Here's a number I didn't expect: 38 of 150 active Nike ads on Meta use the "Install now" button. Not "Shop now", not "Learn more". Install. And the three Nike ads that have been running the longest, 560, 542 and 390 days, are all app-install ads.
I pulled 150 active Meta ads and 150 Google ads from Nike on October 18, 2026, using the public Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center. It's a sample, not Nike's whole account (they run far more than 300 ads), but it's enough to see how the funnel is built. This time I focused on one thing: what each ad asks you to do.
The call-to-action split
On Meta, the 150 ads break down like this:
| CTA | Ads |
|---|---|
| Shop now | 110 |
| Install now | 38 |
| Learn more | 1 |
| Use app | 1 |
So the funnel has basically two exits: buy a product now, or get the app. There's almost nothing in between, no "Learn more" content funnel and no lead forms.
The "Shop now" side is what you'd expect from a retailer with a huge catalog: 118 of the 150 ads are dynamic product ads (DPA), where Meta fills a template with a specific product for each viewer. The rest are dynamic creative (13), video (10), single image (8) and one carousel. The product titles are real catalog items: "Nike Court Legacy Next Nature", "Nike Dunk Low SE", even "Sneaker LAB Hat Protector 50ml".
The app ads are the ones that never stop
When I sorted by days active, the top of the list looked like this:
- "Cosmic Unity 3 Basketball Shoes", body: "Bring sports more fully into your day with the Nike App." CTA: Install now. 560 days, live since April 7, 2025.
- "Calzado para hombre Nike Blazer Mid '77 SE", a Spanish-language ad that ends with "¡Descárgala ahora!" (download it now). Install now. 542 days.
- "The Best of Nike - Personalized to You", same "Bring sports more fully into your day" line. Install now. 390 days.
Notice the trick: the creative shows a shoe, but the button installs the app. The product is the hook; the app is the conversion.
After those three, the long-runners switch to regional store ads: Nike.cl in Chile ("Creemos que el estilo es una forma de expresión…", 380 and 277 days) and Nike.sa in Saudi Arabia, in English and Arabic (278 days each).
The app and membership message shows up all over the ad copy, not just the long-runners:
"Compra desde la Nike App y encuentra novedades de sneakers con la última tecnología…" (buy from the Nike App and find the newest sneakers)
"Hazte miembro Nike y obtén beneficios especiales…" (become a Nike member and get special benefits)
"Celebra tu cumpleaños con Nike y obtén acceso a productos exclusivos…" (celebrate your birthday with Nike and get access to exclusive products)
Every one of these lines pushes toward an owned channel (app or member account) where Nike doesn't have to pay Meta for the next purchase.
Where the ads run
Nike uses Meta's inventory far more widely than most brands I've looked at:
- Instagram: 150 of 150
- Facebook: 147
- Audience Network: 134
- Messenger: 88
- Threads: 71
For comparison, Booking.com, which I looked at two days ago, had Audience Network on 20 of 150 ads and Threads on 1.
Google: older, quieter, mostly text
On Google, the 150 ads are 125 text, 23 image and 2 video. The oldest are image ads first shown on October 25, 2021 and still live today: 1,807 days. Seven of the eight longest-running Google ads are image ads.
Most of them are run by regional entities: Nike Retail BV (93 ads), Nike, Inc. (25), Nike Global Trading B.V. Singapore Branch (19) and Nike Korea (4). Headlines we could decode are plain navigational ones like "Ga naar Nike" (Dutch: "Go to Nike") and "Nike Factory Store". On search, Nike is mostly defending its own name; the persuasion happens on Meta.
What people are actually searching for
Google Trends for "Nike" over the past 12 months: average interest 68.3, peak 100 on April 12, 2026, currently 54 (-3.9 % over the period). The rising queries are all specific products: "nike mind 001", "nike mind slides", "nike mind 002" and "nike mind" are all marked Breakout, followed by "nike pegasus 42" (+800 %), "nike vomero plus" (+650 %) and "nike revolution 8" (+550 %).
None of those products appear among the eight longest-running Meta ads in my sample. That's not a criticism, it's how a catalog setup works: DPA ads pick products automatically, so the long-runners are the evergreen templates, not the hype launches. But if you're a smaller retailer selling Pegasus or Vomero, the gap between rising demand and evergreen ads is where your opening is.
What a marketer can take from this
- Separate the "hook" from the "ask". Nike shows a shoe and asks for an app install. Your creative and your CTA don't have to be about the same thing.
- Long-running ads point to the real goal. Nike's longest-lived Meta ads all push the app. Whatever a competitor keeps paying for month after month is what they value most.
- Owned channels beat rented ones. Every customer moved into the app is a repeat purchase without ad spend.
How to do this for your competitor
Everything above came from two scrapers I built on Apify. No code needed: fill in the form, click Start, and export the table as CSV, Excel or JSON.
Meta ads with the Facebook Ads Library Scraper:
{
"queries": ["https://www.facebook.com/nike"],
"activeStatus": "active",
"maxAdsPerQuery": 150
}
Then group the output by ctaText. That one column tells you how the funnel is split between buying, installing and signing up. Sort by days active to find the long-runners.
Google ads with the Google Ads Transparency Scraper:
{
"queries": ["nike.com"],
"maxAdsPerQuery": 150
}
You get format, first and last shown dates, total days shown and the advertiser entity for each ad.
Search demand with the Google Trends Scraper:
{
"searchTerms": ["Nike"],
"timeRange": "today 12-m"
}
Compare the rising queries with the products in the competitor's ads, and you'll see which demand they're not covering.
All three are free to try on the Apify free plan, and a 300-ad export like this costs well under a dollar. Which brand's ad funnel should I break down next? Tell me in the comments.
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