Competitor Ads Checker — Google, Meta & LinkedIn Ad Library by domain

Is this company running ads? Paste a list of company domains and get one row per domain with a clear answer for each ad library: Google (ads shown in the last 7 days) and Meta (Facebook & Instagram) (ads with status ACTIVE on the check date). LinkedIn (beta) — add to platforms to also check ads that ran in the last 30 days. Every positive answer comes with evidence: an ad ID, a link to the public ad library, dates and the scope that was checked.

Built for agencies that qualify leads, sales teams that enrich a B2B prospect list and marketers who track competitors' ads for competitive intelligence. It is MCP-ready, so AI agents can call it as a tool, and it plugs into Clay, Zapier, Make, n8n or the Apify API.

What does Competitor Ads Checker do?

It answers one question per company domain: are ads pointing to this domain in the public ad libraries, within a stated time window?

For every domain you get:

• a status per platform: active, not_found or unknown (never a bare yes/no);
• the number of ads (Google gives an estimate), first and last seen dates;
• one evidence ad with its ID and ad library link, plus up to 10 sample ads;
• the Google ad account behind the ads, the matched Facebook page and the LinkedIn company page;
• a light company profile: name, website, LinkedIn page, industry, employee range, HQ country.

not_found always means "not found in this window and scope" — not "this company never advertises". unknown means the check could not be completed reliably, and it is free.

Who uses it

• PPC and social media agencies — qualify leads before outreach: who already runs Google or Meta ads, and who does not.
• Sales teams — enrich a B2B prospect list or CRM with "running ads" flags and a company profile, one row per company.
• Marketers and founders — track competitors and see which ad libraries they appear in, with links to their ads.

Google Ads Library check

The Google check searches the Google Ads Transparency Center by the domain you entered, for ads shown in the last 7 days, any region.

You get the ad count estimate, first and last seen dates (UTC; the website may show one day earlier), the advertiser ID, a verified flag and the ad account name. The ad account is often an agency or reseller, not the company itself, so the row adds isThirdPartyAccount with the reason (known_agency, no_shared_token, generic_token_only, shared_token) and advertisersCount when several accounts advertise for the same domain. An account carrying the brand's name is preferred; other accounts are listed in thirdPartyAdvertisers. If the domain redirects elsewhere and only other companies advertise on it (for example landing pages hosted on a platform's domain), Google is unknown (third_party_advertisers_only, free).

Meta Ad Library check (Facebook & Instagram)

The Meta check looks for ads with status ACTIVE on the check date, in all countries. Finding the right Facebook page is the hard part, so the page match is explicit:

• high — the page is linked from the company website (Facebook or Instagram link) or its alias equals the domain name;
• legal_name — the page name equals the full legal company name on the website (for example "… GmbH");
• ad_domain — the active ads link to the domain, so the page that publishes them is used;
• medium — the page only matches by name; a name match alone never produces active;
• alias_no_ad_history — the linked page has no ads in the library.

alias_no_ad_history (not_found, confidence: "medium", charged): the linked Facebook page is absent from the library's page search, which lists only pages that have run ads, and no ad links to the domain. When the page publishing ads that link to the domain does not share the brand's name (a sponsor, agency or franchisee), the row says publisherIsThirdParty: true.

LinkedIn Ad Library check (beta)

LinkedIn (beta) — add to platforms: it is off by default and runs only when platforms includes "linkedin". LinkedIn is checked when the company website links its LinkedIn page and that page's website points back to the domain. A link with a numeric company ID only, or a website that redirects to another domain, gives unknown (free). It returns ads that ran in the last 30 days (ending yesterday), the ad count, dates and the LinkedIn company ID. Without a confirmed company page the LinkedIn answer is unknown (free) — there is no guessing by company name.

LinkedIn is marked beta: true. Some LinkedIn ads come without dates; then firstSeen is null and the evidence says dateSource: "query_window". When a library returns more pages than the Actor reads and no evidence was found, the answer is unknown (pagination_unresolved), never not_found.

Domains that redirect to another domain

Results always describe the domain you entered. A redirect can lead to another company (acquisition, expired domain bought by someone else), so status and the charge use only the entered domain: names and links from the destination website are ignored, Meta counts only ads linking to the entered domain, and LinkedIn is unknown (cross_domain_redirect, free). The destination's Google result is shown in redirectTarget — for information only, it never changes status or billing.

Input

{
    "domains": ["reliantplumbing.com", "tayloremmet.co.uk", "https://www.simplygreenpest.com/"],
    "platforms": ["google", "meta", "linkedin"],
    "includeSampleAds": true,
    "maxSampleAdsPerPlatform": 3,
    "includeCompanyProfile": true
}

• domains — up to 500 domains or website URLs. They are normalized (no https://, www. or path) and duplicates are checked once.
• platforms — google and meta by default; LinkedIn (beta) — add linkedin to platforms. A platform you leave out is null in the row.
• includeSampleAds / maxSampleAdsPerPlatform — sample ads per platform (0–10). The evidence ad is always included.
• includeCompanyProfile — adds the company profile; it never triggers an extra paid lookup.

