The Meta Ad Library has no history. It shows you what is running now. Come back in a fortnight and you cannot tell which ads are new, which were killed, or whether the offer changed, because there is nothing to compare against.
That history is the whole point of tracking a brand.
Step 1: Track the brand
Adding a competitor starts the daily snapshots automatically. From then on, every day's state is recorded.
The useful consequence: questions about change become answerable.
Step 2: Ask what changed
What new ads has [brand] launched since last month?
Which of their ads have they killed recently?
A brand killing several ads at once is usually reallocating budget. A brand launching a burst of new creative is usually testing into a new angle. Both are early signals, and both are invisible in a single visit.
Step 3: Watch the offer, not just the creative
This is the one most people miss:
Has their offer or discount changed in the last 60 days?
Creative changes constantly and means little. An offer change is a strategic decision that costs them margin, so it tells you something real: a shift to discounting usually means pressure on volume.
Step 4: Check the winner is still the winner
Is their longest-running ad the same one as last month?
If a four-month champion disappears, something changed. Either it finally fatigued, or their strategy moved. Either way you want to know before your own plan assumes their old playbook.
A sensible cadence
Weekly is plenty for most categories. Daily checking produces noise, because creative churn is normal and most of it means nothing. The signals worth acting on are offer changes and a new ad surviving past 30 days.
FAQ
Do I get notified automatically?
Checking in is a question you ask rather than an alert that arrives. Scheduled monitoring agents are not part of the product today, and it is better to know that than to assume something is watching for you.
How far back does the history go?
From the point you started tracking the brand. Snapshots cannot be backfilled, because the Ad Library does not publish history, which is exactly why tracking early matters.
How many brands can I track?
The free plan covers one. Paid plans raise the limit, which matters most if you are watching a category rather than a single rival.
Does the competitor know?
No. Ad libraries are public by law and reading them is anonymous.