The Google, LinkedIn and TikTok ad libraries: how to look up a competitor's ads

The four libraries at a glance

This table reflects each platform's own help pages and the tools themselves as they read on 9 October 2026. Meta is included for comparison; the step-by-step for it is in the Meta Ad Library guide.

The Meta column comes from Meta's Transparency Centre, which says the library holds all active ads, keeps ads delivered in the EU for a year after their last impression, and keeps social issue, election and political ads for seven years.

Google: the Ads Transparency Center

Google has no product called an ad library. The tool is the Ads Transparency Center, at adstransparency.google.com, which Google announced on 29 March 2023. Google's help page describes it as a searchable repository of advertisers and the ads they have served on Search, Display, Gmail and YouTube.

1. 01

   Open the Center and set the region

   The button beside the search box reads "Ads in" followed by a country. Change it to the market you compete in. You do not need to sign in.
2. 02

   Type the competitor's name or website

   Suggestions appear in two groups: advertisers, each marked verified with a location, and websites. Choosing the website is often the safer route, because it gathers every advertiser account whose ads point to that domain.
3. 03

   Filter by date, platform and format

   The platform filter offers Google Maps, Google Play, Google Shopping, Google Search and YouTube. The format filter offers image, text and video.
4. 04

   Open an ad

   The details page shows the advertiser, the date the ad was last shown, its format, the regions it was shown in and a link to report it.

The limits are set out in the Center's own FAQ. Ads from verified advertisers are included for one year from the date they were last displayed, so an advertiser that has not finished verification, or has not run an ad in 365 days, may not appear. A new ad can take 48 to 72 hours to show up. The Center shows up to five common variations of an ad, and you cannot click an ad through to its landing page.

For ads served in the European Economic Area and Turkey, Google adds targeting information, the total number of recipients and a topic label, and it includes unverified advertisers there too.

LinkedIn: the Ad Library

LinkedIn's tool is at linkedin.com/ad-library. Its FAQ says anyone can explore it, with or without a LinkedIn account.

1. 01

   Enter the company name

   Use the Company or advertiser box. There are separate boxes for the payer's name and for a keyword in the ad.
2. 02

   Add a country and a date range

   Both are optional. Date presets include the last 30 days, this month, this year and last year. When we checked on 9 October 2026, the custom date picker would not accept a start date more than a year back.
3. 03

   Search, then open an ad

   Results are sorted newest first. Each ad's page shows the preview, the format (for example, a single image ad), the advertiser and who paid for it.

LinkedIn's help page says the library covers ads that ran after 1 June 2023 and that an ad stays for one year after its last impression. It usually appears shortly after its first.

Ads targeted to the European Union carry more. LinkedIn shows the dates the ad ran, an estimate of total impressions with a split by country, and the main targeting parameters the advertiser chose, such as language, location, job and company. The More button adds filters for impressions and targeting, and using them limits results to EU ads. If your competitor advertises in Europe at all, those listings are the most detailed free view of their LinkedIn targeting you will get.

TikTok: the Commercial Content Library, and Top Ads

TikTok has two tools that people call its ad library, and they do different jobs.

The Commercial Content Library, at library.tiktok.com, is the real archive. TikTok launched it on 20 July 2023 with European data only. That is still the catch: on 9 October 2026 its country menu listed the EEA countries, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and nothing else. A competitor that advertises only in Australia or the United States will not be in it.

1. 01

   Open the Ad Library tab and pick a country

   Choose one or more countries under Ad target country, or leave it on all countries. No TikTok account is needed.
2. 02

   Enter the advertiser name or a keyword

   The search matches the ad's title, advertiser name, "paid by" name and caption, and returns up to 5,000 results.
3. 03

   Set the date range and filters

   The date range defaults to the last month, so widen it. Filters cover ad type, ad status, age, gender and unique reach.
4. 04

   Open an ad

   You see the video, first and last shown dates, the advertiser and who paid, the caption, the call to action and the linked website. EEA ads add a range for unique users reached and a targeting summary.

According to the library's FAQ, ads appear within 24 hours of a campaign starting and stay for one year after they were last shown. Paused ads remain searchable. TikTok says it does not show political or election ads, so there are none to find.

Top Ads in the TikTok Creative Center is the other tool, and it does cover countries outside Europe. It is a showcase of high-performing ads that you browse by region, industry and objective. TikTok notes on the page that it only includes ads their advertisers have authorised, and you have to log in to see more than a preview. Use it for format ideas in your market, not to audit one competitor.

What this means when you research a competitor

• Start from their website on Google. A domain search catches ads run from several accounts, which a name search can miss.
• Check the European listings even if you do not sell there. On LinkedIn, TikTok and Google, the targeting and reach details only exist for ads shown in Europe. They hint at who the competitor is aiming for everywhere.
• Look within the year. Google, LinkedIn and TikTok all drop an ad a year after it last ran, so save anything you want to keep.
• Do not expect results data. None of the four publishes clicks, sales or cost for ordinary commercial ads.

Looking at public ads is fine; reusing someone's creative is not. The guide to researching competitor ads covers where that line sits, as general information and not legal advice.

Sources

• Google Advertising Policies Help: Ads transparency (undated, read 9 October 2026)
• Google Ads Transparency Center: FAQ (undated, read 9 October 2026)
• Google, The Keyword: Announcing the launch of the new Ads Transparency Center (29 March 2023)
• LinkedIn Help: LinkedIn's Ad Library (undated, read 9 October 2026)
• LinkedIn Help: Ad Library targeting parameters and impressions (undated, read 9 October 2026)
• LinkedIn Ad Library: search page and FAQ (read 9 October 2026)
• TikTok Commercial Content Library: FAQs (undated, read 9 October 2026)
• TikTok Newsroom: Research API and Commercial Content Library (20 July 2023)
• TikTok Creative Center: Top Ads (read 9 October 2026)
• Meta Transparency Centre: Ad Library tools (undated, read 9 October 2026)