The Google Ads Transparency Center shows you the ads any business has run on Google in the past year. It’s free at adstransparency.google.com, and you don’t need an account to use it.
Type in a competitor’s website, set the region to Ireland, and you get their search ads, YouTube videos, Shopping ads and image ads. Each one carries the date it was first shown and the date it was last shown.
That first shown date is one of the extras you get because Ireland is in the EU. For ads shown here, Google also publishes roughly how many times each ad appeared and which kinds of targeting were used to aim it.
What it won’t give you is their budget, or the list of searches they pay for. The ads they put in front of Irish customers on Google are there to read.
What is the Google Ads Transparency Center?
It’s Google’s public archive of ads, launched in March 2023. Google’s launch announcement calls it “a searchable hub of all ads served from verified advertisers”.
If you’ve been searching for a Google Ads library, this is it. It’s Google’s answer to Meta’s Ad Library, which does the same job for Facebook and Instagram. We cover that one in how to use the Facebook Ads Library.
Google’s FAQ for the Transparency Center says it holds “ads from verified advertisers served across Search, Play, Maps, Shopping and YouTube for one year from the date that the ad was last displayed”. It also includes unverified advertisers “in Europe and Türkiye”. So in Ireland you see unverified advertisers too, not only the ones that have finished Google’s verification.
Nobody has to sign in, except to see age-restricted ads. And don’t be thrown by the spelling. Open it from Ireland and the site calls itself the Ads Transparency Centre. Same thing.
How to see what ads your competitors are running on Google
- Go to adstransparency.google.com. No account, no login.
- Check the region says Ireland. It sits under the search box. You can switch it to any other country, or to Anywhere.
- Search by website, not by name. The search box takes an advertiser name or a website. A website search pulls in every advertiser account whose ads point to that domain, which matters because a business’s ads don’t always run under the name on the van.
- Open the advertiser. You’ll see their legal name, where they’re based, whether they’ve verified their identity, and roughly how many ads they’ve run.
- Filter, then click in. Narrow the list by date, platform and format, and click any ad for its details.
Four filters narrow the list down.
| Filter | What you can pick | Use it to |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Anywhere, or one country | Keep to ads shown in Ireland, or see what a UK rival runs at home |
| Date | Today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, any time, or your own dates | See what’s live this week, or what they ran last Christmas |
| Platform | Google Search, YouTube, Google Shopping, Google Maps, Google Play | Find out where they actually advertise |
| Format | Text, image, video | Separate their search ads from their video and display work |
The dates run on Pacific Time, hours behind Ireland, so an ad shown here in the small hours is dated the day before.
What the Ads Transparency Center shows for an Irish ad
Click any ad and you get its details. For an ad shown in Ireland, you also get the extra detail Google publishes for Europe.
| On the ad’s details | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| First shown and last shown | How long the ad has run, and whether it’s still running |
| Format | Text, image or video |
| Topic | The ad’s category, either as the advertiser gave it or as Google labelled it |
| Variations | Up to five common versions of the ad, so you can see what they rotate |
| Times shown | A range for the country you picked, such as 35k to 40k, published 90 days late |
| Audience selection | Which kinds of targeting were switched on, or excluded, in the ad’s most recent campaign |
| Advertiser page | Legal name, where they’re based, a verified or unverified badge, and the payer if that’s someone else |
The audience panel says less than it seems to.
It lists five kinds of targeting: demographic info, geographic locations, contextual signals, customer lists and topics of interest. Google’s own note on the panel says contextual signals include “the keywords that they search for on Google”. Each kind is marked as included or excluded.
So it tells you a competitor aimed an ad by place and by keyword. It doesn’t tell you which places, or which keywords.
Europe, in Google’s FAQ, means the European Economic Area, the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Set the region to the United States and an ad’s details shrink to its last shown date, its format and its variations. Everything else is a European extra.
What the Ads Transparency Center won’t show you
- What they spend. There’s no budget, no bid and no cost per click anywhere in it.
- What the ads earn them. No clicks, calls or sales. Times shown is the nearest thing, and it’s three months behind.
- Which searches they bid on. You see that keywords were used, never the list.
- Which towns they target. The region filter stops at country level, so you can’t ask it for ads shown in Kildare.
- Where the ad leads. Google has removed click-through to landing pages for good and is moving to static screenshots of each ad. Read the web address on the ad and type it in yourself.