Output — one row per domain

Illustrative row (shortened):

{
    "schemaVersion": "1",
    "domain": "tayloremmet.co.uk",
    "status": "ok",
    "isRunningAds": true,
    "platformsWithAds": ["google", "meta", "linkedin"],
    "totalAdsCount": 58,
    "google": {
        "status": "active",
        "adsCountEstimate": 40,
        "adAccountName": "Taylor&Emmet LLP",
        "isThirdPartyAccount": false,
        "lastSeen": "2026-10-16",
        "evidence": { "adId": "CR0123…", "libraryUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR…/creative/CR…" },
        "scope": { "window": "7d", "dateFrom": "2026-10-09", "dateTo": "2026-10-16", "regions": "anywhere" }
    },
    "meta": { "status": "active", "pageName": "Taylor Emmet", "pageMatch": "high", "activeAdsCount": 17 },
    "linkedin": { "status": "active", "beta": true, "adsCount": 1, "firstSeen": null, "evidence": { "dateSource": "query_window" } },
    "company": { "name": "Taylor Emmet Solicitors", "industry": "Legal Services", "employeeRange": "201-500 employees", "hqCountry": "GB", "source": "linkedin" }
}

Field	Meaning
status	ok = every selected platform resolved; partial = some platform unknown; unknown = none resolved; invalid_input; skipped
crossDomainRedirect	true when the website redirects to another domain; results still describe the entered domain only
redirectUnrelated	true when that other domain does not look related by name (information only)
redirectTarget	information only: the destination domain and its Google result; never changes status or billing
isRunningAds	true = ads found on a selected platform; false = not found on any selected platform in its window; null = not known
google / meta / linkedin	per-platform status, confidence, reason, counts, dates, evidence, scope, sample ads
company	light company profile (never lists people)
billed	true when this row was charged

Dataset views: Competitor ads overview, Lead qualification and Sample ads.

How to see what ads a company is running

1. Add the company domains to domains (or paste website URLs).
2. Pick the ad libraries in platforms.
3. Run the Actor and open the Competitor ads overview view.
4. Click the libraryUrl or evidence link to open the ads in the public ad library.

One run covers three ad libraries for up to 500 domains.

Pricing

$0.07 per checked domain; unknown = free. That is the Starter plan price: $0.10 on Free, $0.06 on Scale, $0.05 on Business and higher. A domain is charged once, only when every selected platform returned active or not_found (row status ok), LinkedIn (beta) included when added. Rows with status partial, unknown, invalid_input or skipped are free, and duplicates are merged before checking. Cap the spend with the run's maximum cost: domains over it come back as skipped, not charged. Free-plan runs check up to 10 domains.

Ready-made tasks

• Check competitor ads on Google, Meta and LinkedIn
• Google Ads Library search by domain
• LinkedIn Ads Library: which B2B companies run ads
• Companies advertising on Facebook (Meta Ad Library)
• PPC leads: which businesses already run ads
• Facebook ads checker

Integrations

Use the Apify API or MCP (mcp.apify.com), or schedule it weekly to track competitors.

FAQ

Is it legal to check competitor ads?

It reads public ad libraries that anyone can browse without logging in. See Data & privacy below.

Why not the Meta Ad Library API?

The official API covers political and issue ads and ads delivered in the EU. Commercial ads elsewhere are visible in the public library, which is what this Actor checks.

Why is Meta sometimes unknown?

Meta is unknown (free) when a short or generic domain floods the keyword search with unrelated ads (pagination_unresolved), or the Facebook page cannot be identified with certainty (meta_page_unresolved). not_found with confidence: "medium" (charged) means no ad links to the domain, but the company's page was only matched by name or is missing from the library's page search. In blind tests Meta resolved 23/30 company domains on the latest version, 18–29/30 on earlier ones.

Does it show ad spend or targeting?

No. Ad libraries do not publish spend for commercial ads.

Can I check ads in a specific country?

Google is checked for any region and Meta for all countries. Country filters are not available in this version.

Can I search the Facebook ad library by domain?

Yes — that is part of the Meta check: active ads that link to your domain are found even when no Facebook page is linked from the website.

Data & privacy

The Actor reads only public ad transparency libraries and the public homepage of each domain. It follows data minimisation: no ad text, no targeting, no employee lists and no people are collected on purpose. Ad account and page names that look like a private person's name are withheld (null with nameWithheld: true); this is a heuristic, not a classification. Company profiles come from company pages only.

Related Actors

• Google Ads Transparency Intel — find the advertisers bidding on a keyword.
• Website Traffic Estimator — estimate traffic for the same domains.