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The LinkedIn Ad Library is a beautiful resource for getting ABM campaign inspiration & learning whom you’re competing against for your audience’s attention – and free, public, and gives you access to every active and archived ad on the platform. But most folks running LinkedIn Ads underutilize it – and it can be a great “teacher’ on what your competitors are doing, and how high is the bar when it comes to competing for your audience’s attention.
This guide covers how I use the LinkedIn Ads Library for competitive intelligence – and how to make sense of it to improve your ads (also bringing in some data from ZenABM LinkedIn ABM Benchmarks Report – on ad performance across 211 companies!)
I will show you how to research competitor campaigns, identify creative patterns that work, spot what your competitors are running against your target accounts, and turn all of that research into actual campaign improvements.
LinkedIn launched its Ads Library in 2023 as part of broader ad transparency requirements. It is a searchable database of all active sponsored content running on the platform. Think of it as LinkedIn’s version of the Meta Ad Library – except most LinkedIn advertisers do not seem to know it exists, which means most of your competitors are not using it either. It’s accessible publicaly without a login (which also means it’s scrapable) go to linkedin.com/ad-library. No LinkedIn account is required, though being logged in gives you a smoother experience. Here is what you can search by:
For each ad, the library shows you:
One important limitation: the Ads Library only shows ads from the last 12 months. If you want historical data going back further, you will need third-party tools (covered later in this guide).
Here is the mistake I see most people make with the Ads Library: they search for one competitor, scroll through the results, and think “that is interesting” – and then do nothing with it. That is not competitive research. That is browsing. A proper competitive research workflow has three layers. Let me walk through each one.
Start by searching for your top 5-10 direct competitors by name. For each competitor, document:
I keep a simple spreadsheet for this. One row per competitor, columns for each data point above. It takes about 20 minutes per competitor for a thorough first pass.
This is where it gets interesting – and where most guides stop short. Instead of searching by competitor name, search for the keywords your target buyers would use. If you sell a project management tool, search for:
This surfaces ads you might never have found through direct competitor searches – including ads from companies you did not realize were competing for the same audience. I have found competitors I did not even know existed this way. What to look for in keyword-based research:
Combine keyword searches with country filters to understand what your specific target audience sees in their feed. A CMO in the US market sees different ads than a VP of Marketing in DACH. The competitive landscape shifts by geography. For ABM campaigns specifically, this matters because your target account list is seeing all of these ads too. Understanding the competitive noise in your buyers’ feeds helps you create ads that stand out rather than blend in.
The LinkedIn Ads Library does not show exact spend numbers. But it does show impression ranges for each ad, and if you know what to look for, you can piece together a surprisingly accurate picture of a competitor’s budget. 
Here is how impression ranges translate to estimated spend (based on typical LinkedIn CPMs of $30-80 for B2B audiences):
| Impression Range | Estimated Monthly Spend | What It Signals |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1K | Under $80 | Testing or newly launched – minimal investment |
| 1K – 5K | $80 – $400 | Small campaigns, narrow targeting, or early stage |
| 5K – 10K | $400 – $800 | Moderate investment, likely a focused campaign |
| 10K – 50K | $800 – $4,000 | Solid budget, dedicated campaign with real intent |
| 50K – 100K | $4,000 – $8,000 | Significant investment, likely always-on |
| 100K – 500K | $8,000 – $40,000 | Major campaign, large team and budget behind it |
| 500K+ | $40,000+ | Enterprise-level spend, broad targeting |
Now, multiply that across all active ads from a single competitor. If a company has 15 ads each showing 10K-50K impressions, they are spending somewhere between $12,000 and $60,000 per month on LinkedIn. That tells you a lot about how seriously they take the channel. A few things to watch for:
Here is something that surprised me when I first dug into the Ads Library: some of my competitors were running ads that directly targeted companies like mine. Competitor displacement campaigns are more common than you think. To find these, search the Ads Library for:
When I searched for “ZenABM” in the Ads Library, I found exactly zero competitor ads targeting us by name (we are still growing – that will change). But when I searched for “LinkedIn ABM tool” and “LinkedIn ads analytics,” I found 20+ companies running ads competing for the same buyers. What to do when you find competitor displacement campaigns targeting you:
Using the LinkedIn Ads Library as a starting point, we built a dataset of 2,828 LinkedIn ads from 211 companies with a combined $5.5M in ad spend for the ZenABM Benchmarks Report. Here is what the data reveals about what works and what does not. 
