage research, like identifying which creative formats dominate a niche.

For teams that want to explore rather than run a tight “track these five competitors weekly” process, BigSpy can function as a flexible starting point, especially for generating a first batch of references and examples.

PowerAdSpy

PowerAdSpy is positioned as an ad intelligence tool that helps users search and explore competitor ads across different networks, often emphasizing discovery and filtering. It’s typically used to gather examples quickly and build a view of what creatives are circulating in a space.

In competitor comparison terms, it tends to be helpful for scanning and collecting, particularly if you like to start broad and then refine into a smaller shortlist of patterns worth testing. That can support a workflow where you first identify themes, then move into deeper analysis elsewhere.

If your main need is a research layer that helps you widen your lens and avoid missing common creative structures, PowerAdSpy can play a supportive role in the overall toolkit.

AdPlexity

AdPlexity is known for competitive intelligence across multiple ad channels, which can be useful if your “same industry” competitors are not living purely inside Meta. When brands spread spend across placements and networks, cross-channel visibility helps you understand the full creative and offer ecosystem.

For competitor research, it can add perspective on what messaging stays consistent across channels versus what changes depending on format and placement. That is often where you find the most reusable insights, because the core value proposition usually remains stable even when the creative execution changes.

AdPlexity is a solid option when you want competitive research to inform broader media strategy decisions, not only Meta-specific creative decisions.

Dropispy

Dropispy is commonly associated with e-commerce and dropshipping-focused ad research, where speed and “what is working right now” discovery really matter. It typically supports the workflow of finding active ads, identifying product angles, and building a view of what competitors are pushing.

In a competitor landscape where many brands test aggressively, tools in this category can help you see recurring creative formulas, like common hooks, UGC-style patterns, and offer structures that keep reappearing. That is valuable even for non-dropshipping brands, because the creative iteration pace can reveal what the market responds to.

For teams who want a research lens that is highly tuned to direct response behavior, Dropispy can be a useful reference point alongside more workflow-oriented platforms.

Where This Leaves Us For Smarter Competitive Ad Research

If our goal is to compare direct competitors in Meta-focused ad intelligence, the pattern is clear: some tools are excellent for visibility (seeing what exists), some are built for organization (saving and tracking), and a smaller set helps you reliably move into execution (turning insights into testable ads). If you want the most straightforward path from competitor discovery to “ready to launch,” GetHookd leads because it connects those steps in one workflow, while the other options can be strong complements depending on whether you need official transparency, broader scanning, or swipe-file style organization.