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Browse and filter competitor ads
The Competitor Library is a searchable archive of the ads your competitors run. Open it from Insights > Competitors > Competitor Library. It is the first tab of the Competitors area.
Problem and intended user
A creative strategist (the person who plans and makes ad creatives) often briefs new ads without seeing what competitors run now. A media buyer (the person who runs your paid ads) has the same gap when they set offers. A brief can then repeat an ad a rival already runs, or miss an offer a rival pushes hard.
Current workflow
Today you search the public ad libraries of Meta and Google one brand at a time. Those libraries do not label angle, hook or offer, so you judge each ad by eye. To compare brands or find the ads that run longest, you copy links and screenshots into a spreadsheet and add your own columns.
Prerequisites
- Data. Track at least one competitor. See Add, remove and refresh competitors. Without one, the page shows "No competitors tracked yet".
- Limits. Sync Ads and Refresh Ads do not use your credits, but limits apply.
How Nexus works
Nexus collects the live ads of each competitor you track, from the Meta page or Google advertiser you picked. Fixed rules compute the card figures, chip counts and sort order from those ads. AI writes the labels, and only after it analyses an ad. Nexus calls an analysed ad Decomposed.
While a sync or an analysis runs, the result line adds "updating..." or "syncing new ads...". No step needs approval from another person, and nothing publishes an ad.
Select competitors
- Click a competitor card to select it.
- Click more cards to merge their ads into one gallery.
- Click Clear selection in the Combined panel to start over.
Search, sort and filters stay disabled until you select a competitor. Before that, the page reads "Select one or more competitors above to view their ads".
Search and sort
Type in Search ads by headline, copy, or brand... to narrow the gallery. Use the sort menu to reorder it:
- Longest Running
- Newest First
- Most Reach
- Highest Spend
Filter the gallery
- Click Filters. A number on the button shows how many filters are active.
- Under Media, choose All, Image or Video.
- Tick Active only to hide ads that are no longer live.
- In each chip group, select one or more chips. Each chip shows how many ads match.
| Group | What it labels |
|---|---|
| Primary Angle | The main message of the ad. |
| Hook Tactic | How the ad grabs attention. |
| Offer Framing | How the ad presents its offer. |
| Visual Format | The look of the creative. |
| Objection Addressed | The customer doubt the ad answers. |
A chip with no matching ads is dimmed. You can still click it.
Use the Decomposed toggle
A toggle next to Filters reads All, Decomposed and Not decomposed. It appears only while some ads are not analysed yet. Choose Decomposed to see only labelled ads.
Work with an ad
- Zoom. Click the image to open it larger. Click a video to play it in the card.
- View details. Opens the page for that ad. See Competitor ad detail.
- Save. Click the bookmark icon on the image. The icon fills when the ad is saved. Point at it to read Save ad or Saved. Click it again to remove the ad. Find saved ads under Saved ads in the Inspiration Library.
- Create similar. Starts a clone from the competitor ad. See Clone an ad.
Sync or refresh ads
INFO
Sync Ads and Refresh Ads do not use your credits, but limits apply. See Add, remove and refresh competitors.
- Select one competitor.
- Click Sync Ads when the competitor has no ads yet. Otherwise click Refresh Ads above the gallery.
- Wait while the button reads Syncing.... Ads appear as Nexus processes them.
Move between tabs
Once you track a competitor, See Competitor Synthesis appears in the page header. It opens Competitor Synthesis. Charts on Creative Radar link back here with the matching filters set.
Exact output
Competitor cards
Each tracked competitor has one card in the row at the top. A card shows these figures:
| Figure | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active Ads | Ads the competitor runs now. |
| Velocity | New ads the competitor launches, per week. The card shows it as "/wk". |
| Longest Ad | Days the longest-running ad has been live. |
| Avg Age | Average age of the ads, in days. |
| Platforms | The platforms the competitor advertises on. |
When you select two or more cards, a Combined panel appears. It shows Active Ads, Total Ads, Velocity, Avg Age and Platforms across the competitors you picked.
The ad gallery
The result line reads "N ads active between" two dates, from the date range in the page header. When more ads exist than fit, the page ends with "Showing N of M ads".
A card shows the creative, a days-active count such as "12d active" and a Live marker for active ads. When Nexus has analysed the ad, it also shows the angle, hook and offer labels.
What to do with it
| What you see | Decision or action | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Chips with many matching ads under Primary Angle, Hook Tactic or Offer Framing | Follow a common angle or pick one that competitors use less. Write it into the next brief. | creative strategist |
| An ad with a long "Nd active" count | Click View details and study it. | creative strategist |
| An image ad you want to keep or adapt | Click the bookmark (Save ad), or click Create similar. | creative strategist |
| A high Velocity or a change in Active Ads | Review your offers and budgets in Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads, outside Nexus. | media buyer |
| A competitor with no ads, or stale ads | Click Sync Ads or Refresh Ads. | media buyer |
| A brand you do not need, or a rival that is missing | Click Remove competitor (the X on the card), or click Add competitor. | ecommerce manager (the person who runs the store) |
Expected value and measurement
The library can help you see which angles, hooks and offers competitors run now, so you can write a brief with them in view.
To check that the library is current, compare Active Ads on a competitor card with the same brand in the public ad library of Meta or Google. To check your own results, open Performance > Ad performance and select By ad in the What's working table. Compare ROAS, CPA and Verdict for ads you made from a competitor ad against your other ads over the same dates. Performance does not mark which ads came from a competitor ad, so note which ads you made this way before you compare. See Ad performance.
The effect cannot be isolated, because your offer, budget and season change at the same time. The library shows how long a competitor ad has run, not its results. A long run is a hint, not proof.
Limitations and exceptions
What is not supported
- After you select a competitor and click Filters, the panel shows greyed pills for TikTok and Pinterest. Each is marked Coming soon.
- Video ads and text ads show no Create similar button.
- Sync Ads and Refresh Ads work on one competitor at a time.
- Competitor ads carry no spend data. Most Reach and Highest Spend currently give the same order as Longest Running.
AI output
The labels come from an AI analysis and can be wrong. Only analysed ads carry labels, so chip counts cover only those ads.
Empty and loading states
| You see | What it means |
|---|---|
| No competitors tracked yet | Add a competitor first. |
| No ads found for this competitor. | Nothing is collected yet. Click Sync Ads. |
| Fetching ads... they will appear here as they are processed. | A sync is running. |
| Failed to load ads. | Click Retry. |
Demo Mode
Demo Mode shows a seeded set of competitors. The add, remove and suggest controls are hidden. Refresh Ads runs a simulated sync that fetches nothing. Nexus blocks saving an ad and tells you so. Generate stays off on the Similar Ad Wizard. See Demo Mode and sample data.