👉 If you’re looking for a general overview of the Inspiration feature, see:
Overview of the Creative Inspiration Feature
Where to Find Discovery
To access Discovery:
Log in to DatAds
Click the photo icon in the left sidebar
💡 Good to know: Discovery works at the client level. Each client has their own boards and saved ads.
Following brands
Following lets you track specific brands and see their latest ads in one place, without searching for them each time.
How to follow a brand
Click on a brand in Discovery.
Click the Follow button (heart icon) in the top right corner.
The button updates to Following. Click it again at any time to unfollow.
A follow is stored at the workspace level, not per user. Everyone on the same client shares the same list of followed brands.
The Following feed
Find "Following" in the left sidebar under Inspiration. It shows the latest ads from every brand your workspace follows in a single stream.
You can apply filters, sort, and search on top of the feed the same way you would in the rest of Discovery.
To manage the brands you follow, click "Brands you follow" on the Following page. From there you can open any brand's detail page or unfollow brands.
Understanding brand detail page information
When you open a brand in Discovery, two fields in the header are worth knowing:
"Analyzing ads since [date]" — the date of the oldest ad in DatAds' dataset for that brand. It shows how far back historical data goes, not when you started following them.
"Updated [time ago]" — when DatAds last refreshed that brand's ad data. This reflects our regular update schedule, not a live sync with Meta.
Following a brand does not immediately refresh its ads. New ads appear after our next scheduled data update.
Discovering Ads
Inside Discovery, you can search for brands and browse their active ads.
This allows you to:
Analyze competitor strategies
Identify creative trends
Study messaging angles
Collect inspiration for upcoming campaigns
💡 Tip: You can clone any static competitor ad directly into the Image Generator. Learn how in this article.
Saving Ads to Boards
To save an ad from Discovery:
Open the Discovery Page
Click Save to Board
Select the board
The ad will appear in the selected board under the corresponding client.
Creating and Managing Boards
Boards help you organize saved ads by theme, strategy, or campaign.
To create a new board:
Click Create in the left sidebar
Add a name
Optionally add a description
Start saving ads to it
You can create as many boards as needed.
We recommend organizing them with folders, for example:
By format (Video, Static)
By messaging angle
By funnel stage
By campaign type
This keeps larger creative research projects structured and scalable.
Sharing Boards with Your Team
Boards can be shared publicly.
To share a board:
Open the board
Click Share in the top right
Copy the public link
Anyone with the link can view the board. A DatAds account is not required.
Adding New Brands to Discovery
If you cannot find a brand in Discovery, you can add it in two ways.
Option 1: Save an Ad Using the Chrome Extension
Install the DatAds Chrome Extension
Open a brand page in the Meta Ad Library
Save an ad using Save to DatAds
DatAds will automatically import the brand’s other active ads into Discovery in the background. This usually takes about one hour.
👉 For detailed instructions on saving ads from ad libraries, see:
How to Save Ads from Ad Libraries Using the DatAds Chrome Extension
Option 2: Add the Ad Library Page URL
Open a brand page in the Meta Ad Library and copy the link
Go to Discovery in DatAds
Click Add Brand in the top right
Paste the link
Click Add Brand
❗IMPORTANT: Search for a specific brand and click on it. Do not use a keyword search that returns multiple brands.
DatAds will automatically import the brand’s active ads into Discovery.
What’s Coming
The Inspiration section will continue to expand. Planned improvements include:
Automatic transcript extraction
CPM and spend modeling
Automatic board import from Foreplay
If you have any questions or would like to share feedback, feel free to reach out to us anytime via the chat widget in the bottom right corner of your dashboard. 💬