Google Ads Transparency Scraper & Monitor

Export competitor Google Ads Transparency creatives by advertiser domain for a campaign review, for $0.04 per advertiser snapshot and up to 40 returned creatives. Get available creative formats, preview and source links, and first/last-shown dates in a structured snapshot. Review linked creatives yourself for messaging; provider titles can be advertiser names rather than ad copy.

Built for PPC agencies and paid-search teams preparing a competitor review before refreshing ad copy or landing-page positioning. Data is retrieved through DataForSEO; you do not need your own DataForSEO credentials or Google Ads login.

Paid Apify plan required for live data. Free-plan runs make zero live DataForSEO requests, charge no report events, and leave the dataset empty with a clear upgrade status. Inspect the historical preview below without running the Actor. Live work stops if report billing cannot be confirmed.

Preview the creative inventory before running

A controlled demonstration on 7 July 2026 returned 40 creatives for forthepeople.com: 39 text and one image. Here are three of those actual records. This is historical product proof, not a customer result, current ad inventory, or evidence that these ads performed well. The provider title was Morgan & Morgan, P.A., an advertiser name rather than extracted ad copy.

Creative	Format	First shown (UTC date)	Last shown (UTC date)	Google source	Preview image
CR00347249188213358593	text	2025-06-02	2026-07-07	Open creative	Open image
CR18421961339317518337	text	2025-10-16	2026-07-07	Open creative	Open image
CR08429286786311651329	image	2025-07-18	2026-07-07	Open creative	Open image

Download the three-row historical creative CSV or inspect the archived snapshot summary. No run or provider request is needed. Direct previewUrl was unavailable for these three records; the CSV leaves it blank and retains the available image links. Historical links may change or stop working. Shown dates are provider observations, not guaranteed campaign launch or stop dates.

What you can do

• Inspect up to 40 returned creatives per advertiser and compare text, image, and video format counts.
• Review provider titles and creative links alongside first/last-shown dates.
• Export the Creative inventory view as a spreadsheet with one row per returned creative, or keep the domain-level snapshot as JSON.
• Save snapshots from separate runs and compare them in your own reporting workflow.

This is a bounded snapshot tool. It does not automatically compare runs, alert on changes, or report competitor ad spend, clicks, conversions, or ROAS. Returned fields depend on provider coverage.

Quick start: review a competitor's Google ad creatives

1. Start from the published competitor-review example, or enter one advertiser domain for your first run. The example uses forthepeople.com, which returned creatives in a historical controlled run; current results can differ.
2. Choose a named country, platform, and format, or select Custom / advanced codes for another supported country. The API input below requests Google Search creatives in the United States.
3. On a paid Apify plan, review the Pricing tab and set a run spending limit sufficient for one $0.04 snapshot event.
4. Run the Actor and check Overview for each domain's status, returned count, errors, or no-results. Then choose Creative inventory for separate advertiser, country, creative, format, shown-date, and link columns. Export CSV from that view, or use the Creative inventory CSV output link. Full JSON retains domain-level counts and all creative records in items.
5. Open available source or preview links and record the offers or messages relevant to your campaign. activeAngles may only contain an advertiser name. Ad presence alone is not evidence that an ad converts well.

{
  "targetDomains": ["forthepeople.com"],
  "marketPreset": "us",
  "platform": "google_search",
  "adFormat": "all",
  "depth": 40,
  "concurrency": 1
}

The preset above selects United States. Existing API inputs with locationCode: 2840 still work when marketPreset is omitted or "custom". A named country preset overrides the advanced location field; select Custom / advanced codes if you want the code to take effect. Named presets also cover United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Spain and India.

Sample output — illustrative, not a real advertiser

This shortened dataset row uses example.com and invented creatives to demonstrate the output format. It is not a live scrape, a customer case study, or a typical example of provider ad-copy coverage. The counts and score match the Actor's calculation for these two illustrative creatives.

