If competitor analysis is on your priority list, then you probably want to look into your competitor's ads. Marketers who have been tweaking and refining their ads and optimizing ad performance used to rely on Moat Ad Search.
Moat Ad Search was a go-to competitor tracking tool for advertisers, agencies, and everyone in between. However, it shut down unexpectedly and without a suitable replacement...or so we thought.
This article dives into the world of ad search alternatives, perfect for those looking for an alternative to Moat.
We'll explore the best options available today, from the feature-rich Panoramata to platform-specific libraries like Google Ad Transparency Center, Meta Ad Library, and TikTok Ad Library.
Each has unique strengths and limitations, and we'll help you navigate them to find the perfect fit for your needs.
Get ready to discover how you can continue to track competitors, gather inspiration, and create winning ads even without Moat.
What is Moat Ad Search?
Moat was an ad marketplace and ad measurement SaaS company founded in 2010 that was highly regarded among brands and marketers.
Among other functions, it notably had a display ad search feature that tracks where a business or entity places ads online. Best of all, their search engine was free.
Moat quickly attracted a lot of users, including acclaimed brands. Its prominent clients included P&G, Spotify, Kellogg's, Bloomberg Media Group, and Google.
Moat’s features include:
- Tracking banner, video, and social media ads
- Performance metrics for ads like viewability, audience demographics, and user interaction
- Discover ad placements and creatives
- Monitor ad performance
- Heatmap analytics
- Opportunity to collaborate with ad designers through their marketplace
What happened to Moat Ad Search?
If it was well-revered among agencies and businesses, why did Moat disappear? The answer: a high-profile merger.
In 2017, Oracle took over Moat’s operations after an $850 million deal and Moat joined Oracle’s service lineup, including all its employees. Even though the service was integrated into Oracle, it was no longer free. The death knell of Moat came in 2024 when Oracle announced that it was sunsetting its advertising division.
And just like that Moat Ad Search was gone for good.
Advertising professionals mourned the loss, saying nothing comes close to the ad search engine. However, the wait is over because alternatives have cropped up in the market.
Can one of these replace Moat Ad Search? Let’s take a look at each alternative’s features.
The 5 Best Moat Ad Search Alternatives
Panoramata
Over 10,000 brands are using Panoramata to track their competitors and analyze their performance. It's a feature-rich platform that can track ads, emails, SMS campaigns, websites, and landing pages.
You can take the manual work out of competitor ad tracking for good and centralize your benchmarking, and monitoring, and content planning on one platform.
The Panoramata ad search engine is probably the closest thing to Moat Ad Search that you can find today.
You can search for ads by:
- Brand
- Keyword
- Industry (perfume, pet food, swimwear, jewelry, outdoor brands, etc.)
You can also refine your search using the following filters:
- Ad network (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, LinkedIn, display, and search ads)
- Language
- Industry
- Country
- Asset type (image, video, or carousel)
- Start date and end date
- Sub-industries (deodorants, cars, coffee, etc.)
- Sector (e.g. ecommerce)
Finally, Panoramata also gives you the data to make more empowered decisions in your marketing strategy. You’ll know exactly where you’re falling behind compared to your competitor’s ads.
The platform will tell you how many ads they detected, the unique copy your competitors used, the networks they’re placing their ads on, what percentage of their ads are videos, and how many there are of each ad type (image and video).
The Panoramata ad search engine is probably the closest thing to Moat Ad Search that you can find today.
On top of those features, you can also collect ads you want to refer back to later or share with your team using built-in swipe files. Collaborate on these swipe files with your team or show them to clients, even if they’re not using Panoramata.
And if you want to keep tabs on a group of brands’ advertising strategies, you can generate benchmarks automatically and compare performance metrics across multiple brands.
Sign up for your free account today to give it a whirl.
Aside from Panoramata, here are other ad search engines that are platform-specific. Although they are limited to one network, they can be a useful tool in a pinch.
Google Ad Transparency Center
Google’s ad library is called the Google Ad Transparency Center and like Moat, it’s searchable. However, like any platform-specific ad library, it’s limited to ads on its network.
To use Google Ad Transparency Center, you can type in an advertiser name or URL in the search bar to look for ads associated with that advertiser or domain.
It’s a bit tricky to search by advertiser name because a brand’s name might not necessarily be their advertiser name. I recommend using a URL to identify your competitor’s ads instead.
The ad library also has useful filters to refine your search.
- Date range
- Geography
- Format
- all topics vs. political ads
You can also see variations of an ad on the ad library, which gives you a better look into how a brand is positioning its ads and its overall strategy.
Meta Ad Library
The Meta Ad Library (or Facebook Ad Library) is another juggernaut in digital advertising as it houses ads on all platforms under Meta’s jurisdiction including Facebook, Whatsapp, Messenger, and Instagram.
You can search for a business or profile’s active ads on Meta or look through ad categories relevant to your industry.
You can also search ads by keywords such as your product name. This way, you get a taste for the ads currently running, trends, ad hooks, and ideas for copy and creatives.
On Meta Ad Library, you can filter ads by
- Country
- Impressions
- Language
- Platform (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc.)
- Media type (images, videos, images with text)
- Active status
- Impressions by date (select a date or date range)
The data about ads in the library are detailed. For example, you can view which platforms an ad is currently running on and when it started running.
It also indicates if an ad has multiple versions, which is useful for deciphering a brand’s ad strategy.
TikTok Ad Library
TikTok also has its own ad search engine dedicated to ads active on the platform.
You can search by advertiser name or keyword and filter by country, ad type, and ad published date.
It’s not as sophisticated as other ad libraries as it lacks data on ad versions, format, language, and the like but it does give information about an ad’s unique impressions.
TikTok Creative Center
There’s also the TikTok Creative Center, which shows the top ads on TikTok.
It also has more filters and shows helpful information like CTR, likes, comments, budget range (medium, high, low), shares, and other metrics. If you want to learn TikTok ad best practices, this could be a good supplementary resource for you.
Track competitor’s ads with Moat Ad Search alternatives
Advertisers now have a slew of options if they want to look up competitor ads and see how they’re performing and where they’re being placed. An ad search engine is a wellspring of creative inspiration, too.
Panoramata is our top pick if you’re looking for a Moat Ad Search alternative because of its extensive database and actionable insights on ads from thousands of brands across multiple industries.
Sign up today to spy on your competitor’s advertising and create better ads that convert.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Moat Ad Search?
Moat Ad Search was a highly-revered platform for looking up ads and analyzing ad performance and placements, among other features. It was founded in 2010.
Why did Moat Ad Search disappear?
Moat Ad Search disappeared because Oracle acquired Moat in 2017 and eventually closed down Moat.
What are the best alternatives to Moat Ad Search?
Panoramata is the top pick as an alternative to Moat Ad Search because it has an extensive database and actionable insights on ads. Other alternatives include Google Ad Transparency Center, Meta Ad Library, and TikTok Ad Library.
