How to Find a Facebook Ad

Ever see a product ad on Facebook, think "I'll check that out later," and then never find it again? Or maybe you're a marketer who saw a brilliant ad from a competitor and want to save it for inspiration, but it's now buried in your feed. This article will show you several straightforward ways to find almost any ad you're looking for, from checking your personal ad history to using Meta's powerful search tool.

What's the Point of Finding a Facebook Ad?

There are a few key reasons you might want to track down a specific Facebook or Instagram ad. Each one serves a different purpose, whether you're a consumer, a founder, or a professional marketer.

• For Shoppers: The most common reason is simple — you saw something you genuinely want to buy. You got distracted, closed the app, and now the ad is gone. Finding it again is your direct path to making that purchase.
• For Ad Creative Inspiration: If you run your own ads, your feed is a goldmine of ideas for copy, visuals, and offers. Seeing an ad that stops your scroll is the perfect opportunity to learn what's working for others in your industry or even in completely unrelated fields. Saving these "swipe file" examples helps you create better ads yourself.
• For Competitive Research: Understanding what your competitors are promoting is crucial for any business. Are they pushing a new product? Running a big sale? Targeting a new audience? Finding their ads via the Meta Ad Library gives you a transparent look into their advertising strategy, offers, and messaging.

Method 1: Check Your Recent Ad Activity (The Quickest Way)

Facebook keeps a log of the ads you've recently interacted with. If you remember liking, commenting on, sharing, or even just clicking on an ad, this is the first and easiest place you should look. This method works best for ads you've seen in the last week or so.

Finding "Recent Ad Activity" on Desktop:

1. Navigate to Facebook.com in your browser.
2. On the far-right side of the universal navigation bar at the top of the page, click on your profile picture.
3. From the dropdown menu, select Settings & privacy, then click Ad activity.
4. This will open a new page that shows the ads from advertisers you recently interacted with. You'll see thumbnails of the ads, making them easy to spot.

Finding "Recent Ad Activity" on the Mobile App:

1. Open the Facebook app and tap the Menu icon (your profile picture and the three horizontal lines) in the bottom-right corner.
2. Scroll down and tap Settings & privacy, then tap Recent ad activity.
3. You'll be taken to a vertical feed of the ads you've recently interacted with. Voilà! Scroll through to find the one you were looking for.

The Big Limitation: This feature only shows ads you've interacted with. If you simply paused to watch a video but didn't click or "like" it, it might not appear here. For a much more powerful and comprehensive search, you'll need the Facebook Ad Library.

Method 2: Use the Facebook Ad Library (The Power User Method)

The Facebook Ad Library (now Meta Ad Library) is a public, searchable database of every active ad running across Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and its Audience Network. It was created to increase transparency, but for marketers and researchers, it's an incredibly powerful tool for competitive intelligence.

Here's how to use it to find a specific ad or all the ads from a particular brand.

Step 1: Go to the Ad Library Website

Navigate directly to facebook.com/ads/library. You don't need to be logged into Facebook to use it, though being logged in may provide a slightly better experience.

Step 2: Choose Your Location and Ad Category

You'll be presented with a search bar and a few options. Here's what they mean:

• Location: Choose the country where you believe the ad is running. If you're a US-based customer who saw an ad from a US brand, select "United States." If you're unsure, you can choose "All."
• Ad category: You have a choice here. To find ads related to politics, elections, or social issues, choose "Issues, Elections or Politics." For all commercial products and services — which is what you'll probably be looking for — select "All ads."

Step 3: Search by Advertiser Name or Keyword

The main search bar is where the magic happens. You have two primary ways to search:

• By Advertiser Name: If you know the company or brand that ran the ad, this is the most direct approach. For example, if you saw an ad for a new pair of Allbirds shoes, type "Allbirds" into the search box and select their official Page from the dropdown menu.
• By Keyword: If you don't know the advertiser's name but remember a specific word or phrase from the ad's copy (e.g., "bamboo sheets" or "meal planning kit"), you can type that into the search bar. This is less precise and will show you active ads from any advertiser that uses those keywords.

Step 4: Filter and Analyze the Results

Once you've submitted your search, the Ad Library will display all active ads that match your query. You'll see a grid of ads, which you can then filter further to narrow down your search.

Above the search results, you'll find a "Filters" button. Clicking this reveals several helpful options:

• Platform: Choose where the ad was shown — Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, or Messenger. If you saw it in your main Facebook feed, you can select only "Facebook."
• Media type: You can select "Image," "Meme," "Video," or "No image or video." If you distinctly remember a video ad, this filter will instantly hide all static image ads, making your search much faster.
• Impressions by date: While you can't search for inactive ads historically (a common misconception), you can see when active ads started running. This can give you an idea of how recently the campaign was launched.

For each ad in the results, you can click on "See ad details" to view the full creative (the image or video), the ad's copy, the call-to-action button, and information about the different platforms it's running on. This is where you can grab your inspiration or find the direct link to the product you wanted.

Method 3: Check Your Saved Folder on Facebook

This method requires a bit of foresight, but it's the most reliable way to find an ad again in the future. The next time you see an interesting ad you want to revisit, actively save it.

Here's how to do it:

1. On any ad in your feed, click or tap the three dots (...) in the top-right corner of the ad post.
2. From the menu, select "Save." You can choose to add it to a specific collection (like "Ad Marketing Ideas") or just your general saved list.
3. To find it later, go to your "Saved" folder. On desktop, this is typically in the left-hand menu. On mobile, it's inside the Menu tab.

While this doesn't help you find an ad from the past, adopting this habit will ensure you never lose track of a great ad again.

Method 4: A Creative Google Search

Sometimes, a direct search on Facebook or in the Ad Library doesn't work, especially if the campaign has ended. A well-crafted Google search can occasionally turn up what you're looking for, though it's more of a long shot.

Try searching Google with specific combinations like:

• "[Brand Name] Facebook ad [Product Name]"
• "[Memorable phrase from ad copy] ad"
• "Shark FlexStyle instagram ad"

This can lead you to the product's landing page, a news article about the ad campaign, or another user's post about it on a different platform like Reddit or Pinterest. It's an indirect route but can sometimes yield useful results when the official channels fail.

Final Thoughts

With these methods, finding that elusive Facebook ad is no longer a guessing game. Whether you're diving into your personal ad activity for quick access, using the Meta Ad Library for deep competitive research, or simply getting in the habit of saving ads you love, you have full control over revisiting the exact content you need.

Of course, after analyzing what your competitors are doing, the crucial next step is to understand and optimize your own ad performance. Many teams spend half their week just pulling CSVs from Facebook Ads Manager, Google Analytics, and their CRM to build reports. At Graphed, we've connected all those disparate data sources. Now, we just use a simple chat interface to build real-time dashboards and get answers in seconds. You can ask "What's our customer acquisition cost on Facebook compared to Google this month?" and instantly get the answer. We built Graphed to automate the busy work, so you can spend less time wrangling data and more time acting on it.