# How to Check Competitors' Campaigns Across Meta and Google in One Place > Track rivals on Meta and Google in one sheet. Match them by landing domain, record stop dates, and run a 25-minute weekly routine that stops double counting. - **Author**: Marxx - **Published**: 2026-10-31 - **Category**: Competitive intel - **URL**: https://marxx.ai/posts/how-to-check-competitors-campaigns-meta-google --- **How do you check a competitor's campaigns on Meta and Google in one place?** Use one tracking sheet with the same columns for every ad, match rivals on their landing domain rather than their brand name, and run a 25-minute weekly routine. Each source sees a different slice, so the sheet is what turns separate lookups into one picture. # How to Check Competitors' Campaigns Across Meta and Google in One Place Checking a rival on Meta and checking it on Google feel like two jobs. They are two different views of the same campaign, and each one leaves something out. The quick-start version of this is a five-minute pass through both libraries. This post is the longer habit: one sheet, a weekly routine, and the rules that stop you counting one rival twice. One tracking sheet, the same columns for every ad, one date column ## Why the sources don't line up Each source has its own rule for what it keeps. The Meta Ad Library, for ordinary commercial ads shown outside the EU, keeps an ad only while it's active. Ads served in the EU are kept for a year after they last ran, with reach and targeting. The Google Ads Transparency Center shows the date each ad was last shown, which is a different thing from when it started. So a rival can look like it has ten ads on Meta and six on Google, and both numbers can be right. The sheet has to record what you saw, and when, rather than trust any one library's count. Each source sees a different slice of the same rival ## One rival, three names The hardest part isn't finding ads. It's knowing that a row in one place and a row in another belong to the same rival. A brand name, a Facebook page name and a legal advertiser name are often three different strings for one business. Match on the landing domain. The domain an ad sends people to is harder to vary than a page name, so it's the most reliable key across platforms. When two rows share a domain, merge them into one rival, and keep the platform as its own column. One rival, three names: match on the landing domain, not the brand name ## The six columns Use the same six columns for every ad, on every platform. Changing them halfway through is how a tracking sheet stops being useful. Six columns that stop double counting Two rules matter most: - **One platform per row.** Never put Meta and Google in the same cell. Mixed cells can't be counted or compared later. - **Blank means active.** Leave "Last seen" blank while an ad is still running. Fill it in only when it stops. That single convention lets you see what has ended without checking every ad again. Here's what one row looks like, using invented values: An example row: rival, platform, domain, first seen, last seen, hook ## The weekly routine: 25 minutes Keep the routine short enough that you'll actually do it. The targets below are ours, not measured results. The weekly routine: Monday adds, Wednesday stops, Friday merges - **Monday, 10 minutes.** Add any new ads you've seen on each platform. - **Wednesday, 5 minutes.** Mark any ad that has stopped, with today's date in "Last seen". - **Friday, 10 minutes.** Merge duplicate rivals, and write one line per rival on what they're doing now. The Friday line is the one that matters. A sheet full of rows tells you what exists. One sentence per rival tells you what it means. ## What the sheet teaches you over time After a few weeks, the sheet can answer questions a single lookup can't: - **Which hooks last.** Filter for ads that have been live for weeks and see which ones share an opening. - **Which rivals stop quickly.** A rival that stops most ads within days is testing, not scaling. - **Where a rival is missing.** A rival present on Meta and absent from Google has made a channel choice you can test against. These are patterns in your own sample, so keep them as hypotheses until a test confirms them. ## Common mistakes - **Counting platforms as rivals.** Two rows for one brand look like two competitors. Merge them on the domain. - **Changing the columns.** A new column every month makes last quarter unreadable. - **Trusting one library's count.** Each source keeps a different slice. Record what you saw. - **Skipping the stop dates.** Without them, you can't tell what a rival gave up. ## Where Marxx fits Marxx competitor tracking covers Meta and Google ads, plus keywords, for the rivals you choose. It records the same kind of teardown as the sheet above, with hooks, offers, days live and copies, so the weekly routine starts from a live view rather than from scratch. **[Demo: track your top 5 rivals, see a live teardown of their running ads ->](https://www.marxx.ai)** *Related: [How to find competitor display ads in under 5 minutes](/blog/how-to-find-competitor-display-ads) - [Competitor ads and keywords tools](/blog/competitor-ads-keywords-tools) - [Ad spy tool checklist](/blog/ad-spy-tool-checklist)* ## FAQ **Can I check competitor campaigns on Meta and Google for free?** Yes. The Meta Ad Library and the Google Ads Transparency Center are both free, but they don't record your history, so the sheet has to. **Why do the numbers differ between Meta and Google?** Each source keeps a different slice. Meta outside the EU shows active ads only, and Google shows the date each ad was last shown. **How do I know two rows are the same rival?** Match on the landing domain. Brand and page names change more easily than the domain an ad sends people to. --- - [More Competitive intel articles](https://marxx.ai/posts/category/competitive-intel) - [All articles](https://marxx.ai/posts)