# Google Ads Transparency Scraper (`lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper`) Actor

Extract every Google ad a brand or domain runs (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play) from the public Ads Transparency Center: creatives, previews, first/last shown, days active, countries. New-ad monitoring built in.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Quelli di Carne Genuina](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Agents
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.60 / 1,000 ad results

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 Scraper

Extract every ad a company runs on Google (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play) from the public **Google Ads Transparency Center**. Search by brand name, domain, advertiser ID or pasted URL and get creatives, formats, first/last shown dates, days active and per-country reach. No Google account, no cookies.

> Independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Google LLC. It reads only data Google publishes publicly in the Ads Transparency Center.

### What you get

One clean JSON row per ad creative (real result, shortened):

```json
{
  "creativeId": "CR04488592264313962497",
  "advertiserName": "Grocery Delivery E-Services USA Inc.",
  "domain": "hellofresh.com",
  "format": "TEXT",
  "firstShown": "2026-04-29T03:41:27.000Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-16T17:41:03.000Z",
  "shownForDays": 172,
  "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/11360510690000944312",
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR00930880903813529601/creative/CR04488592264313962497?region=US",
  "region": "US"
}
```

**Try it in 1 click: the prefilled example runs in under a minute.** Press *Start* with the prefilled input (`nike.com`, region US): in our test today it finished in 14 seconds at 512 MB. It returns up to 100 ads, so it costs at most $0.16.

**Price:** $1.60 per 1,000 ads, pay per result, no start fee. Full creative details +$2.40 per 1,000 (only if you turn them on).

### Why use this scraper

- **Up to 20% cheaper** per ad than comparable Google Ads Transparency actors, pay only for results.
- **Drop-in compatible input**: the common field names (`queries`, `domains`, `advertiserIds`, `startUrls`, `region`, `platforms`, `adFormat`, `startDate`, `endDate`, `maxAdsPerSearch`, `includeDetails`, `onlyNewAds`…) work as they do in other popular Transparency Center actors, so switching usually means changing only the actor ID.
- **Monitoring built in**: schedule it with `onlyNewAds` and get only newly launched ads.
- Lightweight HTTP requests, no browser: fast and inexpensive runs.

### What you can do with it

- **Competitor ad research**: list all creatives of a competitor and sort by `shownForDays` to find the ads that keep running (usually the ones that work).
- **Ad check / lead qualification**: feed a list of companies in `advertisers` mode and see who advertises on Google and roughly how much.
- **Creative swipe files**: collect image and video ad previews by brand, format or platform.
- **Market and regional analysis**: see in which countries each ad ran and when it was last shown.
- **New-ad alerts**: run daily with `onlyNewAds` and connect Slack, email or a webhook.

### Input

Mix any targets freely:

```json
{
  "queries": ["Nike", "hellofresh.com"],
  "domains": ["gymshark.com"],
  "advertiserIds": ["AR16735076323512287233"],
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR16735076323512287233?region=US" }],
  "resultType": "ads",
  "region": "US",
  "platforms": ["YOUTUBE"],
  "adFormat": "VIDEO",
  "startDate": "2026-01-01",
  "maxAdsPerSearch": 200,
  "includeDetails": false
}
```

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `queries` | Brand names are matched to advertisers via the Transparency Center search; domain-like values are used as domains. |
| `domains` | Ads from every advertiser that points to the domain. |
| `advertiserIds` | IDs starting with `AR`, from the advertiser page URL. |
| `startUrls` / `urlsFromFile` | Advertiser, creative or domain-search URLs; bulk lists as text, .txt/.csv link, public Google Sheet or Drive file. |
| `resultType` | `ads` (one row per creative) or `advertisers` (one row per advertiser with Google's approximate ad count). |
| `region` | Two-letter country code or `ANYWHERE`. |
| `platforms` | `SEARCH`, `YOUTUBE`, `SHOPPING`, `MAPS`, `PLAY` (empty = all). Google applies this filter to ads shown from September 2023. |
| `adFormat` | `ALL`, `TEXT`, `IMAGE`, `VIDEO`. |
| `startDate` / `endDate` | Date window, `YYYY-MM-DD`. |
| `maxAdsPerSearch` / `maxAdvertisersPerQuery` | Limits per target and per brand-name query. |
| `includeDetails` | Adds all A/B variations and the countries where the ad ran (one extra request and charge per ad). |
| `onlyNewAds` / `monitorStoreName` | Monitoring mode, remembers seen creative IDs between runs. |

### Output

`ads` mode, one item per creative:

```json
{
  "creativeId": "CR04488592264313962497",
  "advertiserId": "AR00930880903813529601",
  "advertiserName": "Grocery Delivery E-Services USA Inc.",
  "domain": "hellofresh.com",
  "format": "TEXT",
  "firstShown": "2026-04-29T03:41:27.000Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-16T17:41:03.000Z",
  "shownForDays": 172,
  "previewType": "image",
  "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/11360510690000944312",
  "previewUrl": null,
  "width": 364,
  "height": 305,
  "googleCreativeId": null,
  "googleCustomerId": null,
  "adGroupId": null,
  "versionId": null,
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR00930880903813529601/creative/CR04488592264313962497?region=US",
  "region": "US"
}
```

Text, video and rich ads come with a Google-hosted `previewUrl` plus the internal `googleCustomerId` (group ads by ad account) and `adGroupId` (group ads by campaign). With `includeDetails` each item also has `variationCount`, `variations[]` and `regionsShown[]` (`{ "region": "US", "lastShownDate": "2026-10-16" }`).

`advertisers` mode returns `advertiserId`, `name`, `legalName`, `countryCode`, `approxAdCountLow`, `approxAdCountHigh`, `verified`, `matchedQuery`, `advertiserUrl`, `region`. Ad counts are the approximate ranges Google displays.

### Pricing

Pay per event, no start fee:

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Ad creative | $0.0016 |
| Full creative detail (only with `includeDetails`) | $0.0024 |
| Advertiser summary | $0.0024 |

Example: 1,000 ads cost $1.60. Set a maximum total charge on the run to cap spending; the actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

### Migrating from scrapesage/google-ads-transparency-scraper

The input field names are the same, so in most cases you only change the actor ID (`scrapesage/google-ads-transparency-scraper` → `lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper`) and keep your JSON input.

| scrapesage input | This actor | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `queries` | `queries` | Same: brand names or domains. |
| `domains` | `domains` | Same. |
| `advertiserIds` | `advertiserIds` | Same (`AR…`). |
| `startUrls` | `startUrls` | Same: advertiser, creative or domain-search URLs. |
| `urlsFromFile` | `urlsFromFile` | Same: text list, .txt/.csv link, public Google Sheet or Drive file. |
| `resultType` | `resultType` | Same values: `ads`, `advertisers`. |
| `region` | `region` | Same: two-letter code or `ANYWHERE`. |
| `platforms` | `platforms` | Same values. |
| `adFormat` | `adFormat` | Same values. |
| `startDate` / `endDate` | `startDate` / `endDate` | Same, `YYYY-MM-DD`. |
| `maxAdsPerSearch` | `maxAdsPerSearch` | Same, default 100. |
| `maxAdvertisersPerQuery` | `maxAdvertisersPerQuery` | Same, default 5, max 10. |
| `includeDetails` | `includeDetails` | Same. |
| `detailConcurrency` | `detailConcurrency` | Same, default 6. |
| `onlyNewAds` / `monitorStoreName` | `onlyNewAds` / `monitorStoreName` | Same. Monitoring memory is not shared between actors: the first run here returns all current ads again. |
| `includeRawData` | `includeRawData` | Same. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | `proxyConfiguration` | Default here is Apify Proxy (datacenter) instead of residential; pass the residential group if you prefer it. |

**Output:** the fields in scrapesage's dataset views (`creativeId`, `advertiserName`, `advertiserId`, `domain`, `format`, `firstShown`, `lastShown`, `shownForDays`, `imageUrl`, `previewUrl`, `googleCustomerId`, `adUrl`, `region`; advertisers: `advertiserId`, `name`, `countryCode`, `approxAdCountLow`, `approxAdCountHigh`, `legalName`, `verified`, `matchedQuery`, `advertiserUrl`, `region`) are all present with the same names. This actor also adds `previewType`, `width`, `height`, `adGroupId` and `versionId` on ad rows.

