How to Run a Weekly Competitor Ad Review
A 30-Minute Agenda, a Log With Six Columns, and One Decision at the End
Short answer
A weekly competitor ad review is a fixed 30-minute check of the same competitors in the Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center. Log new ads, stopped ads and long-runners against last week, follow the new ads to their landing pages, and finish with one written line on what changes for you.
1. What is a weekly competitor ad review?
A short, fixed routine that compares this week of competitor ads with last week. Its output is a log update and one decision line, not a slide deck. Consistency matters more than depth.
- Competitor ad review
- A recurring check of the ads competitors are running, recorded against the previous check so that launches, stops and long-running winners become visible as changes.
The weekly rhythm exists because of how the public archives work. The Meta Ad Library shows active ads, and outside the EU and UK archive most commercial ads disappear when they stop. A competitor test that runs for ten days and ends is visible to a weekly reviewer and invisible to a monthly one.
The general question of how often to review competitors across every channel is covered in the guide on competitive analysis cadence. This guide is the ads-specific version: what to open, in what order, and what to write down.
2. What do I need to set up before the first review?
A bookmark folder with one filtered search per competitor per archive, a log sheet with fixed columns, and a marker for each competitor: the newest ad you have already seen.
Setup takes about an hour for five competitors, once.
- Bookmark the Meta search for each competitor. Open their advertiser view in the Meta Ad Library, set the country, set Active status to "Active ads" and sort by Most recent. The filters stay in the page address, so the bookmark reopens the same view.
- Bookmark the Google search for each competitor. Search their domain in the Google Ads Transparency Center and set the region you compete in. Bookmark the result.
- Create the log. One sheet, one row per ad, with the columns in the table below. Keep it in a shared place so someone else can run the review when you are away.
- Record a baseline and a marker. Log every active ad once. For each competitor, note the Library ID of the newest Meta ad. That ID is the marker you compare against next week.Check every Page a competitor advertises from and bookmark each one. Regional and product Pages are separate advertisers.
3. What is the 30-minute agenda?
Five blocks in a fixed order: new ads, stopped ads, long-runners, destinations and the write-up. Time-box each one, and when time runs out, write the line anyway.
- New ads (10 minutes). Open each Meta bookmark and log every ad above the marker from last week. Classify each as a new angle, new offer, new product or a relaunch of familiar creative. Update the marker. Then scan the Google bookmark for anything new.
- Stopped ads (5 minutes). Mark ads in the log that are no longer active, with the date you noticed. An ad that stopped within two weeks lost its test. For competitors active in the EU, set Active status to "Inactive ads" to see exact end dates.
- Long-runners (5 minutes). Update days live for the oldest ads, and note any ad that has crossed your long-runner threshold this week. Those are the ones whose angle deserves a closer look.
- Destinations (5 minutes). Follow each new ad to its landing page and record the address. A new destination is often a bigger signal than a new ad, because building a page takes more effort than launching creative.
- Write-up (5 minutes). One line per competitor, even when nothing changed, plus one line on what it means for you. "No change" is a finding and keeps the log continuous.
4. What goes in the competitor ad log?
Six columns per ad and one line per week. The ad columns make ads comparable over time, and the weekly line records the judgment while the context is fresh.
| Column | What to record | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Competitor and Library ID | The advertiser and the ad identifier | Recognize the same ad next week |
| Started and stopped | The "Started running on" date, and the date you saw it gone | Run length, the best performance proxy |
| Platforms and format | App icons, image or video, vertical or not | Placement and production choices |
| Angle | The promise in a few of your own words | Pattern counting across ads |
| Offer | Discount, trial, bundle, free resource or none | Promotion timing |
| Destination | The decoded landing page address | Funnel mapping and page monitoring |
5. What should not wait for the next weekly review?
Anything that changes a live decision on your side: a competitor offer undercutting a promotion you are running, ads for a product that competes directly with a launch you are planning, or a sudden burst of new ads with one angle.
Escalate the same day when you see:
- A price or discount in their ads that beats an offer you have live.
- A new product or feature advertised before any announcement, in your category.
- Several new ads on the same day with the same new angle, which usually means a campaign launch.
- Ads in a market you are about to enter.
- Comparison ads aimed at your category or your customers.
Everything else goes into the log and waits. The discipline of the weekly slot is what keeps the review sustainable. The guide on competitor alerts covers how to set the bar for interruptions across all channels.
6. How do weekly reviews add up to something bigger?
Once a month, read the four or five weekly lines together and count: new ads per competitor, how many survived, which angles repeated, and which destinations gained ads. The trend is the finding.
Four weekly lines reading "two new ads, same angle as before" is a steady program. Four reading "six new ads, all different angles" is a competitor searching for positioning. Neither is visible in a single week, and both are obvious once the lines sit together.
The monthly roll-up is also where the ad log meets the rest of your competitive work. A new angle in ads, a matching homepage headline change and a pricing update in the same month is a repositioning. The ad review found the first piece of evidence.
7. Which parts of the review can be automated?
The collection, not the judgment. A tool can gather new ads, stopped ads and run length. Deciding what a new angle means for your plan still needs the person who owns the plan.
Oppira covers the collection side for tracked competitors on the Basic plan and above. It checks their Meta and Google ads twice a week while they run, records how long each ad has been live, surfaces new ads in daily AI alerts, publishes insight cards every Monday and sends a weekly briefing. The 30 minutes then goes on the write-up rather than on opening bookmarks.
If you run the review by hand, the method above works without any tool. The only requirement is that it happens every week and that the line gets written.
Key Takeaways
Weekly beats thorough
Most stopped ads leave the Meta Ad Library, so a weekly check catches tests that a monthly deep dive never sees.
Bookmarks remove the setup cost
One filtered, sorted search per competitor per archive turns each check into a few minutes.
A marker ID makes new ads obvious
Record the newest Library ID each week. Everything above it next time is new.
Six columns are enough
ID, dates, platforms and format, angle, offer and destination. More columns mean fewer reviews.
Always write the line
One line per competitor and one on what it means for you, even when nothing changed.
Some changes cannot wait
Offers that undercut yours, pre-announcement launches and campaign bursts get escalated the same day.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources
- Meta Ad Library Meta Platforms, September 2026.Sort options, Active status filter and the EU and UK archive statement checked in the tool on 2026-09-28.
- Google Ads Transparency Center Google, September 2026.The public archive for Google ads, searchable by advertiser or domain with a region filter.
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