Competitor Ad Tracker: Google Ads Transparency Center (+ LinkedIn beta)

See every ad a competitor runs on Google (Search, YouTube, Display, Shopping and Maps) in one clean table, and get alerted to new and stopped ads. Enter a website domain, brand name or Google advertiser ID. The Actor pulls the ads from the public Google Ads Transparency Center and returns ad text, images, YouTube videos, first and last shown dates, countries and the landing page. Schedule it in monitor mode and you only get (and pay for) what changed.

Built for performance agencies, SaaS and e-commerce marketers and competitive-intelligence teams who want ad-spy data without a $29-$349/month subscription.

What you get

• Every Google ad format: Search text ads, YouTube video ads, Display/image ads, Shopping and Maps ads.
• Lookup by domain, brand or ID: hubspot.com, HubSpot, AR10072600183532683265. Domains give the most precise match. Brand names only match the exact advertiser (e.g. "Nike, Inc.", not "Nikena").
• Full creative details: headline, all visible ad copy, image URLs, YouTube URLs, countries shown and landing page.
• Monitor mode: label ads as new, stopped, restarted or unchanged since the last run, and output only the changes.
• Region filter: only ads shown in the US, UK, South Africa, Germany and 60+ other countries.
• No login, cookies or API keys. The Transparency Center is public by design.
• LinkedIn Ad Library (beta): see the limits below.

How to use it

1. Add one or more advertisers (domains work best).
2. Set Max ads per advertiser (newest first) and whether to include ad details.
3. Optional: add regions.
4. For tracking, switch on Monitor mode and schedule the Actor daily or weekly. The first run saves a baseline; later runs output only changes.

Example input

{
  "advertisers": ["hubspot.com", "salesforce.com"],
  "platforms": ["google"],
  "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 50,
  "includeAdDetails": true,
  "regions": ["US", "GB"],
  "monitorMode": true
}

Output

One row per ad. Download as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or use the API.

Field	Example	Notes
platform	google	linkedin for beta results
advertiserName	Hubspot, Inc.	As listed by Google
advertiserId	AR10072600183532683265
adId	CR11277772207268298753	Creative ID
format	TEXT, IMAGE, VIDEO
headline	HubSpot Customer Platform - Better Data. Better Decisions	With details
adText	Full visible ad copy	With details
mediaUrls / videoUrls	Image URLs, YouTube URLs
firstShown / lastShown	2026-01-29T08:00:00.000Z
isActive	true	Shown in the last N days (default 3)
regions	["US", "GB"]	With details
landingUrl / landingDomain	https://www.hubspot.com/
changeStatus	new, stopped, restarted, unchanged, baseline	Monitor mode
adUrl	Link to the ad in the Transparency Center

Sample row

{
  "platform": "google",
  "advertiserName": "HubSpot",
  "adId": "CR12207894138821017601",
  "format": "TEXT",
  "headline": "HubSpot Customer Platform - Better Data. Better Decisions",
  "firstShown": "2026-10-02T12:00:00.000Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-19T09:30:00.000Z",
  "isActive": true,
  "regions": ["US"],
  "landingUrl": "https://www.hubspot.com/",
  "changeStatus": "new"
}

How "stopped" is detected

• Google: an ad counts as stopped when its last shown date is older than your threshold (default 3 days). Google keeps stopped ads in the library, so this is exact.
• Ads no longer listed are only reported as stopped when the advertiser's full ad list was fetched. If the list was cut off by Max ads per advertiser, unseen ads keep their previous state instead of being falsely flagged.

LinkedIn Ad Library (beta)

Add "linkedin" to platforms to also search the LinkedIn Ad Library. It's in beta because:

• LinkedIn frequently blocks cloud and proxy IPs, so LinkedIn lookups can fail even after retries. Failed lookups are free and don't stop the Google part.
• Without a login, LinkedIn shows about the first 24 ads per advertiser.
• Public ad pages show the advertiser, ad text, headline, images or video, format, call to action and payer, but usually no dates, regions, impressions or landing URL.
• Stopped LinkedIn ads can only be detected by disappearing from the list.

Pricing

Pay per event: a charge per ad returned plus a small extra per ad when you ask for full details. In monitor mode with "only changes", you only pay for new, stopped and restarted ads. Failed lookups are free.

FAQ

Why does a brand name return a different advertiser? Google lists legal entities. Use the domain (e.g. nike.com) or the advertiser ID (AR…) for an exact match.

Is this legal? The Google Ads Transparency Center and LinkedIn Ad Library are public transparency tools. The Actor collects ad creatives and advertiser names, not personal data.