Most Instagram ad makers are layout tools. You pick a template, drop in a product photo, choose a font, export at 1080 by 1920. The result looks like an Instagram ad, and whether anyone stops scrolling for it is entirely down to your judgment about the hook, which is the part the tool did not help with.
The judgment is the hard part. And on Instagram specifically, you do not have to supply it from scratch, because every ad running on Instagram right now is publicly visible.
Instagram ads are in the Meta Ad Library
This surprises people. The archive is usually described as the Facebook Ad Library, so it gets treated as a Facebook thing. It is not. Meta runs Facebook and Instagram placements from one ad system, and the public archive covers both. Every Reels ad, every Stories ad, every in-feed Instagram ad currently running is in there with its creative and its start date.
Which means your competitor's Instagram strategy is not hidden. It is sitting in public, and almost nobody in your category is reading it, because the archive is painful to use: no sort by how long an ad has run, no clean view of a brand's whole library, no useful filters.
If your category fights on Instagram, that archive is the most valuable input you have. We covered the research side in finding a competitor's Instagram ads.
The one number that tells you what is working
Meta does not publish anyone's CTR, saves, or conversions. Nobody can tell you what a competitor's Reels ad earned. If a tool shows you that figure it invented it, which is a practice we refuse to take part in.
What is visible is how long each ad has been continuously running. Track it daily and you have a real number.
That number is a better guide than it sounds, because of how advertisers behave rather than anything clever. People switch off ads that lose money. An Instagram ad still running after four months has been kept alive on purpose, by someone with budget at stake who was watching it closely. The reasoning in full is in why days-running beats every other performance proxy.
So "what should my Reels ad look like" has an evidence-based answer available to you: like the ones your competitors have refused to turn off.
Making yours from theirs
Clone Studio puts this on one screen. The competitor's ad plays on the left, your version builds on the right, and a single button in the middle turns one into the other.
Pick the competitor and the ad. Their live library opens as a grid, longest running first. You can search their headline and body copy for a specific offer, and filter by UGC, Studio, Animation, or Testimonial. For Instagram work the UGC filter tends to be where the useful ads are.
Pick your product. The clone rebuilds their ad's structure around what you sell, using your saved product photos when you have them.
Read the script before anything renders. For video, the AI watches their ad and writes yours scene by scene, with the voiceover line and on-screen action for each. Every line is editable. Nothing is charged until you approve it, and free accounts get this step at no cost.
Render. Output is vertical 9:16 with audio, which is the native shape for Reels and Stories. Length matches the source ad, capped at 30 seconds. Takes about five minutes.
Image ads skip the script step and come back in about a minute, in the same shape as the original.
What the vertical-only output means for you
Clone Studio produces 9:16 and nothing else right now. For Instagram that is mostly good news, since Reels and Stories are both 9:16 and that is where the volume is. It does mean you do not get a 1:1 or 4:5 cut for the main feed out of this tool, so if feed placements are central to your plan, plan around that.
Resolution is 480p. Fine for Reels and Stories, not a broadcast master.
Costs
Video is priced by length rather than per video:
- 1 credit is about 2 seconds of finished ad
- 1 credit is $1
- Minimum 5 credits
- Credits never expire
A 15 second Reels ad lands around 8 credits. Since clone length follows the source, cloning a short punchy Instagram ad stays cheap. Failed renders refund automatically, and a failed analysis is never charged.
Free accounts browse every library, get complete editable scripts, and get one image clone, all without a card.
Do not copy their assets
The structure is what you are taking: the hook shape, the pacing, where the proof lands, how the offer is framed at the end. Their footage, their voiceover, their creator's face, and their brand marks are theirs and stay theirs. Clone Studio rebuilds around your product and does not reproduce their material. The checklist is in cloning a competitor's ad ethically.
One Instagram-specific note: if a competitor's ad features a creator, that creator has a contract with them. Copying the format of a talking-head testimonial is normal. Copying that person's likeness is not, and the tool will not do it.
FAQ
Can I see my competitors' Instagram ads?
Yes. Instagram ads appear in Meta's public Ad Library alongside Facebook ads, including Reels and Stories placements, with the creative and the date each went live.
What size does an Instagram Reels ad need to be?
Vertical 9:16. Stories is the same shape. Clone Studio outputs 9:16 only, which lines up with both.
How do I know which of their Instagram ads is working?
By how long it has been running. Meta publishes no engagement or conversion data for other advertisers, but continuous run time is visible and meaningful, since brands stop paying for ads that do not perform.
Can I make an Instagram ad without filming anything?
Yes. The video is generated, with audio, from the approved script. You supply your product photos so the product shown is genuinely yours.
Is there a free Instagram ad maker here?
Free accounts get unlimited browsing of competitor libraries, complete editable scripts at no cost, and one free image clone. Rendering video requires credits.
Start with the ad you keep seeing
There is a competitor whose Reels ad has followed you around for months. That persistence is the signal. Open Clone Studio, add them, sort by longest running, and clone it.
Reading the script it writes costs nothing and takes two minutes, and it will show you exactly how the ad you keep getting served is put together.
Their Reels ad has been running since March. That is not luck, and it is not a secret either.