{
  "input": "example.com",
  "status": "ANALYZED",
  "score": 16,
  "reportType": "ppc-ad-creative-monitor",
  "summary": "example.com: found 2 ad creative(s), 2 distinct messaging angle(s).",
  "recommendations": [
    "Review repeated angles for landing-page and offer positioning.",
    "Track this domain weekly to spot new ad launches."
  ],
  "highlights": [
    {
      "advertiserId": "illustrative-advertiser",
      "title": "Book a product demo",
      "format": "text",
      "firstShown": "2026-09-01",
      "lastShown": "2026-09-20",
      "previewUrl": "https://example.com/illustrative-ad-1"
    },
    {
      "advertiserId": "illustrative-advertiser",
      "title": "Compare plans for your team",
      "format": "image",
      "firstShown": "2026-09-10",
      "lastShown": "2026-09-20",
      "previewUrl": "https://example.com/illustrative-ad-2"
    }
  ],
  "metrics": {
    "creativeCount": 2,
    "textAds": 1,
    "imageAds": 1,
    "videoAds": 0,
    "activeAngles": ["Book a product demo", "Compare plans for your team"]
  },
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-21T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Full rows also include the provider's creative records in items. Each processed domain receives a snapshot row, including when no matching creatives are found; API failures produce an API_ERROR row. The RUN_SUMMARY key-value record records processed domains, API errors, and charged snapshot events.

How to interpret the snapshot

• highlights contains up to 10 returned creatives; items contains all creatives returned within the requested depth.
• activeAngles is a legacy list of up to 10 distinct values from provider titles, descriptions, or preview URLs. In a controlled run with 40 creatives, its sole value was the advertiser name, not ad copy. Do not use it as a verified message or campaign theme; inspect the linked creative instead.
• score reflects returned creative count and distinct snippets. It does not measure ad effectiveness.
• First/last-shown fields describe available provider observations, not guaranteed launch or stop dates.
• No results means no matching creatives were returned for the chosen filters. It does not prove the advertiser runs no ads.
• Creative inventory and its CSV include returned creatives only. A zero-result or error snapshot has no creative rows, so use Overview and RUN_SUMMARY to check the complete run status.

Pricing and limits

• $0.04 per advertiser snapshot, with a requested depth of 1–40 creatives. The event is advertiser-snapshot.
• One domain costs one $0.04 report event; five domains cost $0.20 in report events. This is per snapshot, not per returned ad.
• Up to 50 input domains per run; concurrency is bounded to 1–3. Domains are normalised before duplicates are removed, so example.com and https://www.example.com are processed once. Invalid or over-limit inputs stop before report billing.
• DataForSEO access is included. An Apify paid plan is required separately; consult Apify's Pricing tab and your plan for the full applicable charges.
• Billing is reserved before the provider request. A snapshot with no matching creatives or an API error can therefore still incur its report event charge.
• Each repeat run is billed separately. The Actor does not create a schedule automatically.

Frequently asked questions

Is this an official Google Ads Transparency API?

No. This is an independent Actor using DataForSEO to retrieve Google Ads Transparency data. It does not access a competitor's private Google Ads account.

Can I monitor competitors weekly?

You can run repeated snapshots manually or set up an Apify schedule yourself. Retain and compare those datasets in your own workflow to identify differences. Automatic change detection and notifications are not built into this Actor.

Can I use it from Python, JavaScript, or an automation workflow?

Yes. See the API tab for integration examples. The existing Actor ID and URL are unchanged from PPC Ad Creative Monitor.

What if there are no ads or the run cannot fetch data?

Check the domain and location, and consider a broader supported platform or format. Inspect the status and RUN_SUMMARY for access, billing, or API errors. Free plans cannot request live data, and provider spending limits can temporarily stop requests; avoid repeated retries without checking the cause.

Next step

Start with one advertiser domain on a paid Apify plan and inspect the returned previews before adding more domains. If you also need keyword demand data for campaign planning, Google Keyword Search Volume & CPC API is a separate, separately billed tool.

Questions or unexpected results? Open an issue on this Actor with the run ID and a description of the problem. Do not post API tokens or confidential client inputs.