Ad Spy · Reading shortlists

Find the Missing Rows in an Ad Spy Comparison

Reconcile active counts and five-ad shortlists in Ad Spy, understand which records are omitted, and keep a complete competitor-ad research inventory.

You load eight ad records, see six active ads in the heading, and count six examples underneath. Those numbers can all be correct while two of your records never appear in the shortlists.

Ad Spy selects examples from the CSV you supply. Understanding that selection helps you explain a report, find an apparently missing ad and avoid treating a shortlist as the advertiser’s complete activity. This guide walks through one fictional dataset, then gives you a repeatable reconciliation process.

Start with the three different quantities

Keep these numbers separate when reviewing a competitor’s card:

• Accepted records: the valid rows from your CSV. The interface does not show a total-record count for each competitor, so keep that count in your research sheet.
• Active ads: all accepted records for that exact competitor name with no stop date. This number is not limited to the examples shown.
• Displayed examples: up to five active ads with the longest runs, plus up to five stopped ads whose total run lasted 14 days or less.

The two example lists are separate selections. An active record belongs only in the active selection. A stopped record can enter the short-run selection, but only if its duration qualifies and it falls within that list’s five-example limit.

For a refresher on required fields, date checks and quoting, use the Ad Spy CSV preparation checklist before comparing results.

Work through an eight-record example

The following CSV is invented for illustration. For this fictional example, assume the researcher has verified all six ads with blank stop dates are still active. The other two rows have confirmed start and stop dates.

competitor,ad_text,started,stopped,platform
Example Studio,Active A,2026-10-01,,facebook
Example Studio,Active B,2026-10-05,,facebook
Example Studio,Active C,2026-10-10,,instagram
Example Studio,Active D,2026-10-15,,instagram
Example Studio,Active E,2026-10-20,,facebook
Example Studio,Active F,2026-10-25,,instagram
Example Studio,Short promotion,2026-10-01,2026-10-10,facebook
Example Studio,Finished campaign,2026-10-01,2026-10-25,instagram

At a fixed review time of November 5, 2026, at 00:00 UTC, the active runs are 35, 31, 26, 21, 16 and 11 days. Here is how the current tool selects them:

1. The card says “6 active ads.” All six active rows contribute, including Active F.
2. The longest-running list shows Active A through Active E. They occupy the five available places. Active F is accepted and counted but is too recent to enter this shortlist.
3. The short-run list shows Short promotion. October 1 to October 10 is a nine-day run.
4. Finished campaign appears in neither list. It has stopped, so it is ineligible for the active list. Its 24-day run is too long for the short-run list.

The six visible examples happen to equal the active count in this example, but they represent different records: five active ads and one stopped ad. Adding the visible rows is not a way to reconstruct the active total or the complete eight-record inventory.

If you try this example later, the active durations will be longer because Analyze uses your browser’s current time. The stopped durations stay fixed. The ordering remains the same for this dataset.

Read “within 14 days” as a run length

The short-run group uses elapsed time between the start and stop dates. It does not mean ads that stopped during the last two weeks. An old nine-day promotion can still appear, while an ad that stopped yesterday after running for a month does not qualify.

A run of exactly 14 days qualifies; a 15-day run does not. For date-only entries, October 1 to October 15 is 14 elapsed days. Do not add an extra day by counting both calendar endpoints. Ad Spy calculates a time difference rather than the number of calendar dates touched.

When more than five stopped ads qualify, the tool shows the five shortest runs first. Keep the remaining qualifying records in your external inventory. Their absence from the card does not make them invalid.

The interface labels this group “Likely not working (stopped within 14 days).” Treat the wording cautiously. The tool has no spend, conversion or profitability data, and a short promotion may have ended exactly as planned. Describe the evidence as a short observed run rather than a failed campaign.

Check sampling before comparing competitors

Competitor cards are ordered by active-ad count, highest first, with alphabetical ordering when counts tie. The count comes from your submitted records. A competitor with more rows collected may move above one you researched less thoroughly, without revealing anything about overall market activity.

Choose a consistent collection scope outside the tool: which advertisers, which public source, which platforms and when you checked them. The platform field is displayed alongside each example, but Ad Spy has no platform filter. Facebook and Instagram records with the same competitor name are pooled into that competitor’s selections.

For a platform-specific review, prepare a separate CSV containing only that platform’s verified records and analyze it separately. Keep the complete original file, label the subset clearly and note its collection date. Do not change a stop date or remove inconvenient records just to make a desired ad appear near the top.

Use consistent competitor names. “Example Studio” and “Example Studio Ltd” become separate groups unless you standardize the intended identity in your source sheet. Repeated copies of the same ad also count as separate records; the tool does not deduplicate them.

Use a missing-row checklist before changing the data

1. Read the errors above the cards. An invalid row can be rejected while other records still produce results.
2. Check the exact competitor label. Look for a second card created by a different spelling.
3. Confirm the stop date. An active ad competes for five longest-running places. A stopped ad must have a run of 14 days or less to qualify for the other list.
4. Check its position within the eligible group. A sixth active ad or sixth qualifying stopped ad can be valid without being shown.
5. Return to the full research file. Preserve source links and observation dates there, including records the shortlists omit.

Ad Spy does not provide a saved research library, a “show all” control or a results-export button. Save the source CSV and your interpretation separately. A useful note for the fictional example would be: “Eight accepted records, six active, five active examples shown, one short-run example shown. Two accepted records are outside the displayed selections.”

Use the shortlist to decide which examples deserve a closer look. When you turn those observations into creative work, follow the competitor creative research guide and write original, substantiated messages for your own audience. The missing-row check gives you a clearer starting point for that work.