ChatGPT answers, unedited

For video ads specifically, I’d look at:

• VidTao — strongest fit for YouTube competitor research; includes estimated spend, campaign history, targeting countries, and landing pages. VidTao
• Foreplay — better if you want Meta/TikTok/YouTube creative research plus competitor tracking and organization. Foreplay
• AdSpyder — useful if you need cross-platform monitoring, including YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and display. AdSpyder
• Adyntel — particularly interesting if you need an API to pull competitors’ YouTube video ads, first/last-seen dates, and advertiser data programmatically. Adyntel

Important: estimated views and placements are generally modeled/inferred rather than exact; ad-intelligence platforms differ considerably in what they can observe.

If your priority is specifically “competitor → exact video ads → where they ran → estimated impressions/views,” I’d start with VidTao + Adyntel.

If your main requirement is “show me where competitors’ video ads are appearing and estimate how many impressions/views they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

• semrush.com — probably the closest match. It tracks video placements such as pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll and masthead, and provides estimated impressions, spend, publishers, creatives, and YouTube channels. Semrush Semrush
• sensortower.com — stronger for enterprise-grade market intelligence. It provides estimated impressions and spend across social, display, video and mobile, plus the creatives, publishers/platforms, placements and flighting associated with campaigns. Sensor Tower
• adclarity.com — worth considering directly if video is your primary focus. It specifically covers video formats and cross-platform placements, including feed, in-stream, out-stream and masthead. AdClarity

What I'd pick

If you're a small/mid-sized marketing team, I'd start with AdClarity. It has the most direct match to your request: competitor → creative → placement/publisher → estimated impressions/spend. Semrush currently lists its Advertising Toolkit Pro at $220/month, including AdClarity, with a 7-day trial; the exact limits are worth checking because the plan restricts geography, historical data, reports and exports. Semrush

If you're doing serious competitive intelligence across many brands, channels, and markets, I'd demo Pathmatics as well. Its modeling explicitly estimates impressions and spend rather than pretending those figures are exact observed view counts. Sensor Tower

One important caveat: “estimated views” aren't the same thing as verified video views. These platforms use modeled estimates based on observed ad exposures and other data, so I'd use them for relative competitive intelligence and trend detection, not as an exact count of people who watched an ad. Sensor Tower

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and your approximate monthly budget, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that actually fit.

If your main goal is “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate their reach/views”, I’d start with AdClarity by Semrush.

My shortlist

• semrush.com — best fit for your exact use case. It tracks video, display, and social advertising across 650,000+ publishers in 50+ markets. You can investigate placements, publishers, creatives, estimated impressions/views, spend, campaigns, and share of voice. Semrush AdClarity
• Pathmatics by Sensor Tower — worth evaluating if you need broader advertising-spend intelligence and larger enterprise-scale competitive monitoring. It's commonly compared with AdClarity for this category. G2
• ads.tiktok.com — free supplement for TikTok. It lets you search competitors' high-performing ads and provides metrics such as reach, CTR, 2-second/6-second view rates, and engagement for qualifying ads. TikTok For Business TikTok For Business
• business.facebook.com — free supplement for Meta. Excellent for discovering currently running Facebook/Instagram creatives, although it's much less useful for estimating competitors' commercial video views than an intelligence platform. Facebook Business

One important caveat

“Estimated views” aren't the same thing as a competitor's actual first-party reporting. For example, AdClarity describes its data in terms of estimated impressions, views, costs, and share of voice, so I'd treat those numbers as competitive-intelligence estimates rather than audited figures. Semrush

If you tell me which channels you care about — YouTube, Meta, TikTok, connected TV/streaming, or all of them — I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that actually expose the placements and view estimates you need.

If your main goal is “show me exactly where competitors are running video ads + give me a credible estimate of views/impressions”, I’d shortlist these:

• usepathfinder.com — best for YouTube. It specifically tracks competitor YouTube ads and reports real YouTube view counts, views/day, days live, active/stopped status, and ad history. This is probably the closest match to your request if YouTube is important. Pathfinder
• adsee.ai — best for deeper YouTube ad intelligence. It claims 16M+ indexed YouTube ads, including unlisted ads, with placement information, estimated spend, impressions, landing pages, transcripts, and visual descriptions. AdSee AI
• ** — worth considering if you need multiple networks.** Cross-channel platforms can be more useful than a pure YouTube spy tool when you want to understand a competitor's overall media strategy, although their “estimated” metrics should be treated as directional rather than ground truth. WhatWins adlibrary.com
• TikTok Creative Center — best free TikTok option. TikTok itself provides a Top Ads database with filters for region, industry, objective, etc., plus performance-oriented metrics such as reach, CTR, and view-rate measures. TikTok For Business TikTok For Business

What I'd pick

If you're primarily researching video ads on YouTube, I'd start with Pathfinder. Its real-view-count positioning is unusually well aligned with what you're asking for.

If you need YouTube + Meta + TikTok + broader competitive intelligence, I'd look at a cross-platform tool rather than buying a YouTube-only product.

One important caveat: competitor “estimated views,” impressions, and spend are not equivalent to first-party campaign data. For YouTube, actual public view counts can be available; for other networks, third-party platforms often model/estimate delivery. So I'd use those numbers for ranking competitors and identifying winners, not as accounting-grade figures.

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, etc.) and your approximate budget, I can narrow this to the 3 best tools and compare pricing, coverage, view estimates, placements, and API/export capabilities.

If your core requirement is “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running, and estimate reach/views”, I’d shortlist these:

1. Sensor Tower / Pathmatics — best overall for serious competitive intelligence. It provides competitor creatives, placements, estimated spend and impressions, including social, display, video, YouTube and other channels. Its methodology combines panel data, crawlers, integrations and modeling, so the numbers are estimates rather than competitors’ actual account data. Sensor Tower

sensortower.com

2. MediaRadar — best if you want broader media intelligence. It tracks video/YouTube activity and ties creatives to placement information, with competitive spend and campaign intelligence across digital and TV/CTV. MediaRadar MediaRadar

mediaradar.com

3. Meta Ad Library + Google Ads Transparency Center + TikTok Creative Center — best free starting point. These let you verify the actual creatives your competitors are running, but don't give you reliable competitor view counts. AdEye

What I'd pick

If you're an agency, growth team, or serious media buyer, I'd start with Pathmatics. It's much closer to what you're describing because you specifically care about placements + estimated exposure, rather than merely collecting competitor creatives.

One important distinction: “views” vs. “impressions.” Most competitive-intelligence platforms can estimate impressions/reach/spend, but an exact number of video views inside a competitor's ad account generally isn't publicly observable. Treat third-party numbers as modeled estimates, not ground truth. Sensor Tower

If you tell me which channels matter (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and your approximate budget, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and compare their coverage/pricing.

If your key requirement is “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running, and give me an estimate of reach/views/spend,” I’d look at ad-intelligence platforms, not just basic ad libraries.