| Ad Format | Average CTR | Average CPC to Landing Page | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thought Leader Ads | 2.68% | $3.06 | Brand awareness, trust-building, top of funnel |
| Single Image Ads | 0.42% | $13.23 | Direct response, lead gen, product promotion |
| Carousel Ads | 0.32% | $13.30 | Storytelling, multi-feature showcases, education |
| Video Ads | 0.24% | $15.61 | Complex explanations, demos, brand storytelling |
The standout here is Thought Leader Ads at 2.68% CTR and $3.06 CPC – that is 6x the click-through rate and 4x cheaper per click compared to single image ads. If you are not running TLAs yet, check out our complete guide to LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads.
Across those 2,828 ads, top performers shared clear patterns:
Equally important – here is what showed up repeatedly in ads that underperformed:
When you are reviewing competitors in the Ads Library, look for these patterns. If a competitor is running text-heavy stock photo ads, there is an opportunity to outperform them with a more authentic creative approach.
Checking the Ads Library once and calling it “competitive intelligence” is like checking your revenue dashboard once a quarter and calling it “financial planning.” You need a system. Here is the workflow I use monthly. It takes about 2-3 hours per month and pays for itself many times over in campaign ideas and positioning insights.
On the first Monday of each month, I review the Ads Library for my top 5 competitors. I am looking for:
I document changes in a shared spreadsheet so the team can see trends over time. After 3-4 months, you start seeing patterns – seasonal pushes, product launch rhythms, and budget shifts.
Search for your 5-10 core keywords and note any new advertisers. The competitive landscape on LinkedIn changes. New funded startups enter the market. Enterprise players shift budgets. Keeping a monthly pulse on keyword competition helps you adjust your own bidding and messaging strategy.
Save screenshots of ads that catch your attention – both from competitors and from companies outside your industry. I organize mine into folders:
Over time, this becomes the most valuable creative resource on your team.
Summarize findings in a short document for your team. What changed? What is everyone doing? Where are the gaps? What should we test next month based on what we have learned? This brief should answer one question: “Based on what competitors are doing, what should we do differently?”v
Research without action is a waste of time. Here is how I translate Ads Library findings into concrete campaign improvements.
Action: Go the opposite direction. If everyone pushes “Book a Demo,” test a lower-friction offer like a free tool, calculator, or ungated guide. When I noticed that most ABM tool competitors were pushing demo requests, we tested an ungated benchmarks report instead. The cost per qualified lead dropped significantly because we were not fighting the same cold-audience friction everyone else was.
Action: They are outspending you but not out-creating you. This is your opening. A well-crafted ad with a specific offer will outperform a mediocre ad with a big budget. Focus on creative quality – specific numbers, real photos, concrete outcomes.
Action: Start running them immediately. At 2.68% CTR versus 0.42% for single image ads, TLAs are still underused in most B2B categories. Being the first in your competitive set to use them gives you a significant advantage.
Action: Study it carefully. Long-running ads are profitable ads. Do not copy it directly, but analyze why it works. Is it the offer? The visual? The hook? The CTA placement? Take the principle and apply it to your own brand voice.
Action: Address the objections they are raising – but in your own ads, not in a response to theirs. If they claim you are “too complex,” run ads showing your simple setup. If they target your pricing, run ads about ROI and value. Do not get into a public ad war – close the gaps in your messaging.
The Ads Library is a good starting point, but it has limitations. Here are the tools I use alongside it to build a complete competitive and performance picture. 
| Tool | What It Does | How It Complements the Ads Library | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| ZenABM | LinkedIn ABM analytics, company-level tracking, ad performance benchmarking, CRM sync | Ads Library shows what competitors run. ZenABM shows how your ads perform at the company level. Pair external research with internal data. | $59/month (Starter) |
| Crayon | Competitive intelligence platform – tracks competitor website changes, ad updates, pricing changes, product launches | Automates the manual monitoring work. Alerts you when competitors launch new ads or change messaging. | Custom pricing |
| Foreplay | Ad swipe file tool – save, organize, and share ads from multiple platforms | Better than screenshots. Organize ads by competitor, theme, format, or performance hypothesis. | $29/month (Starter) |
| Claude / ChatGPT | AI analysis of ad creative patterns, copy generation, competitive summary writing | Feed it screenshots from the Ads Library and ask for pattern analysis. We used this for the 2,828-ad analysis. | $20/month (Pro) |
| LinkedIn Campaign Manager | Your own ad performance data – CTR, CPC, conversions, demographics | Ads Library gives you external context. Campaign Manager gives you internal truth. Both are needed. | Included with ad spend |
The combination I recommend: use the LinkedIn Ads Library for external competitive research, ZenABM for your own campaign analytics and company-level engagement data, and an AI tool for pattern analysis at scale. This gives you both sides of the picture – what the market is doing and how your campaigns compare.
