Ecom Ad Radar

Competitor Meta ads intelligence for ecommerce agencies — brand watchlist, creative change detection, winner longevity radar, and Slack alerts.

Not another one-shot Ad Library dump. This Actor remembers each brand between runs and tells you what changed.

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Who it is for

• Ecommerce / DTC media buyers tracking competitor creatives
• Performance agencies delivering weekly competitor reports
• Growth teams who need NEW / STOPPED / CHANGED signals on a schedule — not raw JSON

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What you get

Change detection (the product)

Signal	Meaning
new	Creative appeared since the last monitor run
stopped	Was active last run, missing now (paused / killed)
changed	Same Ad Library ID, fingerprint drifted (copy, CTA, offer…)
isWinner	Still live + longevity + creative score thresholds

Enrichment on every row

• longevityDays, creativeScore, offerSignals
• Cleaned DPA/DCO copy (no {{product.brand}} when card text exists)
• Platforms, CTA, start date, media URLs
• Stable creative fingerprint for diffing (v3 — ignores volatile CDN noise)

Agency outputs

Key-value	Purpose
OUTPUT_REPORT / OUTPUT_REPORT.md	One-pager: headline, winners, new / stopped / changed
OUTPUT_SUMMARY	Per-brand counts + alert list
ALERTS	Short human-readable digest

Optional Slack / webhook URL → push NEW / STOPPED / CHANGED after each monitor run.

Dataset views: Overview, New & Changed, Winners, Stopped.

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Quick start (Console)

1. Open the Actor → Input
2. Run mode = monitor
3. Brand watchlist = competitor Facebook Page IDs
   Demo only: 559929417490965 (Kylie Cosmetics) — replace with your competitors
4. Proxy = Apify RESIDENTIAL, country US (required — Meta blocks datacenter IPs)
5. Optional: paste a Slack Incoming Webhook into Slack / webhook URL
6. Run once → save as Task → Schedule daily (every 24h)

First scheduled run builds the baseline. Diff signals (new / stopped / changed) appear from the second run onward.

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Input reference

Field	Default	Notes
runMode	monitor	monitor = paid product (diff). scrape = one-shot dump
watchlist	—	List of Page IDs (agency workflow)
pageId	—	Optional single Page ID merged into watchlist
keyword	—	Used only when watchlist/pageId are empty (e.g. skincare). No diff snapshots.
country	US	Ad Library country
activeStatus	active	Use active in monitor mode
maxAds	50	Cap per brand
winnerMinDays	14	Longevity threshold for isWinner
winnerMinScore	70	Score threshold for isWinner
snapshotStoreName	ecom-ad-radar-snap-v3	Named KVS for history
webhookUrl	—	Slack or any HTTPS webhook
notifyOnlyOnChanges	true	Skip webhook when nothing changed
proxyConfiguration	Residential US	Do not switch to datacenter

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Example output row

{
  "adArchiveId": "2066267197254358",
  "pageName": "Kylie Cosmetics",
  "changeType": "new",
  "isWinner": false,
  "longevityDays": 3,
  "creativeScore": 78,
  "offerSignals": ["new_launch", "ugc_proof"],
  "ctaType": "SHOP_NOW",
  "bodyText": "your NEW everyday essential - 100% say it instantly hydrates",
  "linkUrl": "https://kyliecosmetics.com/...",
  "fingerprint": "v3:..."
}

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How it works

1. Playwright opens Meta Ad Library (handles verify / 403 HTML that still contains SSR data)
2. Parses SSR + captures GraphQL while scrolling
3. Enriches offers, score, platforms, start date; cleans DPA templates
4. Monitor mode: load previous snapshot → fingerprint diff → write next snapshot
5. Push ranked dataset + agency report + optional Slack alert

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Pricing & usage

• Sold as pay-per-event / usage on Apify Store (compute + Residential proxy passed through to the user)
• Typical agency pattern: 1 saved task per client watchlist, scheduled daily
• Pair with Meta Ad Hook & Angle AI Extractor (Layer 2) to turn durable ads (longevityDays ≥ 3) into creative briefs

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Agency retainer fit

Use this Actor as the engine behind a Competitor Intelligence Retainer:

• 5 competitor brands monitored daily
• Weekly OUTPUT_REPORT.md delivered to the client
• Slack alerts on creative launches and offer changes

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Local development

npm install
npx playwright install chromium
npm test
apify run
apify push

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Notes

• Do not paste personal Facebook cookies into the Actor
• Diff quality improves after the second scheduled run
• Deep pagination depends on Meta UI + residential proxy quality
• Page ID demo brands are for Store screenshots only — always use the client's competitors in production