How can I see what LinkedIn ads my competitors are running, and is there a tool that tracks them?
TofuAnswer by the Tofu team · checked
Use LinkedIn's free Ad Library. Search a competitor's name to see its recent LinkedIn ads (each stays for a year after its last impression): the ad itself, its format, the advertiser and the payer. It doesn't show spend, clicks or results. Impressions, targeting and run dates appear only for ads targeted in the EU. LinkedIn's help describes no alerts, so to follow competitors over time, check the library by hand each week or use a third-party tool: Foreplay to save ads, Panoramata or PowerAdSpy to track brands, or an Apify scraper to pull the data.
As of October 2026.
Your options at a glance
| Option | What it does | Cost | Main limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Ad Library | Search ads by company, payer, keyword, country and date range | Free | No spend or results; impressions, targeting and run dates only for EU-targeted ads; no alerts |
| LinkedIn Ad Library API | The library's records for developers | No price stated | Gated: you apply and wait for review, according to ZenABM |
| A manual weekly check | You search the library on a schedule and log new ads in a sheet | Free (your time) | You do the work; ads leave the library a year after their last impression |
| Apify Ad Library scrapers | Pull library records into JSON or CSV | Pay per result, e.g. from $3.00 per 1,000 ads | Community-built; LinkedIn's User Agreement bans scraping |
| Foreplay | Chrome extension saves LinkedIn Ad Library ads to a swipe file | From $49 per month billed annually ($59 monthly) | Saving is manual; automatic brand tracking is listed for Meta only |
| Panoramata | Tracks competitors' LinkedIn ads, with summaries; custom alerts from the Professional plan | From $99 per month (up to 20 brands, 6 months of history) | Works from "samples of publicly available data" |
| PowerAdSpy | Ad spy tool across 11 networks | LinkedIn only on Palladium: $399 per month, or $119 per month billed annually | LinkedIn is labeled "niche coverage"; any budget figure is its own estimate |
1. LinkedIn's Ad Library
LinkedIn's Ad Library (linkedin.com/ad-library) is a public database of ads that ran on LinkedIn after June 1, 2023. LinkedIn says an ad typically shows up shortly after its first impression and stays for one year after its last impression.
You can search by:
- Company or advertiser name
- Payer name
- Keyword
- Country
- Date range
For EU-targeted ads, the More button adds two more filters: impression range and ad targeting parameters.
For each ad, you see a preview of the ad, its format, the advertiser name, the payer name and whether the ad is restricted. LinkedIn says that "to comply with the law" it doesn't show the preview, advertiser name or payer name for restricted ads.
Does the Ad Library show a competitor's spend or results?
No. LinkedIn's help pages list no spend, budget, clicks, leads or other results for any ad. The extra detail is for ads targeted in the European Union only:
| What you see | Ads targeted in the EU | Other ads |
|---|---|---|
| Ad preview, format, advertiser, payer | Yes | Yes |
| Dates the ad ran | Yes | No |
| Estimated total impressions, and impressions by country (rounded to the nearest percent) | Yes | No |
| Main targeting parameters, marked as inclusion or exclusion | Yes | No |
| Spend, clicks, leads or other results | No | No |
The targeting categories LinkedIn shows for EU ads are language, job, education, company, location, audience, age, gender, demographic, member interests and traits, predictive audience and audience expansion. So if a competitor's campaign includes EU countries, you can see who it was aimed at. LinkedIn notes that impressions can appear outside the targeted countries, because member locations may be out of date or members may be traveling.
Limits: LinkedIn's help pages describe no alerts, saved searches or export, and an ad drops out a year after its last impression.
2. LinkedIn's Ad Library API
LinkedIn's Ad Library help page links to an Ad Library API for developers. We couldn't load LinkedIn's API page to check its terms ourselves. According to ZenABM (June 2026), "Access is gated, not self-serve": you request the Ad Library API product for a LinkedIn developer app, and it is reviewed before approval. ZenABM says the API returns, for each ad, the creative and preview, advertiser and payer, format, first and latest impression dates and whether the ad is restricted, plus impression ranges and targeting for ads served in the EU. It adds: "It does not return spend, clicks, or engagement metrics on any ad." It suits a team with a developer who wants scheduled pulls through a route LinkedIn itself offers.
3. A manual weekly check
The free way to track competitors is a routine:
- List your 5 to 10 main competitors and their exact LinkedIn Page names.
- Once a week, search each one by advertiser name. Also search by payer name and by keyword (their product name and your category terms), in case an agency or another Page runs some of their ads.
- Set the date range to cover the time since your last check, and the country to your main market.
- For each new ad, save a screenshot and log it in a sheet: date first seen, format, hook or headline, offer, call to action and landing page.
- Open the landing page. The offer (a demo, a report, a trial, an event) often tells you more than the ad does.
- For EU-targeted ads, also log the impression range and the targeting.
Keep the sheet. Ads leave the library a year after their last impression, so your log becomes the long-term record. An ad that stays in rotation for months is often read as one that works for them, but the library gives you no proof of that.
