Ad Spy Tool: See the Ads Your Competitors Keep Paying For

An ad spy tool shows you the ads other brands are running so you can learn from them before spending your own budget. The good ones answer two questions fast: what is my market running, and which of it is actually working. Everything you need for both is public — Meta, Google, and LinkedIn all publish searchable libraries of the ads on their platforms — but reading them one brand at a time, library by library, is slow.

Hermoso's Ad Spy does that sweep from a single input: your domain. It finds your competitors and similar brands automatically, queries the public ad libraries live, and ranks what it finds by how long each ad has kept running. Then it does the thing an ad spy tool normally can't: it remixes any ad you like into a finished ad for your own brand — because Hermoso is an AI ad studio, not just a research database.

Where does the data come from?

Ad Spy pulls from the official, public sources — queried live, not from a stale scrape:

Because these libraries are published deliberately under ad-transparency rules, spying on competitor ads this way is legal, ethical, and expected — every serious media buyer does it. Nothing private is accessed.

How does it know which ads are winning?

Ad libraries don't publish ROAS or CTR, so Ad Spy ranks by the honest proxy: run length. An ad a competitor has kept funding for months has survived every budget review since launch; nobody keeps paying for a loser. Sorting by longest-running filters out everything a rival is merely testing and surfaces what they've validated — their most battle-tested hooks, formats, and offers. It's a proxy, not a verdict, but read across a set of competitors it's the strongest free signal there is. The reasoning is unpacked in the run-length signal, and the manual version of the workflow in our competitor ad research guide.

Is this a Facebook ad spy tool?

Yes — the Meta Ad Library is the deepest source Ad Spy draws on, and it covers Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Threads in one sweep, with the full creative for each ad: video, images, carousels, primary text, and CTA. If you're searching for a Facebook ad spy specifically, that's the core of what you'll use. But your market doesn't advertise on one platform, so the same search also covers Google, LinkedIn, and organic TikTok — one query instead of four tabs.

What makes it different from other ad spy tools?

Most ad spy tools end where the real work begins: you've found a competitor's six-month ad, screenshotted it, and now you're staring at a blank canvas in an editor. Hermoso closes that loop:

• Remix into a finished ad. Pick any ad you've found and Hermoso rebuilds its validated structure around your brand — your real product photo composited in (so the label on screen is your actual SKU), your logo and palette applied, your copy and CTA included. The output is ready to run, not a moodboard.
• Competitors found for you. You don't need to know who to spy on. Paste your domain and Ad Spy discovers direct rivals and similar brands worth learning from, then pulls their ads.
• Live queries, not a stale database. Results come from the public libraries at the moment you search, so you see what's running now — including run dates that make the longest-running sort trustworthy.
• A swipefile that compounds. Ads you like save into collections inside the app, next to the studio that remixes them — research stops evaporating into screenshots and browser tabs.
• Publish the result. A finished ad can be pushed to Meta as a paused ad you review and launch in Ads Manager; for other platforms you download the creative and upload it.

How do you spy on competitor ads in Hermoso?

1. Paste your domain. Ad Spy finds your competitors and similar brands automatically — or you can name the brands you want to watch.
2. Read the winners. Their ads arrive from Meta, Google, and LinkedIn (plus organic TikTok) sorted by longest-running, so the first thing you see is each rival's most proven creative. Save the best to your swipefile.
3. Remix, never copy. Take a validated structure — hook type, format, pacing, offer framing — and let the studio rebuild it with your product, proof, and voice. Copying a rival's actual script or footage is plagiarism and competes with the original in the same feed; remixing the skeleton with your own skin is how the research pays off.

You can run your first sweep on the free plan — 250+ earnable free credits included, no card required.

Frequently asked

Is it legal to spy on competitors' ads?

Yes. Meta, Google, and LinkedIn publish their ad libraries deliberately under ad-transparency rules, and viewing them is exactly what they exist for. What's not okay is reproducing a competitor's specific copy, footage, or trademarks in your own ads — remix the structure, never the expression.

Which platforms does the ad spy cover?

The Meta Ad Library (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads), the Google Ads Transparency Center (Search, YouTube, Display), the LinkedIn Ad Library, and organic TikTok content. TikTok has no open ad library, so top organic videos in your niche stand in as the hook-and-format signal.

Can I see a competitor's ad spend or ROAS?

No — no ad spy tool can, because the libraries don't publish performance data. Hermoso uses run length as the honest proxy: ads that keep running are ads someone keeps choosing to pay for. LinkedIn additionally shows impression ranges, which adds a rough volume signal.

Is there a free Facebook ad spy option?

Hermoso's free plan includes 250+ earnable free credits and doesn't ask for a card, and competitor research through Ad Spy is part of it — so you can search the Meta library (and the others) and see your market's longest-running ads without paying.

How is this different from classic ad spy databases?

Two ways: the data is queried live from the public libraries rather than served from a scraped archive, and the tool doesn't stop at research. Any ad you find can be remixed into a finished image or video ad for your brand — real product composited in, logo and palette applied, copy and CTA included — inside the same app.

What does it cost?

There's a free plan with 250+ earnable free credits and no card required. Paid plans are $19, $49, and $149 per month; an image ad costs a few credits and a video ad roughly 25 or more, with exact costs shown in the app.