Google Ads Advertiser Tracker: find who advertises on any keyword

Give this Actor a list of keywords and it returns who is advertising on them in Google Ads — the named advertisers, their ad domains, the creatives they run and how long each one has been running — enriched with CPC and search volume, plus a diff of who entered and left since your last run.

Built for PPC agencies and performance marketers: one billed row per keyword, 500 keywords per run, up to 10 advertisers and 10 ad domains per keyword, no Google Ads account, no browser automation.

What does the Google Ads advertiser tracker do?

For every keyword it resolves the advertisers Google publishes in its public Ads Transparency data, pulls their creatives, and joins CPC, search volume and competition onto the same row. Each creative carries its own first/last shown dates, so you see not just who bids but what they keep running — the ads that survive months of optimization are the ads that work.

It does not return every advertiser on a keyword. The public data gives a top slice — up to 10 named advertisers plus up to 10 ad domains per keyword — and this Actor states that limit in every row.

Why use this Google Ads competitor research actor

• One row per keyword, not per ad. Advertisers and creatives nest inside the row, so 20 keywords give you 20 rows to read, not 4,000 to pivot.
• Advertiser identity, not just domains. Name, stable advertiser ID, verification flag, country, approximate total ads count and rank in the line-up.
• Ad age, not a flat list. days_running, is_live and longest_running_creative show which ad has been paying for itself longest.
• CPC and volume on the same row — no second tool for "is this keyword worth fighting for".
• A diff between runs turns a data pull into an alert: new_advertisers, lost_advertisers.
• Honest coverage. Roughly 1 in 5 commercial keywords has no advertiser in this data and about 1 in 6 returns ad domains only; those keywords come back as rows that say so.

How to find advertisers for a keyword in Google Ads

1. Click Try for free and open the Input tab.
2. Paste your keywords into Keywords, one per line, up to 500. They are trimmed, lowercased and de-duplicated, so Car Insurance and car insurance count as one.
3. Pick the Location and Language of the ads, and leave Recency window at 7 days.
4. Click Start, then read Overview for one line per keyword, or Changes since last run.
5. Add an Apify Schedule — weekly works well — so diff has an earlier run to compare against.

{
  "keywords": ["car insurance", "vpn", "cordless impact wrench"],
  "country": "2840",
  "language_code": "en",
  "recencyWindowDays": 7
}

What data you get per keyword

One dataset row per keyword, 23 fields. A shortened real row:

{
  "keyword": "car insurance",
  "location_code": 2840,
  "language_code": "en",
  "status": "rich",
  "not_found": false,
  "coverage_note": "Shows the top 10 advertisers and top 10 ad domains for this keyword — not a complete list of everyone advertising on it.",
  "advertisers_found": 10,
  "ad_domains_found": 10,
  "advertisers": [
    { "advertiser_id": "AR03513828614485311489", "name": "Save Money Car Insurance",
      "verified": true, "approx_ads_count": 52, "advertiser_country": "US", "rank": 1 }
  ],
  "ad_domains": ["uscarinsurance.org", "usacarinsurance.com"],
  "creatives_total": 38,
  "creatives": [
    { "advertiser_id": "AR03513828614485311489", "creative_id": "CR14640892953367674881",
      "title": "Save Money Car Insurance", "format": "text", "days_running": 90, "is_live": true,
      "first_shown": "2026-04-17 21:31:20 +00:00", "last_shown": "2026-07-17 08:22:57 +00:00",
      "transparency_url": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR03513828614485311489/creative/CR14640892953367674881?region=US" }
  ],
  "days_running": 90,
  "is_live": true,
  "format_mix": { "text": 15, "image": 17, "video": 6, "other": 0 },
  "longest_running_creative": { "creative_id": "CR14640892953367674881", "days_running": 90 },
  "cpc": 48.17,
  "search_volume": 823000,
  "competition": "HIGH",
  "cpc_available": true,
  "diff": { "since": "2026-07-13T12:00:00.000Z", "new_advertisers": ["AR12345678901234567"],
            "lost_advertisers": [], "new_creatives": 12, "lost_creatives": 4 },
  "source": "primary",
  "checked_at": "2026-07-20T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Field	Type	What it tells you
keyword	string	The normalized keyword
location_code	integer	Market checked (2840 = US)
language_code	string	Language of ads and keyword data
status	string	rich (5+ advertisers), thin (1-4), domains_only, no_advertisers_found
not_found	boolean	No advertiser and no domain found — a result, not an error
coverage_note	string	What the row covers, and where it was cut
advertisers_found	integer	Named advertisers, 0-10
ad_domains_found	integer	Ad domains, 0-10
advertisers[]	array	advertiser_id, name, verified, approx_ads_count, advertiser_country, rank
ad_domains[]	array	Normalized, de-duplicated domains
creatives_total	integer	Creatives across all advertisers here
creatives[]	array	creative_id, title, format, first_shown, last_shown, days_running, is_live, transparency_url
days_running	integer/null	Age of the longest-running creative
is_live	boolean	A creative ran inside your recency window
format_mix	object	text/image/video/other; adds up to creatives_total
longest_running_creative	object/null	Creative with the highest days_running
cpc	number/null	Advertiser cost per click, 2 decimals
search_volume	integer/null	Average monthly searches
competition	string/null	Advertiser competition; null = not measured
cpc_available	boolean	False when no CPC data — not the same as not_found
diff	object/null	since, new_advertisers[], lost_advertisers[], new_creatives, lost_creatives
source	string	primary, fallback-creatives, advertisers-only, fallback-cpc
checked_at	string	When the keyword was observed

Change tracking needs a schedule

The diff field answers what a single pull cannot: who entered the auction and who left since the last time you looked. That needs an earlier run, so after every delivered row the Actor stores a small snapshot — keyword, market, language, observation time, advertiser and creative IDs — for 60 days.

