Find the best ads in the world for your own inspiration.

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It’s hard to find great ads online. 99% of the ads we see on a daily basis can hardly be defined as great. Honestly – they’re shit. They’re boring, unoriginal, and forgetful. Hardly anything to draw inspiration from.

How do you find great ads?

We have put a ton of research into answering this question. We didn’t do it for you, we did it for ourselves. Here at Something Great, we run a weekly newsletter called The Ad Spot that features all of the past week’s trending ads. We started the newsletter for one simple reason: it’s really hard to find and watch the week’s best ads online and we wanted to be part of the solution. You run into paywalls, blocked websites, and a staggering lack of variety when researching ads. Even when we have come across websites that share trending ads, they often focus only on TV spots and leave outdoor advertising, print advertising, social media advertising, and all other forms of digital advertising nowhere to be found.

After scouring the web for all types of trending ads for the better part of the year, we finally found a system that works. It includes a plethora of little websites and social media channels (listed below) that we browse every week when we put The Ad Spot together.

Here’s a look at the websites that help us find what’s new and trending. If you just want to know what’s hot in the industry, be sure to join The Ad Spot – if you’re doing research on a particular competitor or brand, use these websites when conducting your research.

Join The Ad Spot

#1. Moat

Moat is a great place to find display ads running for any particular brand. Just head to their website, enter in the brand you’re doing research on, and presto. They also offer a ton of marketing analytics should you be in need of some help.

Visit Moat

#2. Facebook’s Ad Library

This is the place to find Facebook ads from any company or organization. You’ll be able to see exactly what ads any page is running – but with the catch that they must be active right now. Be sure you select the right country when you do your search as the tool defaults to the country you’re currently in and won’t display ads from any other location.

Visit the Facebook Ad Library

#3. Adweek and AdAge

These websites feature tons of trending ads, however, most of the ads are behind a paywall. So while you may be able to see what’s trending, you won’t be able to watch the ad itself (which kind of defeats the purpose). If you’d like to see the ads they feature paywall free, you’ll love our weekly newsletter. We scour the web for links to the ads that aren’t behind a paywall, so you don’t need to drive yourself crazy.

#4. Reddit

If you’re looking for ads of the past, Reddit can be a great resource. There are plenty of advertising related subreddits featuring old print ads that you can draw inspiration from. Be sure to look through the comments as well, members of Reddit’s advertising communities can be a valuable resource.

#5. Ads of the World

It can be a bit challenging to sift through this website, but what it lacks in discoverability it makes up for in breadth. Ads of the World is home to all of the ads you’re looking for, but you will definitely need to do some digging.  

Visit Ads of the World

#6. Twitter’s Trending Ads

Our Trending Ads account on Twitter shares mostly social content, so if you’re looking for great tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram posts, look no further.

#7. iSpot

If TV commercials are what you’re after, iSpot TV is the perfect place for finding the most talked about TV commercials of the week, and to see which advertisers are spending the most. They offer lots of other information on the TV spots they feature as well, like where the ads are running, how much they cost, and which agency helped create them.

Visit iSpot TV

#8. Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual platform, and doing a quick search for advertising, advertising campaigns, or marketing campaigns can bring up a ton of great results. On a separate note, it’s a great resource for gathering styling and font inspiration.

#9. YouTube

We’ve put together a playlist on YouTube full of our favorite new ad spots. We update it as we find great ads throughout the week so it’s always got something fresh.

View The Ad Spot YouTube playlist

#10. Instagram

We’re big fans of Design and Art Direction over on Instagram. Be sure to give them a follow – they feature a ton of ads you probably haven’t seen before.

View D and AD on Instagram

By Justin Kerby.