TikTok ad library: how to find your competitors' app ads

What the TikTok ad library shows, and what it leaves out

You are probably here for the reason most app makers are. Your own TikToks die under a few hundred views, a few hundred dollars of ads brought almost nothing, and someone told you to look at what competitors run and copy the format. The library is the obvious place to start.

Its formal name is the Commercial Content Library, at library.tiktok.com. TikTok says ad data stays available while an ad runs and for one year after it was last shown. It lists the published date, the last seen date, targeting information and the number of people who saw the ad.

Three things are missing, and they decide how you should use it:

• The US. Every app we checked was read from the EU, UK and Switzerland library, and it says nothing about what the same app runs in America, Brazil or Asia. AI Chatbot Nova is a clear case: its ads look like the main source of installs, but its main markets, the US and Brazil, cannot be read there.
• Spend and installs. You see that an ad ran, not whether it paid for itself.
• A clean match to the app. Each ad is listed under an advertiser, and the advertiser is a company, not an app.

Why searching a competitor's app name shows the wrong ads

We searched the library for the apps on Chartjump, then checked whether each ad really belonged to the app. This is what came back.

• Ads, but none verified as the app's: Cal AI, PropGPT and ChatBox. Each search returned a list of ads, and none could be tied to the app.
• About half verified: Suno and Badoo. These are the good results, and the other half of each list still could not be tied to the app.
• No ads at all: Swipewipe, searched under both its name and its publisher MWM. Yet its creator agency says it delivers 200+ Spark ads a month. They either run outside Europe or do not appear under those names. Either way, the library alone would tell you this app buys no TikTok ads.

The second problem is the name on the ad. It is often not the name on the App Store:

• Kling AI is sold by KLING AI PTE. LTD., but the library lists BEIJING KUAISHOU TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
• AI Home Design is sold by COOL SUMMER LIMITED, but its ad shows TRIPSOFT LIMITED.
• Badoo is sold by Badoo Software Ltd, but the advertiser is Bumble Trading LLC.
• MyTunes and Home AI both come from the studio HubX. Some of the titles under MyTunes look like other HubX apps, and the HubX ads we saw for Home AI were not Home AI ads.

So a search result is a list of leads, not a list of a competitor's ads. Never copy a format until you have confirmed the ad shows the app.

SunoSee how Suno gets its usersKling AISee how Kling AI gets its usersSwipewipeSee how Swipewipe gets its users

How to use the TikTok ad library for a competitor, step by step

• Get the legal seller name from the App Store page. Also note the publisher or studio, if it has one.
• Open the library, pick a large European market and set the widest date range. If the app has a translated version, also try the country where that language is spoken.
• Search the seller name first, then the app name. Summary shows why this works: its ads sit under LABHOUSE MOBILE SL, with 14 verified ads under that name.
• Open each ad and confirm it. The video should show the app, name it or link to it. Studios run many apps under one name, so check every ad.
• Read the dates. An ad with a long gap between first and last shown is one the advertiser kept paying for. It is not proof of installs, but it is the best signal you get. Short bursts tell you little: every TikTok ad we read for AI Chatbot Nova ran for at most 2 days in our window.
• Write down the first words on screen, the first words spoken, the length and the format of each ad worth keeping. Ignore the reach figure as a measure of success, since it only counts Europe.

Chartjump has done the matching for the apps it tracks: the ads, how long each has run, its versions, and the creators posting about the app.

SummarySee how Summary gets its usersCal AISee how Cal AI gets its usersGoTallSee how GoTall gets its users

TikTok ad library or Creative Center Top Ads?

People often mix these up, and they answer different questions. The library answers "what did this company run?". TikTok Creative Center's Top Ads page answers "what is working in general?". It has filters for region, objective, ad language, ad format and likes, plus a search box, and it sorts by reach and click-through rate.

