Getting started
Sign in at adshelf.app/login with your work email (we send a 6-digit code) or with Google. Your account starts with a free 14-day trial — no credit card. The dashboard has three tabs: Our Ads (your connected Meta account), Competitors (the shared library), and Settings (integrations).
Adding competitor brands
In the Competitors tab, open Manage brands and add a brand by name. Adshelf finds the brand's Facebook Page automatically and starts a full library pull. Many popular brands are already in the shared library, in which case their history appears instantly — including ads that stopped running long before you signed up.
Running vs. Stopped, and run duration
Every ad shows its status and how long it ran. Running means the ad is live in Meta's Ad Library right now; the day counter is its current age. Stopped means the advertiser ended it — Meta deletes stopped ads from its own library, but Adshelf keeps them forever with their run history. Long-running ads are the closest thing to a public performance signal that exists: nobody pays to run a losing ad for months.
Refreshes
Libraries refresh automatically every day, with a deeper weekly pass. You can also refresh on demand: Refresh now is a quick pass over every brand's newest ads; Deep refresh re-walks entire libraries. A progress bar shows status — it's safe to close the tab; refreshes finish on their own.
Countries
Ad libraries are per-country: a brand's US ads and UK ads can be completely different campaigns. The country selector switches both what you see and what refreshes collect. Start with your home market.
AI brand synopsis
The synopsis reads a brand's active library and clusters it into the messaging themes they're funding — with rough counts, formats, and which theme their oldest surviving ads support. It refreshes daily. Treat it as an analyst's briefing, not gospel: verify against the ads themselves before big decisions.
Connecting your Meta account
In Settings, paste a Meta system-user token with ads_read permission and your ad account ID. Adshelf pulls spend, impressions, clicks, purchases, and revenue — read-only. Your data is never shared with other customers or used to train models. (A one-click "Connect Facebook" button is coming; today's token flow works for any account you administer.)
Connecting Shopify
Shopify connection brings store-reported revenue next to Meta-reported revenue, so CPP/ROAS/MER reflect reality instead of Meta's attribution. The one-click Shopify app is in progress; until then your dashboard's Shopify figures update via the supported import.
Metrics glossary
CPP — cost per purchase (spend ÷ purchases). ROAS — Meta-reported revenue ÷ spend. MER — total store revenue ÷ total ad spend, the honest blended number. Hook rate — 3-second video views ÷ impressions; measures whether the opening stops the scroll. Cost / LP view — spend ÷ landing-page views; catches ads that get clicks but lose people before the page loads. CTR — link clicks ÷ impressions.
Trial and billing
Trials run 14 days, no card required. When yours ends, pick a plan on the pricing page — early customers keep founding pricing for life. Cancel anytime, effective at the end of the billing period.
Data, compliance, and takedowns
Competitor data comes exclusively from Meta's public Ad Library — the transparency archive Meta publishes for every advertiser. It contains no consumer personal data and no private performance data. Rights holders can request removal of their public ads by emailing privacy@adshelf.app; see our Terms and Privacy Policy.
Still stuck? Email hello@adshelf.app — a human answers.