How To Use The LinkedIn Ad Library To Spy On Your Competitors

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LinkedIn is one of the most effective ways to reach decision-makers in B2B industries. But for many SME owners, it can feel like an expensive guessing game. Are your ads targeting the right people? Is your message strong enough? And are your competitors doing it better than you?

This is where the LinkedIn Ad Library comes in. It’s a free tool that lets you see exactly what ads other companies are running on LinkedIn, from the messages they use to the formats they choose, and how consistently they run campaigns. Used well, it can give you valuable insight into your competitors’ strategies and help you make smarter decisions with your own advertising budget.

In this guide, we’ll show you how the LinkedIn Ad Library works, what to look out for, and how to turn these insights into stronger campaigns that actually generate leads and sales.

How to Use the LinkedIn Ad Library for Competitive Insight

Start by making a list of your main competitors: the businesses you come up against most often when selling. Once you know who to look at, head to the LinkedIn Ad Library (through Campaign Manager) and search their company pages. You’ll instantly see the ads they are running right now.

Here’s how to turn that into useful insight for your own marketing:

• Spot creative trends: Look closely at their ad images, videos, and headlines. What tone are they using, and what offers are they promoting?
  
  
• Review targeting clues: Notice the industries, job roles, and company sizes they appear to be going after. This can highlight audience segments you may be overlooking.
• Check campaign intent: Are they running ads to generate leads, build brand awareness, or push event sign-ups? Understanding this can help you set clearer goals for your own campaigns.
• Track frequency and consistency: Do they have ads running all the time, or do they appear only around certain seasons or events? Consistency is often the difference between ad campaigns that succeed and those that don’t.

The key here isn’t to copy. It’s to learn. By studying what your competitors are investing in, you can avoid blind guesswork, refine your own targeting, and discover gaps in the market where your business can stand out.

Regularly checking the Ad Library keeps you in touch with how your industry is advertising. With LinkedIn ads being more costly than other social platforms, this knowledge helps you protect your budget and make smarter decisions.

Limitations to Be Aware Of

The LinkedIn Ad Library is a useful research tool, but it does have limits. It’s important to understand these so you don’t put too much weight on what you see.

• No performance data: You can view the ads, but not how well they worked. There’s no information on clicks, conversions, or ROI.
• No budget insight: You won’t see how much a competitor is spending, or which audiences they’re prioritising.
• Short-term view: The library only shows ads that are active or recently active, so you can’t track long-term campaign history.
• Platform-specific: It only covers LinkedIn. If your competitors are running campaigns on Google, Facebook, or elsewhere, you won’t see them here.

What this means in practice is that the Ad Library can give you inspiration and direction, but it won’t give you the full picture. To make informed decisions, you still need to combine what you see with your own marketing data and results.

This is where we help our clients. At JDR, we look beyond just one channel or one tool. The Ad Library can form part of your research, but we’ll also analyse your website, content, SEO, and sales process, and integrate LinkedIn advertising into a complete multi-channel system that drives leads and sales, not just clicks.

Best Practices for Using the LinkedIn Ad Library

To get real value from the LinkedIn Ad Library, you need to approach it with a clear strategy. Dipping in once won’t give you much; the real insight comes from consistent monitoring and structured analysis.

Here are some best practices to follow:

• Check in regularly: Make it part of your routine to review the Ad Library every week or two. Competitors constantly update their campaigns, and you’ll spot new trends faster if you keep an eye on them.
• Look beyond your direct competitors: Analyse not just the companies you compete with day-to-day, but also aspirational brands in your industry. This can spark new ideas and show you what leading businesses are investing in.
• Study creative elements closely: Pay attention to headlines, images, video styles, and calls to action. These small details often determine whether an ad attracts clicks or gets ignored.
• Spot trends and patterns: Over time, you’ll see which messages and formats are being used most often. These can give you clues about what’s resonating with your market.
• Record your findings: Keep a simple log or spreadsheet of what you see. This will help you build a clearer picture of how competitor campaigns evolve over time.

The most important step is turning insight into action. Use what you learn to refine your own campaigns, whether that means improving your ad copy, testing new formats, or adjusting your targeting.

On its own, the LinkedIn Ad Library won’t transform your results. But used consistently, it can help you make smarter, more confident decisions and reduce wasted spend. When it’s combined with a clear strategy, great content, and the right sales process, the foundation of our JDR 6 Step System, that’s when you’ll see it driving real business growth.

Why Invest in LinkedIn Ads And Why Choose JDR as Your Agency

LinkedIn is the most powerful platform for B2B marketing. It allows you to target decision-makers directly by job title, company, seniority, and industry. For SMEs, this means your ads can go straight to the people who have the authority to buy from you, not just a broad consumer audience.

The challenge is that LinkedIn ads are not cheap. The cost per click is typically higher than other platforms, and without the right strategy, it’s easy to burn through budget without generating any meaningful leads. This is why you need more than just the LinkedIn Ad Library; you need a complete plan to make LinkedIn advertising pay for itself.

That’s where we come in. At JDR, we’ve worked with thousands of SMEs across the UK to run LinkedIn campaigns that deliver real sales opportunities, not just impressions or clicks. Here’s how we help:

• Strategy first: We align LinkedIn advertising with your wider business goals and marketing plan, using our proven 6 Step System.
• Campaign setup & management: From creative design and copywriting through to targeting, testing, and optimisation, we manage the entire process.
• Integration with sales: We don’t stop at lead generation; we connect your LinkedIn campaigns with your CRM and sales process so you can convert leads into customers.
• Transparent reporting: You’ll know exactly how your ads are performing and what return you’re getting on your spend.
• Full support team: Instead of one in-house marketer, you get a complete team – strategists, designers, copywriters, and tech experts – all working to grow your business.

Choosing JDR as your LinkedIn ads agency means you don’t just get someone to press the buttons on campaigns. You get a partner that helps you win new customers, keep them, and grow your business over the long term.

Take Your LinkedIn Marketing Further

The LinkedIn Ad Library is a valuable tool for research and inspiration. By checking it regularly, you can see how your competitors are positioning themselves, spot new trends, and generate ideas to refine your own campaigns.

But remember: it only shows you part of the picture. To actually win new customers, you need a strategy that combines LinkedIn advertising with the right content, website, and sales process. That’s where we help. At JDR, we take insights from tools like the Ad Library and build them into a complete, proven system designed to generate leads and grow your business.

If you’re ready to explore how LinkedIn can work for you, you’ve got two options:

• Book a meeting with us – we’ll review your current marketing and show you how LinkedIn advertising can fit into a wider plan for growth.
• Download our free guide to LinkedIn for Business – How to Use LinkedIn for Business – and discover practical tips you can start using straight away.

With the right approach, LinkedIn can be one of the most powerful channels for your business. Let’s make sure it delivers real results, not just clicks.