AdSpy vs Use Poach in 2026: deep Meta ad discovery vs local Facebook Ad Library capture

AdSpy is for the discovery stage of Meta creative research. Its published archive covers more than 213 million Facebook and Instagram ads across 225 countries, 88 languages, and more than 30 million advertisers. The search interface starts with inputs such as ad text, advertiser name, URL, reactions, media type, last-seen activity, and ad longevity. That lets a researcher reduce a broad category into comparable visible ads before deciding which examples deserve to be saved and discussed.

The specialist controls give it a different role from a capture extension. AdSpy lists searches through public comments, location, gender, age range, affiliate network, affiliate ID, Offer ID, and landing-page technologies. An affiliate marketer can use a supplied Offer ID to investigate how it has been promoted, and a creative strategist can inspect public reaction language or recurring landing-page choices. This is external observation, not performance measurement. The profile does not establish a competitor’s private targeting, costs, conversion rate, or profitability.

AdSpy publishes one subscription at $149 per month with virtually unlimited usage, plus a full refund within 24 hours according to its information page. It does not publish a local save format, customer-owned database, Notion integration, or a broader team workflow. Its value depends on repeatedly using the search depth to find material that would otherwise be difficult to locate. A person who already knows the exact Facebook Ad Library ads they need may be paying for discovery they do not require.

Use Poach begins after a researcher has found an ad in the public Facebook Ad Library. The extension captures the selected example to local disk, saving the image or video alongside a metadata screenshot card. Use Poach says the card retains the headline, primary copy, CTA, advertiser, landing URL, dates, and tags applied by the user, with metadata embedded in the PNG for ExifTool reading. That makes a local capture more useful than an unlabelled screenshot dropped into a folder.

Pro adds a storage and organisation path, not a discovery database. For a one-time $67 lifetime payment, it creates a 13-column database in the customer’s Notion workspace and sends each capture there as a native row with its screenshot. The workflow supports niche, awareness-stage, and lead-type tags, and the product says Notion records are deduplicated. Its privacy policy says captured ads, screenshots, Notion content, and Notion tokens are not sent to the licensing service, which is relevant for researchers who want the archive under their own workspace.

The limitation is intentionally plain. Use Poach only works from Facebook Ad Library and does not publish its own advertiser search, cross-network archive, saved-search alerts, competitor watchlist, reports, API, team approvals, or campaign-management controls. Free is enough for local collection. Pro is a sensible purchase for a Notion-centered strategist who wants a durable personal swipe file, but not for someone who still needs to find competitors, map affiliate offers, or study activity across Facebook and Instagram at scale.