How to find prospects running Meta ads, step by step

A business that is paying for Meta ads is already a buyer of what you sell. The fastest way to find those businesses is the public Meta Ad Library: search a niche, keep the advertisers with active ads, read their creative, and write to them about something you actually saw. Here is the full workflow, manual route first.

What does a prospect running Meta ads tell you?

A prospect running Meta ads tells you one thing for certain: someone at that business decided to pay for attention. That is a better starting point than a cold list of companies that may never have bought an ad.

It does not tell you whether the ads work: according to Meta, people can search all active ads running across its products, and spend, reach and funding details are extra information for social issue, election and political ads (Meta Transparency Center). For an ordinary business ad, you get the creative, the copy and when it started. No budget. No results.

So the rule for this whole guide: you are collecting observations, not verdicts. An old, plain-looking ad might be a quiet winner or a forgotten one; you can't tell from the outside. Advertisers also differ a lot in skill (a 2023 NBER working paper built on a large Facebook and Instagram field experiment found that returns to advertising varied with advertiser sophistication), which is exactly why a fresh pair of eyes can be useful to them. Say what you saw and ask a question. Leave the diagnosis for after they reply.

What do you need before you open the Ad Library?

Before you open the library, decide four things: the niche you serve, the market (country) you can sell into, the person you'd write to, and the one service you'd pitch. Without them you'll collect 200 advertisers and pitch none.

Write them in one line: "Dentists in Ontario, owner or practice manager, creative refresh." Narrow beats broad. A tight list lets you spot patterns, and a pattern is what makes your message sound informed. Who, exactly, will read your first message?

How do you search the Meta Ad Library for advertisers?

You search the Meta Ad Library by keyword, with the country set to your market and the status set to active ads, then open each result to see which Page is paying for it. It's free.

1. Open the Meta Ad Library and pick your country.
2. Choose all ad categories and set the status to active.
3. Search a keyword a customer would use ("invisalign", "roof repair", "yoga studio") and scroll.
4. Note the Page name behind each ad, not the ad itself.

Try three or four keyword variations; one search only surfaces what matches that wording. Our guide to using the Facebook Ad Library walks through the filters, and how to see competitors' Facebook ads covers the brand-name route if you already have a target list.

How do you turn the results into a prospect list?

You turn the results into a prospect list by recording one row per advertiser in a spreadsheet: Page name, website, country, number of active ads, oldest start date, formats, and a one-line observation.

Two cautions. First, confirm the Page is the right business. When we pulled Notion's ads with Proxy, the top-ranked, verified Meta page for the name was an unrelated London magazine with two active ads; the real account was the second candidate, with an estimated 200 active ads. Similar names cause that. Check the website link on the Page before you spend time on it.

Second, find a person. The business's own site usually lists an owner, a marketing manager or a contact page. Write the name down now, not later. A list of 40 advertisers with no contact is a list of 40 chores.

What should you check on each advertiser's ads?

On each advertiser, check how long the oldest ad has run, how many different creatives are live, which formats they use, and where the ad sends people. Spend about ten minutes per prospect, no more.

Signal	What you can see	What it might mean	What it can't tell you
Active ads exist	At least one live ad	Someone pays for ads right now	Budget, results
Old start date	Oldest ad started months ago	Creative may be working, or untouched	Which of the two
One creative only	A single live ad	Little testing visible in the library	What they test elsewhere
Recent starts, many ads	Several new ads this month	Someone is actively managing	Whether the work is good
Image only	No video or carousel live	A format gap you could raise	Whether video would help them
Link goes to the homepage	Ad lands on the front page	Possible friction between ad and offer	Their conversion rate
Thin copy	Short or generic text	An angle you could suggest	Whether it performs

Read the table left to right. The third column is a hypothesis. The fourth column is why you ask questions rather than make claims.

Don't over-read one row. Two or three signals pointing the same way are something you can mention.

For video ads, listen to the first three seconds; that's where the hook lives. If you want the script without watching every one, an assistant with Proxy can transcribe a video ad on request, which is handy when you're checking a dozen of them.

How do you check Google and LinkedIn too?

You check Google and LinkedIn by searching the same business in each platform's public ad library, which tells you whether Meta is their only channel or one of several. A prospect on Meta alone, with a Google-search-shaped gap, is a different conversation from one spending everywhere.

