AppleakSee Your Competitors’ Ads on Six Networks at Once
Each ad network keeps its own public record of the ads it runs, searched one advertiser at a time. Ad intelligence puts them together: which apps in a category advertise, where, what they say and how long each ad has run.
In short
- 01Meta’s Ad Library and TikTok’s ad library are free, and each shows one network and one advertiser at a time.
- 02Ad intelligence for apps starts from the app or the category instead, and reads every network at once, so you see a rival’s whole campaign.
- 03Appleak’s Ad Search covers Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Google, Apple and Snapchat (EU), with days live and each ad’s hook read out.
By Appleak · 9 Nov 2026
What ad intelligence is, for an app
Ad intelligence is knowing which ads your competitors run: on which networks, with which message, and for how long. For an app it answers practical questions. Who in my category advertises at all? Where do they spend? Which hooks do they keep paying for, and which did they stop?
The raw material is public: the big networks publish the ads that run on them. What a tool adds is putting the networks together, matching each ad to the app it promotes, and reading the ads so you do not have to watch hundreds of them.
The free ad libraries, and where they stop
| Library | What it shows | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Meta Ad Library | Every active ad on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Meta’s ad network, searched by advertiser or keyword | No spend or results for ordinary ads, and reach only for ads shown in the EU |
| TikTok ad library | Ads shown to people in the EU, with how many people saw them | Europe only, searched one advertiser at a time |
Other networks keep their own records, each searched on its own. Where they all fall short for app research:
- One network at a time: a rival that spends on TikTok and YouTube looks quiet if you only check Meta.
- One advertiser at a time: you have to know every competitor, and the name each one advertises under.
- Not every ad is the app’s own: resellers, affiliates and look-alike pages run ads too.
- No reading: you watch every ad yourself to find its hook and angle.
Ad Search: six networks, one search
Appleak’s Ad Search starts from a category or an app. It finds the apps that advertise, then shows their ads. Google and Apple show who is advertising; Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat show the ads themselves, each checked to be the app’s own. Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat are searched by your words, so they also find apps you did not name.
| Platform | What you get | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Meta | The ads, with days live and the hook read out | Credits, priced before it runs |
| TikTok | The ads, checked to be the app’s own | Credits, priced before it runs |
| YouTube | The ads, found by your words | Free |
| Snapchat | Ads shown in the EU, counted only with proof they are the app’s | Free |
| Which apps advertise, and a developer’s Google ads on a press | Free | |
| Apple Search Ads | Which apps advertise on App Store search | Free |
What to read in a competitor’s ads
- Days live. An ad that has run for weeks is one the advertiser keeps paying for. A fresh one may only be a test.
- Repeats. Many versions of one headline mean the idea is being scaled, not tested.
- The hook and the angle: the first line or the first two seconds, and the reason to care it gives.
- Where it runs. An app on TikTok and YouTube but not Meta is telling you where its buyers are.
- What stopped. An angle that disappears was tested and dropped; the app’s reviews often say why.
One idea scaled across many creatives
On 8 Oct 2026, Cal AI had 28 Meta ad creatives. 19 of them led with the same headline, “Limited Time Free Trial 👉”, first shown 18 May 2026 and still running that day. 24 used the same line of body text: “AI can now count your calories—just from a photo.”
Step by step: research competitor ads in Appleak
- Name the category or the app. Open Ad Search and type it, or ask from the dashboard: “show me ads for budgeting apps”.
- Choose the platforms. Google, YouTube, Apple and Snapchat cost nothing. Meta and TikTok show their price in credits before anything runs.
- Read the board. It lists the apps that advertise and each app’s ads, with days live and the hook.
- Go further. Press Find more to read the next page of each network. It counts as one more search.
Ad intelligence tools compared
Appleak is built for finding and reading rivals’ ads from one question, across six networks. For spend estimated by country, AppKittie goes further, and for ad data at market scale, Sensor Tower. Appleak has no ASO keyword tool.
