How to Download Videos from Meta Ad Library

Saving a great video ad for inspiration should be simple, but the Meta (Facebook) Ad Library doesn’t include a download button. Fortunately, there are a few simple workarounds you can use to grab that file directly from your web browser. This article walks you through a couple of reliable, step-by-step methods for downloading any video from the Meta Ad Library for your personal swipe file or competitive analysis.

What is the Meta Ad Library and Why Should You Use It?

The Meta Ad Library is a publicly available, searchable database of every ad currently active or recently active on Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and its Audience Network. Launched primarily to increase transparency in political and social issue advertising, it has quickly become an essential competitive intelligence tool for marketers, founders, and content creators.

So, why is it such an important resource?

Competitor Research: See exactly what ads your competitors are running in real time. You can analyze their messaging, targeting clues, and overall advertising strategy.
Creative Inspiration: Stuck on what kind of video to make next? Browse the ads from top brands in your industry (and outside of it) to get a flood of ideas for hooks, editing styles, calls-to-action, and unique angles.
Industry Trends: Get a pulse on what’s visually and thematically trending in your niche. Are top brands using more user-generated content (UGC), polished studio shots, or quick-cut educational videos? The Ad Library reveals all.
Landing Page Analysis: The library doesn't just show you the ad, it shows you where the ad is sending traffic. You can click through to see your competitors' landing pages, sales pages, and lead capture forms to understand their entire funnel.

Browsing is easy enough, but to truly analyze an ad away from the library interface, you'll want to save it. This is where downloading the video file becomes so useful.

Finding Ads in the Ad Library

Before you can download a video, you first need to find it. Navigating the Meta Ad Library is straightforward, but using its filters effectively is the key to finding exactly what you’re looking for.

Here’s the basic process:

Go to the Ad Library: Open your web browser and navigate to facebook.com/ads/library.
Choose Location and Category: Select the country you want to search within. Then, choose the Ad Category. For most marketing research, you’ll select "All ads."
Search by Name or Keyword: In the search bar, type the name of the advertiser (the brand you want to research) or a keyword related to a product or service. Searching by the advertiser's name is usually the most effective approach.

Once you’ve entered a search query, you can refine your results using the “Filters” button. This is where the real power lies. You can filter by:

Platform: Look for ads specifically on Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, or Messenger.
Media type: This is the most important filter for our purpose. Select “Videos” to see only video ad creatives. You can also filter for images or memes.
Impressions by date: See which ads have been running for a specific date range, helping you understand their campaign launches and longevity.
Language: See ads in a particular language if the brand runs multilingual campaigns.

By filtering for "Videos," you can quickly isolate the specific creatives you want to analyze and save.

Method 1: Download Videos Using Browser Developer Tools

This method might sound technical, but it's surprisingly simple once you do it once or twice. It doesn’t require any external software or extensions and works natively in popular browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge.

Follow these steps carefully:

Step 1: Find and Play the Video

Navigate to the advertisement in the Meta Ad Library and click the play button to start the video. Let it play for at least a few seconds. This step is important because it ensures the video file is fully loaded in your browser.

Step 2: Open Developer Tools

Right-click directly on the video while it's playing. From the context menu that appears, select "Inspect" (on Chrome/Edge) or "Inspect Element" (on Firefox). This will open a new panel, usually docked to the side or bottom of your browser window, filled with HTML code. Don't worry, you only need to look for one thing.

Step 3: Locate the Video Source URL

In the "Elements" tab of the developer tools panel, you'll see a bunch of highlighted code. The browser usually does a good job of showing you the HTML for the exact element you clicked on.

Look for a line of code that starts with <video. Inside this tag, you need to find an attribute called src. The value of this attribute is the direct URL to the video file, which often ends in .mp4.

It will look something like this:

<video src="https://video.fper5-1.fna.fbcdn.net/..." ></video>

Step 4: Copy the Video URL

The URL inside the quotation marks next to src= is what you need. Double-click the URL link itself. It should become fully highlighted. Now, copy this link to your clipboard (you can right-click and select "Copy link address" or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C or Cmd+C).

Step 5: Save the Video File

Almost there! Open a new browser tab and paste the URL you just copied into the address bar. Press Enter. The video ad will now be displayed by itself on a blank page. To save it, simply right-click anywhere on the video and choose "Save video as...". Your browser will then prompt you to choose a location on your computer to download the MP4 file.

Pro Tip: If you have trouble finding the <video> tag, click anywhere inside the developer tools panel and use your keyboard to press Ctrl+F (or Cmd+F on Mac) to open a search box. Type .mp4 into the search box, and it will jump directly to the video source URL.

Method 2: Using a Browser Extension

If you find yourself downloading videos frequently and want a one-click solution, a browser extension can be a good alternative. These tools add a button to your browser that detects media on a page and lets you download it easily.

However, a word of caution is necessary: be very careful about which extensions you install. Some can pose privacy and security risks. Always stick to highly-rated, widely used extensions from official sources like the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons store.

Here’s the general process:

Go to your browser's official extension store.
Search for a generic term like "video downloader."
Look for an extension with thousands (or millions) of users and a high average rating. Read recent reviews to make sure it is still working reliably.
Install the extension. It will ask for certain permissions, make sure you are comfortable with what you are allowing it to access.
Navigate to the ad in the Meta Ad Library and play the video.
Click the icon for your new extension in your browser's toolbar. It should detect the MP4 file and present a download link.

While this method can be faster, the "Inspect" method is generally more reliable and doesn't require installing third-party software, which is always a plus for security.

Important: A Note on Ethical Use

Downloading an advertiser's video comes with a serious responsibility. It's essential to understand that these video files are copyrighted material. You should only use them for internal purposes.

Things To Do:

Build a swipe file: Collect exceptional ads in a private folder for you and your team to reference for inspiration.
Analyze messaging: Break down the creator economy in brainstorm sessions. What hooks are they using in the first three seconds? What’s their call-to-action? How are they pacing their edits?
Educate stakeholders: Use downloaded ads in internal presentations to show your team or clients effective strategies that are working in the market right now.

Things NEVER To Do:

Do NOT re-upload the ad: Never repurpose, edit, or publish someone else's ad creative on any platform. This is copyright infringement and can lead to severe penalties, including having your ad accounts permanently banned.
Do NOT claim it as your own work: It's purely for research, not for your portfolio.

Respect other creators' hard work. Use the Ad Library as a tool for learning and inspiration, not for plagiarism.

Final Thoughts

The Meta Ad Library is an invaluable tool for understanding the current state of digital advertising. While there’s no official one-click download option, saving videos for analysis is straightforward using either your browser's built-in developer tools or a trusted extension. This gives you a great way to build a robust swipe file and generate new ideas for your own campaigns.

Of course, after you've created and launched your inspired ad campaigns, the work of tracking performance begins. We know how tedious it is to pull data from Meta Ads Manager, Google Analytics, Shopify, and other platforms just to see what’s working. That's why we built Graphed. After easily connecting your data sources, you can ask a simple question like, "show my campaign ROAS vs. spend from Facebook and Google Ads this month," and instantly get a real-time dashboard that answers your question in seconds.