Running successful advertising campaigns requires more than a good creative or a large budget. Advertisers need to understand what their competitors are promoting, which audiences they are targeting, and how the market is responding to different offers. Without reliable research, media buyers risk spending money testing ideas that others have already explored.
The problem is that advertising data is scattered across platforms, and the information available to the public is often limited. Checking competitors manually takes time, while free ad libraries may not provide enough context to understand a campaign or trace its wider strategy.
With ad spy tools, this can be solved, but there are so many on the market that you also need to figure out which one fits your work.
This guide compares seven ad spy tools based on their pricing, features, platform coverage, and practical uses.
What are Ad Spy Tools & Why Professionals Use Them
Ad spy tools are platforms that collect, index, and organise advertising data from digital ad networks, allowing users to search and analyse competitors’ campaigns. Depending on the platform, they can reveal information about ad creatives, advertisers, targeting locations, campaign history, landing pages, and traffic sources.
They are commonly used by social media advertisers, dropshippers, affiliate marketers, media buyers, and e-commerce teams to research competitors, identify creative patterns, discover products, and understand how other advertisers approach different markets.
For example, you might find a competitor's ad that has been running for several months. The same creative, offer, and landing page are still being used. That does not prove the campaign is profitable, but it gives you a concrete campaign to investigate rather than starting your research from scratch.
READ MORE: How to Check If Your Ads Are Actually Being Shown to the Right Audience - Incogniton
The biggest advantage of using ad spy tools is speed and scale. The free Meta Ad Library provides access to ads running across Meta’s platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. Other ad platforms also have similar libraries.
However, instead of manually checking individual competitors across different websites, marketers can use these tools to search advertising databases at once, and narrow results using filters such as keywords, countries, ad formats, placements, and advertisers. Dedicated ad spy tools offer additional research capabilities, such as specialised filters, historical data, and saved searches.
The 7 Best Ad Spy Tools of 2026
Ad spy tools differ considerably in the platforms they cover, the data they provide, and how they charge for access. The seven tools below cover different advertising research needs. We examine their pricing, platform coverage, key features, and limitations to help you identify which type of solution fits your workflow.
1. Tyver
- Cost: Free; Pro $79/month; Team $119/month. Annual plans are $569 and $857 respectively.
- Best for: Media buyers and affiliates focused on Facebook advertising
- Key feature: Large Facebook ad database with advanced filtering
Tyver is a Facebook ad spy tool with a large database of creatives covering 140 countries. The database is updated daily, with millions of new ads added every day. Search filters include keywords and phrases, domains, app stores, ad format, CTA, Fan Page, and applications. It also supports similar-ad searches and filters for reach and gender.
The free plan provides limited access to the listings database and basic listing information while retaining the full set of filters. Pro provides full database access, complete listing information, saved favourites, and public API access. Team adds team members and custom limits.
Beyond standard ad search, Tyver includes tools for tracing related campaigns and finding creative variations. Users can search by domains, Fan Pages, apps, and other identifiers, while similar-ad search helps discover creatives that are visually or conceptually related to an ad they have already found. For teams, role-based access and viewing restrictions allow managers to control what individual members can access. A built-in Media Manager can also be used to organize and share downloaded creatives, while API access allows users to connect Tyver data with their own workflows.
Tyver is therefore most useful when your research is concentrated on Facebook. If your campaigns also rely on native, push, YouTube, or other traffic sources, you will need a tool that covers those networks.
2. AdPlexity
- Cost: Native $249/month; Desktop $199/month; Mobile $199/month; Push $149/month; Adult $199/month; YouTube $149/month
- Best for: Performance marketers running native, push, or mobile traffic
- Key feature: Separate channel modules, including carrier-level mobile targeting data
AdPlexity sells its research tools as separate channel-specific products. Its Native database covers 20M+ ads across 60+ countries, while Desktop covers 5M+, Mobile 10M+, Push 3M+, Adult 5M+, and YouTube 5M+. All six products include advanced search capabilities, trending data, landing-page downloads, and a dedicated account manager.
The separate modules make the pricing structure straightforward: you pay for the traffic sources you need. Annual plans reduce the monthly equivalent to $208 for Native, $166 for Desktop and Mobile, $124 for Push, $166 for Adult, and $124 for YouTube.
AdPlexity does not offer a trial period. Its help centre says users can request a refund within the first 24 hours instead.
3. BigSpy
- Cost: Free; Starter $69/month; Growth $159/month; Ultimate $499/month
- Best for: Budget-conscious marketers who want multi-platform coverage
- Key feature: A large cross-platform ad database with a free entry point
BigSpy offers one of the broadest platform selections on this list. Its current plans cover Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Pangle, Google Ads, YouTube, Pinterest, Unity, and Yahoo, depending on the subscription tier.
The free plan allows five searches per day and 20 creative downloads per day. Starter costs $69/month and covers Facebook and Instagram with unlimited searches and 50 creative downloads per day. Growth costs $159/month and adds X, TikTok, Pangle, Google Ads, and YouTube, while Ultimate costs $499/month and adds Pinterest, Unity, and Yahoo.
BigSpy says its database contains more than one billion ad creatives. For marketers who need to move between several advertising platforms without subscribing to a separate specialist tool for each one, its broader platform coverage is the main attraction.