4. Apify scrapers for the Ad Library
Apify hosts several community-built tools ("actors") that collect ads from LinkedIn's public Ad Library by company or keyword and export them as JSON or CSV. One example, the LinkedIn Ad Library Scraper by datapeak, returns the advertiser, payer, ad copy, call to action, landing page, creative URLs and, where LinkedIn shows them, first and last impression dates, impressions and targeting.
- Cost: pay per result. That actor lists pricing "from $3.00 / 1,000" ads.
- Limits: it can only return what the library shows, so there's no spend. Its developer notes that "LinkedIn actively rate-limits automated traffic" and recommends residential proxies.
- Terms: In section 8.2 of LinkedIn's User Agreement (effective November 3, 2025), you agree not to "Develop, support or use software, devices, scripts, robots or any other means or processes (such as crawlers, browser plugins and add-ons or any other technology) to scrape or copy the Services". It also bans using "bots or other unauthorized automated methods to access the Services". Read the terms and check with your legal team before you build a process on a scraper.
5. Foreplay
Foreplay calls itself an ad creative workflow platform, and its Swipe File saves ads into shareable boards. Its pricing page lists the LinkedIn Ad Library among the sites its Chrome extension supports, so you can save competitors' LinkedIn ads into boards, next to ads from Meta, TikTok and Google's Ads Transparency Center.
- Cost: Basic $49 per month billed annually ($59 monthly), Workflow $149 ($175), Agency $389 ($459). 7-day free trial.
- Limits: you save each ad yourself from the library. Its automatic competitor tracking (Spyder) is described as "Competitor Meta Ad Tracking," with no mention of LinkedIn. No spend data.
6. Panoramata
Panoramata tracks competitors' marketing across channels, including LinkedIn ads, landing pages, newsletters and pricing pages. It says you can follow a brand's LinkedIn ads in one dashboard, see their advertising history and creative stats, and set up alerts and summaries.
- Cost: Startup $99 per month (up to 20 tracked brands, 6 months of history, daily and weekly summaries), Professional $179 (unlimited brands and history; custom alerts and reports), Advanced $399. Annual billing gives two months free. You can sign up for limited access without a card.
- Limits: Panoramata says it monitors "samples of publicly available data," so treat it as a sample rather than a full record. It doesn't say it shows spend.
7. PowerAdSpy
PowerAdSpy is an ad spy tool covering 11 networks. LinkedIn is only in its top plan.
- Cost: Palladium is $399 per month, or $119 per month billed annually ($1,436 a year). A 3-day Palladium trial costs $7. Lower plans start at $69 per month ($27 billed annually) but don't include LinkedIn.
- Limits: the pricing page labels LinkedIn "niche coverage" and doesn't say how LinkedIn ads are collected or how many are covered. Its top two plans list an "Estimated Ad Budget" feature; that is PowerAdSpy's estimate, not LinkedIn data.
What about competitors' Meta and Google ads?
Both platforms have their own free libraries, and both show more than LinkedIn in some cases.
- Meta Ad Library: Meta says you can search "all active ads running across products from Meta." Ads about social issues, elections or politics stay for 7 years, with extra information including spend, reach and funding entities. Ads that delivered in the EU are archived for one year after their last impression, with more detail than other ads.
- Google Ads Transparency Center: search by advertiser or website name to see the ads an advertiser has served over a period, filtered by date and location, with the advertiser's name, location and the entity that pays. For ads served in certain regions, Google adds targeting information and the number of people each ad reached. Google's help page doesn't mention spend. If you're thinking about bidding on competitor names in Search, see should you bid on competitor brand names in Google Ads.
How to choose
- A quick look at a few competitors: LinkedIn's Ad Library, free.
- An ongoing record on no budget: the weekly check and a sheet.
- A team swipe file across LinkedIn, Meta and TikTok: Foreplay.
- Automatic tracking and alerts for many brands: Panoramata, or PowerAdSpy if you also want its other networks.
- Records in your own database: apply for the Ad Library API. A scraper is faster to set up but conflicts with LinkedIn's User Agreement.
No option here shows a competitor's real LinkedIn spend or results, so treat any spend figure a tool gives you as an estimate.
Sources (11)
- LinkedIn's Ad Library (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help), checked October 26, 2026
- Ad Library targeting parameters and impressions (LinkedIn Help), checked October 26, 2026
- User Agreement (LinkedIn, effective November 3, 2025), checked October 26, 2026
- LinkedIn Ad Library API: How to Use It for Competitor Research (ZenABM, June 2026), checked October 26, 2026
- LinkedIn Ad Library Scraper by datapeak (Apify), checked October 26, 2026
- Foreplay pricing, checked October 26, 2026
- Track your competitors' LinkedIn Ads (Panoramata), checked October 26, 2026
- Panoramata pricing, checked October 26, 2026
- PowerAdSpy pricing, checked October 26, 2026
- Meta Ad Library tools (Meta Transparency Center), checked October 26, 2026
- Ads transparency (Google Advertising Policies Help), checked October 26, 2026