Switching the source
Above the search bar sits a switch with two settings: Meta (the default) and TikTok. It decides which public ad library your search runs against. The choice is part of the URL, so a search you share opens on the same library for whoever you send it to, and it survives filter changes, presets and scrolling.
Results from the two libraries never mix. A search is always against exactly one of them, and a result set is either all Meta or all TikTok.
The one difference to internalise: what the keyword matches
On Meta, your keyword is matched against ad texts, link titles and page names. Type "skincare" and you get ads that talk about skincare.
On TikTok, the keyword is matched against the advertiser name, and nothing else. That is how TikTok's public library works, not a limitation we added. Type "skincare" and you get nothing; type "Samsung" and you get Samsung's ads. So on TikTok you research brands, and on Meta you research messages.
TikTok's advertiser matching is also case sensitive in practice: "Shein" finds ads where "SHEIN" finds none. If a brand comes back empty, try its exact spelling.
Filters change with the source
We only show filters the active library can actually honour. Switch to TikTok and three chips disappear:
- Country is gone. TikTok's search does not filter by country, and its results carry no country at all.
- Platform is gone. Every TikTok ad ran on TikTok, so the filter would have exactly one value.
- Language is gone, as it already is on Meta with our current data source.
Everything else keeps working on both: status, media type, dates, runtime, and the technology filter. Technology deserves a note: it fingerprints the landing page behind the ad, not the platform, so it is just as meaningful on TikTok as on Meta.
What each library tells you, and what it does not
The two libraries publish genuinely different facts. We show what is actually there and leave the rest blank rather than filling gaps with estimates.
- Only Meta has: the ad text, the call to action, the advertiser's page likes, EU reach, the number of collated creative variants, the ad language, and an advertiser page you can drill into.
- Only TikTok has: an estimated audience band such as "10K-100K". That is a band, not a number, and it is not comparable to Meta's reach figure, so it sits in its own field.
- Both have: the advertiser name, the creative, a headline, the delivery dates and the runtime.
A TikTok card therefore has no ad copy. That is not a loading failure, that library simply does not publish ad text.
The status dot on a TikTok card
Meta states outright whether an ad is running. TikTok does not: it reports only the last day an ad was shown, and it reports it one day behind. We derive the running state from that last shown day, allowing for the reporting delay. It is an accurate reading of what TikTok publishes, but it is a derived signal rather than a stated fact, which is worth knowing when a dot and your own expectation disagree.
Link-outs and boards
Meta results link to the original ad on Meta's own ad library page. TikTok has no public link to a single ad, so a TikTok result links to TikTok's library filtered to that advertiser. Where even that is impossible, there is no link rather than a broken one.
Boards happily mix both. Save a TikTok ad next to a Meta ad in the same board; each card carries a small META or TIKTOK plaque so you always know which library a specimen came from.