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How Far Back Does the Meta Ad Library Go? (2026 Answer)

How far back does the Meta Ad Library go?

TL;DR: It depends on what the ad is and where it ran. Political, electoral and social-issue ads are kept for seven years, active or not. Any ad delivered in the EU is kept for one year after it last ran (a Digital Services Act requirement). Other commercial ads are shown only while they are running — once a US-only advertiser switches an ad off, it drops out of the library. So for most competitor research you see current ads everywhere, and roughly a year of history in EU countries. (As of Oct 2026.)

Why the answer depends on ad category and country

The Ad Library started in 2018 as an archive of political and issue ads, and those still carry the longest retention: seven years, whether the ad is active or inactive. One dated change: Meta stopped delivering political, electoral and social-issue ads in the EU on October 6, 2025, in response to the EU’s TTPA regulation. EU results in that category are now a frozen archive that ends on that date.

For commercial ads (the typical eCommerce, DTC, SaaS advertiser), retention is set by the EU’s Digital Services Act. Ads delivered to anyone in the EU stay in the library, with their reach and targeting details, for one year after their last impression. Commercial ads that never ran in the EU are shown only while active.

Meta also has Housing, Employment and Financial products and services categories (the last replaced Credit in 2025). Meta doesn’t clearly document a longer retention period for them; treat them like other commercial ads (unverified as of Oct 2026).

What this means for competitor research

For most reverse-engineering work this is enough. You’re looking for winners that are running now, and the active view shows those in every country.

For history, pick an EU country where the competitor advertises: you get about a year of stopped ads, which shows which concepts they tested and abandoned. For anything older than that, or for a brand that only advertises outside the EU, the library has nothing. Supplement with:

  • Your own saved snapshots (a weekly monitoring run builds the archive Meta doesn’t keep)
  • Third-party archives (Foreplay, Motion, AdSpyder) that cache Ad Library data
  • The Wayback Machine (archive.org) — occasional snapshots of brand Facebook pages
  • Brand’s own announcements and press coverage for campaign timelines

A tactical note

The start date shown on any individual ad result is the date the ad was first published, not the date it was indexed. An ad showing a start date of “April 2023” was actually running in April 2023 — Meta doesn’t retroactively add ads to the library.

This matters because ad longevity (e.g. an ad running continuously since April 2023) is a strong signal the ad is actually performing. Longevity claims are reliable for any ad with a visible start date: if an ad is still listed as active with an old start date, it has been running that long.

Key takeaways

  • Political/issue ads: seven years (EU archive frozen since Oct 6, 2025, when Meta stopped those ads in the EU).
  • Ads delivered in the EU: one year after they last ran.
  • Other commercial ads: only while running.
  • For older data or non-EU advertisers, keep your own snapshots or use third-party ad intelligence platforms.

Sources

By Andrej Ruckij