My shortlist

• Pathmatics / Sensor Tower — best for serious media intelligence. It’s the kind of tool I’d choose if estimated impressions, spend, channel mix, and competitive benchmarking matter more than building a creative swipe file. Current comparisons put it in the enterprise tier, roughly $1,000+/month. adlibrary.com
• AdLibrary — best all-around cross-platform research option. It indexes Meta, TikTok, YouTube/Google, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others, with creative previews, platform metadata, timelines, filters, and API access. adlibrary.com adlibrary.com
• WhatWins — worth considering if you specifically want cross-channel competitive monitoring plus estimated spend/performance signals in one workspace. WhatWins
• AdSpy / BigSpy / Minea — more budget-friendly choices for discovering competitors' creatives and historical ads. They're useful for creative research, but I'd be more cautious about treating their estimated performance numbers as ground truth. adlibrary.com Superscale

One important caveat

“Estimated views” are not the same as actual views. Public ad libraries generally don't expose competitors' true impression/view counts. Meta, Google/YouTube and TikTok give you varying degrees of ad/creative transparency, but paid intelligence vendors infer performance from their own datasets and modeling. AdEye AdEye

For example, TikTok Creative Center can provide considerably stronger performance signals for its Top Ads, while Meta's library is much better thought of as a source for creative, placement, active-status and longevity signals rather than competitor performance data. Superscale

What I'd pick

If you're building a competitive video-ad research workflow, I'd start with:

AdLibrary → broad cross-platform discovery
+ TikTok Creative Center → TikTok performance signals
+ Meta Ad Library → Meta placement/creative verification
+ Google Ads Transparency Center → YouTube verification

If you need modeled impressions/spend and media-buying intelligence, move up to Pathmatics/Sensor Tower.

If you tell me your budget (e.g. <$100/mo, $500/mo, or enterprise) and whether you care most about Meta, TikTok, YouTube, or all three, I can narrow this to 2–3 tools and compare their actual capabilities.

If your priority is specifically competitors’ video ads + where they ran + estimated/actual views, I’d narrow it to these:

• adsee.ai — best match for your requirements. It indexes YouTube video ads and provides view counts, estimated spend/impressions, lifecycle data, landing pages, and geographic placement information. It also indexes unlisted ads, which is particularly useful for competitive research. AdSee AI
• usepathfinder.com — best if YouTube is your main channel. It focuses specifically on YouTube ads and reports real YouTube view counts, views/day, days live, and active/stopped status. Pathfinder
• whatwins.io — better for broader ad intelligence. If you want to monitor competitors across Meta, TikTok, Google and YouTube rather than just video, it is positioned around cross-channel monitoring, spend estimates and competitive changes. What Wins
• Free option: use the platform-native libraries. Meta's Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center and TikTok Creative Center let you identify competitors' creatives, but they generally don't give you reliable commercial-ad view counts or spend. Eden Selzee

What I'd choose

If you mean:

“Give me Competitor X → every video ad → where it ran → views/impressions → how long it has been running → estimated spend.”

I'd test AdSee first. It is unusually close to that exact workflow. AdSee AI

One important caveat: competitor ad performance is rarely directly observable. View counts can be real where platforms expose them, but spend, impressions, and performance figures presented by third-party intelligence products are generally estimates. Selzee

If you tell me whether you're mainly interested in YouTube, Meta/Instagram, TikTok, or all three, I can give you a tighter shortlist of 3–5 tools and compare price, coverage, view data, placement data, historical tracking, and API/export capabilities.

If you mean “I want to see where competitors’ video ads are running, which creatives they’re using, and approximate reach/views”, I’d look at ad intelligence platforms rather than generic social listening tools. The best choice depends on the channel:

My shortlist by use case

If you mainly care about YouTube ads

• Pick AdSee AI if you need placement/geography intelligence and creative search. AdSee AI
• Pick Pathfinder if you want to quickly answer “which competitor videos are actually getting traction?” with view metrics. Pathfinder

If you’re a brand running paid media across many channels

• Pick Pathmatics. It is closer to a media intelligence system than an ad swipe file. Udonis Mobile Marketing Agency

If you care about streaming/CTV

• Look at MediaRadar or similar enterprise CTV intelligence tools. MediaRadar

A few caveats:

• No third-party tool can truly reveal a competitor’s exact paid impressions or spend unless they have direct platform access; “estimated views/spend” are modeled estimates.
• For YouTube specifically, tools that track unlisted ad creatives are often more useful than just scraping public brand channels, because many paid ads never appear on the advertiser’s channel. AdSee AI

If you tell me your channel (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.), budget, and whether you need a dashboard or API, I can narrow it to 2–3 options.

If your priority is competitor video ads + placements + estimated views, I’d narrow it to these:

• adsee.ai — best match for your exact requirement. It focuses on YouTube video ads and provides estimated spend/impressions, real view counts, landing pages, and placement/country data. It also indexes unlisted ads. AdSee AI
• usepathfinder.com — best if “estimated views” is the key metric. It specifically advertises real YouTube view counts, views/day, whether an ad is still live, and competitor tracking. Pathfinder
• vidtao.com — best for broader YouTube competitive intelligence. It has a very large ad database and estimates ad spend and campaign activity over time, which is useful for identifying ads that are actually being scaled. VidTao Help Center VidTao
• foreplay.co — best if you need Meta/TikTok + creative research rather than YouTube-only. Its API provides competitor ad data including videos, active status, creative velocity, and historical data across a large advertising database. Foreplay
• motionapp.com — good for Meta creative analysis. It focuses on identifying what competitors are actively testing and which ads are likely winning/being retired, rather than giving you precise YouTube view intelligence. Motion

My pick

If you mean:

“Give me a competitor → show me their video ads → tell me where they're running → estimate how many people/views they're getting → let me identify the winners.”

I'd start with AdSee or Pathfinder. AdSee looks particularly close to your requested combination because it explicitly includes views/impressions + placement data + competitor video discovery. AdSee AI

One important caveat: estimated views/impressions are modeled data, not the competitor's private analytics, so I wouldn't treat the numbers as exact.

If you tell me whether you're primarily interested in YouTube, Meta/Instagram, TikTok, or all three, I can give you a tighter shortlist of 2–3 tools and compare price, coverage, view estimates, placements, historical data, and API access.

If your goal is specifically “show me where competitors’ video ads are running, what the ads look like, and roughly how many impressions/views they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

• Sensor Tower Pathmatics — my first choice. It tracks competitor creatives across YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, OTT/CTV, display, etc., and provides estimated impressions, spend, placements/publishers, flight dates, and the actual creatives. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

sensortower.com

• Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best if you care about where video ads appear. Its Video Ads product can show competitor video creatives, landing URLs, campaign duration, and associated ad networks; it specifically tracks pre-, mid-, and post-roll YouTube ads. Similarweb Knowledge Center Similarweb Knowledge Center

similarweb.com

• TikTok Creative Center — best free option for TikTok. You can inspect high-performing competitor ads and sort/filter by things like reach, CTR, 2-second views and 6-second views. It's more useful for creative intelligence than comprehensive competitor media-spend intelligence. TikTok For Business TikTok For Business

ads.tiktok.com

What I'd buy

If you're running a serious competitive-media operation, Pathmatics is probably the closest match to your description. It combines:

Competitor → creative → platform → publisher/site → placement → flight dates → estimated impressions → estimated spend

That's substantially closer to an actual "competitor video ad spy" workflow than tools that merely show you the creative. Pathmatics explicitly says its estimates cover impressions and spend and that it provides site targeting and placement-level competitive analysis. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

One important caveat: “estimated views” aren't the same thing as verified video views. These platforms model impressions/views from panels and other data; treat them as directional competitive intelligence rather than the competitor's first-party analytics. Sensor Tower

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, etc.) and your approximate budget, I can narrow this to the 2–3 best tools and compare their coverage, estimated-view data, placement granularity, and likely cost.