4. AdSpy
- Cost: $149/month, single plan
- Best for: Deep Facebook and Instagram research
- Key feature: Advanced filters plus comment search across a large Meta ad archive
AdSpy focuses on Facebook and Instagram and provides a large searchable advertising database. Its website currently states that the database contains more than 210.9 million ads across 88 languages and 225 countries.
Searches can be based on ad text, URL, page name, likes, media type, affiliate network, affiliate ID, Offer ID, and landing-page technologies. AdSpy also allows users to search comments on ads, making it possible to examine audience reactions alongside the creative itself.
The platform also provides demographic information based on location, gender, and age range, and says it can bypass cloakers to provide information from landing pages.
At $149/month, AdSpy has a single paid plan rather than a low-cost entry tier. Its focus is therefore straightforward: detailed Facebook and Instagram ad intelligence rather than broad coverage across multiple advertising networks.
5. MTWSPY
- Cost: Free 3-day trial; Basic $70/month; Team $119/month
- Best for: Affiliate media buyers and teams researching Facebook campaigns
- Key feature: Real-time Facebook ad intelligence with landing-page previews and AI creative analysis
MTWSPY is a Facebook-focused ad intelligence platform built around a real-time database of ad creatives. The platform provides GEO, vertical, impressions, and performance filters, alongside AI-powered creative analytics. It also lets users organise ads with folders and tags and share them with team members.
The three-day trial provides limited database access and a 100-view limit. The Basic plan provides the full ads database, full ad details, filters, folders, and 3,000 ad views per month. The Team plan adds collaboration and 10,000 monthly ad views.
MTWSPY also provides landing-page previews, allowing researchers to see the page connected to an ad rather than examining the creative in isolation. Its database is updated in real time as new creatives are processed.
READ MORE: Mastering the Art of Bulletproof Facebook Ad Structures
6. Minea
- Cost: Starter $49/month; Premium $99/month; Business $199/month
- Best for: E-commerce and dropshipping product research
- Key feature: Ad, product, shop, and brand intelligence in one platform
Minea is built around e-commerce product research rather than advertising creative alone. Its current platform provides access to Meta ads, product listings, shop listings, brand tracking, notifications, daily niche lists, AI ad analysis, AI transcripts, and Magic Search.
Starter costs $49/month and includes 10 AI ad analyses, 10 AI transcripts, and 50 Magic Search uses per month. Premium costs $99/month and increases those allowances while adding additional shop and tracking capabilities. Business costs $199/month and makes the AI analysis, transcripts, and Magic Search features unlimited.
Minea says its wider database contains more than 80 million active ads and receives more than 120,000 daily ad and shop updates.
Because its product and shop intelligence sits alongside its ad research, Minea is particularly suited to advertisers who want to move from finding an ad to investigating the product and store behind it.
7. Anstrex
- Cost: Native $79.99/month; Push $89.99/month; Pops $89.99/month; In-Stream $39.99/month
- Best for: Affiliates and media buyers working with native, push, pop, and in-stream advertising
- Key feature: Ad intelligence combined with landing-page research
Anstrex covers several non-social advertising formats through separate products. Its Native product tracks more than 27 native ad networks and 14 million ads, with data from 64 countries. It includes advanced search and filtering, a landing-page ripper, and competitor alerts.
The Push product covers 38+ push ad networks and includes CPC bid information, while the Pops product covers 32+ pop ad networks. Both provide advanced search, landing-page tools, and competitor alerts.
Anstrex also offers a separate In-Stream product for TikTok and other tracked platforms. It costs $39.99/month and provides access to more than 30 tracked platforms, data from 55 countries, unlimited searches and results, advanced filtering, competitor alerts, and product and store analytics.
Essentially, the platform’s toolset is aimed at advertisers whose campaigns extend beyond the major social networks.
Ad Spy Tools at a Glance
| Tool | Starting price | Platforms | Best for |
| Tyver | Free; $79/month paid | Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta platforms | Facebook and Instagram ad research |
| AdPlexity | $149/month per module | Native, desktop, mobile, push, adult, YouTube | Non-social performance traffic |
| BigSpy | Free; $69/month paid | Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Google Ads, YouTube and more | Multi-platform research |
| AdSpy | $149/month | Facebook, Instagram | Deep Meta research |
| MTWSPY | $70/month | Real-time Facebook ad research | |
| Minea | $49/month | E-commerce ads, products, shops | Product and e-commerce research |
| Anstrex | $39.99/month | Native, push, pop, in-stream | Non-social and affiliate traffic |
Conclusion
When choosing an ad spy tool to use in your operations, the useful question is not simply which tool has the largest database or the longest feature list. It is whether the tool gives you the data you need for the traffic sources you actually buy.
There is also no need to force every type of research into one platform. No single tool wins on every platform, so match the tool to your channel and budget. A Meta-focused tool can be paired with a native, push, or TikTok specialist when your campaigns span multiple channels.
For advertisers managing multiple client or campaign accounts, the research stage is only part of the workflow. Keeping each advertising account in a separate browser profile can help organise those campaigns and keep their browser environments separate. Incogniton's guide to managing advertising accounts covers this workflow in more detail.
