Competitor Ad Intelligence — Spy on Rivals' Google Ads (No API Key)

See exactly what ads your competitors are running on Google — in one report. Enter a brand or domain and get their active-ad volume, creative format mix, newest creatives, sample previews with preview + transparency URLs, and a plain-English ad-strategy summary. Powered by Google's Ads Transparency Center, queried directly — no browser scraping, no API key, no login, no cookies.

🏆 Why this competitor ad spy?

Per-brand strategy report + every creative · bulk competitors per run · format mix · newest/oldest creative dates · preview + transparency URLs · export to JSON / CSV / Excel. The unofficial Google Ads Transparency Center API alternative for performance marketers, agencies and founders who want to reverse-engineer a rival's advertising playbook in seconds.

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✨ What this Actor does / Key features

• 🎯 Brand → strategy report — type a competitor's name (or domain) and get a decision-ready playbook, not a raw dump of every ad.
• 📊 Creative format mix — image / video / display / text breakdown, so you can read a rival's channel strategy at a glance.
• 🔥 Dominant formats + freshness — see the leading formats and the newest/oldest creative dates to gauge how aggressive and current their advertising is.
• 🖼️ Sample creatives — per-ad rows with previewUrl and Google transparencyUrl links, dimensions, first/last-shown dates, days-running and active status.
• 🧾 Estimated active ads — how many ads the advertiser is running right now.
• 📝 Plain-English summary — a strategySummary you can paste straight into a competitive-audit deck.
• 🌍 Region targeting — focus on a specific country (ISO code) or search worldwide with anywhere.
• 🧠 Auto brand resolution — brand names are resolved to Google advertiser IDs automatically; or search directly by domain.
• 📦 Bulk + API — analyze a whole competitor set in one run; export or pull via the Apify API.
• 🔑 Official source, key-free — Google Ads Transparency Center data queried directly, so there's no fragile page scraping, token, login or cookie.

🚀 Quick start (3 steps)

1. Configure — add competitor brand names (e.g. Nike, HubSpot) and/or domains (nike.com), pick a region (or anywhere) and a sample size.
2. Run — click Start. The Actor resolves each brand, queries the Transparency Center and compiles a report per competitor.
3. Get your data — read the strategy summary in the Output tab, or export the dataset to JSON, CSV, Excel or XML (or the Apify API).

📥 Input

Supply at least one brands entry and/or one domains entry. Everything else is optional.

Example — benchmark two brands in the US

{
  "brands": ["Nike", "HubSpot"],
  "region": "US",
  "maxAdsPerBrand": 60
}

Example — search by domain, worldwide

{
  "domains": ["nike.com", "adidas.com", "underarmour.com"],
  "region": "anywhere",
  "maxAdsPerBrand": 100
}

Example — deep sample of a single competitor in Germany

{
  "brands": ["Zalando"],
  "region": "DE",
  "maxAdsPerBrand": 300
}

Field	Type	Description
brands	array	Competitor / advertiser brand names to analyze; resolved automatically to advertiser IDs (e.g. Nike, HubSpot).
domains	array	Alternatively (or additionally), search ads by advertiser domain (e.g. nike.com).
region	string	Country to search ads in (ISO code such as US, GB, DE, TR) or anywhere for worldwide. Default anywhere.
maxAdsPerBrand	integer	Sample size per competitor for the format-mix analysis. Default 60, min 10, max 300.

Tip: Add several brands or domains in a single run to benchmark a whole category and see who is advertising hardest and in which formats.

📤 Output

The dataset contains a per-brand strategy summary row plus individual creative rows, distinguished by rowType. Exportable to JSON, CSV, Excel or XML. Here is a trimmed sample of both row types:

[
  {
    "rowType": "summary",
    "brand": "Nike, Inc.",
    "domain": "nike.com",
    "regionSearched": "US",
    "estimatedActiveAds": "8000-9000",
    "adsAnalyzed": 60,
    "formatMix": { "IMAGE": 52, "DISPLAY": 8, "VIDEO": 0, "TEXT": 0 },
    "dominantFormats": ["IMAGE", "DISPLAY"],
    "newestCreativeDate": "2026-05-30",
    "oldestCreativeDate": "2025-11-02",
    "strategySummary": "Nike, Inc. is running roughly 8000-9000 ads on Google. Creative mix is led by IMAGE + DISPLAY ads. Most recent creative seen 2026-05-30."
  },
  {
    "rowType": "ad",
    "brand": "Nike, Inc.",
    "format": "IMAGE",
    "dimensions": "300x250",
    "previewUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/.../creative/...",
    "transparencyUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/...",
    "firstShown": "2026-04-11",
    "lastShown": "2026-05-30",
    "daysRunning": 49,
    "isActive": true
  }
]

💡 Use cases

• Pre-launch recon — check how many ads a competitor runs and in what formats before you spend a dollar.
• Monthly competitive report — track rivals' active-ad volume and creative mix over time on a schedule.
• Creative inspiration — pull a competitor's live creatives (with preview URLs) to brief your designers.
• Category benchmark — run 10 brands and compare who's advertising hardest and in which formats.
• Media-buying prep — read a rival's format/creative mix before allocating budget across channels.
• Agency pitches — build a competitive ad audit slide in minutes for a new-business deck.

