How to find the right keywords to search

The most common reason a search disappoints is the search itself. People type the topic ("Dating", "iGaming", "Crypto") expecting the platform to magically find ads in that vertical. Adligator does not work that way — and neither does any spy tool, because the underlying Meta Ad Library has no concept of "category" or "vertical." It has ad text. So you have to type the words advertisers actually wrote in their copy.

This article shows the difference with two side-by-side examples, gives you a four-step method for finding good keywords, and includes a ChatGPT prompt you can paste in to generate keyword sets for any niche.

iGaming: topic vs real game name

Type iGaming and look at the top results:

The cards are real, the ads are real — but they are B2B ads aimed at iGaming operators. Affiliate platforms ("Idipay"), conferences ("iGaming Conference"), gaming software demos. Useful if you're selling tools to casinos. Useless if you're studying the player-facing creatives that actually convert.

Now type Plinko — the name of one specific game:

Suddenly: bonus offers, deposit calls-to-action, "150% DE BONO + 250 GIROS GRATIS," screenshots of mobile gameplay. These are the creatives players actually see in their feed. The keyword Plinko matched because that is the word the advertiser literally wrote in the headline. Same pattern for Aviator, Mines, Sweet Bonanza, Crazy Time — every successful crash/slot/instant-win game has its own keyword that surfaces a flood of live creatives.

Rule: in iGaming, search by game name, not by category.

Dating: topic vs phrase from the ad copy

Same pattern, sharper. Type Dating:

You get arbitrage / affiliate spam. None of the big dating apps appear. That's because Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge don't write the word "Dating" in their primary text — they assume the visual + product name carries that context. Their headlines say things like "Meet singles in your city" or "Find someone tonight."

So search the phrase the brand actually writes:

meet singles returns 30+ live Hibbly creatives. Same pattern with these phrases — each one unlocks a different sub-cluster of the dating vertical:

• meet singles
• find love
• nearby singles
• local singles
• relationship
• flirt
• date tonight
• chat now

Save 3–4 of these as separate Trackers and you have a continuous dating-vertical feed.

A four-step method for finding good keywords

The principle is the same in every vertical: think like an advertiser, not like a market analyst. What words would the brand burn into their image or headline to get the click?

1. Open three landing pages from the niche. What words appear above the fold? Those are your candidate keywords. ("Personal loan in 60 seconds." → personal loan, 60 seconds.)
2. Look at app-store screenshots. Apps test their hook copy aggressively — the screenshot captions are the headlines they ran in Meta ads last year.
3. Try one obvious phrase + one specific phrase per niche. "Crypto" + "buy Bitcoin instantly." Both. The obvious one shows you the high-traffic generic ads; the specific one shows you the winners.
4. Read what comes back, then iterate. If your first keyword returns the wrong kind of ad, the right keyword is inside the headline of the ad you wish you'd found. Open one good card, read the headline, pick a phrase, search that.

ChatGPT prompt — generate 20 keywords for any vertical

Paste this into ChatGPT (or Claude, or any LLM) and replace Dating apps at the top with your own vertical — nothing else needs editing:

You are a paid-social strategist helping me search Meta's Ad Library.

VERTICAL: Dating apps

I want to find live consumer-facing creatives in the vertical above.
Topic words (the name of the industry itself) don't work — they return
B2B articles, industry reports, and affiliate spam, not real ads.

What I need are the SHORT PHRASES that real consumer ads in this
vertical actually write in their headline or primary text — the kind
of hook a media buyer would burn into a creative to drive clicks.

Give me 20 phrases that meet ALL of these criteria:
1. 2–4 words each, lowercase, written the way an ad would say it.
2. A real consumer advertiser in this vertical would plausibly put
   the phrase into ad copy targeting US/UK English speakers.
3. The phrase is specific enough that searching for it in Meta's Ad
   Library would surface real consumer creatives — not industry
   articles, affiliate listicles, or B2B/SaaS pitches.
4. The phrase taps an emotional driver typical of this vertical
   (you pick the right drivers — e.g. desire, fear, curiosity,
   savings, status, urgency, proof).

Output as a plain numbered list, 1–20. No headers, no explanation,
no emoji, no quotes.

The list will not be perfect — half will be too generic, a few will be slightly off-niche — but it's a fast vocabulary expansion. Pick the 5–6 that feel sharpest, search each one in Adligator, keep the keywords that return live ads, save those as Trackers, and discard the rest.

Per-vertical cheat sheet

Here is a starter set for the most-searched verticals on Adligator. None of these are exhaustive — they're the keywords you'd start with on day one and refine as you learn each vertical's vocabulary.

iGaming / casino / sweepstakes

Search game names, not "iGaming" or "casino." High-volume names that consistently return live creatives:

• Plinko, Aviator, Mines, JetX, Lucky Jet, Crazy Time, Sweet Bonanza, Gates of Olympus
• Bonus mechanics: free spins, no deposit bonus, welcome bonus, 150% bonus
• Sweepstakes-specific (US): Stake.us, Chumba, LuckyLand, social casino

Dating

• meet singles, find love, nearby singles, local singles
• relationship, flirt, date tonight, chat now
• App names: Hinge, Bumble, Tinder, Hily, Hibbly

Nutra (supplements, weight loss, skincare)

• Outcomes, not categories: lose weight, flat belly, look younger, clear skin
• Mechanisms: detox, metabolism, collagen, retinol
• Specific brands: CeraVe, The Ordinary, Skinceuticals, Olaplex

eCommerce / DTC

• Product type: weighted blanket, cordless vacuum, air purifier, running shoes
• Brands you already track: search the brand name, then pivot via the FB pages tab to find the page ID and lock to it.

Finance / loans / credit

• personal loan, bad credit loan, 60 seconds, instant approval
• credit card, cashback, no annual fee
• App names: Klarna, Affirm, Cash App, Chime

Crypto

• Specific assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, meme coin
• Hooks: buy crypto, earn passive, staking rewards, mine crypto
• Exchange names: Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Bitget

Apps / mobile CPI

• Category + hook: learning app, meditation app, language in 7 days, read in 15 minutes
• App names directly: Duolingo, Headway, Calm, Headspace, Blinkist

Education / online courses

• Outcome phrases: learn to code, study abroad, master English, MBA in 1 year
• Brand names: Coursera, Udemy, Skillshare, MasterClass

What to do with the keywords once you have them

Don't search a keyword once and close the tab. Each good keyword is worth keeping — save it as a Tracker so Adligator re-runs it for you and only shows you new ads since your last check. Three or four well-chosen keyword-Trackers cover most of a vertical without you having to remember anything.

If a keyword returns a wall of ads from one specific brand, pivot — open the FB pages tab, find that brand's page ID, and search by page instead. That's the cleanest way to study one competitor end-to-end.

And if a keyword returns nothing useful, the right keyword is one click away: open a card from a related search, copy the strongest phrase out of its headline, search that. Inside three or four iterations, your keyword list converges on the actual vocabulary of the vertical.

The keyword is the lever. Find the right one, and Adligator does the rest of the work.