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How to Use the Facebook Ads Library and Google Transparency Center to Research Competitor Ads

When I start building a campaign, one of the first things I want to know is simple: is anyone already advertising to this audience?

That question came up recently with a new prospect. Their idea was to run ads in Spanish for people in San Jose, California. That is a very specific audience, and before making assumptions, it makes sense to research what is actually happening in the market.

If you work with local businesses, especially bilingual or Spanish-speaking audiences in the United States, this kind of research is important. You want to know:

Who the audience is
Where they are
Whether competitors are already running ads
What platforms they are using
How much competition is really out there

For this example, the audience was clear: Spanish-speaking people in San Jose looking for a dentist.

Once you know that, the next step is research. Two free tools help with this:

Meta Ads Library
Google Ads Transparency Center

And if you want a little more context on search demand, you can also check Google Trends.

Start with the audience, not the platform

A lot of people want to jump straight into ad setup, but that is backwards.

The most important part of a campaign is the audience. Before worrying about creatives, budget, or targeting options, get clear on who you are trying to reach.

In this case, the business was in the United States, but the goal was to reach Spanish-speaking people in a specific city. That changes the strategy right away. It also raises a practical question:

Are local businesses already running Spanish-language ads in that area, or is this still mostly untapped?

That is exactly what these tools help answer.

How to research Spanish ads with the Meta Ads Library

The first tool to use is the Meta Ads Library, available at Facebook’s ad library site.

This tool lets you search active ads running across Meta platforms. It is useful because businesses have to submit ad information when they launch campaigns, and Meta stores public ad data that you can browse.

What to search

For a local business, start broad and then narrow down.

In this example, the search process looked something like this:

Set the location to United States
Choose the ad category as All ads
Try a localized keyword like dentist in San Jose
If that returns nothing, simplify the keyword to dentist
Try Spanish alternatives such as clínica dental or dentista hispana

This matters because search tools do not always return clean local matches on the first try. Sometimes a keyword is too narrow. Sometimes the library pulls in related advertisers rather than the exact service you want.

What showed up in the search

When searching broad terms like dentist, some results were not actually local dental offices. A few were businesses offering services to dentists, rather than dental care itself.

That is normal. The library can return partial matches, related industries, or ads that only loosely fit the search phrase.

But after refining the search, there were some useful findings:

There were Spanish-language dental ads running in other cities
Some examples included video ads and WhatsApp-related ads
At least one advertiser had been running the same ad for a long time, which suggests it may be performing well

That last point is important. If an ad has been live for months, that is a clue. Businesses usually do not keep paying for an ad indefinitely unless it is producing results or at least doing something useful for them.

What the ad duration can tell you

Inside the Meta Ads Library, you can often see how long an ad has been active.

If you find an ad that started months ago and is still running, that usually means one of two things:

It is working well enough to keep funded
It is part of an ongoing campaign the business still values

That does not automatically mean you should copy it, but it does tell you there is likely demand.

The challenge with local research

One thing that came up during this research is that local filtering is not always perfect. It was easy enough to search the United States, but not every result was truly tied to San Jose, California.

Some of the results looked promising at first and then turned out to be for San Jose, Costa Rica, which obviously is not useful if your campaign is targeting California.

That is why manual review matters. Do not just trust the keyword match. Click into the advertiser details, check the business name, and make sure the location fits your market.

What the Meta research revealed

After narrowing things down, the takeaway was pretty clear:

Yes, there were Spanish-language dental ads being run, but there did not appear to be heavy competition specifically in San Jose, California.

There were only a small number of relevant advertisers, and some search results were from the wrong region entirely. That is useful strategic information.

For a client, that means you can say something honest and practical:

There is at least some proof that Spanish dental ads are being used
The local competition does not look saturated
This could be a good opportunity to stand out

How to use the Google Ads Transparency Center

After checking Meta, the next step is Google.

The tool for this is the Google Ads Transparency Center. Like Meta’s ad library, it gives you a way to inspect advertisers and active ad activity.

The workflow is similar:

Open the Google Ads Transparency Center
Set the country to United States
Search for terms related to the service, such as dentist in San Jose or clínica dental

What makes Google harder in this case

This is where the research became more limited.

For the specific Spanish local queries, Google did not return much. Searches like dentist in San Jose and clínica dental en San Jose did not produce strong local results.

One advertiser appeared to have multiple ads, but it looked like that company was based in Texas, not in the target city.

That highlights one of the frustrations with this tool: it is not always ideal for precise local keyword-based research. You may find advertisers, but not always in the geography you actually care about.

So while the Transparency Center is worth checking, it may not answer the full question by itself when you are researching a small, local Spanish-speaking audience.

Use Google Trends to validate search interest

Since the Google ad search results were limited, the next move was to use Google Trends.

Google Trends is not really an ad spy tool. It is more of a search interest tool. Still, it can help you answer another key question:

Are people in this area even searching for these terms?

What to check in Google Trends

For this kind of research, try:

A phrase like clínica dental
The geographic area set to United States first
Then narrow into a local region such as San Jose or the broader Bay Area
Adjust the timeframe if needed, such as checking the past three months

That last part matters. If a term has low volume, a short time frame may show nothing. Expanding or adjusting the location can sometimes reveal small but real demand.

Low data does not always mean zero demand

This is one of the most important practical points from the whole research process.

Sometimes Google Trends will show very little data, or even zero. That does not necessarily mean nobody is searching.

It can simply mean:

The search volume is too small for Google to report confidently
The phrase is too specific
The location filter is too narrow

So if you see limited data, do not panic. It may still be a real opportunity, especially for local services.

In this case, the data was light, but there were still indications that people in the San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose area were searching related terms. It was not high volume, and it was not consistent all the time, but it was enough to suggest there is some search activity.

What this research tells you before launching a campaign

Putting it all together, this kind of ad research gives you a much better starting point than guessing.

For a local Spanish-language campaign, the findings were:

Meta showed some Spanish-language dental ads already running
The local competition in San Jose did not appear crowded
Google’s ad transparency data was more limited for this exact question
Google Trends suggested some search interest, even if the data was thin

That gives you a realistic picture:

There is enough evidence to justify testing Spanish ads, but not so much competition that the market looks saturated.

A practical way to approach your own competitor research

If you want to repeat this process for your own business or clients, use this sequence:

1. Define the audience clearly

Who are they?
What language do they speak?
Where are they located?
What service are they likely searching for?

2. Search the Meta Ads Library

Start broad
Try English and Spanish keywords
Review advertisers manually
Check how long ads have been running

3. Check the Google Ads Transparency Center

Search relevant service terms
Look for active advertisers
Verify whether the businesses actually match your target market

4. Use Google Trends for extra context

Test your keyword in the right geography
Adjust the timeframe
Remember that low data is not the same as no demand

Why this matters for digital marketing strategy

This kind of research is not just about spying on competitors. It is about making better decisions.

If nobody is advertising to a specific audience, that could mean one of two things:

There is no real demand
There is an opportunity others have missed

The only way to know which one you are dealing with is to combine ad research with search behavior and local context.

That is why tools like the Facebook Ads Library, the Google Ads Transparency Center, and Google Trends are useful together. No single tool gives you the whole answer, but together they give you enough to move forward intelligently.

Final takeaway

If you are researching whether competitors are running ads in Spanish, especially for local services, you can absolutely find useful information with free tools.

The process is not perfect. Some results will be broad, some will be irrelevant, and some locations will be hard to isolate. But even with those limitations, you can still answer the big questions: