# How to see competitor Google ads in other countries > See competitor Google ads in other countries for free in Google's Ads Transparency Center. For who bids on a keyword abroad, use Ad Preview or a local browser. Source: https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/see-competitor-google-ads-in-other-countries ## How to see competitor Google ads in other countries To see a competitor's Google ads in another country, search their website in Google's Ads Transparency Center and set the region to that country. To see who bids on a keyword there, use Ad Preview and Diagnosis or a browser whose proxy exits in that market. ![A rival's ads, country by country, beside a screenshot: the Mosaic sidebar with profiles running, each with its own window](https://mosaicbrowser.com/covers/see-competitor-google-ads-in-other-countries.webp) There are three ways in, and they answer different questions. The Ads Transparency Center answers "what has this company run in Italy". Ad Preview and Diagnosis answers "would an ad show for this keyword in Milan, on a phone". A browser that really sits in Milan answers "what does an Italian searcher see on the page, and where does the click lead". Most research needs the first one and stops there. ## See competitor Google ads in other countries: the Transparency Center Google publishes the ads its verified advertisers run. Its help page says you can search "by advertiser name or website name and filter their search results by serving region and date" ([My Ad Center Help](https://support.google.com/My-Ad-Center-Help/answer/12155361?hl=en), read 2 November 2026). 1. Open adstransparency.google.com. 2. Type the competitor's website, for example `example.de`, or its name, and pick it from the suggestions. A company can advertise under a legal name you would not guess, and the website finds it either way. 3. Change the region from the country it opened in to the market you care about. 4. Narrow the dates if the list is long. What you get is the creative and the countries and dates it served. What you do not get is the keyword it ran on, its position, or how much was spent. A competitor whose ads start serving in Poland in March is probably preparing a launch there, and that alone is often the finding. ## Ad Preview and Diagnosis: who shows up for a keyword abroad The Transparency Center starts from the advertiser. When you start from a keyword ("who bids on *running shoes* in Vienna?"), you need a results page from Vienna. If you have a Google Ads account, open Tools, then Troubleshooting, then Ad preview and diagnosis, and set the location, language and device along the top. Google built it to check your own ads without searching for them live, which, its help page says, piles up impressions without clicks and can stop your ad showing to you at all ([Find your first ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1704360?hl=en), read 2 November 2026). Google's page describes it for your own ads, but the preview is a results page for your keyword, so the other advertisers on it are there to read. Mosaic is a desktop app Email yourself the link and open it on your computer. [How it works: Provider minting](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers) ## A real results page from another country The preview is Google's simulation. Sometimes you want the page itself: the Shopping row, the map pack, the order the ads came in, and the competitor's landing page as a local loads it, with local prices and the local consent banner. A VPN on your normal browser gets you part of the way. Google's location targeting uses "a variety of signals, including users' settings, devices, and behavior on our platform" ([Google Ads Help](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722043?hl=en), read 2 November 2026), and your browser still carries your Google account, your history, your clock and your language list. The page you see is a blend of the market and you. In Mosaic, each market is a profile with its own exit, its own empty cookie jar and a timezone, language and geolocation drawn from the exit it measured: 1. Add your proxy seller under **Proxies › Add provider** by pasting one gateway line. Each profile then mints its own session id, so no two markets ride one session ([how providers work](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers)). 2. Click **New profile**, set **Source** to the provider, and pick the **Country** and, where your seller's line format supports it, the **City**. 3. Start it. Mosaic checks that the proxy answers and tunnels before the browser opens, and refuses the launch if it does not, so a result page never comes from your own office by accident. 4. Search as a local would, signed out. Then type the competitor's address into the bar to see their landing page, rather than reaching it through the ad. ![The Mosaic sidebar with profiles running, each with its own window](https://mosaicbrowser.com/shots/running.png) *Three markets running, each in its own window* A residential exit is the honest choice here, because a page can treat a hosting-company address differently from a visitor at home; the difference is explained in [residential proxy](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/residential-proxy). And check that the exit really is in the city you picked before you trust what it shows ([how to check a proxy before you use it](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-to-check-a-proxy-before-you-use-it)). ## Don't click their ads Looking is fine; clicking to run up a rival's bill is not. Google's page on invalid traffic lists "competitors who manually click to increase your spend" among its examples, and says it removes invalid traffic it finds before you are billed for it ([About invalid traffic](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11182074?hl=en), read 2 November 2026). It is the wrong thing to do, and a click Google catches is wasted anyway. Visit the landing page by its address instead. ## Keeping a dated record Ads change by the hour, so a finding without a date and a place is not one. For each look, note the day, the country and city of the exit, the keyword or advertiser, and keep a screenshot. On Pro, a script can start each market's profile through the local REST API and save the page with `GET /profiles/:id/page/screenshot`, once a week, without anyone opening a window. Free covers 3 profiles and 10 profile creations, enough to watch five markets by hand. The same profiles check your own campaigns too: [how to check your ads in different countries](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/check-your-ads-in-different-countries) covers Meta's Ad Library and what to look for on your own landing pages, and agencies running this per client will find the setup in [Mosaic for ad account management](https://mosaicbrowser.com/use-cases/ad-account-management). ## Sources 1. [My Ad Center Help: About advertiser verification](https://support.google.com/My-Ad-Center-Help/answer/12155361?hl=en), read November 2, 2026 2. [Google Ads Help: Find your first ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1704360?hl=en), read November 2, 2026 3. [Google Ads Help: Target ads to geographic locations](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722043?hl=en), read November 2, 2026 4. [Google Ads Help: About invalid traffic](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11182074?hl=en), read November 2, 2026 ## Questions ### Is it allowed to look at a competitor's Google ads? Yes. Google publishes them on purpose in the Ads Transparency Center. What is not allowed is clicking them to cost the competitor money: Google lists competitors who click to increase your spend as invalid traffic. ### Can I search the Ads Transparency Center by keyword? No. Google's help page describes searching by advertiser name or website name, then filtering by serving region and date. To see who appears for a keyword, use Ad Preview and Diagnosis or a results page from that country. ### Why don't I see a competitor's ads when I search from abroad with a VPN? The VPN changes your IP address, but your browser still carries your Google account, history, clock and language. Google targets on several signals, and the competitor may also exclude your keyword, device or time of day. ### Does Ad Preview and Diagnosis cost the competitor anything? Google recommends it over live searches for your own ads, because live searches pile up impressions without clicks. A preview is not a live search. You need a Google Ads account to open it. ## Related [How to check your ads in different countries](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/check-your-ads-in-different-countries): Check your ads in different countries with Google's preview tool and Meta's Ad Library, then open the landing page from a browser that really sits there. [Mosaic for agencies and media buyers managing ad accounts](https://mosaicbrowser.com/use-cases/ad-account-management): Keep each client's ad platform logins, two-factor codes and sessions in their own browser profile, and see their ads from the client's own market. [Provider accounts: one gateway line, one exit per profile](https://mosaicbrowser.com/features/proxy-providers): Paste your proxy seller's gateway line once and Mosaic mints a separate session for every profile, so each one browses from its own exit address. [How to check a proxy before you use it](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/how-to-check-a-proxy-before-you-use-it): Check that a proxy answers and tunnels, where its exit really is, whether the address is residential or blocklisted, and that the browser stays behind it. [Residential proxy: an exit on a home internet connection](https://mosaicbrowser.com/glossary/residential-proxy): A residential proxy sends your traffic out through an address an ISP assigned to a home connection, so sites see a household rather than a data center.  [Proxies for ad verification: which type to use](https://mosaicbrowser.com/guides/proxies-for-ad-verification): The best proxies for ad verification are residential, in the ad's target city, with one sticky session per profile. Datacenter exits fit link checks only. [Following an affiliate link's redirects from three countries](https://mosaicbrowser.com/blog/affiliate-redirects-by-country): An affiliate tracker picks the landing page from the visitor's IP country. To see a German visitor's page, click from a German exit on German time. ## Run this guide on your own accounts Every Mosaic profile is a fingerprint, a proxy exit and a cookie jar that agree with each other, kept on your computer. Free holds 3 profiles. Pro is $49 a month for any number. Mosaic is a desktop app Email yourself the link and open it on your computer.