If your goal is specifically “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate how many impressions/views they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

• sensortower.com — my top pick for serious competitive intelligence. It provides estimated ad spend and impressions, actual creatives, placements, flighting, and channel-level comparisons across platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and others. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower
• semrush.com — best if you want placement intelligence. It can break video ads down into pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll and masthead, while also providing estimated impressions, spend, publishers, CPM and the actual creatives. Semrush
• Meta Ad Library + TikTok Creative Center + Google Ads Transparency Center — best free starting point. They're useful for discovering the actual competitor creatives, but they're much weaker for estimating total exposure/impressions. Eden AdEye

What I'd choose

If you're building a competitor video-ad monitoring system, I'd go with Pathmatics first. It gets closest to the dataset you're describing:

Competitor → video creative → platform → publisher/placement → dates → estimated impressions → estimated spend → creative/message

One important caveat: “estimated views” aren't the same as a competitor's actual first-party view count. These platforms model impressions/exposure from their own data, so treat the numbers as competitive estimates rather than ground truth. Pathmatics explicitly describes its impressions/spend figures as estimates based on modeling. Sensor Tower

If you tell me which channels matter most (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, connected TV, etc.) and roughly how much you're willing to spend per month, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 tools and compare their coverage, accuracy, and pricing.

If you want to see competitors’ video ad placements, creatives, and estimated performance, the right tool depends on the channel (YouTube, Meta/TikTok, CTV, etc.). There isn’t one tool that perfectly reveals all placements and true views because platforms don’t expose complete competitive spend/performance data. Most tools use observed data, platform signals, panels, or modeling.

Here are the strongest options:

My recommendation by use case

• YouTube ads specifically: Start with AdSee AI or Pathfinder. They are closest to what you described: “Which ads are running, where, and how many views are they getting?” AdSee AI Pathfinder
• DTC/ecommerce competitor research: Add a Meta/TikTok-focused tool like Rival Ads so you can see creative testing patterns across paid social. Rival Ads
• Brand/agency doing TV + streaming: Look at MediaRadar or enterprise tools like Sensor Tower. MediaRadar Udonis Mobile Marketing Agency

A practical stack many growth teams use:

1. YouTube: Pathfinder + AdSee AI
2. Meta/TikTok: Rival Ads + native ad libraries
3. CTV/OTT: MediaRadar or Sensor Tower
4. Creative analysis: Combine the ad library data with your own swipe-file/tagging system

One caveat: treat “estimated views,” “spend,” and “impressions” as directional intelligence rather than audited numbers. The most reliable signals are usually how long an ad has stayed live, repeat launches, view velocity, and creative iteration patterns. Pathfinder

If you tell me your main channel (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV) and whether you’re a brand, agency, or media buyer, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 tools.

If your key requirement is “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate how much reach/views they’re getting,” I’d prioritize ad-intelligence platforms, not ordinary “ad spy” tools.

My top picks

1. sensortower.com — best for serious competitive intelligence

• Tracks video/social/display advertising across platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, OTT/CTV, etc.
• Gives estimated impressions and spend, creative-level data, publishers/placements, and historical trends.
• Particularly strong if you want to answer “How much is Competitor X investing, where, and at what scale?”
• It is enterprise-oriented, so expect custom pricing. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower
• semrush.com — best balance

• Covers display, video, and social advertising.
• Lets you investigate competitors' creative, ad formats, placement choices, publishers, and spend patterns.
• Semrush specifically documents estimated impressions, costs, views, clicks, and share of voice in its competitive-ad reporting. Semrush Semrush
• I'd pick this if you want something usable by a marketing team without going all the way into enterprise media intelligence.
• adlibrary.com — best lower-cost cross-platform creative research

• Searches competitor ads across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Google, Pinterest and others.
• More useful for answering “What videos are they running and what creative angles are they testing?” than for highly reliable reach measurement. adlibrary.com

One important caveat

“Estimated views” aren't the same thing as actual views. Competitors' private campaign dashboards aren't publicly exposed. Tools such as Pathmatics and AdClarity model impressions/spend/reach from observed advertising data; the estimates can be very useful directionally, but I wouldn't treat them as audited numbers. Pathmatics, for example, combines panel data, crawlers, integrations and modeling to estimate spend and impressions. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

If I were buying specifically for your use case, I'd rank them:

Pathmatics > AdClarity > AdLibrary

If you tell me which platforms matter most (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and roughly what you'd like to spend per month, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options and compare placement visibility, estimated views/impressions, historical data, pricing, and API access.

If by “video ad placements” you mean where competitors are running video ads, which creatives they’re using, and an estimate of how much exposure those ads are getting, I’d shortlist these:

• vidtao.com — best fit for YouTube. It focuses specifically on YouTube ad intelligence, including competitor creatives and estimated ad spend over time. Its own data claims 40M+ YouTube video ads and historical tracking. VidTao Help Center VidTao Blog
• foreplay.co — best for broader social-ad intelligence. Its API provides competitor ad data including videos, active status, transcription, creative velocity, and historical data; it says its Discovery API covers 100M+ ads. Foreplay
• facebook.com — best free source for Facebook/Instagram. You can search competitors and see their currently running ads, including video creatives. Facebook Business
• adstransparency.google.com — best free source for YouTube. It lets you search ads by advertiser and filter for YouTube. Ad Transparency

What I'd choose

If YouTube is your primary concern, start with VidTao.

If you need Meta + TikTok + YouTube and want to build a systematic competitor-monitoring database, I'd investigate Foreplay.

One important caveat: exact competitor impressions/views aren't generally publicly observable. Third-party tools provide estimates based on their own tracking/models, so I would treat “estimated views” as directional rather than literal reporting data. Even Google's transparency tools are primarily about identifying ads, not revealing competitors' actual spend, ROAS, or complete audience data.

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, etc.) and whether you need estimated views, spend, placements, or all three, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools most likely to give you exactly what you want, including pricing.

If your goal is specifically “show me where competitors are running video ads and give me an estimate of the audience/views”, I’d shortlist these:

• mediaradar.com — best overall fit. It covers TV, CTV, OTT/streaming, YouTube, pre-roll and in-stream video, with creative, placement, airing/frequency and spend intelligence. It also supports competitor benchmarking. MediaRadar MediaRadar
• Pathmatics (Sensor Tower) — worth evaluating if your emphasis is digital/social ad intelligence and estimated spend/impressions rather than traditional TV/CTV. It's particularly useful for understanding competitors' digital media mix.
• Vivvix — strong if you need broad competitive media intelligence, especially traditional TV and cross-media investment tracking.
• Similarweb — useful as a more accessible/affordable option for digital traffic and advertising intelligence, but I wouldn't choose it if exact video-placement intelligence is your primary requirement.

One important caveat

“Estimated views” can mean very different things. For YouTube/social video, you can sometimes get platform-level view estimates or observed engagement. For CTV/OTT and TV, vendors generally provide modeled impressions/reach/frequency or estimated spend, rather than knowing the exact number of people who watched a competitor's ad.

For your particular requirement, I'd start with MediaRadar because it explicitly connects video creative → placement → airing/activity → competitive benchmarks across TV, CTV, OTT and digital video. MediaRadar MediaRadar

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV/Netflix, traditional TV, etc.) and roughly what budget you have, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 tools and compare what each can actually reveal about competitors' ads and estimated views/impressions.

If your priority is “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate the scale/views,” I’d shortlist these:

1. adclarity.com — best overall for placement intelligence. It tracks video ads across publishers/platforms and gives estimated impressions, spend, publishers, creatives, and placement types such as pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll, feed, in-stream, out-stream, and masthead. It can also show the YouTube channels where an advertiser’s ads appeared. Semrush AdClarity

Best for: media teams that want to understand where competitors are buying and approximate reach.

2. sensortower.com — best for broader cross-channel intelligence. It provides estimated spend/impressions plus actual creatives, publishers/platforms, targeting/site information, and flighting. Coverage includes YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, OTT/CTV, display, and more. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower

Best for: serious competitive/media intelligence where you want to compare entire channel mixes.

3. semrush.com — best if you already use Semrush. Its Pro tier includes AdClarity, with competitor video/social/display creatives, placements, spend and impression estimates. Semrush

One important caveat

“Estimated views” isn't usually the same thing as actual video views. These platforms generally model impressions/exposure and spend from observed ad activity. For example, Pathmatics explicitly says it estimates impressions and spend using modeling. Sensor Tower

If I were buying specifically for competitor video ads, I'd start with AdClarity if placement intelligence is the main requirement, or Pathmatics if you want a much broader competitive-media picture.

If you tell me which platforms matter most (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and your monthly budget, I can narrow it down to the best 2–3 options and compare coverage, estimated-view accuracy, pricing, and whether they expose the actual placements.

If your goal is specifically “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimated views/impressions/spend”, I’d look at ad intelligence platforms, not just creative swipe tools. A few good options:

My shortlist by use case

• YouTube ads (especially DTC/ecommerce/SaaS):

→ AdSee AI or Pathfinder. They’re closer to “what ads are actually winning?” than generic media monitoring. AdSee AI Pathfinder

• CTV / streaming competitors (Roku, Hulu, connected TV, OTT):

→ MediaRadar or Pathmatics. MediaRadar Udonis Mobile Marketing Agency

• Agency or enterprise competitive reporting:

→ AdClarity or Pathmatics. Biscience Udonis Mobile Marketing Agency

A note on “estimated views”: no third-party tool can truly know a competitor’s paid impressions unless it has direct platform data. The better platforms use modeled estimates, observed ad activity, panels, or platform signals, so treat the numbers as directional rather than exact. Backlinko Udonis Mobile Marketing Agency

If you tell me:

1. platform (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, all),
2. industry, and
3. whether you need creative spying or media-spend/placement intelligence,

I can narrow it to the best 2–3 options.

If your goal is specifically “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running them, and give me a reasonable estimate of how much reach/impressions they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

• bigspy.com — best fit for estimated exposure. It searches ads across multiple networks and lets you sort by estimated impressions, running days, popularity, engagement, country, network, etc. BigSpy explicitly says its impression figure is an algorithmic estimate rather than actual views, so treat it as directional. BigSpy BigSpy
• foreplay.co — best for competitor video-creative intelligence. It has a very large historical ad database, supports video/platform/market filtering, and its Spyder feature continuously tracks competitor ads. It also has an API if you eventually want to build your own dashboard or agent. Foreplay Foreplay
• Meta Ad Library — best free baseline. Great for verifying which ads a competitor is currently running on Facebook/Instagram, but it doesn't give you reliable total views for ordinary commercial ads.
• TikTok Creative Center — best for TikTok specifically. Useful for finding top-performing/trending creative and understanding what's being promoted on TikTok; BigSpy also provides tooling around TikTok Creative Center data. BigSpy

What I'd choose

If estimated views/impressions are the #1 requirement → BigSpy.

If understanding competitors' video strategy is the #1 requirement → Foreplay.

If you want both, I'd actually use Foreplay + BigSpy: Foreplay for what they're running and how their creative strategy evolves, BigSpy for estimated exposure/popularity. The important caveat is that competitor “views” are generally estimates, not the advertiser's actual first-party view/impression data. BigSpy explicitly makes that distinction. BigSpy

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, Meta/Instagram, TikTok, or all three) and roughly how much you'd spend per month, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for.

If your priority is “show me competitors’ video ads + where they’re running + some indication of scale/views,” I’d shortlist these:

• usepathfinder.com — best fit for YouTube. It specifically tracks competitor YouTube ads and provides real YouTube view counts, views/day, live status, creative, and historical tracking. It claims 32,000+ ads tracked and 50,000+ searchable brands. Pathfinder
• sensortower.com — best enterprise option. It covers Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, OTT/CTV and more, with estimated impressions, spend, creatives, publishers/placements, formats, and flighting. Its estimates are based on panel data, crawlers, partnerships and modeling. Sensor Tower Sensor Tower
• tubularlabs.com — best if “video views” matters more than ad-spend intelligence. It has large-scale social-video measurement across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch and other platforms, including audience and viewership analysis. Tubular Labs Tubular Labs
• Free stack: Meta Ad Library + Google Ads Transparency Center + TikTok Creative Center. These are excellent for finding the actual creatives and active campaigns, but ordinary commercial ads generally don't reveal competitors' spend or true performance. AdEye Selzee

What I'd choose

If you're specifically talking about YouTube video ads, I'd start with Pathfinder because it is unusually focused on exactly the combination you described: competitor → video ad → live status → actual public YouTube views/views per day.

If you need “where are they buying media?” in addition to views—e.g. YouTube vs TikTok vs Instagram vs CTV, publishers, estimated impressions, spend and placements—I'd move up to Pathmatics.

One important caveat: “estimated views” and “estimated impressions” aren't the same thing. No legitimate competitive-intelligence tool can see a competitor's private ad-account performance. Pathmatics, for example, explicitly models impressions/spend from its data sources, while Pathfinder can leverage the public view counts attached to YouTube videos. Sensor Tower Pathfinder

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, etc.) and roughly how much you're willing to spend per month, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 tools for your use case.

If your main goal is “show me where competitors’ video ads are running and roughly how many impressions/views they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

1. sensortower.com — best overall

• Tracks competitor video creatives, placements, estimated impressions and spend.
• Covers YouTube/social, display/video, mobile and OTT/CTV.
• Lets you examine individual creatives, publishers, targeting, flighting and historical trends. Sensor Tower
• My pick if you want a serious competitive-intelligence platform, especially for a brand or agency.
• adbeat.com — best for finding the actual publishers/placements

• Particularly strong for display and pre-roll video.
• Shows competitor creatives, publishers, ad networks, landing pages and estimated spend.
• Its publisher/placement intelligence is useful if your question is “Where exactly are they buying inventory?” Adbeat Adbeat
• Less comprehensive than Pathmatics for social/CTV.
• mediaradar.com — best if you want broader media intelligence

• Covers a broader advertising ecosystem and is increasingly integrating streaming/video measurement data. MediaRadar
• I'd consider it if you also care about TV, publishers, sponsorships and broader media buying—not just digital video.

What I'd choose

One important caveat: “estimated views” aren't the same as a platform's reported views. These services model impressions/spend from observed data, panels, crawlers and other signals. Pathmatics explicitly says it uses machine-learning models to estimate spend and impressions. Sensor Tower

If you tell me which video channels you care about (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV/streaming, websites, etc.) and roughly your budget, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools most likely to give you the data you actually want.

