# Google Ads Transparency Scraper API — Competitor Ad Monitor (`kittiwake/google-ads-transparency-scraper`) Actor

Google Ads Transparency Center scraper: every ad a competitor runs on Google — text, image and video, first and last shown, creative URL — by advertiser ID or domain. Watch mode returns only new ads.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/kittiwake/google-ads-transparency-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Kittiwake Data](https://apify.com/kittiwake) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.05 / 1,000 ad returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 API — Competitor Ad Monitor

**A Google Ads Transparency Center scraper and competitor ads monitor.** Give it advertiser IDs or
domains; get back every ad Google publishes for them — **text, image and video**, first and last
shown, days running, the creative image or preview, and a link to the ad's page on the
Transparency Center. Switch on **watch mode** and schedule it: after the first run you get only the
**new ads** your competitors launched. An **ad library API** for Google, pay per ad.

### What it is for

- **Competitive intelligence** — see which ads a competitor is running on Google Search, YouTube
  and Display right now, and how long each one has run (an ad kept running for months is often one that works).
- **New-ad alerts** — schedule `mode: "watch"` daily or weekly; each run returns only ads that are
  new since the last one.
- **Agencies and brand teams** — who else advertises on your domain (resellers, affiliates,
  impersonators): a domain query returns every advertiser Google lists for it.
- **Creative research** — pull the archived creative images for a swipe file.

### Quick start

**Every recent ad for two advertisers (the default):**

```json
{ "advertisers": ["shopify.com", "notion.so"] }
```

**Daily new-ad alerts for a competitor, in Germany only:**

```json
{
  "advertisers": ["AR01625195283841286145"],
  "region": "DE",
  "mode": "watch",
  "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 100
}
```

The advertiser ID (`AR…`) is in the URL of the advertiser's page on adstransparency.google.com.
A **domain** returns the ads Google lists for that domain, which can include other advertisers
pointing at it — use the ID when you want one advertiser only.

### Input

| field | type | default | what it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| `advertisers` | string\[] | **required** | Advertiser IDs (`AR` + 20 digits) or domains (`https://`, paths and `www.` are stripped). Duplicates read once; anything else is skipped and listed in `RUN_SUMMARY` |
| `region` | string | `anywhere` | Where the ads were shown: `anywhere` or an ISO country code (US, GB, DE, FR, …) |
| `mode` | `scan` | `watch` | `scan` | `scan` returns every ad read. `watch` returns the baseline on the first run, then only new ads |
| `maxAdsPerAdvertiser` | integer | `50` | How many of the most recently shown ads to read per advertiser or domain (max 1000) |
| `stateStoreName` | string | `google-ads-transparency-state` | Named key-value store that remembers which ads you have seen. One name per watchlist |
| `requestDelayMs` | integer | `2000` | Pause between requests. Never less than 2000 |

### Output

One row per ad:

```json
{
  "status": "ok",
  "target": "shopify.com",
  "region": "anywhere",
  "advertiserId": "AR01625195283841286145",
  "advertiserName": "Shopify Inc.",
  "creativeId": "CR01007377088853835777",
  "format": "text",
  "firstShown": "2024-01-10T08:00:00.000Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-09-26T07:08:58.000Z",
  "daysShown": 982,
  "domain": "shopify.com",
  "previewUrl": null,
  "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/4825728183040533272",
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR01625195283841286145/creative/CR01007377088853835777?region=anywhere",
  "changeType": "baseline",
  "message": null,
  "checkedAt": "2026-09-26T07:25:40.053Z"
}
```

- `format` is `text`, `image` or `video`. `imageUrl` is Google's archived creative image;
  `previewUrl` is Google's render script for text and video ads (open the `adUrl` to watch a video).
- `changeType`: `baseline` (first run for this advertiser and region), `new` (not seen before and
  first shown after your last run), `known` (seen before), `resurfaced` (not seen before, but
  first shown before your last run — it was just outside the ads read last time). Watch mode
  returns only `new` after the baseline.
- **Status rows.** An advertiser or domain with no ads, or one that failed, gets one row with
  `status` = `no-ads`, `request-failed` or `shape-changed` and a `message`. Status rows are never
  charged. The **Run status** dataset view lists them.
- A run summary is saved as `RUN_SUMMARY` in the run's key-value store.

Regions and impression bands per ad are not included: Google does not put them in its ad
listing, and fetching them would take one extra request per ad.