**Price per 1,000 results** (public Apify Store prices, checked on 17 October 2026):

| Event | scrapesage | This actor |
|---|---|---|
| Ad creative | $2.00 | $1.60 |
| Full creative detail (optional) | $3.00 | $2.40 |
| Advertiser summary | $3.00 | $2.40 |

Speed and completeness: we have not benchmarked the two actors side by side. Run the same input on both and compare your own runs.

### Limits / not supported

- Only what the Transparency Center publishes: no spend, impressions, clicks or targeting for commercial ads. Political-ad spend reports are not collected.
- Ad text is not extracted as plain text: text, video and rich ads come as Google-hosted previews (`previewUrl` / `imageUrl`).
- One `region` per run (a two-letter country code or `ANYWHERE`). For several countries, run once per country.
- Brand-name `queries` are matched through Google's advertiser search and can hit several accounts, or a similarly named one; use `advertiserIds` for an exact advertiser. At most 10 advertisers per brand name.
- `platforms` filtering is applied by Google only to ads shown from September 2023.
- Ad counts in `advertisers` mode are Google's approximate ranges, not exact numbers.
- A/B variations and the per-country list (`regionsShown`) require `includeDetails`, which adds one request and one charge per ad.

### Monitoring new ads

1. Turn on `onlyNewAds` and give each watched brand its own `monitorStoreName`.
2. The first run returns all current ads and stores their IDs; next runs return (and bill) only new ones.
3. Create an Apify Schedule (daily or weekly) and add a Slack, email or webhook integration.

### Use it from AI agents (MCP)

The actor is available as a tool to any MCP client (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, custom agents) through the Apify MCP server:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper"
    }
  }
}
```

Then ask your agent things like *"List the YouTube video ads nike.com ran in Italy this month"* or *"Which of these 20 companies advertise on Google Search?"*. The input fields map directly to the question (brand, domain, region, platform, format, dates), and results come back as clean JSON.

### Tips

- Brand names can match several advertiser accounts: check `maxAdvertisersPerQuery` or use the exact `advertiserIds`.
- For full history of a domain across countries use `region: "ANYWHERE"`.
- Apify Proxy is on by default; switch to the residential group only if very large runs get blocked.

### Integrations and API

Call it from your code with the official Apify clients:

```python
## pip install apify-client
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper").call(run_input={"queries": ["nike.com"], "region": "US", "maxAdsPerSearch": 20})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)
```

