LinkedIn Ad Library: How to See Any Company's LinkedIn Ads

For anyone running B2B marketing, that's a free look at what your competitors are paying to put in front of decision makers. The catch is that the deepest data, the targeting and impression figures, only shows for ads aimed at the European Union.

Everything below comes from LinkedIn's own help articles on the Ad Library and the Ad Library search page itself, which I read in October 2026.

What the LinkedIn Ad Library shows for every ad

• The ad preview, so you see the creative and copy
• The ad format
• The advertiser name
• The payer name, which can differ from the advertiser
• Whether the ad is restricted

For restricted ads, LinkedIn says it doesn't show the preview, advertiser name or payer name, to comply with the law. So if an entry looks empty, that's usually why.

How to search the LinkedIn Ad Library

1. Go to LinkedIn's Ad Library page. LinkedIn's help article links straight to it.
2. Type a company or advertiser name, or a keyword such as a product category.
3. Pick a country from the menu, or leave it on All.
4. Set a date range if you only want recent campaigns.
5. Open any ad to see its details, and for EU-targeted ads, select More for the extra filters.

Search option	Use it to find
Company or advertiser name	Every ad a competitor has run
Payer name	Ads paid for by an agency or parent company
Keyword	Ads on a topic, offer or product category
Country	What a brand is running in one market
Date range	A launch, a season or a recent campaign
Impression range (EU ads only)	The bigger campaigns
Ad targeting parameters (EU ads only)	Ads aimed at a type of audience

How far back the Ad Library goes

LinkedIn says the library includes ads that ran after 1 June 2023, and that each ad stays for one year after its last impression on LinkedIn. A new ad usually appears shortly after it gets its first impression. So it's a rolling window, not a permanent archive. If a competitor ran something you want to remember, screenshot it.

The extra data you get for EU-targeted ads

This is the bit worth knowing. For ads targeted in the European Union, LinkedIn shows the main targeting parameters the advertiser chose, and whether each one was used to include or exclude people. It also shows the dates the ad ran, details of any restriction, the estimated total impressions and the split of impressions by country.

The targeting categories LinkedIn may show include:

• Language, based on profile language
• Job, such as job function, seniority, title, skills or years of experience
• Education, such as degree, field of study or school
• Company, such as industry, size, name, growth rate or followers
• Location, based on permanent or recent location
• Matched audiences, age, gender and wider demographics
• Member interests and traits, such as job seekers
• Predictive audiences and audience expansion, when the advertiser switched them on

Country impression figures are rounded to the nearest whole percentage point, with anything under one shown as less than one. You may also see impressions in countries that weren't targeted, which LinkedIn puts down to people travelling or out-of-date profile locations.

How I'd use it for competitor research

• Check your three closest competitors and note which formats they repeat. An ad that keeps running is usually one that works for them.
• Search your category as a keyword to see how the whole market talks about the problem you solve.
• Look up an EU-targeted ad from a competitor to see the job titles and company sizes they're paying to reach.
• Compare payer names to spot which agencies are running campaigns in your space.

If you're planning your own campaigns, start with my guide to LinkedIn advertising, and if you also advertise on Meta, my guide to the Meta Ad Library API covers the equivalent there.

Search your own company too

Before you look at anyone else, search for your own business. Everything a competitor can see about your LinkedIn ads is right there: the creative, the format, the payer name and, if you've targeted the EU, the audience you chose and how many people saw it. If an agency runs your ads, check the payer name shows what you expect. It's a two-minute check that tells you how your campaigns look from the outside.

What the LinkedIn Ad Library won't tell you

It won't show spend, cost per click or results outside the EU impression estimates, and it doesn't show targeting at all for ads outside the EU. Treat it as a window on creative and messaging, not a full picture of a competitor's budget.

My verdict

The LinkedIn Ad Library is the quickest free way to see what your competitors are saying to B2B buyers. Search by company and keyword, screenshot anything good before it drops out after a year, and look for an EU-targeted ad from each competitor, because that's the only place LinkedIn shows who they're targeting and how many people saw it.

Frequently asked questions

Is the LinkedIn Ad Library free?

Yes. LinkedIn describes it as a publicly available database of ads that have run on LinkedIn, and you can search it without paying.

How do I see a company's ads on LinkedIn?

Open LinkedIn's Ad Library and search by the company or advertiser name. You can narrow results by payer name, keyword, country and date range.

How far back does the LinkedIn Ad Library go?

It includes ads that ran after 1 June 2023, and each ad stays in the library for one year after its last impression on LinkedIn.

Can you see LinkedIn ad targeting in the Ad Library?

Only for ads targeted in the European Union. For those, LinkedIn shows the main targeting parameters, whether each was used to include or exclude people, and estimated impressions by country.

Why can't I see some ads in the LinkedIn Ad Library?

For restricted ads, LinkedIn doesn't display the ad preview, advertiser name or payer name, to comply with the law.