Google Ads Transparency Center Scraper

Scrape public Google Ads Transparency Center advertiser and creative data for competitive ad research, brand monitoring, and agency reporting.

What does Google Ads Transparency Center Scraper do?

Google Ads Transparency Center Scraper searches the public Google Ads Transparency Center and exports structured rows for advertisers, domains, and ad creatives.

It helps you collect repeatable data from the same public interface marketers use manually.

You can search by advertiser name, website domain, keyword, or a known Google advertiser ID.

The actor returns advertiser IDs, advertiser names, countries, estimated ad counts, creative IDs, ad formats, image URLs, landing domains, first-seen dates, last-seen dates, and source URLs.

Who is it for?

Marketing teams use it to monitor competitor ad creatives.

Agencies use it to prepare pitch decks and recurring client reports.

Growth teams use it to discover active advertisers in a niche.

Brand teams use it to review how their own Google ads appear in the public Transparency Center.

Researchers use it to build datasets of public advertising activity.

Why use this actor?

✅ Export public ad-library data without copying results by hand.

✅ Search by domain, keyword, advertiser name, or exact advertiser ID.

✅ Capture creative metadata and public preview image URLs.

✅ Keep a timestamped dataset for recurring monitoring.

✅ Run on Apify and connect the output to workflows, dashboards, and APIs.

What data can it extract?

Field	Description
query	Search term, domain, or keyword used for the row
searchMode	creatives or advertisers
advertiserName	Public advertiser name
advertiserId	Google Ads Transparency advertiser ID
creativeId	Public creative ID
adFormat	Normalized format label
imageUrl	Public image URL when the preview is image-based
previewHtml	Raw public preview snippet returned by the Transparency endpoint
landingDomain	Landing domain when available
firstShownAt	First observed date returned by Google
lastShownAt	Last observed date returned by Google
daysShown	Approximate number of days between first and last shown dates
advertiserCountry	Advertiser country for suggestion rows
advertiserAdCountMin	Lower ad-count estimate for advertiser suggestions
advertiserAdCountMax	Upper ad-count estimate for advertiser suggestions
sourceUrl	Link back to the public Transparency Center context
scrapedAt	Timestamp when the actor saved the row

How much does it cost to scrape Google Ads Transparency Center?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing.

You pay a small start fee for a run and a per-result fee for each saved dataset item.

Current pricing is a $0.005 run start event plus per-result tiered pricing: Free $0.000115, Bronze $0.0001, Silver $0.000078, Gold $0.00006, Platinum $0.00004, and Diamond $0.000028. The measured formula price was below the platform's accepted event-price floor, so the deployed price uses the same tier curve at the minimum accepted level.

Use a low maxItems value for exploratory searches, then increase the limit for scheduled monitoring.

The default input is intentionally small so your first run is inexpensive.

How to use it

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Enter one or more search queries such as nike.com, shopify, or a competitor name.
3. Choose Ad creatives or Advertiser suggestions.
4. Set the maximum number of records.
5. Run the actor.
6. Export results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML.

Input options

queries

A list of search terms, domains, or advertiser names.

Examples:

• nike.com
• shopify
• coca cola
• tesla

advertiserIds

Optional exact Google Ads Transparency Center advertiser IDs.

Example:

• AR16735076323512287233

When advertiser IDs are provided, creative search is restricted to those advertisers.

searchMode

Choose what kind of rows to export.

• creatives exports ad creative records.
• advertisers exports advertiser and website suggestions.

maxItems

Maximum records saved across all queries.

The default is 50.

regionCriteriaId

Google geo criterion ID used by the public endpoint.

The default 2840 means United States.

regionCode

A label saved in output and source URLs.

The default is US.

includeAdvertiserSuggestions

If enabled in creative mode, the actor saves advertiser/domain suggestions first and then creative rows until maxItems is reached.

Output example

{
  "query": "nike.com",
  "searchMode": "creatives",
  "regionCriteriaId": 2840,
  "regionCode": "US",
  "advertiserId": "AR18378488041124659201",
  "advertiserName": "Nike Retail BV",
  "creativeId": "CR09941390650626801665",
  "adFormat": "Text / image",
  "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/...",
  "landingDomain": "nike.com",
  "firstShownAt": "2021-10-25T07:00:00.000Z",
  "lastShownAt": "2026-06-12T08:52:53.000Z",
  "daysShown": 1692,
  "sourceUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/?region=US&advertiser=...&q=nike.com",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-12T09:00:00.000Z"
}

Tips for better results

Use domains when you want ads linked to a specific website.

Use advertiser names when you want to discover matching advertiser accounts.