If your goal is specifically “show me what competitors are running, where they’re placing it, and give me a reasonable estimate of reach/views”, I’d shortlist these:

• vidtao.com — best for YouTube. It focuses heavily on YouTube video ads and provides ad-spend estimates and a large searchable video-ad database. VidTao VidTao
• minea.com — best all-around for Meta + TikTok + Pinterest. It lets you search competitor ads and provides performance signals such as estimated spend, engagement, creative variations and audience information. Minea
• bigspy.com — best broad cross-platform option. It indexes ads across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and other networks and supports competitor/ad-performance research. BigSpy
• pipiads.com — strongest if TikTok is your main concern. It specializes in TikTok ad intelligence, including creative and engagement/run-duration signals. adlibrary.com

One important caveat

No third-party tool can reliably tell you a competitor's actual video views/impressions across every placement. Much of the “estimated views” or “estimated spend” data is modeled from observable signals. Treat it as competitive intelligence, not audited media-buying data. Daily Intel Service

For Meta specifically, I'd also use Meta's own facebook.com as the ground truth for finding active ads. Meta provides transparency information around ads, although the amount of spend/impression data varies by ad category. about.fb.com

My pick: If you're primarily analyzing video ads, I'd start with VidTao for YouTube + Minea for Meta/TikTok. If you tell me whether you're interested in YouTube, TikTok, Meta, or all three, I can narrow it down to the best tool for your exact use case and budget.

If your goal is specifically “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running them, and roughly how many views/impressions they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

My picks

• adbeat.com — best for placements + competitive media intelligence.

This is probably the closest match to your description. It tracks competitors’ ad creatives, publishers/placements, ad networks, landing pages, flight dates, and estimated spend. It explicitly covers video and pre-roll inventory. Adbeat Adbeat
Best if: you care about where competitors are buying as much as the creative itself.

• vidtao.com — best for YouTube-focused video-ad research.

VidTao has a large indexed YouTube ad library, including unlisted ads, and provides estimates around spend, targeting/country, active campaigns, and landing pages. VidTao Blog VidTao Blog
Best if: YouTube is your primary channel and you want to reverse-engineer DTC/performance advertisers.

• ads.tiktok.com — best free option for TikTok.

TikTok exposes high-performing ads and metrics such as video views, CTR, 2-second/6-second view rates, and likes. However, its Top Ads collection is limited to ads meeting eligibility/authorization criteria, so it isn't a complete view of every competitor campaign. TikTok Ads TikTok For Business

What I'd choose

If you want one paid tool, I'd start with Adbeat if “placements” is critical.

If your business is primarily YouTube/DTC, I'd start with VidTao instead.

One important caveat: competitors' exact impressions/views usually aren't publicly knowable. Tools like these provide modeled/estimated figures or platform-specific metrics, rather than giving you the competitor's actual Ads Manager data. Treat the estimates as directional—particularly when comparing competitors against each other.

If you tell me which channels you care about (YouTube, Meta/Instagram, TikTok, connected TV, etc.) and whether you're B2B, SaaS, ecommerce, or another category, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that actually fit your use case and compare their pricing/data coverage.

If your goal is specifically “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate their views/impressions”, I’d shortlist these:

1. sensortower.com — best overall

• Tracks video ads across YouTube, social, display, and OTT/CTV.
• Provides estimated impressions, spend, creatives, publishers/placements, and flighting.
• Lets you compare competitors side-by-side. Sensor Tower
• Particularly good if you need a research-grade competitive dataset rather than just an ad library.
• semrush.com — best if YouTube/video is your priority

• Covers video advertising across YouTube and other publishers/social platforms.
• Reports estimated impressions, views, costs, clicks, share of voice, and top ads.
• You can identify the publishers and YouTube channels where competitors are advertising. Semrush Semrush
• It currently starts at $129/month for the Starter tier, with country/channel limitations. Semrush
• mediaradar.com — best for TV/CTV/OTT

• Stronger choice if by “video placements” you mean CTV, streaming, TV networks, programs, dayparts, and OTT, rather than just digital video.
• Tracks creatives, placements, airing patterns, and competitive campaign activity. MediaRadar

My pick

If you mean “Competitor X ran this video creative on YouTube/publisher Y, and we estimate it generated roughly N impressions/views”, I'd start with Pathmatics or AdClarity.

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and roughly how much you're willing to spend per month, I can narrow it down to the best 1–2 options.

If you mean “I want to see where competitors are running video ads, what creatives they’re using, and approximate performance (views/impressions/spend)”, I’d look at ad intelligence platforms, not just ad libraries. No tool can truly reveal a competitor’s private ad account data, but the better ones use crawled ads, platform signals, and modeled estimates. Backlinko

Here are the strongest options by use case:

My recommendation by scenario

• YouTube-first DTC/ecommerce brand: Start with AdSee AI or Pathfinder. They’re closest to your stated need because they focus on video ads and performance signals. AdSee AI Pathfinder
• Agency managing many clients: Look at Pathmatics or AdClarity for broader competitive reporting. Udonis Mobile Marketing Agency
• CTV/streaming competitors (Roku, Hulu, etc.): Look at MediaRadar, AdClarity, or similar CTV intelligence tools. Udonis Mobile Marketing Agency MediaRadar

A few things I’d verify before paying:

• Does it show placement/channel (YouTube, CTV, publisher, country)?
• Does it show historical creatives or only current ads?
• Are “views” actual platform views or modeled estimates?
• Can it track competitor launches and creative changes over time?

If you tell me the channel you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, programmatic) and your budget range, I can narrow it to 2–3 tools.

If your goal is specifically “show me what competitors are running, where they're running it, and give me a reasonable estimate of reach/views”, I’d shortlist these:

My pick: BigSpy

For the exact use case you described, BigSpy is probably the closest fit. Its current Ad Library lets you search by advertiser and filter by network, country/region, creative format, engagement, etc., and sort by estimated impressions. bigspy.combigspy.com

It also lets you research a specific competitor by advertiser and see things like running days, last-seen date, impressions, likes/comments/shares and placement/network information. bigspy.com

One important caveat: “estimated impressions” are not the same thing as actual video views. BigSpy explicitly says its impression figure is an algorithmic estimate and isn't strictly equal to views. bigspy.combigspy.com So I'd use the number as a competitive signal, not as ground truth.

If you're primarily interested in creative strategy

I'd lean toward Foreplay. Its Discovery product is particularly good for identifying long-running competitor ads, organizing creative, analyzing hooks/angles, and building a competitor matrix. www.foreplay.co

Foreplay also now offers an API with competitor ad data, including videos, active status, transcription and creative-velocity data, which is interesting if you're trying to build your own internal intelligence tool. www.foreplay.co

Bottom line:

• Need estimated exposure + broad competitive intelligence → BigSpy
• Need to understand why competitor video ads are working → Foreplay
• Need free, first-party confirmation of Meta ads → Meta Ad Library
• Need to monitor a defined list of competitors continuously → Foreplay Spyder

If you tell me which platforms matter most (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, etc.) and whether you need actual placement-level data or just estimated reach, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools that are genuinely worth paying for.

