Facebook Ads Library Scraper

Facebook Ads Library is Meta's public archive for active and historical ads. This actor collects structured ad listing data from Facebook Ads Library search pages.

Introduction

The Facebook Ads Library scraper starts from Ads Library search URLs, reads the initially rendered results, continues through pagination when needed, and extracts structured ad data such as ad archive ID, page name, active status, dates, platforms, creatives, links, and related metadata.

Use Cases

• Ad intelligence: Monitor ads from selected keywords, brands, markets, or categories.
• Competitor research: Track creative messaging, call-to-action usage, landing pages, and advertiser activity.
• Compliance monitoring: Review public ad records and metadata over time.
• Marketing analysis: Build datasets for creative, platform, and campaign trend analysis.
• Analytics pipelines: Feed BI tools, dashboards, and internal warehousing.

Input

Provide the following fields:

• startUrls (array, required): Facebook Ads Library search URLs.
• maxItems (integer, optional): Maximum number of ad items to extract per start URL.
• proxyConfiguration (object, optional): Apify proxy settings.

Notes:

• The actor is designed for Facebook Ads Library search result URLs.
• Use URLs from facebook.com/ads/library/.
• Crawling stops per source URL when maxItems is reached.

Input Examples

1) Start URLs

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=active&ad_type=all&country=US&is_targeted_country=false&media_type=all&q=nike&search_type=keyword_unordered&sort_data[mode]=total_impressions&sort_data[direction]=desc"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Output

Each dataset item contains fields like:

{
	"originalUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=active&ad_type=all&country=US&is_targeted_country=false&media_type=all&q=nike&search_type=keyword_unordered&sort_data[mode]=total_impressions&sort_data[direction]=desc",
	"adArchiveId": "1298488261783748",
	"adId": null,
	"pageId": "112727500143177",
	"pageName": "Whatnot",
	"isActive": true,
	"startDate": 1778655600,
	"endDate": 1781938800,
	"publisherPlatform": [
		"FACEBOOK",
		"INSTAGRAM",
		"MESSENGER"
	],
	"categories": [
		"UNKNOWN"
	],
	"currency": null,
	"spend": null,
	"impressions": {
		"impressions_text": null,
		"impressions_index": -1
	},
	"reachEstimate": null,
	"title": "Whatnot: Shop, Sell, Connect",
	"body": "Take your sneaker game to the next level with incredible deals on the hottest styles⚡Live on Whatnot",
	"caption": "itunes.apple.com",
	"linkUrl": "http://itunes.apple.com/app/id1488269261",
	"displayFormat": "VIDEO",
	"ctaText": "Install now",
	"images": [],
	"videos": [
		{
			"video_hd_url": "https://video.fmlg11-1.fna.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/m366/AQOhbZcijTzfmDHbpKnwNnmHSebsqpKKs5qw0T5Nyd_oq3OeVqH0XN4TmmpzOFwdsCNsvP_M_PMdIleTitnNmcHpiIBwIoNo7CJN8yR-mLPo7Q.mp4?_nc_cat=111",
			"video_preview_image_url": "https://scontent.fmlg11-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.35426-6/699010975_787607664288614_1469594092453553849_n.jpg",
			"video_sd_url": "https://video.fmlg11-1.fna.fbcdn.net/o1/v/t2/f2/m412/AQMcbAZTj9Njbia_dStpjMKx4uDMTga3iQrwb3RSR5XSRcasCsY_Ny3W7Mwz9zzeVAg5ZuL_E3_b6GZ9pWg-zuAKJWMT3vFd6IG42uKf3A.mp4?_nc_cat=111",
			"watermarked_video_hd_url": null,
			"watermarked_video_sd_url": null
		}
	]
}

The scraper paginates through ad results and stops when maxItems is reached per start URL or when no more result items are found.

Why use the Facebook Ads Library Scraper?

• Focused: Built specifically for Facebook Ads Library search result flows.
• Structured output: Ready-to-use JSON records for automation and analysis.
• Per-URL limits: maxItems is enforced per start URL.
• Apify-native: Works with Apify datasets, request queue, and proxy config.

FAQ

• How many ads can it extract?
  Controlled by maxItems per source URL.

• What if Facebook changes the Ads Library structure?
  The actor may require updates to keep extraction stable.

Need to scrape other advertising platforms?

Check out our other scrapers:

• Google Ads.
• TikTok Ads.
• Pinterest Ads.
• Reddit Ads.

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Need help or want a custom solution?

Lexis Solutions is a certified Apify Partner. We can help with custom data extraction projects.

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Image Credit

Image credit: facebook.com.