Facebook Ads Library Scraper — keyword + country competitive intel

Monitor competitor ads on Meta by keyword and country. Pass a search term and ISO country code; optionally attach your own Facebook session cookies for logged-in visibility. Get structured ad copy, CTAs, landing links, platforms, and Ad Library IDs in a dataset you can pipe to Sheets, Airtable, or your own alerts.

What you get

• Ad copy & creative signals — headline, body, caption, CTA text, display format
• Advertiser context — page name, page URL, publisher platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
• Transparency links — adArchiveId and direct Ad Library URL per ad
• Geo-scoped search — results match the country you choose (required input)
• Optional logged-in session — bring your own Meta cookies when public results are not enough

Sample output

{
  "adArchiveId": "1234567890123456",
  "pageName": "Example Brand",
  "pageUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/examplebrand",
  "title": "Summer sale — 30% off",
  "body": "Shop the collection before it ends.",
  "ctaText": "Shop now",
  "linkUrl": "https://example.com/sale",
  "publisherPlatforms": ["FACEBOOK", "INSTAGRAM"],
  "startDate": 1735689600,
  "isActive": true,
  "adLibraryUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=1234567890123456",
  "searchQuery": "skincare serum",
  "country": "US",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-21T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Use cases

• Agencies & brands — track competitor messaging and offers in a specific market
• Performance marketers — spot new creatives and CTAs by keyword vertical
• Researchers — export public transparency ads for category analysis
• Automation — schedule runs per country/keyword and diff datasets over time
• Logged-in sweeps — paste your own session cookies when Meta shows more to authenticated users

How this differs from apify/facebook-ads-scraper

	This Actor	apify/facebook-ads-scraper
Entry point	Keyword + country (required)	Page URLs or full Ad Library URLs
Focus	Thin, fast competitive keyword sweeps	Deep page-level + optional enrichment
Login	Optional bring-your-own cookies	None
Session cookies	You paste your own Meta cookies (secret input)	Not supported
Best for	"What are competitors saying about X in country Y?"	Full advertiser libraries, EU reach, e-commerce enrichment

Input

Field	Required	Description
searchQuery	Yes	Keyword or brand to search
country	Yes	2-letter ISO code (e.g. US, GB, ID) — no default
maxAds	No	Stop after N unique ads
cookies	No	Your own Meta/Facebook cookies (secret textarea) — see below

Bring your own session cookies (optional)

This Actor does not log you into Facebook, sell cookies, or automate password login. If you want a logged-in browser context, paste your own Meta cookies into the cookies input.

Supported formats:

1. JSON array — export from a browser extension or DevTools, e.g. [{"name":"c_user","value":"...","domain":".facebook.com","path":"/"}]
2. Semicolon string — c_user=123; xs=abc; datr=xyz

Cookies are applied with Playwright context.addCookies() before the Ads Library page opens. Cookie values are treated as secrets in the Apify Console (encrypted at rest) and are never logged by this Actor.

Your responsibility: only use cookies from accounts you control. Comply with Meta Terms of Service. We do not provide stolen cookies, credential stuffing, or login automation.

Run locally

npm install
npx playwright install chromium
mkdir -p storage/key_value_stores/default
cat > storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json <<'EOF'
{
  "searchQuery": "coffee",
  "country": "US",
  "maxAds": 10
}
EOF
apify run

Deploy to your Apify account (private)

This Actor is not published to Apify Store. Owner deploy steps:

1. apify login (Owner account)
2. apify push from this repo
3. Run on Apify Console with searchQuery + country
4. Optional: add your own cookies in the secret textarea if needed
5. Optional: set PPE pricing in Console if you resell runs

Technical notes

• Stack: Node.js 22, Apify SDK, Playwright (apify/actor-node-playwright Docker image)
• Method: Opens public facebook.com/ads/library search, intercepts /api/graphql/ responses, scrolls for pagination
• Cookies: Optional user-supplied session via Playwright context.addCookies() — no defaults, never logged
• No built-in login — public library works without cookies; cookies are an optional extra
• Geo-partitioned results: always set country to the market you care about