Meta vs TikTok vs LinkedIn Ads Library: which one for what
In short
- Meta is the most complete: full catalogue per page, with dates and variants. This is where your main research happens.
- TikTok surfaces reach metrics Meta hides, but only loads the video once you play it.
- LinkedIn is the only useful one for B2B, and its detail page exposes the real video file.
- Google Ads Transparency is for looking things up, not for archiving: its video ads are YouTube.
All four major platforms publish their ads for transparency, but each library was built on a different logic. Picking the wrong one costs you an hour looking for something that is not there.
Quick comparison
| Meta | TikTok | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search by brand | Yes, full catalogue | Yes, by advertiser | Yes, by company | Yes, by advertiser |
| Ad longevity | Yes, «running since» | First and last seen | Yes, with date range | Date range |
| Audience metrics | Political ads only | Yes, unique users reached | Yes, impressions by country | Limited |
| Formats | Video, image, carousel | Almost always video | Image, carousel, video | Display, video, search |
| Download the creative | With an extension | With an extension, after playback | With an extension | Not advisable |
| Best for | General e-commerce research | UGC and short-video trends | B2B, SaaS, services | One-off lookups |
Meta Ads Library: your main research
The richest one and the right base to work from. It gives you a page's entire catalogue, the start date and —most valuable— the «X ads use this creative and text» note, which tells you when they are scaling a creative.
Its limit is that it publishes neither spend nor reach for commercial ads. You have to infer performance from longevity and variant count.
TikTok Ads Library: format trends
It shows something Meta hides: the range of unique users who saw the ad. Useful for sizing campaigns and spotting formats that are scaling.
It is the best library for studying edit pacing, three-second hooks and UGC style, because nearly all of its inventory is native vertical video.
LinkedIn Ad Library: the only path in B2B
If you sell software, professional services or anything with a long sales cycle, your competitors are not in Meta's library: they are here. It shows running dates and impressions by country.
Unlike the others, LinkedIn video does not live in the results grid but on each ad's detail page, which is where it has to be pulled from.
Google Ads Transparency Center: for lookups
It covers search, display and YouTube, and it is useful to verify whether a brand is bidding on certain terms. But as a creative archive it is the weakest: video ads are YouTube and display formats sit inside iframes.
Our recommendation is to treat it as a one-off lookup and not try to build a swipe file from it.
Which one for your case
- E-commerce / DTC: Meta as your base, TikTok for format and hooks.
- B2B and SaaS: LinkedIn first, Meta for awareness campaigns.
- Apps and content: TikTok, without question.
- Search-heavy brands: Google to verify terms, Meta for creatives.
AdVault adds the download button to the first three and leaves Google as a quick link, for exactly the reason above.
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