• The first run for a keyword × market × language has nothing to compare with, so diff is null. The key is always there: empty lists mean "measured, nothing moved", null means "no earlier observation yet".
• Run it on a schedule to get a diff at all — roughly every 7 days matches how fast advertiser line-ups move. One-off runs weeks apart still work; since shows the older date.
• Snapshots are per keyword × market × language, so a US line-up is never compared against a UK one. A keyword with not_found: true still stores an observation, so an advertiser returning next week is reported in new_advertisers.
• Cached rows keep the diff measured at observation time and never overwrite the snapshot; an unreadable snapshot gives diff: null and every other field as usual.

Input parameters

Input	Type	Default	Notes
keywords	array	required	1-500 keywords; trimmed, lowercased, de-duplicated
country	select	United States	Market the ads are checked in — 92 countries
language_code	select	en	Language of the ads and keyword data — 45 languages
recencyWindowDays	integer	7	A creative counts as live when last shown within this many days

Full descriptions live on the Input tab. It also runs from the API tab, the JavaScript and Python clients, and through mcp.apify.com.

How much does the Google Ads advertiser tracker cost?

Pay per event — for answers, not runtime.

Event	When it fires	Price
Actor start	Once per run	$0.02
Ads transparency keyword	Once per delivered keyword	$0.039 or lower

• A keyword with no advertisers is a delivered row and is billed — "nobody is bidding here" is an answer, and often the most useful cell in the sheet.
• A keyword whose data could not be retrieved is not delivered and not billed, and repeating a keyword within 24 hours re-delivers the cached row unbilled.

Google Ads advertiser tracker vs ad spy tools and manual research

	This Actor	Transparency Center by hand	SaaS ad-spy suites
Input	500 keywords per run	One advertiser at a time	Keyword or domain
Advertiser identity	ID, name, country, rank	Visible, not exportable	Yes
CPC + search volume	On every row	No	Usually a separate module
Change diff between runs	Built in	Manual	Sometimes, on higher plans
Output	Dataset, API, JSON/CSV/Excel	Screenshots	Dashboard, export limits
Commitment	Per keyword	Manual work	Monthly subscription

What this actor does not do

• It does not return a complete list of everyone advertising on a keyword. The public data gives a top slice: up to 10 named advertisers and up to 10 ad domains per keyword, and coverage_note says so in every row, including when a longer list was trimmed by rank.
• It does not find advertisers where the source has none. Some keywords return no advertiser at all — roughly 22% of commercial keywords in our sample, and a further ~17% return ad domains only. Those rows are delivered and billed with not_found: true, never dropped in silence.
• It does not return unlimited creatives per advertiser: the list is capped by the source (40 in our measurements) and the row says when that cap was hit.
• It does not round unknowns to zero. Missing CPC is cpc: null with cpc_available: false, and unmeasured competition stays null, never "LOW".
• It does not report ad spend, budgets, impressions or win rates. approx_ads_count is the source's own approximation of how many ads an advertiser runs.
• It does not track more than one market per run, and produces no diff on the first run.
• It does not log into Google, touch your Google Ads account, or bypass any protection.

FAQ

How do I find out who is advertising on a keyword in Google Ads?

Submit the keyword and a market. The row returns up to 10 named advertisers with their IDs, verification status and country, up to 10 ad domains, and the creatives each advertiser is running.

Is this the same as the Google Ads Transparency Center?

It reads the same public data, but the Transparency Center is browsed one advertiser at a time and exports nothing. This Actor is keyword-first for 500 keywords per run, resolves the advertisers, adds CPC and volume, and reports what changed since your previous run.

Why does a keyword come back with no advertisers?

Because the public data has none for it — roughly one in five commercial keywords. The row is delivered with not_found: true and a note that says so, instead of disappearing.

Why is cpc null when advertisers were found?

CPC and volume come from keyword planning data, which does not cover every phrase — product names in particular. That is cpc_available: false, and says nothing about who is bidding.

Does it work outside the United States?

Yes — 92 markets and 45 languages, one market per run. CPC coverage is narrower than the market list; where planning data is missing you still get advertisers and creatives.

Related actors

• Google Local Pack Tracker — who owns the map pack for the same commercial phrases.
• Website Traffic Estimator — size up an advertiser's site once you know who they are.

Legal & support

• This Actor returns public advertising transparency data that Google itself publishes about advertisers and the ads they run, plus aggregated keyword planning metrics. It collects no personal data and returns no end-user identities.
• Data is retrieved through a licensed data API — no login, no account takeover, no anti-bot circumvention, no automated browsing of Google.
• Output is a point-in-time observation of public data, provided as-is for competitive research — not an audited record of advertising activity or spend, and not a prediction.
• Coverage limits are disclosed in the row itself, not buried here: the top-10 cap per keyword, keywords with no advertisers, and the creative cap per advertiser.
• You are responsible for using the output in line with the law in your jurisdiction and the terms of the platforms you advertise on. Google and Google Ads are trademarks of Google LLC; this Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.
• Questions or a bug? Open an issue on the Issues tab; see API for integration.

SEO keywords

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