Yes. If your goal is specifically “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running, and give me a reasonable estimate of views/performance,” I’d shortlist these:

My first choice would be VidTao if YouTube is your main concern. Its current offering says it indexes 40M+ YouTube video ads and provides things like estimated spend, targeting/country information, landing pages and campaign timelines. blog.vidtao.com

If you need Meta + TikTok + YouTube in one place, I'd look at AdSpyder. It currently advertises coverage across 15+ platforms and lets you track competitors, creative, run duration and traffic destinations. adspyder.io

One important caveat: “estimated views” is not the same thing as actual impressions/reach. Competitor tools are usually modeling or aggregating publicly observable signals; they don't have access to the competitor's private Ads Manager reporting. So I'd treat view numbers as directional rather than accounting-grade data.

For free/native research, TikTok's current Creative Center is surprisingly useful: its Top Ads system can sort eligible ads by Reach, CTR, 2-second view rate and 6-second view rate, although TikTok notes that the displayed ads are a subset authorized by advertisers. blog.vidtao.comadspyder.ioads.us.tiktok.com Meta's Ad Library lets you search active ads across Meta products, but ordinary commercial ads don't get the same detailed spend/reach disclosure that political/issue ads do. www.facebook.com

If you tell me which platforms matter most (YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, or all three), I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools that actually give you the placement + estimated-view data you're after, including current pricing.

If you mean “see where competitors’ video ads are running, estimate reach/views, identify winning creatives, and understand placements”, I’d look at dedicated ad intelligence platforms rather than just ad libraries.

Here are the strongest options depending on what you care about:

My recommendation by use case

• YouTube ads specifically: start with AdSee AI or Pathfinder. They are closest to your stated need because they focus on video ads and performance signals. AdSee AI Pathfinder
• DTC/ecommerce competitors across Meta + TikTok + Google + YouTube: look at Adsmom or similar multi-channel tools. Adsmom
• Brand/enterprise monitoring (CTV, streaming, TV): MediaRadar or AdClarity are better fits. MediaRadar BIScience Insights

A caveat: no tool can truly know a competitor’s exact paid views or revenue. The best platforms infer performance from signals like observed views, ad longevity, spend models, placement data, and frequency patterns. For example, some YouTube-focused tools emphasize view counts or estimated spend rather than claiming access to private ad accounts. AdSee AI Pathfinder

If you tell me your channel (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, Amazon, etc.) and whether you care more about creative inspiration or media-spend intelligence, I can narrow it to 2–3 choices.

If by “placements” you mean where competitors’ video ads are running, which creatives they’re using, and how many views/impressions those ads appear to be getting, I’d shortlist these:

• vidtao.com — best for YouTube. It’s specifically built around YouTube ad intelligence and provides estimated spend, campaign timelines, and large-scale video-ad discovery. Its data is modeled, so treat the numbers as directional rather than exact. VidTao VidTao Help Center
• usepathfinder.com — interesting if views are your priority. It specifically advertises real YouTube view counts, views/day, and whether an ad is still live, which is unusually close to what you're asking for. Pathfinder
• bigspy.com — best for cross-platform coverage. It covers YouTube alongside Meta, TikTok and other networks, with competitor-ad search and estimated impression data. Its own documentation cautions that impressions are algorithmic estimates and aren't equivalent to actual views. BigSpy BigSpy
• adeye.ai — best if you want one dashboard. It aggregates competitor ads from Meta, Google, TikTok and YouTube and tags creatives by hook, angle and format. AdEye

What I'd pick

If YouTube is the main channel, I'd test Pathfinder + VidTao. Pathfinder looks particularly compelling for your views / views-per-day requirement, while VidTao gives you deeper competitive-spend and campaign intelligence.

If you need Meta + TikTok + YouTube together, I'd lean toward BigSpy or AdEye.

One important caveat: competitors' exact paid placement/impression data generally isn't publicly observable. These platforms infer performance from available signals, so “estimated views” or “estimated impressions” should be treated as competitive-intelligence indicators, not audited numbers. VidTao Help Center BigSpy

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, etc.) and roughly what budget you want to spend per month, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 options.

If your goal is specifically “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running, and roughly how many views/impressions they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

1. Pathfinder — best for YouTube
   • Tracks competitors’ YouTube video ads.
   • Gives actual YouTube view counts and views/day, plus whether the ad is still live.
   • Particularly useful if YouTube is your main channel. usepathfinder.com

2. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best for placements + estimated impressions
   • Broadest fit for what you described.
   • Covers video/display/social/search and can show publishers, campaigns, creatives, estimated impressions and spend.
   • Its video-ad product specifically tracks YouTube pre-, mid-, and post-roll ads. support.similarweb.comsupport.similarweb.com
   • Important distinction: these are modeled estimates, not the competitor's actual account-level impression data. Similarweb says its estimates combine traffic data with modeled CPM/CTR. support.similarweb.comsupport.similarweb.com

3. Foreplay — best for creative intelligence
   • Huge database covering Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn and others.
   • Excellent for seeing competitor creatives, hooks, copy, landing pages, running duration and active status.
   • Its Spyder product tracks competitor campaigns, while its API exposes competitor video data and active status. www.foreplay.co
   • I wouldn't choose it primarily if estimated view/impression volume is your most important metric.

My pick

If you need one tool, I'd start with Similarweb for the combination of placement + estimated impressions + competitive media strategy.

If you're primarily buying YouTube video, I'd test Pathfinder alongside it because its actual YouTube view-count data is much closer to the specific metric you're asking for. usepathfinder.com

One caveat: there isn't a magic tool that can reliably reveal a competitor's true paid impressions across every platform. Treat third-party view/impression numbers as estimates unless they're public platform metrics.

If you tell me whether you're interested in YouTube, Meta, TikTok, or all three, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 best tools and their current pricing/features.

If you want to see competitors’ video ads, where they’re running, and estimate reach/views, the right tool depends heavily on the channel (YouTube, Meta/TikTok, CTV, programmatic). A few strong options:

My shortlist by use case:

• YouTube ads → start with AdSee AI or VidTao. These are closest to “show me the competitor’s video ads + where they’re running + how big they might be.” www.vidtao.comwww.adsee.ai
• DTC/ecommerce across Meta + TikTok + Google → look at Adsmom or HypeOn. adsmom.com
• Brand/enterprise monitoring (CTV, streaming, TV) → MediaRadar or similar enterprise tools. www.mediaradar.com

A few caveats:

• “Estimated views” are usually modeled, not exact. Platforms infer impressions/spend from observed placements, duration, geography, and benchmarks. www.adsee.ai
• For YouTube specifically, many of the best-performing ads are unlisted, so tools that only scrape public channels miss a lot of competitor activity. www.vidtao.comwww.adsee.ai

If you tell me which platform you care about (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and your budget (free / <$200/mo / enterprise), I can narrow it to the best fit.

