Articles on: Features Explained

🧠 Brand Spy

Brand Spy helps you monitor competitors' ad activity, uncover winning creatives, and analyze ad trends — all in one place. Use it to spot what's working in your niche and save the best ads to your Swipe File.


Before you start

  • Plan & Credits: Spying on a brand is a one-time cost of 8 credits, charged when you first add the brand. Credits are charged once per brand. Tracking continues until you remove it.
  • Permissions: Available for all paid plans.
  • Navigation: In the sidebar, go to Brand Spy.
  • Estimated time: 1–2 minutes to start tracking a brand.
  • Users can receive a weekly email digest with a personalized weekly summary of their spied brands that includes: Curated ads based on saved brands/preferences, "Brands like yours" competitor discovery, and a user-controlled toggle in the Settings.


Step-by-step


1. Access Brand Spy

  1. From the left sidebar, select Brand Spy.
  2. Click Spy new brand in the top-right corner.


2. Find and add a brand to track


Use the unified search bar at the top of the page to find any brand. Just start typing a brand name and results appear instantly in two sections:


  • Your Brands — brands you're already tracking. Click to go straight to their dashboard.
  • Discover New Brands — brands from our library of 20,000+ pre-spied brands. Click Spy to start tracking.


If the brand you're looking for isn't in our library, you'll see a direct link to the Meta Ads Library pre-filled with your search query — so you can always find what you need.


You can also add a brand in other ways:


Option 1: Manually

  1. Go to Meta Ad Library and search for the brand you want to spy on.
  2. Copy the Meta Ad Library URL from your browser's address bar. It should look something like: facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=ALL&view_all_page_id=123456
  3. Paste it into the field under Spy a brand manually.
  4. Click Spy to start tracking.


Important: You need the brand's Meta Ad Library URL, not their regular Facebook page URL. A regular Facebook page link (like facebook.com/brandname) won't work.


Option 2: From the pre-spied list

  1. Browse or search among 20,000+ pre-spied brands.
  2. Click Spy next to any brand you want to track.
  3. (Optional) Choose a folder to organize it before confirming.



3. Spy directly from ads

  1. While browsing ads in Explore, click the three-dot menu on the ad card.
  2. Select Spy Brand — the brand is now automatically added to your Brand Spy dashboard.



4. View and analyze brand performance

After adding a brand, click its name to open its dashboard. You'll see:


  • Ad Formats Breakdown – percentage split between videos, images, and carousels.
  • Active Ad Trends – a daily chart of how many ads the brand has live over time, with 7/30/90-day views and CSV export (see below).
  • Top-Performing Ads – preview ads with highest engagement and conversion potential.
  • Most Used Hooks – reveals recurring ad angles and emotional triggers.
  • Most Used Landing Pages – shows top pages where ads drive traffic.



Scroll down on a brand's dashboard to the Active Ad Trends chart. It plots how many ads the brand had live each day, so you can see at a glance whether a competitor is ramping up, winding down, or holding steady.


What you can do with it:


  • Switch the time window – use the 7D / 30D / 90D buttons in the top-right to look at the last 7, 30, or 90 days. The chart opens on 30D by default.
  • Hover for exact numbers – move your cursor over any point on the line to see a tooltip with that day's date and the exact number of active ads (e.g. 2026-05-09 — Active ads: 194).
  • Show added vs. removed – flip the Show added/removed toggle (off by default) to overlay how many ads the brand launched and turned off each day. Great for spotting big creative refreshes.
  • Export CSV – click Export CSV to download the data for the time window you're viewing as a spreadsheet. The file includes the date, active-ad count, and the ads added and removed each day — handy for client reports or your own analysis.


About the "Backfill" / dashed line: Daily snapshots begin the moment you start tracking a brand in Brand Spy. For the period before you started tracking, the chart fills in an estimate from historical data and marks it with a dashed line and a "Backfill — daily snapshots start once Brand Spy is tracking" note. Those earlier points are best-effort estimates, not exact daily counts — the data gets more precise the longer you track the brand. The chart can show up to the last 365 days.


💡 Tip: Add a competitor early and let the snapshots build up — the longer you track them, the richer and more accurate the trend line becomes.



5. Filter, sort, and explore all ads

  • Open the All Ads tab to browse every active creative.
  • Use filters for Country, Ad Format, or Performance to narrow results. All ads shown are active by default.
  • Sort by impressions to find the brand's best-performing ads first, or switch to Least impressions, Latest added, or Oldest added depending on what you're looking for.
  • Click Details to inspect an ad or Save to add it to your Swipe File.


6. Organize brands in folders — move a brand to a different folder


The move-to-folder controls live in the left sidebar's folder tree, not on the main Brand Spy page. If you’re looking at the Brand Spy table and don’t see any three-dot menus, that’s expected — the rows on that page only show the folder name as a label. To move a brand between folders, do the following:


  1. Open the left sidebar and find the Folders & Boards section.
  2. Click the folder that currently contains your brand to expand it. The folder’s boards and Brand Spy entries appear nested underneath.
  3. Find the brand row inside the expanded folder (Brand Spy entries are listed alongside boards inside each folder).
  4. Hover over the brand row and click the three-dots (â‹®) icon that appears next to the brand name.
  5. Click Edit in the dropdown. The Edit Brand Spy modal opens.
  6. In the modal, pick the folder you want to move the brand into from the folder selector.
  7. Click Save.


