# Google Ads Transparency Scraper (`datalantern/google-ads-transparency`) Actor

Google Ads Transparency Center scraper: export every ad a company runs on Google (Search, YouTube, Display) by domain, advertiser ID or name, with first/last shown dates and images.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/datalantern/google-ads-transparency.md
- **Developed by:** [Data Lantern](https://apify.com/datalantern) (community)
- **Categories:** Marketing, Lead generation, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Google Ads Transparency Scraper

**Google Ads Transparency Scraper** exports the ads a company runs on Google (Search, YouTube, Display, Shopping) from the public [Google Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com/): search by website domain, advertiser ID or company name, filter by country, and get each ad's advertiser, format, first and last shown dates, image and link.

**Made for small, regular jobs:** up to 500 ads per run by default, ideal for monitoring a handful of competitors every week. Google pauses requests from cloud servers after about 1,000 ads per run; when that happens the run still finishes successfully with the ads found so far, and you pay only for those.

### What can this tool do?

- Monitor a few competitors' Google ads every week: schedule it and get their new ads as a spreadsheet.
- Find advertisers by website domain (`nike.com`), advertiser ID (`AR…`), Ads Transparency Center link, or company name.
- Filter by country: only ads shown in the United States, Germany, India and 60+ other countries.
- Track competitors' creative strategy over time with first-shown and last-shown dates.
- Get the ad image (for text and image ads) and a link to each ad in the Ads Transparency Center.
- Company advertisers only: political advertisers and private persons are excluded automatically (see below).

### What data does it return?

One row per ad:

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `advertiserName` | Nike Retail BV |
| `advertiserId` | AR18378488041124659201 |
| `advertiserDomain` | nike.com |
| `creativeId` | CR11633181094609682433 |
| `format` | text (also `image` or `video`) |
| `firstShown` | 2026-01-23T01:18:57.000Z |
| `lastShown` | 2026-09-27T12:32:07.000Z |
| `imageUrl` | https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/11293165680764092387 |
| `previewUrl` | null (for image and video ads: Google's ad preview link) |
| `adUrl` | https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR18378488041124659201/creative/CR11633181094609682433?region=anywhere |
| `region` | anywhere |
| `target` | nike.com |

### How to use it

1. Enter one or more targets: domains like `nike.com`, advertiser IDs like `AR18378488041124659201`, Ads Transparency Center links, or company names.
2. Optionally pick a country, the maximum ads per target (default 50) and the maximum ads per run (default 500).
3. Click **Start**. For weekly monitoring, save the input as a task and add a schedule.
4. Download the ads as JSON, CSV, Excel, or pull them through the API.

### Pricing

Pay per ad: **$1.50 per 1,000 ads**, plus $0.005 per run. You only pay for ads you receive; excluded advertisers are never charged. A weekly check of 5 competitors × 50 ads costs about $0.38 per run. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options.

### Use it through the API, AI agents, and integrations

Call it from your code with the Apify API, schedule it (for example weekly competitor ad monitoring), or connect it to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, or an AI agent through Apify's MCP server.

### Is it legal?

The tool reads the same public data the Google Ads Transparency Center website shows, without logging in and without solving CAPTCHAs. It outputs company advertisers only:

- **Political ads are excluded.** Every run downloads Google's official political-ads advertiser list and skips those advertisers; names like "… for President" or "… PAC" are skipped as well.
- **Private persons are excluded.** Google also verifies individuals and shows their legal names. Only advertisers whose legal name includes a company legal form (Inc, LLC, Ltd, GmbH, BV, S.A., Pty …) are exported.

You are responsible for how you use the data; check Google's terms for your use case.

### FAQ

**Why did I get fewer ads than expected, or none?** Advertisers without a company legal form in their verified name (for example a brand registered as just "Nike" in one country) are excluded on purpose, as are political advertisers. A domain search also only finds ads whose advertiser Google links to that domain. Try the advertiser ID from the Ads Transparency Center instead.

**How many ads can I get per run?** 500 by default (setting "Maximum ads per run", up to 5,000). In practice Google pauses requests from cloud servers after about 1,000 ads per run, so this tool is best for small, regular jobs: a few competitors, 20–200 ads each, every week. For a large one-off export of tens of thousands of ads, split the targets over several runs.

**The run stopped early with an "unusual traffic" message.** Google sometimes shows a CAPTCHA page to cloud servers. The tool waits and retries through Apify datacenter proxies; if Google keeps blocking, it ends normally: the run is marked successful, the ads found so far are in the dataset, and you pay only for those. The log lists the targets that were not finished; run it again a few minutes later for the rest. CAPTCHAs are never solved.

**Can I get the ad text?** Text ads come as an image of the ad (`imageUrl`); image and video ads have a Google preview link (`previewUrl`).

### Feedback

Found a bug or need a field added? Open an issue on the **Issues** tab. We usually respond within 24 hours.

# Actor input Schema

## `targets` (type: `array`):

One per line: a website domain (nike.com), an advertiser ID (AR…), an Ads Transparency Center link, or a company name (matched against Google's advertiser list).

## `region` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown in this country. "All countries" returns ads shown anywhere.

## `maxAds` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many ads in total. This tool is made for small, regular jobs (for example a few competitors every week): Google usually pauses requests from cloud servers after about 1,000 ads per run.

## `maxAdsPerTarget` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many ads for each advertiser or domain. 0 means all ads.

## `maxAdvertisersPerName` (type: `integer`):

For company-name targets: how many matching advertisers to include (for example the US and EU entities of a brand).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Not needed normally: when Google shows its 'unusual traffic' page, the tool waits and retries through Apify datacenter proxies automatically.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "targets": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "region": "anywhere",
  "maxAds": 500,
  "maxAdsPerTarget": 50,
  "maxAdvertisersPerName": 3
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "targets": [
        "nike.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("datalantern/google-ads-transparency").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "targets": ["nike.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("datalantern/google-ads-transparency").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "targets": [
    "nike.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call datalantern/google-ads-transparency --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,datalantern/google-ads-transparency"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ilneWVHikukhdCNOB/builds/4ypCcNHKpxVHJGNZ6/openapi.json