| Feature | Appleak | AppKittie | Peekly | Sensor Tower | AppMagic | MobileAction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asking and answers | ||||||
| Natural-language search | Yes: Ask in plain words: the question opens the page that answers it, and a research report answers it with the evidence. | Yes: Connect ChatGPT, Claude or another assistant and ask in your own language. | Not confirmed | Yes: An MCP server: ask in plain words from your own chatbot. | Not confirmed | Yes: An AI assistant for Apple Ads and ASO, and an MCP server. |
| App teardowns and review verdicts | Yes: A verdict from an app’s reviews, with sentiment, its ads, its creators and its charts. | Partly: A profile per app: revenue, ads, videos, keywords, reviews and onboarding. | Partly: A full profile per app, with its ratings and reviews. | Partly: Ratings and reviews within its app data. | Partly: App pages with revenue, downloads, active users and retention. | Partly: App market profiles with ratings, reviews and download trends. |
| Review search and category reports | Yes: Search every collected review and get themes with counts and quotes; a category report reads a whole field’s reviews. | Partly: A review tracker. | Partly: Ratings and reviews per app. | Partly: Ratings and reviews per app. | Not confirmed | Partly: Rating, review and sentiment analysis, with AI review replies. |
| Marketing proof | ||||||
| Video ad search | Yes: Ads on Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Google, Apple and Snapchat, each read for its hook, angle and offer, with how long it has run. | Yes: Winning-ads library, with estimated ad spend by country. | Yes: 560K+ ads with run duration, EU reach and target countries. | Yes: Pathmatics: ads served, spend and impression estimates, share of voice. | Yes: 230M+ creatives across 140 ad networks, with impressions by country and network. | Partly: A free ad library; full Ad Intelligence across 45+ networks and DSPs on Enterprise. |
| Creators | Yes: Creators by niche with followers, engagement and a fit score, and UGC videos from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Shorts. | Yes: Viral TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts videos per app. | Yes: Organic TikTok, Reels and Shorts per app, with creators and engagement. | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Buyer intent on seven social platforms | Yes: Market Signals sorts public mentions of a brand, its rivals or a niche into leads, bugs, ideas and praise. | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Store numbers | ||||||
| Revenue and download estimates | Yes: Revenue and download estimates in a teardown and in research answers. Installs are a modelled range, not a count. | Yes: Revenue and download estimates for 4.5M+ apps. | Yes: Revenue and downloads for every app; its method draws on Sensor Tower figures, it says. | Yes: Downloads, revenue, active users and retention. | Yes: Revenue, downloads, DAU, MAU, ARPDAU and retention for 15M+ apps. | Yes: Revenue and download estimates, with DAU and MAU. |
| Rankings | Partly: Top charts, new-release charts and where an app charts. No keyword rank tracking. | Yes: Global rankings. | Yes: Free, paid and grossing charts in 150+ countries, with rank moves. | Yes: Store data and market share. | Yes: Free, grossing and featured charts by day, week, month, quarter or year. | Yes: Keyword ranks, featured apps and market leaders. |
| ASO keywords | No: No keyword research tool. | Yes: Keyword popularity and difficulty, and an ASO tracker. | Yes: Keyword explorer: difficulty, demand and the store results for a keyword. | Partly: Keyword rankings within its app data. | Partly: The keywords apps bid on in Apple Ads, with paid and organic traffic per keyword. | Yes: Keyword research with volume and difficulty, and AI keyword suggestions. |
| Paywalls and onboarding | Partly: Paywall screens and pricing inside a teardown. No library of onboarding flows. | Yes: Onboarding library, with paywall screens step by step. | Yes: 18K+ captured paywalls, and onboarding flows screen by screen. | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Partly: Store creatives, custom product pages and in-app events, from Pro. |
| Keeping up | ||||||
| Monitoring and alerts | Yes: A watchlist with rules, an inbox of changes and a weekly digest. | Yes: Trackers for keywords, reviews and ad spend. | Yes: AppTracker: unlimited apps, with alerts. | Not confirmed | Not confirmed: Its menu has a Notifications section; what it covers is not stated. | Yes: Store monitoring of rivals’ updates and creatives; Slack and email alerts. |
| A growth plan for your own app | Yes: App coach: where your app stands, the platforms that suit it, what ads and posts to make and a plan for the week. | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Not confirmed | Partly: AI guidance on next ASO steps, and paid managed ASO and Apple Ads services. |
| API and MCP server | Yes: A REST API and an MCP server on every paid plan, so a script or an AI assistant can run the same research. | Yes: An API with 5,000 credits a month, and ChatGPT or Claude connected to it. | Not confirmed | Partly: An MCP server for asking from a chatbot. | Not confirmed | Yes: An MCP server, and an API through sales. |
| Buying it | ||||||
| Self-serve pricing | Yes: Three plans, from $25/month, bought online. No sales call. | Yes: One plan, bought online. | Yes: One Pro plan, bought online. | No: Pricing is set per customer, through sales. | No: Pricing comes from its sales team after a demo. | Yes: Three ASO plans bought online; Enterprise, ad intelligence and the API through sales. |
| Free plan or trial | Yes: A free plan: 25 credits a month for teardowns, reports and research. | Not confirmed: No free plan or trial on its pricing page. | Yes: Free limited account. | Not confirmed: A free sign-up exists; what it includes is not stated. | Partly: Top charts are free to browse; a free account is not described. | Yes: A free Apple Ads campaign manager plan, a free ad library and 7-day trials. |
| In full | 12 of 15 | 10 of 15 | 9 of 15 | 4 of 15 | 3 of 15 | 8 of 15 |
Six networks from one search, each ad checked to be the app’s own, with days live and the hook read out.
