Using the Meta Ad Library to research UAE competitors

The ads a UAE competitor is running on Facebook and Instagram right now are listed in the Meta Ad Library, which most people still search for as the Facebook Ads Library. It costs nothing, and an hour in it shows you how competitors actually sell: the offers they lead with, the languages they use and the pages they send people to.

What does the Meta Ad Library show, and what doesn't it?

For an ordinary commercial ad it shows the creative and text, the date the ad started running, the platforms it appears on and a library ID. It doesn't show what the advertiser spends, how many leads came in or who was targeted.

It also mostly shows ads that are running now. Once an advertiser switches a commercial ad off, it tends to drop out of view, so last quarter's campaign is usually gone. The country is the finest location filter too, so an ad aimed only at Dubai and one aimed only at Abu Dhabi both appear under the UAE.

How do you research UAE competitors in the Ad Library?

1. 01Write the list before you open the library. Put down eight to ten names: your closest direct competitors, one or two market leaders, and a few businesses that sell to the same buyer without selling the same thing, such as a car dealer and a luxury watch retailer. If you can't name that many, skip to step six and let keyword searches find them for you.
2. 02Open the library, choose United Arab Emirates as the country and All ads as the category. If the tool asks about ad categories, you don't want the political and social-issue one, because that's where the spend figures live and it has nothing to do with your competitors.
3. 03Search each competitor by page name, then pick the right page from the list. Brands often run more than one page, such as a main page, a branch page and a regional one, so check each. If nothing comes up, try the Arabic spelling, the name as it appears on their Instagram handle, or the parent company's name.
4. 04Log every active ad in a spreadsheet before you form an opinion, using the columns in the table below. If a competitor has dozens of ads, log the ten with the earliest start dates and one example of every different format.
5. 05Click through from each ad and note where it goes: a landing page, the home page, a WhatsApp chat or an instant form. The destination tells you how that business expects to close. If the link doesn't open or lands somewhere unrelated, take a screenshot and move on, because ads can point at pages that change.
6. 06Search by keyword as well as by name, in English and in Arabic. Type the words your buyers use, such as the service, the area or the product, with the country still set to the UAE. If a search returns hundreds of results, add an area or a product detail. If it returns nothing, switch script and try a simpler word.
7. 07Read the set as a whole. Which offer appears again and again? What does nobody mention, such as a price, a guarantee, Arabic or a human face? A gap is only worth using if it's true for you, so check anything you plan to claim against the rules at the end of this post.
8. 08Save what matters and repeat every month. Because the library mostly shows ads that are running now, take a screenshot with the library ID and date of anything worth keeping, then rerun the same searches. New ads and vanished ones show you what competitors are testing and what they've dropped. Put the findings into the brief for whoever runs your ads, whether that's you, a freelancer or a paid media team.

How do you read a long-running ad without fooling yourself?

An ad that has run for months is a clue, not a verdict. Someone kept paying for it, which suggests it wasn't failing badly, but it might also be a forgotten ad on a tiny budget, or an ad doing a different job from the one you assume, such as keeping a brand name in front of people.

Look for signals that point the same way: an ad that has run a long time, that exists in several versions or formats, and that newer ads have copied in idea. One signal is a curiosity. Three together are a pattern worth testing.

Then treat the pattern as a hypothesis for your own account. Your competitor's margins, sales team and customers aren't yours, and the only evidence that counts is what happens when you run the idea against your own numbers. How to test ad creative without a big budget covers how.

Where can you see more than the library shows?

Google runs a similar public tool for Google ads, its ads transparency page, and TikTok publishes a Top Ads page in its creative research area that you can filter by region. TikTok's is a curated selection, not everything running. All of them share the library's limit: you see the ad, never the result.

For results, ask people who've bought. A one-line question at the end of your own enquiry flow, such as who else you looked at before choosing us, tells you things no ad archive can. The wider method for planning and measuring paid social is in Meta ads in the UAE: a starting structure.

What should you copy, and what should you leave alone?

Copy the question an ad answers, not the ad. If a competitor leads with a free viewing, ask why that offer works in this market and how you'd make a better one from your own numbers. Reusing their photos, video, music, logo or wording can infringe their rights, and this isn't legal advice, so ask a lawyer before you reuse any asset.

Don't copy a claim you can't prove. If a rival says lowest price in Dubai and you repeat it without evidence, the claim becomes yours. For misleading prices and false data in advertising, the UAE government portal gives a ceiling of two years' imprisonment and a fine not exceeding AED 2 million under Federal Law No. 15 of 2020 as amended, and it names no minimum.

The same caution applies to matching a sale. Dubai Economy, now the Department of Economy and Tourism, said in June 2020 that traders must obtain a permit to run sales or promotional campaigns in Dubai, so check what applies to you before you match a discount. The wider rules are in advertising law in the UAE.

Today, pick three competitors, log their ten oldest active ads, and put the same searches in your calendar for a month from now. The second pass is where the library starts earning its place, because that's when you see what changed.