How to Find Ecommerce Brands Already Running Facebook Ads (and What It Reveals About Their Budget)

Here's something most agencies and marketers get wrong: they waste time pitching to brands that have never run paid ads before.

Cold outreach to a business that's never tested Facebook ads? You're fighting an uphill battle. You have to educate them on the platform, convince them to invest, and hope they have the budget.

But brands already running Facebook ads? That's a completely different conversation.

They've already committed budget. They understand the channel. They're actively investing in growth. And if their ads are running consistently, they're likely seeing positive returns, which means they have money to spend on agencies, tools, and optimization.

The best clients already spend money on ads. Here's exactly how to find them.

Why Finding Active Ad Spenders Changes Everything

Let me paint you a picture.

You're an agency owner looking for new clients. You could spend hours cold calling random ecommerce stores, hoping one of them might be interested in your Facebook ads services.

Or you could build a list of brands actively running Facebook ads right now, analyze what they're promoting, understand their creative strategy, and reach out with specific insights about their current campaigns.

Which approach do you think gets better responses?

When you find ecommerce brands running Facebook ads, you're not just finding prospects—you're finding qualified, high-intent leads who have already proven they invest in paid acquisition. You can see their messaging, their offers, their creative approach. You can gauge their sophistication level and budget by how many ads they're running and how often they refresh creative.

This is competitive intelligence and lead generation combined into one process.

Let's break down exactly how to do this.

Step 1: Use Facebook Ad Library to Find Active Advertisers

Facebook's Ad Library is your secret weapon, and it's completely free.

This tool was created for transparency around political ads, but it's an absolute goldmine for finding ecommerce brands running Facebook ads. You can see every active ad from any business, across Facebook and Instagram, without restrictions.

Here's how to use it:

Start by searching for brands you know are in your target niche. If you're targeting fitness brands, search for major names like Gymshark or Aloyoga. Click through to see all their active ads.

But here's where it gets interesting: once you find one brand, look at the types of products they're advertising and the creative angles they're using. Then search for similar product keywords in the Ad Library.

Search things like "protein powder," "yoga pants," or "skincare serum." You'll see ads from dozens of brands in that space. Click through each one to see their full ad catalog.

What to look for:

• Number of active ads – Brands running 50+ variations are serious about Facebook ads and likely have significant budget
• Ad consistency – Check the "started running" dates. Brands with ads running for months are seeing returns
• Creative quality – Professional video ads and UGC content suggest they're investing in production
• Offer types – Discounts, bundles, limited-time offers tell you about their customer acquisition strategy

You can spend hours in the Ad Library just from one search term. It's that powerful for competitor analysis and prospecting.

Step 2: Use Meta's Transparency Tools to Dig Deeper

Beyond the Ad Library, Facebook offers transparency features directly on business pages.

Visit any brand's Facebook Page and scroll down to the "Page Transparency" section (usually in the right sidebar on desktop, or under "About" on mobile). Click "See All" and you'll find:

• When the page was created
• Page name history (shows if they rebranded)
• People who manage the page and their locations
• Most importantly: A direct link to "Ads from this Page"

This is basically a shortcut to their Ad Library profile, but it also gives you context about the business behind the ads.

Pro tip: If you're analyzing multiple brands, note their page creation dates. Newer pages (less than 2 years old) running aggressive ad campaigns usually mean venture-backed startups with healthy budgets. Older pages suggest established brands with proven business models.

Step 3: Analyze Facebook Pixels Using StoreCensus

Now here's where things get really sophisticated.

Not every ecommerce brand advertises publicly enough to find them through manual searches. Some run smaller campaigns, target very specific audiences, or operate in niche markets.

This is where technology profiling comes in.

StoreCensus tracks which Shopify stores have Facebook Pixel installed—which means they're either running Facebook ads currently or have the infrastructure set up to start running them.