- This week’s newest ads. A new ad can take 48 to 72 hours to appear.
- Every version. Google shows up to five common variations. A competitor testing twenty headlines won’t show you all twenty.
- Old campaigns. An ad drops out a year after it was last shown.
What it does show is plenty to work with, starting with two dates.
How to analyse a competitor’s Google ads
Pick the three or four businesses you lose work to most often. Open each in its own tab and go through them in this order.
Start with the ads that have run longest
Compare first shown with last shown. An ad first shown in March and last shown yesterday has been running for six months.
Nobody keeps paying for six months of clicks that bring nothing back, unless nobody is watching the account. Read those ads first. They’re the closest thing to a result you’ll get out of it.
Short-lived ads are a clue as well. One that ran for a fortnight in May and never came back probably didn’t earn its keep.
Write down the offer and the promise
For each long-running ad, note three things. The offer: a free quote, a discount, finance, a price. The promise: same day, fixed price, twenty years in business. And what it asks the customer to do: call, book or fill in a form.
Then put them side by side.
If every plumber in your county promises to be fast, reliable and fully insured, none of them has said anything a customer can check. That’s your opening.
Click through the variations
Where an ad says “1 of 5 variations”, look at all five. Different headlines on the same ad mean a test is running. The line that stays the same in every version is the one they’re least willing to lose.
Go back to last year’s busy season
Set your own dates. A retailer should look at last November and December. A gym should look at January, and a garden centre at March.
Ads stay in the archive for a year after they last ran, so last Christmas is still there. You’re reading their calendar before this year’s starts.
See which platforms they use
Filter by platform. A competitor on YouTube and Shopping as well as Search is reaching customers in places you might not be.
On an ad’s details, an information icon beside times shown breaks the range down across Maps, Play, Search, Shopping and YouTube, where Google has the data.
Find out who’s advertising in your county
The Transparency Center works by country, so it can’t list the ads shown in Meath. Your customer’s own search can.
Search your service and your town the way a customer would, “kitchen fitter Naas” or “solicitor Ennis”, and note every paid result.
If you already run Google Ads, use the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool in your account instead. You set the location, language and device, and it shows the results for that search.
Google’s help page on finding your ad puts it plainly: “it’s best to resist the urge to search for your own ad on Google.com”. Search for it again and again without clicking, and Google can stop showing it to you.
Then look up every name you didn’t recognise in the Transparency Center. Some will be national chains that also cover your town, and they’re worth knowing about before you set a budget.
Is a competitor bidding on your business name?
The Transparency Center won’t tell you outright, because it doesn’t show keywords. You can find out in ten minutes anyway.
- Search your own business name, or run it through the Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool if you advertise. An ad from anyone else means a competitor is paying to show up when people search for you by name.
- Look them up in the Transparency Center by website and filter to text ads. First shown tells you how long they’ve been at it. The headlines tell you whether your name is in the ad itself.
- Check auction insights if you run a campaign on your own name. It lists the other advertisers in those auctions and how often they appear alongside you.
Google allows most of it. Its trademark policy for Ireland says it will not restrict “using trademarks as keywords”, so a competitor can bid on your name. What it will restrict, if the trademark owner complains, is “using trademarks in an ad from a direct competitor”. It only takes complaints where the owner has shown trademark rights in that country and industry.
So a rival turning up on your name is normal. A rival with your name in their headline is something you can act on, if you hold the trademark.
Either way, run a small campaign on your own name, so the first ad anyone sees for your business is yours.
How can I see competitors in Google Ads?
From inside your own account, with auction insights. Google’s auction insights page says the report “lets you compare your performance with other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions that you are”. It works for Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
It gives you impression share, overlap rate and outranking share, and for Search, how often each rival sits above you and at the top of the page. It stays blank when your impression share is under 10%, and for keywords without enough activity.
Auction insights gives you the names. The Transparency Center shows you what those names are saying. Together, with a search in your own town, they cover most of what anyone can see about a competitor on Google.
| Tool | Needs a Google Ads account | What it shows you | What it doesn’t |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ads Transparency Center | No | A competitor’s ads, dates, formats, times shown in Ireland and targeting types | Spend, keywords, exact places |
| Ad Preview and Diagnosis | Yes | The results for one search, in the place and on the device you choose | Anything off Google Search |
| Auction insights | Yes, with ads running | Who’s in your auctions and how often they outrank you | Their ads and their spend |
| Meta Ad Library | No | Their Facebook and Instagram ads, with EU reach and audience | Spend and results |
Turn what you find into your own Google Ads
Everything you’ve written down is the brief for your own ads. The long-runners set the bar. Your job is to say something they don’t, in a way a customer can check.