Covers12 of 15From $25/moApp-market research you ask for in plain words. One question returns the proof behind the answer: a verdict from the reviews, the ads an app runs, the creators posting about it and where it charts.
- Best for
- Indie founders, solo developers and small studios deciding what to build or how to market it.
- Pricing
- Basic $25/month, Starter $49/month, Pro $75/month. Bought online, and a free plan with 25 credits a month.
- Key features
- Ask in plain words: “show me ads for calorie tracking apps”
- App teardowns with a verdict from the reviews, and research reports that answer one question with the evidence
- Ad Search on Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Google, Apple and Snapchat: days live, the hook and angle read out
- Creators by niche, and UGC videos from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Shorts
- Category reports that read and tag the reviews of a whole field
- Market Watch: rules, an inbox of changes and a weekly digest
- Market Signals on Reddit, X, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn, and App coach’s weekly plan for your own app
- An API and an MCP server, so a script or an AI assistant can ask too
Pros
- One question in, compiled proof out
- Shows marketing, not only store numbers: ads, hooks, creators
- Self-serve, with no sales call
Cons
- No ASO keyword research or keyword rank tracking
- Paywalls only inside a teardown; no onboarding-flow library
- Credits, not unlimited: each new run spends from the month’s allowance
- A newer product: its own stored history of charts, ratings and ads goes back months, not years
Winning ads with estimated spend by country, beside viral videos per app.
Covers10 of 15From $49/moApp store intelligence for founders and app studios: revenue and download estimates for a 4.5M+ app database you filter, a winning-ads library with estimated ad spend by country, viral TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts videos per app, an onboarding and paywall library, keyword research with an ASO tracker, a review tracker, global rankings, and an API you can connect ChatGPT or Claude to.
- Best for
- Founders who like to filter a large app database by the numbers and study what is winning.
- Pricing
- One plan with everything unlimited and no per-seat pricing, billed monthly or yearly. Monthly: $79/month. Yearly: $49/month.
- Key features
- Revenue and download estimates for 4.5M+ apps, with filters
- Winning ads, with estimated spend by country
- Viral videos per app on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts
- Onboarding and paywall library
- Keyword research, an ASO tracker and a review tracker
- An API, and ChatGPT or Claude connected to ask in plain words
Pros
- A very large app database to filter
- Ad spend estimates by country, and an onboarding library
- One unlimited plan, with API credits included
Cons
- $79 a month to start, unless you pay for a year
- A library to dig through: the reading and the conclusions are yours
An ads library with run duration and EU reach, refreshed daily.
Covers9 of 15From $41/moApp intelligence for indie developers and growth teams: estimated revenue and downloads for 390K+ tracked apps, charts in 150+ countries, an ads library of 560K+ ads, 18K+ captured paywalls, onboarding flows screen by screen, organic TikTok, Reels and Shorts videos with their creators, an ASO keyword explorer and an app tracker with alerts. Refreshed daily.
- Best for
- Browsing what is making money, and studying paywalls and onboarding flows for ideas.
- Pricing
- One Pro plan with every limit unlimited and no credits, billed monthly, quarterly or yearly, and a free account with limited access. Pro, monthly: $59/month. Pro, quarterly: $49/month. Pro, yearly: $41/month.
- Key features
- Estimated revenue and downloads for 390K+ tracked apps
- Charts in 150+ countries, with rank moves
- Ads library: 560K+ ads with run duration, EU reach and target countries
- 18K+ captured paywalls and onboarding flows
- Organic TikTok, Reels and Shorts videos with their creators
- ASO keyword explorer and an app tracker with alerts
Pros
- A real library of captured paywalls and onboarding flows
- One plan with everything unlimited, and no credits to count
- A free limited account to try it
Cons
- Browse-first: you go library by library to build an answer
- $59 a month to start, unless you pay for a quarter or a year at once
Ad intelligence at market scale, for teams with an enterprise budget.
Covers4 of 15Custom yearly contractEnterprise market intelligence across mobile apps, digital advertising (Pathmatics), audiences, web traffic and PC and console games: downloads, revenue, active users, retention, ad spend and share of voice. It is the reference the industry quotes, and it prices each customer’s plan by hand.
- Best for
- Large publishers and enterprises with a research budget.
- Pricing
- No public price list and no self-serve paid plan: “We customize pricing plans for each customer.” Yearly contract: Custom quote.