If you are running account-based marketing on LinkedIn, the Ads Library becomes even more valuable. Here is how ABM teams can use it differently than general demand gen teams.
Your target account list is seeing ads from your competitors too. By searching the Ads Library for your competitor names and their common keywords, you can understand the complete ad environment your target accounts experience. If a prospect at Snowflake sees 15 ABM platform ads per week, yours needs to be distinctive – not another “book a demo” with a blue gradient background.
Some ads in the Library are clearly ABM campaigns – they reference specific industries, company sizes, or roles. If you see a competitor running an ad that says “For Series B SaaS companies scaling to $10M ARR,” that is an ABM ad targeting a specific segment. Note which segments competitors are going after. Are they competing for your exact ICP, or a different slice?
By looking at all of a competitor’s active ads together, you can map their funnel. Are they running awareness ads (thought leadership, brand), consideration ads (case studies, comparisons), and decision ads (demos, trials)? Or are they only running bottom-of-funnel demo requests? Understanding their funnel tells you where they are strong and where there are gaps you can fill. For a complete breakdown of running ABM campaigns on LinkedIn, check our full guide.
I have made all of these. Save yourself the trouble. Mistake #1: Copying competitor ads instead of learning from them. Seeing a competitor’s ad and recreating it with your logo is not competitive intelligence. It is a race to the bottom. Extract the principle behind why an ad works – the specificity of the offer, the emotional hook, the visual pattern – and apply it in your own voice. Mistake #2: Assuming high impressions means high performance. A competitor could have 500K impressions and a terrible ROI. High impression counts tell you they are spending money, not that the ad is working. Some of the highest-impression ads we have seen are clearly brand awareness campaigns with no direct conversion goal. Mistake #3: Only checking once. Competitive landscapes change. A quarterly check is the minimum. Monthly is better. The companies that do this consistently build an information advantage that compounds over time. Mistake #4: Ignoring adjacent competitors. Your direct competitors are not the only ads your buyers see. Consultancies, agencies, complementary tools, and industry media are all competing for the same attention. Search broadly. Mistake #5: Not documenting findings. If your competitive research lives only in your head, it is worthless to your team. Keep a shared document or spreadsheet that anyone on the marketing team can reference.
Yes, completely free. You do not need a LinkedIn account to access it, though being logged in can improve the search experience. Go to linkedin.com/ad-library to start searching. There are no usage limits or paywalls.
Not exactly. The Ads Library shows impression ranges (1K-5K, 10K-50K, etc.) but not exact spend. However, by multiplying the impression range by typical LinkedIn CPMs ($30-80 for B2B audiences) and counting the number of active ads, you can estimate a competitor’s monthly LinkedIn budget within a reasonable range. See the budget estimation table earlier in this guide.
Monthly is the sweet spot for most teams. Weekly is overkill unless you are in a fast-moving competitive market with frequent product launches. Quarterly is too infrequent – you will miss campaign launches, messaging shifts, and creative tests. I do a structured monthly review (2-3 hours) and occasional ad-hoc checks when I hear about a competitor making moves.
No. The LinkedIn Ads Library does not reveal targeting parameters – you cannot see which job titles, industries, company sizes, or audience segments a competitor is targeting. You can only infer targeting from the ad content itself. An ad that mentions “for marketing leaders at Series B startups” is self-selecting its audience through copy, which gives you some clues.
Both are public, free, and searchable. The Meta Ad Library tends to show more data per ad (including multiple creative variations and more detailed impression data). LinkedIn’s version is simpler but still useful for B2B competitive research. The biggest difference is the audience context – LinkedIn ads are inherently B2B-focused, so the competitive intelligence you gather is more relevant if you sell to businesses.