The brand immediately moves to the chosen folder in the sidebar tree, and the Folder column in the main Brand Spy table updates to reflect the new location.


⚠️ Can’t see any dots? You’re likely looking at the main Brand Spy table — that view only shows the folder name as a read-only label. Expand the folder in the left sidebar instead; the three-dot menu lives next to each brand item inside the expanded folder tree.



7. Remove a brand you're spying on


To stop spying on a brand:


  1. Go to the Brand Spy page from the left sidebar.
  2. You'll see the "Brands you're spying on" table listing all your tracked brands.
  3. Find the brand you want to remove in the table.
  4. Click the trash icon in the Remove column on the far right of that brand's row.
  5. Confirm the removal when prompted.


The brand will be removed from your tracking list immediately.


Important — removing a brand does NOT restore your credits. Credits are charged once when you first add a brand and are not refunded upon removal. If you decide to spy on that brand again later, it will cost 8 credits again.



Success check

  • The brand appears in your Brand Spy dashboard with Active Ads count visible.
  • You can open its overview and see ad breakdown data within seconds.



Troubleshooting

  • Brand not showing immediately: Wait a few minutes; data sync from Meta can have a short delay.
  • Ad counts differ from Meta Ads Library: Meta shows approximate ("~") totals; Gethookd shows only active ads that are currently running.
  • Credits not updating: Refresh the page; billing sync may take up to 30 seconds.
  • I pasted a Facebook page URL but it didn't work: Brand Spy requires a Meta Ad Library URL, not a regular Facebook page link. Go to Meta Ad Library, search for the brand, and copy the URL from your browser's address bar. Then paste that into "Spy a brand manually."
  • Search not finding a brand: If a brand isn't in our library yet, use the Meta Ads Library link shown in the search results to find their Ad Library page. Then copy that URL and paste it into "Spy a brand manually."
  • "This brand cannot be interacted with due to policy restrictions": This means the brand has been restricted on our platform due to policy violations and cannot be spied on. This is not a bug — certain brands are blocked to comply with platform policies. If you believe this is an error, reach out to our support team via live chat.



FAQs

  • Q: How many credits does it cost to spy on a brand?

A: 8 credits per brand, charged once when you first add it.


  • Q: How do I stop spying on a brand?

A: Go to the Brand Spy page, find the brand in the table, and click the trash icon in the Remove column. This removes the brand from your tracking list.


  • Q: Do I get credits back if I remove a brand?

A: No — removing a brand does not restore or refund your credits. Credits are a one-time charge when you first add the brand. If you re-add the same brand later, it will cost 8 credits again.


  • Q: Why do ad counts differ from Meta Ads Library?

A: Meta reports "~" estimates; GetHookd shows verified creatives only.


  • Q: Can I move a brand to a different folder?

A: Yes. The controls are in the left sidebar, not on the main Brand Spy page. Expand the folder that currently holds the brand in the sidebar’s Folders & Boards section, hover the brand row, click the three-dots (⋮) menu next to it, choose Edit, pick the new folder in the modal, and click Save. If you don’t see any dots, you’re looking at the main Brand Spy table — that view only shows the folder name as a label; the move controls live in the sidebar folder tree.


  • Q: I’m on the Brand Spy page and can’t find the three-dot menu — where is it?

A: The three-dot menu for moving a brand to a different folder is in the left sidebar’s folder tree, not on the main Brand Spy table. Expand the folder that contains the brand in the sidebar, and you’ll see a ⋮ icon next to each brand row. The main Brand Spy page only shows the folder name as a read-only column.


  • Q: What URL do I need to spy on a brand?

A: You need the brand's Meta Ad Library URL — not their regular Facebook page link. Go to Meta Ad Library, search for the brand, and copy the URL from your browser. That's the link you paste into "Spy a brand manually."


  • Q: Can I spy brands not listed in the pre-spied list?

A: Yes — search for them on Meta Ad Library and paste the URL into "Spy a brand manually."


  • Q: What does sorting by impressions do?

A: It ranks a brand's ads by how many impressions they've received, so you can quickly find their top-performing creatives.



Advanced: Manage Brand Spy via API or MCP


If you're on the Team or Agency plan you can drive Brand Spy programmatically — great for agencies juggling many client competitors or for AI agents that should start/stop tracking on their own.


  • REST API: GET /api/v1/brandspy (list tracked brands), GET /api/v1/brandspy/{brand_id} (one brand's ads), POST (start tracking), DELETE (stop). Protected by brand-spy:read and brand-spy:write. See the Public API article.
  • MCP (Claude and other AI agents): four tools — list_brand_spies, get_brand_spy, start_brand_spy, stop_brand_spy, plus get_top_ads to fetch a tracked brand's top creatives. See the MCP article to connect.



Notes & limits

  • Counts and trends rely on Meta Ads transparency data; slight delays may occur.
  • Data refresh occurs automatically every few hours.


  • Filters & Search → Learn how to find ads faster with advanced filters.
  • Swipe File → Save and organize your favorite ads for later use.
  • AI Script Generation → Turn spied ads into ready-to-edit AI scripts.



Updated on: 28/05/2026

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