• Google: per Google Ads Policy Help, the Ads Transparency Center lets you search by advertiser or website name and filter by date and targeted location (source). Search the domain from their Page. Our guide to checking competitors' Google ads shows what you'll see.
• LinkedIn: if you sell to B2B companies, search their name in LinkedIn's ad library. See how to see competitors' LinkedIn ads.

An empty result isn't proof of absence. The business may advertise under another name or account. Note "none found" and move on.

How do you qualify a prospect by their ad activity?

You qualify a prospect by sorting each one into hot, warm or skip, based on four checks: ads are live, you can state a specific observation in one sentence, you can name a decision maker, and the prospect fits your service. These tiers are our rules of thumb, not measured benchmarks.

• Hot: live ads on at least one platform, one clear observation, a named contact, and a fit with what you sell.
• Warm: live ads and a fit, but no sharp observation yet or no contact. Do ten more minutes of research.
• Skip: no live ads, a very large brand with an obvious in-house team, or an industry you can't legally or ethically serve.

One more filter: ad age. Some practitioners treat an ad that has run 60 days or more as a sign it's working, and that's one reason the oldest start date is worth noting. It's a heuristic, not evidence (the library can't confirm results). Note it and ask.

How do you turn what you saw into a first message?

You turn what you saw into a first message by naming one specific ad, saying what you noticed in neutral words, and asking a question. One fact, one question, one ask. Skip the audit dump.

Compare two openings:

• Weak: "Your Facebook ads are outdated and probably losing you money."
• Better: "I saw the spring promo you've had live on Meta since March. Is that still the main creative, or are you testing others? I have two angles I'd try next and can send them over."

The first claims something you can't know. The second shows you looked and leaves room for them to correct you. Keep it under 80 words, and offer a short follow-up (a one-page look at their current ad and a few ideas) rather than a pitch deck.

Is the manual route enough, or should you use Proxy?

The manual route is enough for a handful of prospects, and it's free. Use it when you're checking five or ten businesses, or when you want to learn what a good prospect row looks like. Proxy is the faster route once you want dozens of prospects checked across platforms without opening a tab for each.

Proxy runs inside ChatGPT, Claude or Cursor and reads the public ad libraries live. A prospecting session looks like this:

Search Meta ads for "roof repair" in Canada. List the advertisers, how many active ads each has, how long the oldest has run, and what formats they use.

For the five with the oldest ads, check whether they run Google ads too, and flag anyone who only runs one image.

Behind those two asks, your assistant calls search_meta_ads_by_keyword to find advertisers by topic, get_meta_ads to pull a Page's active ads, and get_google_ads for the Google check. LinkedIn works through search_linkedin_ads, and TikTok through search_tiktok_ads (EU ads only, by the exact advertiser name). Then you review the output and write your own notes.

Prospecting is a common ask. In the 60 days to October 25, 2026, at least 21 of 167 Proxy users (12.6%) stated a prospecting or pitch goal (agent-stated goals in PostHog, keyword matched, test accounts excluded). The free plan includes 20 credits a day with no card, enough to check a few prospects a day; Pro is $50 a month for 100 credits a day.

Know the limits. Proxy shows what the libraries show: no spend, no results, no reach for ordinary ads. And it can pick the wrong business when names collide, so confirm the website on any prospect you plan to contact. For a longer look at the tool, see how to see competitor ads in ChatGPT and Claude or the ad library MCP comparison.

What are the rules for contacting prospects?

Check the rules for your market before you send anything; this is a pointer, not legal advice. Public ad data tells you who to write to, but it doesn't give you permission to email them.

• US (CAN-SPAM): according to FTC guidance, each separate email in violation can be fined up to $53,088; the law "makes no exception for business-to-business email"; and you must include a valid physical postal address, honor opt-outs within 10 business days, and avoid deceptive subject lines (FTC guide).
• UK (PECR): according to ICO guidance, marketing emails to individuals, including sole traders and some partnerships, need specific consent, while you can email corporate bodies and should keep a do-not-email list. It also notes the guidance is under review (ICO).
• Elsewhere: the EU, Canada and other regions have their own rules, and GDPR can apply to personal data you collect. Look up yours.

Also read the terms of any platform you pull contact details from. When in doubt, ask a lawyer.

Where should you start?

Start with one niche, one country and ten businesses in the Meta Ad Library today. If the process earns its keep, install Proxy and do the next fifty in an afternoon.