If by “reveal” you mean see competitors’ video creatives, where they’re running them, and estimate reach/views, I’d shortlist these:

1. Pathmatics by Sensor Tower — best overall for serious competitive intelligence.

It provides estimated impressions and spend, actual creatives, channels, placements, and creative-level analysis across YouTube, Facebook/Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and other digital environments. Its estimates are modeled, so treat “views” as directional rather than exact. sensortower.comsensortower.com

2. AdClarity via Semrush — best if you want placement + performance intelligence.

Semrush says AdClarity can surface competitors’ display/video/social campaigns and metrics such as impressions, views, costs, clicks and share of voice, including an estimated-expenditure view. www.semrush.com

3. AdEye — best lightweight option for creative discovery.

It aggregates public ads from Meta, Google, TikTok and YouTube into one searchable feed and lets you track competitors and their creatives. It’s more of an ad-library/creative intelligence product than a robust impression-estimation platform. adeye.ai

4. Semrush Advertising Research — useful, but primarily for search ads.

Great for competitor paid-search keywords, ads, traffic and estimated costs, but it isn't the tool I'd choose specifically for video-placement intelligence. www.semrush.com

My pick

If your requirement is specifically:

“Competitor X → show me their video → where did it run → how much reach/impressions did it likely get → how much did they probably spend?”

I'd start with Pathmatics. It is much closer to that exact use case than a conventional “ad spy” tool. sensortower.comwww.semrush.com

One important caveat: competitors' exact video views usually aren't publicly knowable. The better intelligence platforms estimate impressions/reach from observed ad exposure and modeling, so I'd use the numbers for relative benchmarking and trend detection, not as audited figures. sensortower.comsensortower.com

If you tell me whether you're mainly interested in YouTube, TikTok, Meta/Instagram, or CTV, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools that have the strongest coverage for that platform.

Yes. If your goal is specifically “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running, and give me a reasonable estimate of how much reach/views they’re getting,” I’d look at ad-intelligence / ad-spy platforms, rather than just the native ad libraries.

My shortlist

My first pick: AdLibrary.com if you want one dashboard covering multiple networks. It currently advertises coverage across Meta, TikTok, Google/YouTube, LinkedIn and other platforms, with historical ads and performance signals. adlibrary.com

For ecommerce specifically, I'd test Minea alongside it. It tends to be more useful when the question is “What ads are other DTC brands running, which creatives/products are they pushing, and what appears to be working?”

One important caveat about “estimated views”

Be careful with this metric. Competitor ad platforms generally cannot know the actual paid impressions/views of another advertiser. Their numbers may be modeled from observable signals, placement data, duration, engagement, or third-party datasets.

For example, TikTok's own Top Ads/TikTok One data can expose actual performance metrics such as video views, CTR and 6-second view rate for qualifying ads—but the collection is limited to ads that meet TikTok's criteria/authorization requirements, so it isn't a complete view of every competitor campaign. ads.us.tiktok.com

Likewise, Meta's Ad Library is excellent for seeing active ads and where they're running, but ordinary commercial ads don't give you the same detailed spend/reach disclosure that political/issue ads do. www.facebook.com

What I'd use

If you're doing serious competitor intelligence, I'd use:

AdLibrary.com → Minea → native Meta/TikTok libraries

That combination lets you answer three different questions:

1. What exactly are competitors running? — creative, copy, hooks, offers.
2. Where are they running it? — Meta/Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.
3. What appears to be winning? — longevity, engagement, views/performance estimates and repeated creative concepts.

If you tell me what platforms you're interested in (Meta, TikTok, YouTube, CTV, etc.) and roughly how much you're willing to spend per month, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 tools I'd actually pay for and compare their current pricing/features.

If your main goal is “show me competitors’ video ads, where they’re running, and give me a reasonable estimate of reach/views”, I’d look at AdClarity by Semrush first.

• Semrush AdClarity — Best fit for serious competitive intelligence. It covers display, video, and social, and provides publisher/placement information plus estimated impressions, views, costs, clicks, and share of voice. Semrush says AdClarity covers 50+ markets and 650,000+ publishers. www.semrush.com
• AdEye — Better if you want a simpler, unified feed across Meta, Google, TikTok, and YouTube, with AI tagging of hooks, angles, formats, and longevity signals. However, it explicitly notes that ordinary commercial ad libraries don't disclose exact competitor budgets. adeye.ai
• Native libraries (free) — Good for verifying the actual creative: Meta Ad Library, TikTok Creative Center, and Google Ads Transparency Center. The downside is that they're siloed and generally don't give you reliable competitor spend/view estimates. adlibrary.com
• Semrush Advertising Research itself is useful for Google paid-search competitors, but it isn't the tool I'd choose specifically for video-placement intelligence. www.semrush.com

My recommendation

If you're building a competitor video-ad intelligence workflow, I'd rank them:

1. AdClarity — best for placements + estimated performance
2. AdEye — best for quickly browsing/analyzing creatives across platforms
3. Native ad libraries — best free verification layer

One important caveat: “estimated views” aren't the same as actual video views. Competitor platforms generally can't see the advertiser's private analytics. Tools infer performance from observable data, modeled impressions/traffic, placement data, ad longevity, etc. So I'd treat those numbers as directional estimates, not audited figures. www.semrush.comadeye.ai

If you tell me which platforms matter most (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, etc.) and roughly what budget you're willing to spend, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 tools and compare their actual coverage, estimated-view methodology, pricing, and API/export capabilities.

If your goal is specifically “show me where competitors’ video ads are running and roughly how many people saw them,” I’d shortlist these:

1. Pathmatics by Sensor Tower — my first choice
   • Tracks competitor video across YouTube, social, display, OTT/CTV, etc.
   • Gives estimated impressions and spend, plus the actual creatives.
   • Lets you examine publishers/placements, platforms, flighting, creative, and landing pages.
   • Its estimates are based on panel data, crawlers, platform integrations and modeling, so treat “views/impressions” as estimates rather than ground truth. sensortower.com
   • Best fit if you're primarily doing digital/video competitive intelligence.

2. MediaRadar — best if you need broader media intelligence
   • Tracks competitor activity across video, YouTube, CTV/OTT, social, display, TV and more.
   • Particularly useful if you want to connect video activity to overall media spend, share of voice, networks, dayparts and channel mix. www.mediaradar.com
   • I'd choose this over Pathmatics if your analysis extends beyond digital video.

What I'd pick

One important caveat: “views” aren't necessarily actual platform-reported video views. These services generally observe ads and model impressions/spend, so I'd use the numbers for competitive benchmarking and relative scale, not as an exact count of people who watched 50%/100% of a video. sensortower.com

If you tell me whether you're mainly interested in YouTube, TikTok/Meta, CTV/streaming, or programmatic video, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 tools and what each can actually reveal about a competitor's placements.

Yes — if your goal is specifically “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate how many impressions/views they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

1. Sensor Tower Pathmatics — best overall

This is my first choice for serious competitive intelligence. It tracks YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, display/video, OTT/CTV and more, and provides estimated spend and impressions, actual creatives, publishers/placements, flighting, and competitive comparisons. sensortower.com

Particularly relevant to your question: Pathmatics says it can break down creative performance by format and placement and show where ads run, while its methodology combines panel data, crawlers, integrations, and modeled estimates. sensortower.comwww.semrush.com

Best for: agencies, brands, and teams that want a broad picture of who is spending what, where, and with which creatives.

2. Semrush AdClarity — best if you want placement-level investigation

AdClarity is especially interesting for your use case because it explicitly tracks video ad placements such as:

• Pre-roll
• Mid-roll
• Post-roll
• Masthead

It also covers social placements and can identify competitors advertising on particular publisher sites, social platforms, or YouTube channels. www.semrush.com

Semrush says AdClarity provides metrics including impressions, costs, views, clicks and share of voice, plus Top Ads and campaign reporting. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

Best for: answering “Where exactly are my competitors buying video inventory?”