### What you pay for

| event | price | when |
|---|---|---|
| **Ad returned** | $0.0015 | one ad row written — $1.50 per 1,000 ads |
| New ad detected | $0.005 | an ad is new since your last run. Never on the first (baseline) run |

Apify Store discounts apply by subscription plan: the prices above are the Free-plan prices;
Starter pays 10% less, Scale 20% less and Business 30% less on every event.

You are charged only after an advertiser's ads were read, written and remembered. Nothing is
charged for a status row, a failed request, or — in watch mode — an ad you have already seen. The
run stops at the spending limit you set; rows already saved are yours.

### If Google changes its site

The Transparency Center has no public API; this Actor reads the same data Google's own page loads.
If Google changes that, the Actor **fails loudly**: a `shape-changed` row per advertiser, an error
in the log, and a failed run if nothing could be read — never a quiet empty dataset that looks
like "no ads". If Google refuses requests (HTTP 403 or 429), the run stops at once and does not
retry. We fix shape changes; open an issue with the run ID.

### Data, privacy and legal notes

- **Source.** Google's **Ads Transparency Center**, the public ad repository Google publishes
  (for the EU, as the ad repository that DSA Art. 39 requires of very large online platforms).
  The data comes from the site's own endpoints, as the public page loads them, with no login. As of
  2026-09-26 `adstransparency.google.com` publishes **no robots.txt** (it answers 404). The
  Actor makes one request at a time, at least 2 seconds apart, with an identifying User-Agent, and
  uses no proxies or rotated identities.
- **Advertiser names.** Google verifies advertisers and publishes their names. **Some verified
  advertisers are individuals**, not companies. This Actor emits only the advertiser ID and the
  name Google itself publishes — nothing else about the advertiser — and leaves the name empty when
  what Google publishes is an e-mail address. If you process these rows you are responsible for
  your own lawful basis under the data-protection law that applies to you.
- Ad creatives belong to their advertisers. Use them for research and monitoring, not
  republication.
- Nothing here is legal advice. Check Google's terms and your own use case.

### FAQ

**Where do I find an advertiser ID?** Search the advertiser on adstransparency.google.com and copy
the `AR…` part of the page URL. Or just give the domain.

**Is this the Google Ads Transparency Center API?** Google does not offer one. This Actor gives you
the same data as JSON, CSV or Excel, and over the Apify API.

**Can I get new-ad alerts?** Yes: `mode: "watch"` plus an Apify schedule. Add an Apify
integration (Slack, e-mail, webhook) on the dataset to be notified.

**Does it cover YouTube and Display ads?** The Transparency Center covers ads across Google's
services, and this Actor returns what it lists, by format (text, image, video). It does not say
which surface each ad ran on.

**Why do domain results include other companies?** Google lists every advertiser whose ads point
at a domain. That is useful for spotting resellers and impersonators; use the `AR…` ID to see one
advertiser only.

**Can I export to CSV or Excel?** Yes. The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML.

### Support

Use the **Issues** tab on this Actor. Include the run ID and the input you used.

# Actor input Schema

## `advertisers` (type: `array`):

Advertiser IDs from the Ads Transparency Center (AR followed by 20 digits, from the advertiser page URL) or website domains. A domain returns the ads Google lists for that domain, which can include other advertisers (resellers, affiliates) pointing at it. Duplicates are read once; anything that is neither is skipped and listed in the run summary.

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

Where the ads were shown. "anywhere" means no filter; otherwise an ISO country code. Each region keeps its own history for watch mode.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

scan: return every ad read (up to the limit below). watch: the first run records a baseline and returns it; later runs return only ads that are new since the last run. Schedule watch mode daily or weekly for competitor ad alerts.

## `maxAdsPerAdvertiser` (type: `integer`):

How many of the most recently shown ads to read for each advertiser or domain. Large advertisers have tens of thousands.

## `stateStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store that remembers which ads each advertiser has already shown you. Use a different name per watchlist if you run several.

## `requestDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Pause between requests to the Ads Transparency Center. Never less than 2000.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "advertisers": [
    "shopify.com",
    "notion.so"
  ],
  "region": "anywhere",
  "mode": "scan",
  "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 50,
  "stateStoreName": "google-ads-transparency-state",
  "requestDelayMs": 2000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `ads` (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 = {
    "advertisers": [
        "shopify.com",
        "notion.so"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("kittiwake/google-ads-transparency-scraper").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 = { "advertisers": [
        "shopify.com",
        "notion.so",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("kittiwake/google-ads-transparency-scraper").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 '{
  "advertisers": [
    "shopify.com",
    "notion.so"
  ]
}' |
apify call kittiwake/google-ads-transparency-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/lnfgtiGjjILJPfTXY/builds/HQlalLQMiEiXAZWqk/openapi.json