Meta shut down public keyword search of Facebook posts years ago, for every tool. Anyone promising "all Facebook mentions" is overselling. What still works: watching the Pages and Groups where your customers and your competitors' customers talk, and searching the Meta Ad Library for ads that name your brand. Mentionfront does both.
No credit card. No Facebook login needed.
Three ways in
What a keyword can listen to on Facebook
Facebook used to let developers search public posts by keyword. Meta removed that access years ago and hasn't replaced it. No official API, reseller or listening platform can search every public Facebook post for a word today.
The closest thing left is Meta's own research tooling, and it isn't for brands. Meta's transparency center states that "As of August 14, 2024, CrowdTangle is no longer available", and points researchers at the Meta Content Library instead โ where every application is "independently reviewed by the Secure Data Access Center (CASD)". That's a route for approved academic and nonprofit research, not for a store checking what shoppers said about its new bundle.
So the practical question isn't "how do I see every mention?", it's "which parts of Facebook matter for my store?" For most ecommerce brands that's a short list: your own Page, a few competitor Pages, the handful of Groups where your category gets discussed, and the ads running in your space.
Questions to ask any vendor claiming full Facebook coverage
Can I see a public post about my brand from a Page I haven't told you about? Where does that data come from? Can you show me an example from last week?
Honest answers usually reveal Page-level or Ad Library data, which is what's actually possible.
Each keyword can watch its own list of Pages and Groups. The keyword still has to appear in the post or comment, so the trick is pairing the right keyword with the right place.
| Watch | With the keyword | What you catch |
|---|---|---|
| Your own brand Page | Your product names | Product questions under your posts ("does the Merino Crew come in XL?"), sorted in with the rest of your mentions |
| A competitor's Page | Your brand name | Commenters on their posts saying they switched to you, or asking if you're better |
| A competitor's Page | Their brand name | Their own announcements and promotions, plus comments that name them directly |
| A public category Group ("Minimalist Wardrobe", "Home Espresso") | Your brand and your competitors | Members recommending brands to each other, and the reasons they give |
| A retailer or marketplace Page that stocks you | Your product names | Questions and complaints about your products that land on the retailer instead of you |
Private Groups and personal profiles aren't accessible. If your customer community Group is private, keep moderating it inside Facebook.
An ad found in the Ad Library because its text names the brand. The advertiser isn't the brand.
The Ad Library is the one part of Facebook and Instagram advertising that's searchable by keyword. Turn it on for a keyword and ads whose text names it appear in your feed alongside organic mentions, each linking to its Ad Library entry so you can see the advertiser and creative.
For an ecommerce brand, that surfaces three kinds of ad:
A store owner on r/ecommerce, after going out of stock on a product that had gone viral:
During my time out of stock, counterfeit sellers released fake versions that copied the packaging and appearance of my product but removed the key feature that makes it work. Customers who unknowingly bought these counterfeits now believe they purchased from me and started spamming all my ads that it was a scam.
Ad Library monitoring wouldn't have stopped the counterfeiters, but it would have shown the ads running under this brand's name while the brand was out of stock โ weeks before the complaints landed under its own ads. Searching the Ad Library for your brand name by hand is free; watching it on a keyword just means you don't have to remember to.
Open a brand, product or competitor keyword. Facebook settings live on each keyword, so different keywords can watch different places.
Add the facebook.com links, separated by commas. Group links are recognized automatically.
Tick the Ad Library box if you want ads that name the keyword. It's off by default so your feed starts with organic conversation.
If a Page or Group produced nothing that names your keyword, swap it for another. Busy, relevant Groups are worth more than big, general ones.
Where Facebook fits for ecommerce
Facebook's audience skews older than TikTok's, and Groups are still where many hobby and parenting communities trade recommendations. If you sell to those shoppers, watched Groups can be some of your most useful sources.
Recent posts, checked regularly
Each check reads the most recent posts on every Page and Group you watch. It's built to keep up with what's new, not to dig through a Group's history, so very high-volume Groups won't be covered completely.
| Facebook surface | Collected? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Posts on Pages you watch | Yes | When the post names the keyword |
| Comments on those posts | Yes | When the comment names the keyword |
| Posts and comments in public Groups you watch | Yes | Same keyword rule, recent posts only |
| Ads in the Meta Ad Library | Yes, if turned on | Ads whose text names the keyword |
| Public posts anywhere else on Facebook | No | No tool can search these by keyword |
| Private Groups, personal profiles, Messenger | No | Not public |
| Marketplace listings and Facebook reviews | No | Not collected |