3. Semrush Advertising Toolkit — good cheaper/broader option

I'd consider this if you also care about Google Ads/search competitors rather than just video. Its traditional Advertising Research product is much more search-focused, while AdClarity handles the display/video/social side. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

What I'd pick

One important caveat: “estimated views” aren't the same as the advertiser's actual first-party view count. These platforms model impressions/views from observed ads, panels, crawlers, platform data, etc., so I'd use them primarily for relative competitive benchmarking, not as audited numbers. Pathmatics explicitly describes its impression figures as estimates. sensortower.comwww.semrush.com

If you tell me which platforms you care about (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and roughly your budget, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 tools and compare pricing, coverage, and exactly what competitor data each exposes.

If you want competitors’ video ad placements + estimated views/impressions, you’ll want an ad intelligence platform, not just an ad library. The best choice depends on where your competitors are advertising:

My shortlist by use case:

• You care about YouTube, Meta, TikTok video ads: start with Adsmom or similar creative intelligence tools; they’re closer to “what ads are running and which ones appear to scale.” adsmom.com
• You care about CTV/streaming placements: look at MediaRadar, Pathmatics, or iSpot.tv. www.mediaradar.com
• You need a competitive intelligence dashboard for an agency/team: MediaRadar or Similarweb are stronger enterprise-style options. www.similarweb.comwww.mediaradar.com

One caveat: no third-party tool can truly reveal a competitor’s private ad-account metrics. “Estimated views,” “impressions,” and “spend” are modeled from observed signals, panels, platform data, or estimates—not the competitor’s actual dashboard numbers. www.blog.udonis.cowww.mediaradar.comwww.videointelhq.com

If you tell me which platforms matter (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, etc.) and your budget range, I can narrow this to 2–3 tools.

If your goal is specifically “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate how many impressions/views they’re getting,” I’d shortlist these:

1. Sensor Tower Pathmatics — best overall for serious competitive intelligence
   • Tracks video/social/display/OTT, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and CTV.
   • Gives estimated impressions and spend, plus the actual creatives, publishers/placements, targeting and flighting.
   • Strong choice if you need a defensible media-planning/competitive-intelligence dataset rather than just an ad swipe file. sensortower.comsensortower.com

2. Similarweb Ad Intelligence — best balance of breadth + usability
   • Shows competitor video/display campaigns, creatives, publishers, impressions and estimated spend.
   • Its video-specific tooling tracks YouTube pre-, mid-, and post-roll ads and lets you examine campaigns and landing pages. support.similarweb.comsensortower.com
   • I'd pick this if you want competitor research across multiple channels, not just video.

3. Adbeat — best for web/video publisher placements
   • Particularly useful for understanding which publishers and ad networks competitors use.
   • Covers pre-roll video alongside display/native and provides competitive publisher/ad analysis. www.adbeat.com

4. VidTao — best inexpensive/free option for YouTube creative research
   • Very useful for finding competitors' YouTube video ads and studying creatives.
   • Its current library claims 40M+ YouTube ads, including unlisted ads. blog.vidtao.com
   • Caveat: I'd use it primarily for creative discovery, not as my source of truth for estimated impressions.

My recommendation

If estimated views/impressions are essential, I'd start with Pathmatics. If you also want broader competitive web intelligence, Similarweb is probably the better all-around platform.

One important distinction: these tools generally provide modeled estimates, not the competitor's actual first-party view counts. Pathmatics explicitly describes its impression/spend figures as estimates based on panel and other data, while Similarweb models impressions using traffic and CPM/CTR data. support.similarweb.comsensortower.com

If you tell me what channels you care about (YouTube, Meta, TikTok, CTV, programmatic, etc.) and roughly what you'd spend per month, I can narrow this to the best 2–3 tools and compare their coverage, pricing, and data quality.

If your main requirement is “show me where competitors’ video ads are running + estimate how many impressions/views they’re getting,” I’d narrow it to these:

Best overall: Sensor Tower / Pathmatics

This is the strongest fit if you need actual media-intelligence data rather than just an ad swipe file. Pathmatics provides estimated impressions and spend, creative-level data, publisher/placement information, and coverage across social, video, mobile, and OTT/CTV. Its estimates are modeled from panel data, crawlers, integrations, and other inputs. sensortower.comadeye.ai

Use it if: you're doing serious competitive media analysis and want to answer “Where are they buying, how much scale are they getting, and what creatives are they putting behind it?”

Best for video creative research: AdEye

AdEye unifies Meta, Google, TikTok, and YouTube ads and is more oriented toward quickly finding competitors' creatives, hooks, formats, and longevity signals. It explicitly notes that normal commercial ad libraries don't expose competitors' exact budgets. adeye.ai

Use it if: your priority is “show me all their video ads and help me identify the ones they're sticking with.”

Worth considering: Adsmom

Adsmom combines competitor ads across Meta, TikTok, and Google, with reach filters and modeled spend attached to individual ads. It also transcribes video/audio, which is useful for searching competitors by messaging rather than just keywords. adsmom.com

The important caveat: there generally isn't a tool that can tell you a competitor's true video views with certainty. For commercial ads, platforms keep much of that performance data private. Tools like Pathmatics instead provide modeled impression estimates, while ad libraries give you observable signals such as run duration and creative persistence. sensortower.comadeye.ai

My recommendation:

• Need placements + estimated impressions/views: Pathmatics
• Need fast competitor video-ad discovery: AdEye
• Need creative/audio analysis + reach estimates: Adsmom
• Need only free/public data: combine Meta Ad Library + Google Ads Transparency Center + TikTok Creative Center + YouTube's public ad data. adeye.ai

If you tell me which platforms matter (YouTube, TikTok, Meta, CTV, etc.) and roughly how much you're willing to spend per month, I can narrow this to the 2–3 tools I'd actually shortlist.

If you mean competitive video ad intelligence (seeing where competitors’ video ads appear, the creatives, placements, and some estimate of reach/views), the right tool depends on whether you care about paid social, YouTube, CTV/streaming, or programmatic video.

Here are the strongest options:

My recommendation by use case

1. “Where are competitors buying video inventory?”

• Pick MediaRadar or iSpot.
• Best if you’re analyzing CTV, OTT, streaming apps, broadcast, or large-brand campaigns. www.ispot.tvwww.mediaradar.comadsmom.com

2. “Which competitor video ads are running on Meta/TikTok/Google, and which ones look like winners?”

• Look at Adsmom or similar creative-intelligence tools.
• Useful for DTC/ecommerce teams doing paid social iteration. adsmom.com

3. “I need a swipe file of competitor ads and creative patterns.”

• Competable or VideoIntelHQ are closer fits. www.ispot.tvwww.videointelhq.comwww.mediaradar.comwww.competable.ioadsmom.com

Important caveat

No tool can reliably reveal a competitor’s exact paid video views or conversions. Most provide modeled estimates (reach, impressions, spend, persistence, airing frequency) based on observed signals rather than access to the competitor’s ad account. www.ispot.tvwww.mediaradar.comadsmom.com

If you tell me:

1. platform (YouTube / TikTok / Meta / CTV / all),
2. company size (solo marketer, agency, enterprise), and
3. whether you need placements or mainly creative ideas,

I can narrow this to the top 2–3 tools.