The right Facebook Ads tools fall into a handful of categories: creative production, competitive research, tracking and attribution, campaign automation, landing pages, and reporting. Meta’s own Ads Manager handles campaign building and basic reporting, but most accounts spending meaningful budget rely on at least a few outside tools to fill gaps Ads Manager doesn’t cover well.
This isn’t an exhaustive software directory — it’s the shortlist of tools we’ve actually put to use on client accounts at Salterra, organized by the job each one does.
Creative Production Tools
Creative is the single biggest lever in the modern Meta auction, so tools that speed up production without sacrificing quality earn their keep quickly.
- Canva — the fastest way to produce on-brand static and simple video ads, with templates sized correctly for feed, Story, and Reels placements.
- CapCut — widely used for editing short vertical video ads, with built-in captions, trending audio, and templates that mirror organic Reels style, which tends to perform well precisely because it doesn’t look like a polished ad.
- Motion (formerly VidTao/Foreplay’s sibling tools) and similar AI creative platforms — increasingly used to generate and test creative variations and predict performance before spend, part of a broader shift toward AI-assisted creative production.
- Descript — useful for editing talking-head or UGC-style video ads by editing the transcript directly, which speeds up producing the multiple hook variations a healthy testing cadence requires.
Ad Spy and Competitive Research Tools
Before building creative from scratch, it’s worth understanding what’s already running and, more importantly, what’s running for a while — a signal of what’s actually working.
- Meta Ad Library — free and often overlooked. Any advertiser can search it to see every ad currently running from a given Page, including how long it’s been active, which is a genuine proxy for performance since failing ads get pulled.
- Foreplay — a purpose-built ad swipe file and research tool that lets you save, tag, and organize competitor ads, plus track how long specific ads have been running across accounts.
- PowerAdSpy — a broader competitive ad database across Meta and other platforms, useful for niche or industry-specific research.
Tracking and Attribution Tools
Since iOS privacy changes degraded native pixel tracking, a layer of dedicated attribution tooling has become standard for accounts spending seriously on Meta.
- Triple Whale — an ecommerce-focused attribution and analytics platform that blends Meta, Google, and store data into one view, popular with Shopify-based advertisers.
- Hyros — attribution software built specifically to solve iOS tracking loss, commonly used by course creators, coaches, and high-ticket funnel businesses running heavy retargeting.
- Northbeam — a multi-touch attribution platform aimed at larger ecommerce brands that need to reconcile spend across several ad platforms, not just Meta.
- Server-side Conversions API integrations (through a tag management setup or your ecommerce platform’s native connector) — not a third-party product exactly, but the single highest-leverage tracking investment most accounts can make before paying for anything else.
Campaign Automation and Rules Tools
- Revealbot — automates budget shifts, pausing, and scaling based on custom rules, useful for accounts managing many ad sets that would otherwise need constant manual attention.
- Madgicx — combines automation rules with AI-assisted audience and creative recommendations, aimed at accounts that want a more hands-off optimization layer.
- Meta’s native Automated Rules — built into Ads Manager for free, and genuinely sufficient for simpler accounts that just need basic guardrails like pausing an ad set if cost per result exceeds a threshold.
Landing Page and Funnel Tools
An ad can only perform as well as the page it sends traffic to, which makes landing page tooling part of the Facebook Ads stack, not a separate concern.
- Unbounce — a dedicated landing page builder with strong A/B testing built in, well suited to lead-generation campaigns that need a fast, focused conversion page separate from the main website.
- Instapage — similar positioning to Unbounce, with stronger built-in personalization features for matching page content to ad audience.
- Native platform builders (Shopify, WordPress page builders, ClickFunnels) — often sufficient when speed matters more than advanced testing infrastructure, particularly for smaller accounts.
Reporting and Dashboard Tools
- Meta’s native reporting inside Ads Manager — underrated for smaller accounts; custom columns and saved reports cover a lot of ground without extra software.
- Supermetrics or similar connectors — pull Meta Ads data into Google Sheets or Looker Studio for blended reporting alongside other channels, useful for agencies reporting to clients across platforms.
- Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio) — free and effective for building recurring client-facing dashboards once data is flowing in from a connector.
Customer Feedback and Review Tools
Social proof feeding into ad creative — reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content — has become a meaningful performance lever, especially for cold-audience creative that needs to earn trust fast from people unfamiliar with your brand.
- Trustpilot and platform-native review systems (Shopify Product Reviews, Google Business Profile) — a steady source of raw testimonial content that can be repurposed directly into ad creative with permission.
- Fera and similar review-widget tools — useful for surfacing reviews on-site in a way that also exports cleanly into ad-ready formats.
- A dedicated UGC creator marketplace (such as Billo or a similar service) — increasingly used to commission authentic-feeling video testimonials and demos specifically built for Facebook and Instagram placements, without needing an in-house production team.
Where AI Tools Fit In Now
Meta has built AI directly into Ads Manager through Advantage+ creative (automatic variations of image and text), Advantage+ audiences, and Advantage+ campaigns for ecommerce. These native AI features have gotten good enough that many accounts no longer need a separate audience-building tool — the bigger opportunity now sits in AI-assisted creative generation and testing, where third-party tools are moving faster than Meta’s native options for producing volume and variety.
How to Choose Without Overbuying
A small account spending a modest amount monthly rarely needs more than the Meta Pixel, Conversions API, Ad Library for research, and Meta’s native automated rules. Paid attribution and automation tools earn their cost once budget and campaign complexity grow — buying them earlier just adds a subscription you won’t fully use. Add tools when a specific, recurring problem justifies the cost, not because a tool looks impressive in a demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need paid attribution software if I'm just starting out?
No. A properly configured Meta Pixel and Conversions API, checked against your platform's own sales data, is enough for most accounts until spend and complexity grow to the point where reconciling numbers by hand becomes a real time cost.
Is the Meta Ad Library actually useful, or just a novelty?
It's genuinely useful and free. Ads that have run for weeks or months are very likely working, so it's one of the fastest ways to see what creative approaches are succeeding in your niche without paying for a research tool.
What's the single highest-leverage tool investment for a new advertiser?
Proper server-side Conversions API tracking, since every optimization decision downstream depends on Meta receiving accurate conversion data.
Should I use Meta's Advantage+ automation or manage campaigns manually?
Most accounts benefit from a blend — using Advantage+ campaign budget and creative for efficiency while retaining manual control over objective, exclusions, and creative concepts, rather than going fully automated or fully manual.
Are ad spy tools worth paying for?
They're worth it once you're producing creative regularly and want a faster research process than manually browsing the free Ad Library, but the free Ad Library alone is enough for occasional or smaller-scale research.
Do I need a dedicated landing page tool, or can I just use my website?
A dedicated landing page tool earns its cost once you're running multiple offers or need fast A/B testing outside your main site's release process. For a single, stable offer, a well-built page on your existing website or ecommerce platform is often enough.
Terry has 30+ years in software and SEO. He’s the founder of Salterra Digital Services and SEO Spring Training, host of the Roundtable SEO Mastermind, and lead instructor at SEO University — teaching the exact tactics his team uses on client work.
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