Don’t copy them. The Transparency Center’s terms say you can’t use the ads you find there without the advertiser’s permission, and that it’s for “information or research purposes only”. Take the structure of an offer. Write every word yourself.
Some of what you find changes the plan, not only the wording.
- A national chain runs heavily in your trade. Don’t try to outbid them on the broad searches. Go after the ones with your town in them, and use negative keywords to keep your budget off the rest.
- Nobody in your county advertises. Either there’s an opening, or too few people search to make it pay. Work out whether Google Ads are worth it for your trade before you move into the empty space.
- They barely use Google but they’re all over Facebook. That’s a choice about where their customers are. Google Ads vs Facebook Ads helps you work out which suits yours.
- Someone is bidding on your name. Get your own brand ad running first, then decide whether their headline crosses the trademark line.
Look up your own business in the Ads Transparency Center
Search your own website before a customer does. If you advertise on Google, your ads are in there, with your name, your location and a badge.
Google’s ads transparency page for Ireland sets out what appears. Verified advertisers show their legal or trademark name and their location. Unverified advertisers show the name on their payments profile and an “unverified” badge. If the ads are paid for under a different name, that name is shown as the payer.
If the payer name is out of date, an old company name or someone’s personal name, you can change it in Google Ads under Admin, then Policy, then Account.
It takes two minutes, and it’s the one part of the Transparency Center you control.
Questions people ask about the Google Ads Transparency Center
Is there a Google Ads library?
Yes. Google calls it the Ads Transparency Center, at adstransparency.google.com. It holds ads shown on Google Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps and Play for a year after they last ran.
Is the Google Ads library free to search?
Yes, and you only need to sign in for age-restricted ads. In Google’s words, “We don’t earn any revenue from these pages.”
Is there a YouTube ads library?
The Ads Transparency Center covers YouTube. Set the platform filter to YouTube and the format to video. Paid product placements and sponsorships inside YouTube videos are listed separately, linked from the Transparency Center’s home page.
Can I see how much a competitor spends on Google Ads?
No. The Transparency Center shows no spend, bids or clicks. For ads shown in Ireland you get a range for how many times each ad was shown, 90 days after the fact. How long an ad has run is the better clue. For what clicks cost in your trade, see how much Google Ads cost.
Can I see which keywords a competitor is bidding on?
Not from Google. For ads shown in Europe, the Transparency Center tells you whether search keywords were part of the targeting, not which ones. Searching your trade and town shows you who appears for the searches that matter to you.
Why can’t I find a competitor in the Ads Transparency Center?
They may not have run an ad in the last 365 days, or their ads may run under an account name you wouldn’t guess, so search their website instead. A new ad can take 48 to 72 hours to appear, and Google says some formats aren’t supported yet.
Can you show a competitor in an ad?
On Google, bidding on a competitor’s name as a keyword isn’t restricted. Putting their trademark in your ad text is, if you’re a direct competitor and they complain. Google’s trademark policy sets out both.
What’s the difference between the Ads Transparency Center and Google’s Transparency Report?
The Political Advertising Transparency Report “includes only election ads”, in Google’s words. The Ads Transparency Center covers election and non-election ads, so it’s the one for businesses.
Is there an API for the Ads Transparency Center?
Yes, for ads served in the European Economic Area and Türkiye. Google publishes the data as a public dataset in BigQuery, which it expects to update daily, with first and last shown dates, impression ranges, audience selection and topics. The same terms apply, and they rule out selling the data.
Is there a Meta ads transparency center?
Meta’s version is the Ad Library, at facebook.com/ads/library. It covers Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, and for EU ads it shows reach and audience age and gender. Our piece on the Facebook Ads Library shows how to use it.
If you’d like to know what you’re up against before you spend
Doing all of this yourself takes an evening, and it’s worth doing before a euro goes into Google Ads.
If you’d rather not, tell us your trade, your county and the three competitors you come up against most. We’ll go through how long each of their Google ads has run and what it promises, and show you where yours can say something theirs don’t.
If your numbers say Google Ads won’t pay for your business yet, you’ll hear that too.
Our Google Ads team sets every account up in your own business name, so the history and the data stay yours.
