Facebook Ads Library Scraper - Spy on Competitor Ads

The Facebook Ads Library Scraper pulls competitor ads at scale from the public Facebook Ad Library — ad creative copy, images, status (active/inactive), start dates, target location, and Meta's unique Library ID. Search by keyword, brand, or advertiser and get clean JSON with no API key, no login, and no rate-limit headaches. It's the go-to tool for competitor ad research, building a swipe file of winning creative, and market intelligence across any niche.

What does the Facebook Ads Library Scraper Actor do?

The Facebook Ads Library Scraper is a no-code tool that collects publicly available ads from Facebook's Ad Library transparency platform and exports them as JSON, CSV, or Excel. Pass a keyword, brand name, or advertiser and the actor returns a structured list of ads — the exact creative and metadata Meta serves in its own UI. Filter by country, ad type, and status to narrow results to your jurisdiction or category.

• Spy on competitor Facebook ads — see every ad a rival brand is currently running
• Extract ad creative copy — the actual ad body text Meta publishes
• Get ad creative images — the first creative image URL per ad
• Filter by ad status — active, inactive, or ALL
• Filter by country — any ISO 2-letter code or ALL worldwide
• Filter by ad type — all ads, or political/issue, housing, employment, and credit categories
• Capture impressions range and start dates — when Meta publishes them
• Bulk-friendly — up to 200 ads per query, scriptable into batch runs

What data can I extract from the Facebook Ads Library?

Each ad record contains the following fields:

Field	Description
advertiser	Advertiser name
page_name	Facebook Page running the ad
ad_text	Ad creative copy (body text)
ad_creative_body	Ad creative body (full text)
image_url	First creative image URL
ad_creative_image_url	Creative image URL
platform	Platform the ad runs on (e.g. Facebook)
status	Ad status (active / inactive)
ad_delivery_status	Delivery status reported by Meta
start_date	Date the ad first ran
impressions	Impressions range (lower_bound / upper_bound) when published
target_location	Geographic targeting
library_id	Facebook's unique Ad Library ID

How to scrape the Facebook Ads Library (step-by-step)

1. Open the Facebook Ads Library Scraper on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Enter a query — a keyword, brand, or advertiser name (e.g. "marketing software").
3. Set the country (ISO 2-letter code or ALL) and ad type filter.
4. Choose a status: active, inactive, or ALL, and set Max ads (1–200).
5. Click Start and let the actor harvest ads from the public Ad Library.
6. Export results to JSON, CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets, or pull them via the Apify API.
7. To cover several keywords, run the actor once per keyword and merge the datasets.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
query	string	—	Keyword or advertiser name to search the Ads Library (e.g. "crypto wallet", "Nike"). Required.
country	string	ALL	Two-letter ISO country code (e.g. US, DE, GB) or ALL for worldwide.
adType	string (enum)	ALL	ALL, POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS, HOUSING_ADS, EMPLOYMENT_ADS, or CREDIT_ADS.
status	string (enum)	active	Filter by active, inactive, or ALL.
maxResults	integer	20	Maximum ads to return (1–200).
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify proxy	Routes through Apify Proxy; US residential recommended for English-locale content.

Example input:

{
    "query": "marketing software",
    "country": "US",
    "adType": "ALL",
    "status": "active",
    "maxResults": 50
}

Output example

{
    "advertiser": "Acme Corp",
    "page_name": "Acme Corp",
    "ad_text": "Try our new productivity tool — 50% off the first month!",
    "ad_creative_body": "Try our new productivity tool — 50% off the first month!",
    "image_url": "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
    "ad_creative_image_url": "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
    "platform": "Facebook",
    "status": "active",
    "ad_delivery_status": "active",
    "start_date": "2024-08-15",
    "impressions": { "lower_bound": 50000, "upper_bound": 100000 },
    "target_location": "United States",
    "library_id": "1234567890123456"
}

Use cases

• Competitor ad research — enumerate every ad your top competitors are currently running.
• Ad copy inspiration — surface high-frequency messaging in your category for new creative.
• Creative swipe file — build a library of winning ad creative and images.
• Compliance and due diligence — verify a brand's political or issue ad activity.
• Market intelligence — measure share-of-voice and ad volume across a category.
• PR and journalism — investigate political and issue ad spend and targeting.

Pricing

The Facebook Ads Library Scraper runs on Apify's usage-based pricing — you pay for the compute units and proxy traffic each run uses, with no separate subscription. A 20-ad scrape completes in 15–25 seconds and a 200-ad scrape in 30–50 seconds (memory ~1 GB for Chromium). See the actor's Pricing tab for current rates and free-tier credits.

Why this Facebook Ads Library Scraper?

Meta's official Ad Library API is limited and gated, and DOM-only scrapers break whenever the page markup changes. This actor uses both approaches: it intercepts the GraphQL responses that power Facebook's own Ad Library UI for the cleanest, most accurate metadata, and falls back to a DOM-based "Library ID"-anchored scraper when GraphQL isn't available. Combined with country, ad-type, and status filters, that makes it a reliable way to monitor competitor campaigns without tokens or approvals.

FAQ

Is it legal to scrape the Facebook Ads Library?

The Facebook Ads Library is a transparency tool that Meta itself publishes for journalists, researchers, advertisers, and the public, so the data is public by design. Scraping public data is broadly permitted, but you remain responsible for complying with Meta's Terms of Service and applicable laws such as GDPR and CCPA.

Do I need a Facebook account or Ad Library API key?

No. The actor works on the public Ad Library pages with no login and no Meta Ad Library API token.

How much does it cost to scrape Facebook ads?

It runs on Apify's pay-as-you-go pricing, so cost scales with how many ads you scrape and the proxy traffic used. Small runs are inexpensive and the free tier covers testing. See the Pricing tab for exact figures.

How many ads can I scrape and how fast?

Up to 200 ads per query. A 20-ad scrape finishes in ~15–25 seconds and a 200-ad scrape in ~30–50 seconds.

Can I get spend and impression numbers?

Meta only publishes impressions and spend for political and issue ads. For commercial ads, those fields are typically empty.

Why do some queries return 0 ads?

Either no ads match, the country filter is too narrow, or Meta is rate-limiting. Try a broader query, switch country to ALL, or re-run.

Can I export the ads to CSV, Excel, JSON, or Google Sheets?

Yes. Every dataset can be exported to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or Google Sheets, or fetched via the Apify API.

How do I scrape ads for multiple keywords?

Run the actor once per keyword and merge the datasets, or trigger it through the Apify API in a loop for fully automated batch runs.

Related actors

• Facebook Page Scraper — page contact info, followers, and about
• TikTok Scraper — TikTok profiles, hashtags, and search
• Twitter / X Scraper — bulk tweet and profile scraping
• Instagram Downloader — download Instagram media
• LinkedIn Profile Scraper — bulk LinkedIn profile data

Support

Need an extra field, filter, or output format? Open an issue on the actor's Issues tab. Custom ad-intelligence solutions and integrations are available on request.