Facebook Groups Scraper Pro

Facebook group members, posts, and engagement metrics with MCP-ready providerHealth. Multi-provider fallback. No paid API keys.

---

Why This Actor Is Better

The Facebook Groups scraper built for marketing agencies and lead-gen teams. Extracts group metadata, member lists (names + profile URLs), and recent posts with engagement metrics (likes, comments, engagement bands). Multi-provider fallback (Playwright desktop + mobile HTML), keyword post filtering, and MCP-ready providerHealth metadata.

Key Features

• Member extraction — names and profile URLs from the group members tab
• Post extraction — recent posts with author, text, likes, and comments
• Engagement bands — automatic viral/high/medium/low/minimal classification
• Multi-provider fallback — Playwright desktop primary, mobile HTML fallback
• Keyword filtering — slice posts by body keyword
• Member count normalization — '1.2K members' → 1200
• Confidence scoring — every group gets a 0.0-1.0 score weighted by completeness
• Source attribution + providerHealth — MCP agents can route around blocks
• Cache-first mode — fast_lookup hits the Apify KVS cache for sub-second repeats
• Transparent PPE pricing — $2.21/1K results, $0.50/1K members, $1/1K posts

---

Architecture

Input (queries + mode)
  |
  v
[Cache check] --hit--> return base data (<800ms)
  |miss
  v
[Primary provider: scrape_groups_desktop]
  |-- on failure --> [Fallback provider]
  v
[Normalization + field mapping]
  |
  v
[Enrichment layer]
  |
  v
[Confidence scoring + source attribution + providerHealth]
  |
  v
[Progressive dataset push] (one push per result)
  |
  v
[Webhook + MCP-ready metadata]

Every result includes providerHealth{} tracking per-provider status, latency, and errors — making this actor safe to call from MCP agents that need to route around failures.

---

Modes

Mode	Description	Target latency	Use case
fast_lookup	Cache-first, base data only	<800ms cached	Quick lookups, deduplication
enrich	Full enrichment with contact extraction + scoring	~2-4s/result	Detailed analysis
batch	Queue-based, full enrichment, per-item isolation	varies	Large query lists (100+)

---

Input

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
mode	string	—	enrich	fast_lookup | enrich | batch
queries	array	yes	["https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalmarketing"]	Search queries
maxResults	integer	—	25	Max results per query (1-1000)
webhookUrl	string	—	—	Webhook for completion notification

Example input

{
  "mode": "enrich",
  "queries": ["https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalmarketing"],
  "maxResults": 50
}

---

Output

Results are stored in the Apify dataset as structured JSON. See .actor/output_schema.json for the canonical schema.

Every result includes:

Field	Type	Description
confidenceScore	number	0.0-1.0 reliability score
sources	array	Provider attribution
providerHealth	object	Per-provider status/latency/error for MCP routing
cacheStatus	string	hit | miss | degraded
mode	string	Execution mode used
extractedAt	string	ISO timestamp

---

Pricing

Transparent pay-per-event (PPE) pricing. You only pay for successful results.

Event	Price	When charged
Actor Start	$0.05/1K runs	One-time per run
Result	$0.00221/result	Per result pushed
Member Extracted	$0.0005/result	Charge per group member with profile URL extracted.
Post Extracted	$0.001/result	Charge per group post with engagement metrics extracted.

No monthly subscription required.

---

Use Cases

• Lead generation — build member lists from niche-relevant groups
• Influencer research — identify high-engagement group posters
• Market research — map group size and engagement by niche
• Community monitoring — track post velocity and sentiment in target groups
• Competitor intelligence — monitor competitor groups for member growth
• Outreach — build profile-URL lists for cold messaging
• MCP agent workflows — call from LLM agents; providerHealth lets agents route

---

Integration Examples

Python (Apify SDK)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("YOUR_USERNAME/facebook-groups-scraper-pro").call(run_input={
    "mode": "enrich",
    "queries": ["https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalmarketing"],
    "maxResults": 50,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~facebook-groups-scraper-pro/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"enrich","queries":["https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalmarketing"],"maxResults":25}'

MCP (Model Context Protocol)

This actor is MCP-ready. Register it via @apify/actors-mcp-server:

$npx -y @apify/actors-mcp-server --tools actors,YOUR_USERNAME/facebook-groups-scraper-pro

Agents can then call call-actor and use providerHealth + confidenceScore to route around failed providers and filter result quality.

---

FAQ

Q: Do I need Facebook login cookies?

No. This actor scrapes public group data via Playwright + httpx. No login or session cookies required for public groups.

Q: What's the difference between member extraction and post extraction?

Member extraction pulls the member list (names + profile URLs). Post extraction pulls recent posts with author, text, and engagement. Both are independent toggles — enable either or both.

Q: How does the fallback chain work?

Playwright desktop handles JS-rendered group pages. If blocked, mobile HTML via httpx takes over with reduced fidelity (group name + member count only). providerHealth shows which providers succeeded.

Q: Can I filter posts by keyword?

Yes. Use keywordFilter to only return posts whose text contains a keyword (case-insensitive).

Q: Can I call this from an LLM agent?

Yes. The actor is MCP-ready. Every result includes providerHealth{}, confidenceScore, and engagementBand so agents can make routing and filtering decisions.

---

Legal & Compliance

This actor scrapes publicly available data. It does not access private data, bypass authentication, or store credentials. Users are responsible for complying with applicable data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) and the target platform's Terms of Service.

This actor is intended for legitimate research, analysis, and outreach use cases. It must not be used for spam, harassment, or unlawful activity.

---

AI-DLC / Data Lifecycle

This actor follows AI-DLC principles for ethical data handling:

• Collection — Public data only; respects robots.txt and rate limits.
• Processing — In-memory normalization; no PII logging.
• Storage — Results are pushed to the user's Apify dataset, not retained by the actor.
• Usage — Designed for analysis, enrichment, and legitimate outreach.
• Disposal — No long-term caching of user data between runs (cache TTL 1800s for base results only).

---

Enhancement Roadmap (API / MCP Integrations)

• Multi-step orchestration via LangGraph conditional workflows
• Vector store integration for semantic deduplication across runs
• Additional paid enrichment APIs (user keys, disabled by default)

---

Changelog

• v1.0 — Initial release: member + post extraction, engagement bands, Playwright+mobile fallback, MCP-ready metadata

---

Links

• Apify Store: https://apify.com/YOUR_USERNAME/facebook-groups-scraper-pro
• Documentation: See this README
• Support: Open an issue on the actor's Apify Store page