See Engagement on Competitor Facebook Ads: What Works

You cannot see engagement on competitor Facebook ads inside the Meta Ad Library, because it shows no likes, comments or shares for normal commercial ads. You can see engagement on competitor Facebook ads when they appear in your own feed, or through spy tools that collect ads from real users' feeds, such as AdSpy.

That is the short answer. The longer one is about which of those numbers you should actually trust, and what to use instead.

Can you see likes, comments and shares on a competitor's Facebook ads?

Yes, but only in some places, and never in Meta's official transparency tool.

Here is how the three main routes compare:

The pattern is simple. Meta publishes what an ad is. It does not publish how an ad performs, unless you are the advertiser.

Does the Facebook Ad Library show engagement?

No. For normal commercial ads, the library shows the creative, the primary text, the platforms it runs on, the advertiser and the date it started running.

There are a few extra fields in special cases. In the EU you also get inactive ads and limited reach and targeting data. Political and social-issue ads in the US show spend ranges. None of that is likes, comments or shares on a brand's product ad.

If you want the full rundown of what the library gets right and where it misleads, read our breakdown of whether the Meta Ad Library is accurate. The short version: trust it for what is live, not for performance.

How do you see engagement on competitor Facebook ads in your own feed?

This is the free route, and it is underrated.

When a competitor's ad lands in your Facebook or Instagram feed, it looks like any post. You see the reaction count, the comment count, the share count, and you can open the full comment thread.

A few ways to make this happen more often:

• Visit the competitor's site and product pages. Retargeting will often follow you.
• Like or follow their page from a research account.
• Engage with content in their niche so Meta reads you as a fit for their audience.

It is slow and random. You only see the ads Meta decides to serve you, and you cannot pull a list. But when an ad does show up, you get something no library gives you: the comments.

What can competitor ad comments tell you?

I would take ten minutes in a busy comment thread over any engagement number. Counts tell you volume. Comments tell you why.

Read them for:

• Objections. "Is this safe for kids?", "Does it ship to Canada?", "Too expensive." Every repeated objection is an angle your own ad can answer up front.
• Desire language. The exact words buyers use to describe the result they want. That is free hook copy.
• Proof gaps. People asking "does this actually work?" means the ad is not proving its claim well enough.
• Customer complaints. Shipping delays or quality issues show where a rival is weak.
• Tag-a-friend behaviour. Lots of tagging usually means the ad is shareable, which is a creative quality worth noting.

Feed this straight into your angle work. Our guide to finding winning ad angles shows how to turn objections and desire language into testable concepts.

Which spy tools show engagement on Facebook ads?

Tools that build their database from ads seen in real users' feeds can capture the engagement visible at that moment. That is the key difference from tools built on the Ad Library, which cannot show engagement because the library does not have it.

AdSpy is the best known for this. Its database comes from ads collected in users' feeds, and it is known for letting you search and filter by engagement, such as likes, comments and shares. If you specifically want to sort a niche by "most commented" or "most shared", that is a genuine strength.

It costs $149/mo and has no free trial, so it fits people who research at volume. It is a fair pick if engagement sorting is the main thing you need.

Other tools, such as BigSpy (from $9, with a free tier) and PowerAdSpy (from $69), also position themselves around large multi-network ad databases. Check each tool's own site for exactly which engagement fields it shows today, since that varies and changes.

Is high engagement a sign that an ad is working?

Not on its own. Engagement is one of the easiest numbers on Meta to inflate, and it often has little to do with sales.

Common reasons a competitor ad shows big numbers:

• Boosted posts. A post boosted for engagement gets shown to people likely to react, not people likely to buy.
• Giveaways and contests. "Comment to win" ads pile up comments from people who never intend to purchase.
• Reused post IDs. Many advertisers run the same post ID across campaigns and audiences so social proof accumulates on one post. Big counts can reflect months of spend, not a great ad.
• Controversy. Angry comments count the same as happy ones.
• Cheap audiences. Engagement bought in low-cost regions inflates counts without reaching real buyers.

The reverse is true too. Plenty of profitable direct-response ads have almost no comments. A clean product demo that sends people straight to checkout may never collect a single reaction worth mentioning.

So read engagement as context. A high count tells you people noticed, not that anyone paid.

What is a better signal than engagement?

Longevity. The "Started running on" date on every Ad Library card is the closest thing to public performance data Meta gives you.

The logic is plain. Advertisers keep paying only for ads that make them money. An ad that has run for many weeks or months, especially with several variations live, is usually a winner. An ad launched yesterday tells you nothing yet.

Here is how the two signals compare:

Longevity has its own blind spots. Some brands leave forgotten ads running, and evergreen retargeting can sit live for ages on small budgets. Our guide to reading ad longevity to spot winners covers when the signal lies.

Has the ad run for weeks or months?

Yes, with several variations

Likely winner, study the angle

Yes, but it's a single ad

Maybe, check again in two weeks

No, launched recently

Too early, note it and wait

How should you combine engagement and longevity in practice?

I use them in order, not side by side.

1. Filter by longevity first. In the Ad Library, pull up a competitor and note the ads that have run longest. Our walkthrough on how to see competitors' Facebook ads covers the search side.
2. Save the long runners. Ads vanish from the library once paused outside the EU, so keep copies. A free tool like our Meta Ad Library downloader saves the video, image or full carousel in one click. If you only need the media, our guide to downloading Facebook Ad Library videos covers every method.
3. Look for engagement on those specific ads. If they show up in your feed or a feed-collected tool, read the comments.
4. Write down the angle, the objection it answers, and what the comments complain about. That is your brief.

This order keeps you from chasing a giveaway post with 4,000 comments while ignoring a quiet demo video that has been printing money for five months.

What does engagement not tell you, even when you can see it?

Even a perfect engagement number leaves out the things that matter most to a media buyer.

• Spend. You do not know if 500 comments came from $200 or $20,000.
• Conversion rate. Comments do not show who bought.
• Audience. You cannot see who the ad targeted.
• Placement mix. Reels, feed and Stories behave very differently, and counts blend them.

That is why I treat engagement as qualitative research. The comment thread is gold. The like count is trivia.

FAQ

Can you see likes and comments on competitor Facebook ads?

Yes, when the ad appears in your own Facebook or Instagram feed, or inside a spy tool that collects ads from real users' feeds. You cannot see them in the Meta Ad Library, which shows no engagement for normal commercial ads.

Does the Facebook Ad Library show engagement?

No. The library shows the creative, the copy, the platforms and the "Started running on" date for commercial ads. EU ads add limited reach and targeting data, and US political ads show spend ranges, but there are no likes, comments or shares.

Which spy tool shows engagement on Facebook ads?

AdSpy is the best known for it, because its database is collected from users' feeds and it lets you search by engagement. It costs $149/mo with no free trial. Other tools also collect engagement data in varying depth, so check each one's site for current fields.

Is high engagement a sign that an ad is profitable?

Not by itself. Engagement is easy to inflate with boosted posts, giveaways, reused post IDs and controversy, and many profitable direct-response ads get very few comments. Use it as a clue alongside how long the ad has been running.

How can you tell which competitor ads are performing best?

Start with longevity: ads that have run for weeks or months, especially with several variations, are usually the ones making money. Then read the comments on those ads, if you can find them in your feed, to learn which objections and desires they tap.