- Key features
- Downloads, revenue, active users and retention
- Pathmatics ad intelligence: spend, impressions and share of voice
- Audience, web and PC and console game data
- An MCP server for asking from a chatbot
Pros
- The reference for market-level numbers
- Ad spend and share of voice at enterprise depth
- Usage, audience and web data beyond the stores
Cons
- No public pricing and no self-serve paid plan
- Buyer-reported contracts start around $29,500 a year
A library of 230M+ creatives across 140 ad networks, priced after a demo.
Covers3 of 15Price given after a demoMarket intelligence for mobile apps and games, and for Steam: revenue, downloads, active users and retention for 15M+ apps, genre and art-style tags on 300K apps, an ad library of 230M+ creatives across 140 ad networks, and LiveOps analytics for games. Sensor Tower bought it in May 2026 and runs it as its offer for smaller teams.
- Best for
- Game and app studios sizing up genres and niches.
- Pricing
- No price list. Its pricing address opens a demo form: “we’ll build a walkthrough around your use cases, with pricing to match.” Paid plans: Quoted after a demo.
- Key features
- Revenue, downloads, DAU, MAU, ARPDAU and retention for 15M+ apps
- Genre and art-style tags on 300K apps, with a success meter per niche
- Ad intelligence: 230M+ creatives across 140 ad networks
- LiveOps analytics for 150+ games, and Steam data on 130K+ games
- Advanced Search with revenue, usage, retention and SDK filters
Pros
- Deep genre and niche tagging, built game-first
- Active users and retention beside revenue
- Free top charts with a CSV download
Cons
- No public price: a demo and a sales call come first
- Game-first: its pages say little about reviews or creators
Apple Ads intelligence and a campaign manager, with full Ad Intelligence across 45+ networks on Enterprise.
Covers8 of 15From $12.50/moASO and Apple Ads tools: keyword research with volume and difficulty, download and revenue estimates, review analysis with AI replies, store monitoring and an Apple Ads campaign manager with AI bidding, plus an AI assistant, an MCP server, an ad intelligence library and an API. An InMobi company.
- Best for
- Teams working on their store listing and their Apple Ads campaigns.
- Pricing
- Four ASO Intelligence plans: three bought online, each with a 7-day trial that needs a card, and Enterprise through sales. Paying yearly saves two months. Lite: $12.5/month. Basic: $59/month. Pro: $199/month. Enterprise: Contact us.
- Key features
- ASO keyword research: volume, difficulty, AI suggestions and a keyword translator
- Revenue and download estimates, with DAU and MAU
- Review and sentiment analysis, with AI review replies
- Store monitoring: an update timeline, creative monitoring and a metadata optimizer
- An Apple Ads campaign manager with automations and AI Smart Bidding
- An AI assistant, an MCP server, Ad Intelligence and an API
Pros
- Real keyword research and rank tracking
- A low price to start: $12.5 a month on a yearly bill
- A free Apple Ads campaign manager, and an MCP server
Cons
- Each tier caps keywords, apps, history and seats
- Ad intelligence past the free library is Enterprise only, and trials need a card
Questions
Is there a Meta Ad Library for apps?
Meta’s Ad Library covers every advertiser, apps included, but it is searched one page at a time and shows no spend for ordinary ads. Appleak’s Ad Search starts from an app or a category and shows its Meta ads beside its other networks, each checked to be the app’s own.
Can I see a competitor’s TikTok ads?
Yes. TikTok publishes the ads it shows in the EU in its own ad library, one advertiser at a time. In Appleak’s Ad Search, switch on TikTok to see a category’s TikTok ads, checked to be each app’s own, priced in credits before the search runs.
Which networks does Appleak’s Ad Search cover?
Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Google, Apple Search Ads and Snapchat, where it covers ads shown in the EU. Google and Apple show which apps advertise; the others show the ads themselves.
Does Appleak show how much a competitor spends on ads?
Not as a campaign total. No network publishes spend for ordinary ads, so Appleak leads with how long each ad has run and, where Meta publishes it, its reach in the EU. AppKittie shows spend estimated by country.
Is Ad Search free?
Google, YouTube, Apple and Snapchat cost nothing to search. Meta and TikTok cost credits, and the price shows before the search runs. Appleak has a free plan with 25 credits a month.
What is the difference between an ad library and ad intelligence?
An ad library is one network’s public record of its ads, searched one advertiser at a time. Ad intelligence collects many networks, matches each ad to the app it promotes and reads it, so a whole category can be compared at once.
Read next
See every ad your competitors run.
Name a category. Appleak finds the apps that advertise and shows their ads on six networks, with days live and the hook.
show me ads for budgeting apps