# Google Ads Transparency API — Competitor Ads by Domain (`jmayniac/google-ads-transparency-api`) Actor

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

## Pricing

$3.00 / 1,000 ad creatives

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 API — competitor ads by domain

Pull the ads a company is running on Google, straight from Google's public Ads
Transparency Center. One dataset row per ad creative: advertiser, domain,
region, first/last shown dates, days running, the creative asset URL and a
direct link to the ad.

### Input

```json
{
  "domains": ["nike.com", "booking.com"],
  "regions": ["US", "GB"],
  "maxAdsPerDomain": 100,
  "onlyActiveAds": true
}
```

- `domains` — bare domains (full URLs are reduced to their host).
- `regions` — US, GB, DE, CA, JP, FR, AU, IN, BR, MX, ES, IT, NL, PL, SE, SG,
  AE, ZA, KR, TW, HK, ID, TR.
- `maxAdsPerDomain` — 1–100 per domain and region (Google serves up to 100 per request).
- `onlyActiveAds` — drop creatives last seen more than 30 days ago.

### Output fields

`domain`, `region`, `advertiserId`, `advertiserName`, `creativeId`,
`formatCode`, `firstShown`, `lastShown`, `firstShownEpoch`, `lastShownEpoch`,
`daysRunning`, `imageUrl`, `videoUrl`, `adUrl`, `scrapedAt`.

### Notes

- No proxies, logins or API keys are needed: the Actor calls the same public
  endpoint the Transparency Center web front end uses.
- Google returns at most 100 creatives per domain and region per request; for
  very large advertisers this is a sample of the most recent creatives rather
  than the entire archive.
- Ads are returned per (domain, region) pair, so requesting several regions
  multiplies the row count.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Bare domains to pull ads for, e.g. nike.com, booking.com, sneakerbrand.io. Full URLs are accepted and reduced to their host. One dataset row per ad creative.

## `regions` (type: `array`):

ISO country codes. Supported: US, GB, DE, CA, JP, FR, AU, IN, BR, MX, ES, IT, NL, PL, SE, SG, AE, ZA, KR, TW, HK, ID, TR. Ads are collected per region.

## `maxAdsPerDomain` (type: `integer`):

Upper bound of ad creatives returned per domain per region. Google serves up to 100 per request; higher values are clamped to 100.

## `onlyActiveAds` (type: `boolean`):

When true, drops creatives whose lastShown date is older than 30 days so the output is close to the live ad rotation.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "regions": [
    "US"
  ],
  "maxAdsPerDomain": 100,
  "onlyActiveAds": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

advertiser, domain, region, creativeId, firstShown, lastShown, daysRunning, imageUrl/videoUrl and a direct transparency-center link.

# 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 = {
    "domains": [
        "nike.com"
    ],
    "regions": [
        "US"
    ],
    "maxAdsPerDomain": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("jmayniac/google-ads-transparency-api").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 = {
    "domains": ["nike.com"],
    "regions": ["US"],
    "maxAdsPerDomain": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("jmayniac/google-ads-transparency-api").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 '{
  "domains": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "regions": [
    "US"
  ],
  "maxAdsPerDomain": 100
}' |
apify call jmayniac/google-ads-transparency-api --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/KCnuj3BO6KNDDRgBN/builds/YLXqyYv96MVKokOxB/openapi.json