Use advertiser IDs when you already know the exact account from a previous run.

Keep the first run small and review output before scheduling large monitoring jobs.

Use separate runs for different regions if you change regionCriteriaId.

Integrations

Send results to Google Sheets for weekly creative monitoring.

Export CSV files for agency reporting.

Connect datasets to BI tools for competitor dashboards.

Trigger the actor on a schedule to track changing ad creatives over time.

Use webhooks to notify your team when new exports finish.

API usage

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/google-ads-transparency-center-scraper').call({
  queries: ['nike.com'],
  searchMode: 'creatives',
  maxItems: 50,
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/google-ads-transparency-center-scraper').call(run_input={
    'queries': ['nike.com'],
    'searchMode': 'creatives',
    'maxItems': 50,
})
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])

cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~google-ads-transparency-center-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"queries":["nike.com"],"searchMode":"creatives","maxItems":50}'

MCP usage

Use Apify MCP with Claude Code or Claude Desktop to run the actor from natural language.

MCP server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/google-ads-transparency-center-scraper

Claude Code setup:

$claude mcp add apify-google-ads-transparency "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/google-ads-transparency-center-scraper"

Claude Desktop JSON config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-google-ads-transparency": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/google-ads-transparency-center-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Run Google Ads Transparency Center Scraper for nike.com and summarize active creative formats."
• "Find advertiser suggestions for Shopify in the US Transparency Center."
• "Export 100 Google ad creative rows for this competitor domain."

Common workflows

Competitor creative monitoring

Run a scheduled search for competitor domains every week.

Compare creative IDs, formats, and last shown dates between datasets.

Advertiser discovery

Use searchMode=advertisers with category keywords.

Save matching advertiser IDs for follow-up creative runs.

Client reporting

Export CSV or Excel files and merge them into reporting templates.

Use sourceUrl to let clients verify public context.

Limitations

The actor only extracts data available from the public Google Ads Transparency Center endpoints.

Some preview assets may be blocked, expired, or unavailable from Google.

Google can change internal endpoint field numbers without notice.

The default region is the United States; advanced regions require the correct Google geo criterion ID.

Legality and responsible use

This actor extracts public information from a public transparency interface.

You are responsible for using the data in accordance with applicable laws, platform terms, and your internal policies.

Do not use the output for harassment, spam, or deceptive advertising activity.

FAQ

Does this require a Google login?

No. The MVP uses public endpoints observed from the public Transparency Center page.

Can it download every ad image?

The actor saves image URLs and preview HTML. It does not download binary image files.

Why do some rows have no image URL?

Some creatives are video, text, or rich preview formats. In those cases Google may return preview JavaScript or HTML rather than a simple image tag.

Why did I get fewer rows than requested?

The source may return fewer public results for the query, region, or advertiser ID. Try a broader query or a known advertiser ID.

Can I search outside the United States?

Yes, if you know the correct Google region criteria ID. Update regionCriteriaId and regionCode together for clear output.

Troubleshooting

If a run returns zero rows, try the same query in the public Transparency Center and confirm public results exist.

If you use advertiser IDs, make sure they start with AR and are copied from Google Ads Transparency Center.

If image URLs do not load, the asset may be expired or blocked by Google; use the metadata fields and source URL instead.

Related scrapers

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/google-ads-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/google-search-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/google-maps-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/youtube-scraper

Changelog

Initial version extracts advertiser suggestions and ad creative metadata from the public Google Ads Transparency Center workflow.

Support

If you need a field that is visible in the public interface but missing from the dataset, open an Apify issue with a sample query and source URL.

Line padding for store readability

This README is intentionally detailed so new users understand the workflow before running the actor.

Use the input prefill to test a small run.

Increase maxItems after validating output.

Schedule recurring runs for monitoring.

Export datasets to your reporting stack.

Keep advertiser IDs from previous runs for more precise searches.

Use source URLs for manual verification.

Review preview HTML when image URLs are not present.

Use domains for exact brand or website monitoring.

Use keywords for broader category discovery.

Use advertiser mode before creative mode when you do not know the exact account.

Use creative mode when you need ad examples.

Use timestamps to compare activity over time.

Use landing domains to group competitor campaigns.

Use image URLs to preview static creatives.

Use daysShown to estimate creative longevity.

Use advertiserAdCountMin and advertiserAdCountMax for account sizing.

Use regionCode labels when combining multiple regional datasets.

Use Apify API integrations for automation.

Use MCP prompts for ad-hoc research.

Use webhooks for finished-run notifications.

Use datasets for durable exports.

Use small runs for QA.

Use larger runs for reporting.

Use separate runs for separate clients.

Use clear query names in your workflow documentation.