How Can I Uncover Cloaked Competitor Ads?

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RobertL

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Does anyone know how to uncover cloaked Meta ads?

I'm researching a competitor (LumineOrganics.com). They're getting 300k+ monthly visitors, but the Meta Ads Library only shows 35 active ads. I know they're cloaking their ads.

Are there any tools or methods that still let you see what they're running?
 
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If they're getting 300k visitors and only have 35 ads showing, they're almost certainly using burner Facebook pages. The official Ad Library only shows ads tied to the specific page you look up.

To find the rest of their ads you have to bypass the official library.

First, go back to the Meta Ad Library and search their exact domain URL instead of their brand name. This usually exposes all the random pages they're using to run the bulk of their traffic.

If they're hiding the domain in the copy too, you'll need to use a third party scraper like AdSpy, Minea, or Foreplay. These tools scrape the actual Facebook feed using real profiles, so they catch the dark posts the official library misses.

For a free method, just go to their site, add a product to your cart, and abandon it. Then use a Chrome extension like My Ad Finder to strip all the regular posts out of your Facebook feed. You'll get hit with their retargeting campaigns and can see exactly what they're running in the wild.
 
Ben Arthur said:
For a free method, just go to their site, add a product to your cart, and abandon it. Then use a Chrome extension like My Ad Finder to strip all the regular posts out of your Facebook feed. You'll get hit with their retargeting campaigns and can see exactly what they're running in the wild.
Click to expand...
Yup! Having "fishing" accounts where you place all the pixels in a browser section then having VAs manually checking the ads they get, is one of the ways to find cloaked ads

Also, testing ad spies work as well.
 
Ben Arthur said:
If they're getting 300k visitors and only have 35 ads showing, they're almost certainly using burner Facebook pages. The official Ad Library only shows ads tied to the specific page you look up.

To find the rest of their ads you have to bypass the official library.

First, go back to the Meta Ad Library and search their exact domain URL instead of their brand name. This usually exposes all the random pages they're using to run the bulk of their traffic.

If they're hiding the domain in the copy too, you'll need to use a third party scraper like AdSpy, Minea, or Foreplay. These tools scrape the actual Facebook feed using real profiles, so they catch the dark posts the official library misses.

For a free method, just go to their site, add a product to your cart, and abandon it. Then use a Chrome extension like My Ad Finder to strip all the regular posts out of your Facebook feed. You'll get hit with their retargeting campaigns and can see exactly what they're running in the wild.
Click to expand...
already tried this and still couldn't find other ads. even on adspy. I cant use the last method as I don't live in USA. which is where he's advertising.
 
if you are seeing a big gap between their traffic and the Ads Library, I would not assume cloaking is the only reason.

they could be getting a lot of traffic from organic, affiliates, email, retargeting, or older campaigns.

For research, i would compare their landing pages, traffic sources and ad creatives over time rather than relying only on the number of active Meta ads.
 
Ads hub said:
if you are seeing a big gap between their traffic and the Ads Library, I would not assume cloaking is the only reason.

they could be getting a lot of traffic from organic, affiliates, email, retargeting, or older campaigns.

For research, i would compare their landing pages, traffic sources and ad creatives over time rather than relying only on the number of active Meta ads.
Click to expand...
nope. they're definitely cloaking.
 
RobertL said:
Does anyone know how to uncover cloaked Meta ads?

I'm researching a competitor (LumineOrganics.com). They're getting 300k+ monthly visitors, but the Meta Ads Library only shows 35 active ads. I know they're cloaking their ads.

Are there any tools or methods that still let you see what they're running?
Click to expand...
It is technically impossible to hide ads from the official Meta Ad Library, since Meta algorithms automatically publish absolutely all active creatives in it for the sake of platform transparency.
A competitor may run advertising not on behalf of the main brand, but through dozens of other specially created pages.
The buyer clicks on the ad and is taken to the main website, LumineOrganics. These ads will never appear in the main brand's library.
 
RobertL said:
Does anyone know how to uncover cloaked Meta ads?

I'm researching a competitor (LumineOrganics.com). They're getting 300k+ monthly visitors, but the Meta Ads Library only shows 35 active ads. I know they're cloaking their ads.

Are there any tools or methods that still let you see what they're running?
Click to expand...
I would not assume cloaking just from the ad count. they could be using affiliates, influencers, or other traffic source. BigSpy or similarweb may give some clues.
 
Deny Smith said:
I would not assume cloaking just from the ad count. they could be using affiliates, influencers, or other traffic source. BigSpy or similarweb may give some clues.
Click to expand...
The guy is a direct response meta marketer. This guy runs meta ads. he is cloaking.
 
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