Facebook Ads Monitor

Collect active ads from Meta Ad Library by advertiser Page ID or keyword, export their creative content, and compare observations across runs. No Facebook login or customer cookies are required.

Use it for competitor ad research, creative reviews, and recurring advertiser monitoring. Results include ad copy, image and video URLs, carousel cards, calls to action, destination URLs, advertiser details, and source links.

Quick start

1. Enter an advertiser's numeric Page ID or one or more keywords.
2. Choose a country and the maximum number of ads per target.
3. Run the Actor and export the Dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

For recurring monitoring, reuse a monitorKey and the same country. You can schedule the same input in Apify. Omit monitorKey for one-off collection.

{
  "pageIds": ["15087023444"],
  "country": "US",
  "maxAdsPerTarget": 25,
  "maxTargetSeconds": 60,
  "maxRunSeconds": 240,
  "monitorKey": "my-competitors"
}

Find a Page ID in the view_all_page_id parameter of an advertiser's Meta Ad Library URL. Keyword searches use a keywords array. When using keywords alone in the input form, clear the prefilled Page ID to avoid checking both.

Pricing

$1.50 per 1,000 returned ad observations + $0.03 per Page ID or keyword checked. Compute and Apify proxy usage are included. Prices are the same across Apify plan tiers.

Example	Total
1 target, 25 returned ads	$0.0675
1 target, 1,000 returned ads	$1.53
10 targets, 100 returned ads each	$1.80

Each run charges for its returned observations, including unchanged ads. Comparison is included. A checked target incurs its check fee even if the search returns no ads or is blocked; its outcome is recorded in SUMMARY. Duplicate input targets are checked once. Targets skipped because of time or spending limits incur no check fee.

Set Maximum charge per run to control spending. At least $0.0315 is required to begin a target. Collection stops when the remaining budget cannot pay for another target or observation. Results limited by spending are explicitly marked partial.

Input

Field	Purpose	Default
pageIds	Advertiser Page IDs with exact advertiser filtering	Nike in the example form
keywords	Keyword searches using Meta's relevance matching	None
country	Uppercase two-letter country code, or ALL	US
maxAdsPerTarget	Maximum unique ads returned per target	25
maxTargetSeconds	Collection time allowed per target	60 seconds
maxRunSeconds	Collection time budget for the whole run	240 seconds
maxScrolls	Pagination attempts per target	30
monitorKey	Optional name used to compare recurring runs	None
proxyConfiguration	Optional proxy configuration	Apify residential in the selected country

Provide 1-100 unique targets. These are input ceilings, not guarantees that all requested targets or ads will fit within a run. For larger collections, increase the per-target and overall time budgets as well as the result limit. Storage and shutdown can take additional time, so set an Apify run timeout too.

Use different monitor names for different clients. Country and target changes use separate history scopes. Concurrent runs sharing a monitor name are rejected with MONITOR_BUSY; start the next run after the previous one finishes.

Output

Each Dataset row can include:

• Ad ID, Meta Ad Library URL, advertiser ID, name, and profile URL.
• Body text, title, description, caption, CTA, and destination URL.
• Image/video URLs and individual carousel cards.
• Source activity, source dates, publisher platforms, and observation time.
• Content quality and partial-coverage indicators.
• Monitoring labels and previous observation timestamps when a monitor is enabled.

Fields depend on what Meta exposes. Media URLs are provided as links and can expire. Downloading or permanently archiving media files is not included; archiveMedia: true is rejected in paid runs.

Understanding monitoring labels

Label	Meaning
first_observed	First usable observation in this monitor, not the campaign launch time.
changed	Observed creative content differs from the previous usable observation.
unchanged	The normalized creative content matches.
unverified	Missing content or unresolved templates prevent reliable comparison. The previous good baseline is preserved.

Dynamic product ads can display different variants between visits. Resolved product details may be in cards while the parent contains a template. CDN signature changes and carousel ordering alone do not trigger a creative change.

Missing ads are never assumed to have ended. activeChanged requires two explicit source activity values. Failed, empty, or partial collection does not erase earlier observations.

Coverage and limitations

• Only active-ad searches are supported. This Actor does not provide spend, conversions, impressions, targeting, or exhaustive ad history.
• Keyword relevance follows Meta's results; the search phrase need not appear in every ad.
• Results may be partial because of result/time/spending limits, source visibility, stalled pagination, or access failures. Check each row's coverage fields and the run's SUMMARY.
• source_exhausted means the observed search connection reported no next page, not that every ad Meta could serve has been retrieved.
• Persistent blocks, login walls, or access challenges stop collection. A blocked run with zero returned ads fails. Check fees may still apply to targets already checked.
• Monitoring history supports up to 100,000 ad IDs per target scope. Interruptions can redeliver rows; downstream automations should deduplicate by monitor, scope, ad ID, and run.
• Start a new run instead of resurrecting a previously charged run. Charged-run resurrection is rejected to avoid repeating charges.
• Persistent storage follows Apify retention and billing rules. External proxy services supplied by a customer may bill separately.

Launch validation included a 1,000-ad collection, multi-country and keyword checks, repeated observations, concurrent-monitor rejection, and real spending-limit tests. These bounded tests do not establish a long-term success rate or guarantee future source availability.

Run diagnostics

The default key-value store contains SUMMARY, with each target's outcome, coverage reason, timings, row counts, and applied billing events. Use it to distinguish an empty search from a skipped or blocked target.

Support

Open an issue on this Actor's Apify page with your run ID, input, and expected result. Remove private credentials or confidential information before sharing.