# How to search the Meta Ad Library by keyword > Search the Meta Ad Library by keyword, exact phrase or advertiser, then filter by language, platform and media type. Exact clicks, a worked example and tips. - **Author**: Marxx - **Published**: 2026-11-07 - **Category**: Competitor research - **URL**: https://marxx.ai/library-guides/how-to-search-the-meta-ad-library-by-keyword --- To search the Meta Ad Library by keyword, open facebook.com/ads/library, pick a country and the **All ads** category, then type your keyword in the search box. Choose a suggestion, then narrow the results with the **Filters** button. Meta says the Library holds all active ads across its apps, and anyone can view and search it. Facts here come from Meta's [Ad Library help page](https://www.facebook.com/business/help/2405092116183307) and the Library itself, checked 2026-10-20. ## Step by step 1. Go to [facebook.com/ads/library](https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/). You do not need to log in. 2. Choose your **country**, for example India. 3. Open **Ad category** and choose **All ads**. Another category is "Issues, elections or politics". 4. Click the search box and type a word or phrase. Meta's search tips say: - Words without quotes find ads that contain all of them, in any order. - A phrase in quotes finds those words in that exact order. Use it when word order matters. - You can also type an advertiser's name and pick their Page from the drop-down menu, to see only that Page's ads. 5. Press Enter. The results page says whether it matched your keyword or your exact phrase. 6. Click **Filters**. You can narrow by **Language**, **Advertiser**, **Platform**, **Media type**, **Active status** and **Impressions by date**. 7. Use **Sort by** to switch between **Impressions: high to low** and **Most recent**. 8. Bookmark the results page in your browser. The page address holds your country, search words and filters, so the bookmark reopens the same search. ## How keyword matching works Meta says ads that include your search term may appear, and so may ads run by Pages whose name includes it. So a search for "glow" can return a brand called Glow, not only ads about glow. Pick an advertiser from the suggestions, or use the **Advertiser** filter, to narrow it. ## A worked example Say you sell hair oil and you search "hair fall" in India with **All ads**. The numbers are made up. - Your first search returns about 8,000 ads. That is too many to read. - You set **Language** to Hindi, **Media type** to video and **Platform** to Instagram. The list falls to about 640. - You sort by **Most recent** and read the first 40. Now you can see how rivals open their videos this month. Note the hook, the offer and the "Started running on" date for each. See [how to write ad hooks](/guides/how-to-write-ad-hooks) for what to do with them, or run a full [competitor ad audit](/guides/how-to-run-a-competitor-ad-audit). ## Good keywords to try - Words your buyer uses: "hair fall", "EMI", "no cost EMI" - Offer words: "buy 1 get 1", "free delivery" - Your category name and each rival's brand name, searched as a keyword and as a Page - Words in local languages, such as Hindi written in Roman letters ## What the Library does not show For ads that are not political and were not shown in the EU or UK, Meta does not show spend, impression ranges or reach. The Library's home page says it covers ads that are running now, so these ads drop out once they stop (Meta Ad Library, checked 2026-10-20). To judge an ad, see [how to find winning ads](/guides/how-to-find-winning-ads). Marxx adds a Save button to the Meta Ad Library through its browser extension, and its AI search covers 100M+ ads back to 2022. ## FAQ ### Can I search for words spoken in a video ad? Meta says the search matches ads that include your term. It does not say it reads video speech, so search the words used in the ad text and Page names. ### Can I download the results? Meta says you can download Ad Library searches if you are logged in to Facebook and agree to its terms. See [how to download ads from the Meta Ad Library](/guides/how-to-download-ads-from-meta-ad-library). ### Why does the same ad appear several times? Some ads run in many versions, and the Library marks them with "This ad has multiple versions". A brand with many versions of one idea may be backing it. --- - [More Competitor research articles](https://marxx.ai/library-guides/category/competitor-research) - [All articles](https://marxx.ai/library-guides)