👥 Who uses it

Performance marketers · agencies & consultants · founders & growth teams · media buyers · creative & UGC teams · market researchers · competitive-intelligence analysts · PPC specialists.

💰 Pricing

This Actor runs on a simple pay-per-result model — you pay per competitor report (and creatives), with no subscription and no separate Apify platform fees to calculate. Try it on the free tier first, then scale up. See the Pricing tab on this page for the current rate.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal to spy on competitor ads? Yes. Google's Ads Transparency Center publishes advertiser ad data specifically for public transparency. This Actor only reads that publicly available data; you remain responsible for using it in compliance with Google's terms and applicable laws.

Does Google Ads Transparency Center have a public API — and is this an API alternative? There is no official Google Ads Transparency Center API, so this Actor acts as an unofficial API alternative — it queries the Transparency Center directly and returns structured data with no key, login or cookie.

Do I need an API key or a login? No. Just enter brand names or domains and run. The Actor queries Google's Ads Transparency Center key-free — no API token, no login, no cookies.

How do I see what ads a competitor is running on Google? Enter the competitor's brand name or domain and the Actor compiles a report showing their active-ad volume, creative format mix and newest creatives from Google's Ads Transparency Center, plus per-creative preview and transparency links.

Can I search by domain instead of brand name? Yes — use the domains field. Brand names in brands are auto-resolved to advertiser IDs; domains are searched directly.

How do I export competitor ad data to CSV or JSON? Every run writes a clean dataset you can export to CSV, Excel or JSON, or pull via the Apify API — the per-brand summary plus every sampled creative with its format, preview URL and dates.

How much data can I get? Set maxAdsPerBrand up to 300 creatives sampled per competitor for the format-mix analysis, and add as many brands/domains as you like in one run. The summary also reports Google's estimated total active-ad volume, which can run into the thousands.

Can I compare several competitors at once? Yes. Add multiple brands or domains in one run and each produces its own compiled report, so you can benchmark who is advertising hardest and in which formats across a whole category.

Does this cover Meta / TikTok ads too? This version focuses on Google — the highest-coverage, key-free source — which reveals most of a brand's paid-search and display strategy. Pair it with the Meta Ad Library scraper below for cross-platform coverage.

Can I run it on a schedule? Yes — schedule recurring runs to track competitors' ad activity, format mix and creative freshness over time.

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Actor	What it does
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👉 Browse all logiover scrapers on Apify Store — 180+ actors across real estate, jobs, crypto, social media & B2B data.

⏰ Scheduling & integration

Schedule this Actor on Apify to track competitors' ad volume, format mix and creative freshness weekly or monthly, and diff datasets to spot new campaigns. Export results to JSON, CSV or Excel, sync to Google Sheets, or push to your database, BI tools and webhooks through the Apify API. Connect it to Make, n8n or Zapier to feed a competitive-intelligence dashboard or an automated client-reporting pipeline.

⭐ Support & feedback

Need an extra field or another region? Open an issue on the Issues tab — response is usually fast. If this Actor saves you time, a ★★★★★ review on the Store page genuinely helps and is hugely appreciated. 🙏

⚖️ Legal

This Actor extracts only publicly available advertising data from Google's Ads Transparency Center and is intended for legitimate competitive research, market analysis and creative reference. You are responsible for complying with Google's terms of service, GDPR and any applicable local laws.

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📝 Changelog

2026-07-06

• ✨ README overhaul: richer output sample, ready-to-run example scenarios, cross-promo links, and clearer quick-start.

2026-07-01

• Maintenance pass: re-verified end-to-end on live data and confirmed successful runs within the 5-minute quality window on the default input.
• Sharpened Store metadata (SEO title & description) and expanded the FAQ with high-intent, long-tail questions for easier discovery in Google and Apify Store search.
• Added ready-to-run example tasks that cover common real-world use cases.

2026-06-15

• Reliability pass: re-verified end-to-end on live data with real-world inputs. Routine maintenance build.

2026-06-07

• Docs: added coverage for using this as a Google Ads Transparency Center API alternative, scraping without login, and exporting competitor ad data to CSV/JSON.

2026-06-05

• 🛡️ Reliability fix: results are no longer dropped by strict output validation — runs now complete cleanly even at high volume (thousands of results).
• ⚡ Stability & performance hardening; fresh rebuild.

2026-06-04

• Verified live & refreshed build — reliability/maintenance pass.