```js
// npm i apify-client
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper').call({"queries": ["nike.com"], "region": "US", "maxAdsPerSearch": 20});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
```

No-code: use the Apify app in **n8n**, **Make** or **Zapier** (action "Run Actor", pick `lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper`), or the `langchain-apify` / CrewAI `ApifyActorsTool` integrations for AI agents. Results can also be pushed to Google Sheets, Slack, webhooks or any S3 bucket via Apify integrations.

### More tools from Quelli di Carne Genuina

**Ad intelligence**

- [Meta Ad Library Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/meta-ad-library-scraper): Facebook and Instagram ads by page, keyword or Ad Library URL, with creatives and landing pages.
- [TikTok Top Ads Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/tiktok-top-ads-scraper): top-performing TikTok ads from the Creative Center with CTR, likes and MP4 video URLs.
- [LinkedIn Ad Library Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/linkedin-ad-library-scraper): B2B ads of any company from the public LinkedIn Ad Library, with targeting and impressions.

**Competitor & SEO research**

- [Similarweb Website Traffic Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/similarweb-scraper): monthly visits, ranks, traffic sources and top countries for any list of domains.
- [Google Trends Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/google-trends-scraper): interest over time, by region, related queries and Trending Now.
- [Google Play Store Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/google-play-scraper): app search, details, top charts and reviews from Google Play, any country.

**Travel prices**

- [Google Hotels Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/google-hotels-scraper): hotel prices and every booking site's rate for any city and dates.
- [Google Flights Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/google-flights-scraper): fares, airlines, stops, price level and price calendar for any route and date.

**Retail prices**

- [Woolworths AU Product Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/woolworths-scraper): Woolworths Australia grocery prices, specials, unit prices and barcodes.
- [Coles AU Product Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/coles-scraper): Coles Australia grocery prices, half-price specials, unit prices and barcodes.

**Content & social data**

- [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/youtube-transcript-scraper): transcripts of videos, Shorts, playlists and channels as text, SRT or VTT.
- [Medium Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/medium-scraper): Medium articles by tag, author or search, with full text as Markdown.
- [Likee Scraper](https://apify.com/lagenuina_agency/likee-scraper): Likee videos, profiles and creator engagement analytics.

### FAQ

**Do I need a Google account?** No, the Transparency Center is public.

**Is there a Google Ads Transparency Center API?** Google does not offer a public API for the Transparency Center. This actor works as one: send brands, domains or advertiser IDs via the Apify API and get JSON back, from Python, JavaScript, n8n, Make, Zapier or MCP.

**How do I see all Google ads of a competitor?** Put the competitor's domain in `queries` (e.g. `"competitor.com"`), set `region` to `ANYWHERE` for every country, and raise `maxAdsPerSearch`. Sort the dataset by `shownForDays` to find the ads that ran longest.

**Is it legal?** The actor collects data Google publishes for transparency purposes. You are responsible for how you use it; check your local laws and Google's terms.

**Something broke or a field is missing?** Open an issue on the Issues tab: we answer within 24 hours.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Brand names (e.g. "Nike") are matched to advertisers through the Transparency Center search; values that look like domains (e.g. "nike.com") are treated as domains.

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

Exact landing-page domains. Returns ads from every advertiser that points to the domain.

## `advertiserIds` (type: `array`):

Advertiser IDs starting with AR (visible in the advertiser page URL).

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Advertiser pages, single creative pages or domain search pages copied from adstransparency.google.com.

## `urlsFromFile` (type: `string`):

One URL, domain or advertiser ID per line, or a single link to a .txt/.csv file, a public Google Sheet or a Google Drive file.

## `resultType` (type: `string`):

Ad creatives returns one row per ad. Advertiser summary returns one row per advertiser with Google's approximate ad count.

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

Two-letter country code (US, GB, IT, DE…) or ANYWHERE.

## `platforms` (type: `array`):

Only ads shown on these Google surfaces. Empty = all. Google applies platform filters only to ads shown from September 2023.

## `adFormat` (type: `string`):

Filter by creative format.

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown before this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

## `maxAdsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

Maximum ads collected for each domain or advertiser.

## `maxAdvertisersPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

How many matching advertisers to scrape for each brand-name query.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

One extra request per ad: adds every A/B variation and the list of countries where the ad ran with last-shown date. Billed as an extra event per ad.

## `detailConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel detail requests when full details are on.

## `onlyNewAds` (type: `boolean`):

Remember creative IDs between runs and output only ads not seen before. Schedule the actor to get new-ad alerts.

## `monitorStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store holding seen creative IDs. Use a different name per monitored target.

## `includeRawData` (type: `boolean`):

Attach the raw Transparency Center objects (debugging).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy is recommended. Switch to residential only if you see blocks on very large runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "resultType": "ads",
  "region": "US",
  "platforms": [],
  "adFormat": "ALL",
  "maxAdsPerSearch": 100,
  "maxAdvertisersPerQuery": 5,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "detailConcurrency": 6,
  "onlyNewAds": false,
  "monitorStoreName": "ads-transparency-monitor",
  "includeRawData": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {
    "queries": [
        "nike.com"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lagenuina_agency/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 = {
    "queries": ["nike.com"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lagenuina_agency/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 '{
  "queries": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call lagenuina_agency/google-ads-transparency-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lagenuina_agency/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/gTkluBk7U9rw7VGCE/builds/pGs3Dl3syIFkIzwRt/openapi.json