That makes Top Ads useful for format ideas, and weak for spying on one app. When we looked for specific apps there, ChatBox, 1Password, DramaWave and AI Home Design all returned no verified ads. Use it to see which formats are common in your region and language, then look for those formats among apps close to yours.

How to see what a competitor runs on TikTok in the US

No public library shows you this directly. You can get close from two other places, and for a small app they are often better than the library anyway.

First, its Meta ads. The Meta Ad Library shows when each ad started, and several apps we track run the same formats on both platforms. Cal AI grew through paid creators and then copied their style into Meta ads: 230 active ads built from 92 videos. Swipewipe's Meta ads reuse its creator formats, and GoTall's TikTok and Meta ads run similar ones. AbMaxx, a small app, has 46 Meta ads from 28 videos.

Second, the creators. A Spark Ad starts as a normal post, so the format is often sitting on TikTok in plain sight. Search the app name, then look for the line that names it. Status creators write "app is called Status btw" in captions over fan content, and AbMaxx's founder tells creators to pin the comment "The app is AbMaxx btw". A video that never shows a logo can still be a paid post for the app.

Generic names need more care. A TikTok search for Runway is mostly fashion, and one for Summary returns book, news and sport accounts. Add the category or the phrase the app's ads use. We found 65 creators posting about Cal AI and 40 about GoTall, which is far more to learn from than a library result with nothing in it.

AbMaxxSee how AbMaxx gets its usersstatusSee how status gets its usersRunwaySee how Runway gets its users

What to copy once you have found the ads

Copy the structure, not the video. A small budget cannot test everything, so take the parts that repeat across the ads that last.

• The hook. Summary's "Had to expose this Apple Watch hack" has run 46 days in one ad and 33 in another. StressWatch's "To my girls with apple watches, you need this!!" has run 99 days. Both are written like a post, and neither opens with the app name.
• The result on screen. Cal AI's talking head ad opens on "315LBS TO 219LBS" and has run 169 days with 42 versions.
• The number of versions. Cal AI has 1,057 versions of 92 videos. Swipewipe's agency says its cost per install fell after 19 variations were tested. One video on a few hundred dollars tests one hook, not the format.
• The length. Cal AI's two most-versioned talking heads run 21 and 15.7 seconds, and Swipewipe's top before and after video runs 12.8 seconds.

Then post your versions as normal posts before you pay for anything, and put money only behind the one that holds attention. Our guide to UGC ads covers scripts and costs, and the guide to marketing an app covers what to do before you buy any ads.

StressWatchSee how StressWatch gets its usersCal AISee how Cal AI gets its usersSwipewipeSee how Swipewipe gets its users

Questions

Does the TikTok ad library show US ads?

No. It covers ads shown in the EU, UK and Switzerland, so you cannot read US TikTok ads there. To get close, read the app's Meta ads, which often use the same formats, and search TikTok for the creators posting about it.

How do you search the TikTok ad library?

Search the legal seller name from the App Store page first, then the app name, and open each ad to confirm it shows the app. App name searches alone often return other advertisers: Cal AI's returned ads, none verified as its own.

How do you see competitor ads on TikTok?

Use three sources together: the library for Europe, Creative Center Top Ads for general formats, and the creators posting about the app. Then read the app's Meta ads for how long each format has run. No single source shows everything.

Does the TikTok ad library work in the UK or Australia?

The UK is covered. TikTok's supported country list has the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, the UK and Switzerland, and no country outside Europe. Australia is not on it, so use Meta ads and creators for Australia, the Middle East or Southeast Asia.

Is there a TikTok ad library API?

Yes, the Commercial Content API. It needs a TikTok for Developers account and an approved application, and its country list stops at Europe too. For checking a few competitors, the website is enough.

Can you see how much a competitor spends on TikTok ads?

Not in the library. You see dates, targeting and how many people saw an ad, with no spend or installs. Long-running ads and many versions of the same video are the best public signs that an ad is working.