You can filter their database by:

• Stores with active Facebook Pixel
• Traffic estimates (to gauge scale)
• Product categories and niches
• Geographic location
• Revenue estimates

Why this matters: A store with Facebook Pixel installed but not visible in Ad Library searches might be running highly targeted campaigns to warm audiences, retargeting campaigns, or testing new products with small budgets. These are actually incredible prospects because they're sophisticated enough to set up proper tracking.

Want to see exactly how to filter for Shopify stores actively using Facebook ads, complete with contact data and revenue estimates? Check out the complete guide on finding shops using Facebook ads. It walks through advanced filtering techniques and shows you how to export prospect lists ready for outreach.

Step 4: Gauge Intent with Site Traffic and Product Pricing

Once you've identified brands running Facebook ads, you need to understand if they're worth pursuing.

Two key indicators tell you everything about their budget and growth stage:

Traffic volume: Use free tools like SimilarWeb or Ubersuggest to check estimated monthly traffic. Brands driving 50K+ monthly visitors while running Facebook ads are spending serious money. They're also sophisticated enough to understand attribution and ROAS.

Product pricing: Visit their store and check average product prices. If they're selling $15 phone cases, their customer lifetime value is limited—they might churn through agencies. But brands selling $100+ products have much healthier unit economics, which means bigger budgets for customer acquisition.

The sweet spot? Brands with:

• 10K-100K monthly visitors (past the startup phase, not yet enterprise)
• Average order values of $75+
• 20+ active Facebook ads at any given time
• Professional creative (video ads, UGC content, carousel ads)

These are brands in growth mode with proven business models and budget to invest in optimization.

What Active Facebook Ads Reveal About Budget

Here's the hidden intelligence you can extract just from analyzing someone's ad presence:

If they're running 5-10 ads: They're testing or running small campaigns. Budget is probably $1K-5K/month. These might be good prospects if you target smaller clients.

If they're running 20-50 ads: They're actively scaling. They understand creative testing and are investing in multiple angles. Budget is likely $10K-50K/month. This is your target client range.

If they're running 100+ ads: They either have an in-house team or are already working with a large agency. They're spending $100K+/month. Great for case studies and partnerships, but harder to crack.

If ads have been running for 6+ months consistently: They're profitable on the channel. This is the most important signal. Brands don't keep throwing money at Facebook ads if they're not seeing returns.

Bringing It All Together: Your Prospecting Workflow

Here's your step-by-step process for finding and qualifying ecommerce brands running Facebook ads:

Week 1: Build Your List

• Spend 2-3 hours in Facebook Ad Library searching niche keywords
• Document 50-100 brands running active campaigns
• Check each brand's page transparency for additional context

Week 2: Qualify and Research

• Filter your list by ad volume and consistency
• Check site traffic and product pricing for each
• Use StoreCensus to add brands you might have missed through manual searches

Week 3: Analyze and Prioritize

• Rank brands by budget indicators (traffic, pricing, ad volume)
• Study their creative approaches and offers
• Identify gaps or opportunities in their current campaigns

Week 4: Reach Out

• Start outreach with specific insights about their current ads
• Reference specific campaigns you saw in Ad Library
• Offer concrete suggestions based on their creative strategy

This isn't spray-and-pray cold outreach. This is informed, intelligent prospecting to brands already investing in the exact service you offer.

Ready to Scale This Process?

Manual research through Ad Library works great for understanding the landscape and finding your first 50 prospects.

But if you want to build lists of hundreds of qualified ecommerce brands running Facebook ads—complete with traffic estimates, revenue data, and contact information—you need a more systematic approach.

→ Check out our Shopify Facebook Ads Guide to uncover Shopify stores actively advertising on Facebook

You'll learn advanced filtering techniques, discover how to identify high-budget advertisers at scale, and get the exact outreach templates that turn cold prospects into booked sales calls.

Stop guessing which brands have budget. Start targeting proven ad spenders.