# Google Ads Transparency Scraper - Competitor Ad Research (`orbifetch/google-ads-transparency-scraper`) Actor

Spy on any competitor's Google Ads: every Search, YouTube, Display and Shopping ad from the Google Ads Transparency Center, with ad copy, dates, impressions by country, platforms and targeting. Search by domain, advertiser name or ID.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/orbifetch/google-ads-transparency-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Orbifetch](https://apify.com/orbifetch) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### What does Google Ads Transparency Scraper do?

**Google Ads Transparency Scraper** shows you **every Google ad a competitor is running, or has run**, using public data from the [Google Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com). Enter a **website domain**, an **advertiser name** or an **advertiser ID** and get:

- 📝 **Ad copy**: headline, description and display URL of Search text ads, plus product titles of Shopping ads
- 🖼️ **Creatives**: image and preview URLs for text, image (Display/Shopping) and video (YouTube) ads
- 📅 **Timing**: when each ad was first and last shown, and for how many days
- 🌍 **Countries & impressions** (optional): impression ranges by country, platform breakdown (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play) and first/last shown per country
- 🎯 **Targeting** (optional): whether the advertiser targeted by demographics, locations and contextual signals

Filter by **country**, **ad format** and **recency** (e.g. only ads shown in the last 30 days), and scrape thousands of ads per advertiser.

### Why use it?

- 🕵️ **Competitor research**: see which messages, offers and landing pages your competitors are testing, and which ads they keep running (long-running ads are usually the winners).
- ✍️ **Ad copywriting**: build a swipe file of proven headlines and descriptions in your niche.
- 📈 **Agencies & lead generation**: find companies actively spending on Google Ads, see their spend footprint by country, and pitch them.
- 🌍 **Market expansion**: discover which countries competitors advertise in and when they launched there.
- 🔌 **Monitoring**: schedule weekly runs and get new competitor ads straight into Google Sheets, Slack or your database.

### How much does it cost?

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Ad scraped (including ad copy extraction) | **$0.002** |
| Ad details: countries, impressions, platforms, targeting (optional) | **+$0.002** |

**1,000 ads with copy cost $2**, or $4 with full details. Advertisers without ads cost nothing.

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free**.
2. Add competitors under **Advertisers**: domains like `nike.com`, names like `Adidas`, IDs like `AR16735076323512287233`, or Transparency Center URLs.
3. Optionally set a **Country** (`US`, `GB`, `DE`...), **Ad formats** and **Only ads shown in the last N days**.
4. Turn on **Include impressions, countries, platforms & targeting** if you need them.
5. Click **Start** and export to **Excel, CSV, JSON or HTML**, or fetch the data through the API.

### Input example

```json
{
    "advertisers": ["nike.com", "Adidas"],
    "region": "DE",
    "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 200,
    "formats": ["TEXT"],
    "shownInLastDays": 30,
    "includeDetails": true
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
    "searchInput": "nike.com",
    "advertiserId": "AR18378488041124659201",
    "advertiserName": "Nike Retail BV",
    "creativeId": "CR07748216917193654273",
    "format": "TEXT",
    "domain": "nike.com",
    "headline": "Nike Men's Trainers",
    "description": "Discover Nike Shoes Online At Nike.com. Shop The Official Nike Site.",
    "displayUrl": "nike.com",
    "firstShown": "2025-10-22T15:17:34.000Z",
    "lastShown": "2026-09-25T15:09:47.000Z",
    "daysShown": 339,
    "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/7591415529386502971",
    "impressionsMin": 15000,
    "impressionsMax": 20000,
    "platforms": ["Google Search"],
    "regions": [
        {
            "country": "IT",
            "impressionsMin": 15000,
            "impressionsMax": 20000,
            "firstShown": "2025-10-22",
            "lastShown": "2026-09-25",
            "platforms": [{ "platform": "Google Search", "impressionsMin": 15000, "impressionsMax": 20000 }]
        }
    ],
    "targeting": { "demographics": "included", "locations": "included", "contextualSignals": "included" },
    "transparencyUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR18378488041124659201/creative/CR07748216917193654273"
}
```

### FAQ

**Why are impressions empty for some countries?** Google publishes impression ranges and targeting only for ads shown in the **EU/EEA** (a Digital Services Act requirement). In other countries you still get the ad, dates and formats.

**Why do some text ads have no headline?** For some text ads Google only publishes a rendered image of the ad and no machine-readable copy. For those, `imageUrl` holds the ad screenshot.

**What does a domain search return?** Every advertiser account that promotes that website, including agencies and resellers, which is often more than a name search finds.

**Is this data public?** Yes. It all comes from Google's public Ads Transparency Center. The Actor collects no personal data.

**Something not working?** Open an issue on the **Issues** tab. We usually fix problems within days.

# Actor input Schema

## `advertisers` (type: `array`):

Competitor website domains (e.g. nike.com), advertiser names (e.g. Adidas), advertiser IDs (AR...) or Ads Transparency Center URLs. Domains return every advertiser account that promotes that website.

## `region` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown in this country (2-letter code, e.g. US, GB, DE). Leave empty for all countries.

## `maxAdsPerAdvertiser` (type: `integer`):

Newest ads come first.

## `formats` (type: `array`):

Only return these formats. Leave empty for all.

## `shownInLastDays` (type: `integer`):

0 = no limit. Use e.g. 30 to see only currently running campaigns.

## `extractText` (type: `boolean`):

Get the headline, description and display URL of text ads and product titles of Shopping ads.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Per-ad impression ranges by country, platforms (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play), first/last shown per country and targeting (demographics, locations, contextual). Billed as an extra event per ad.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Ads enriched in parallel.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy used to reach the Transparency Center.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "advertisers": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "region": "",
  "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 100,
  "formats": [],
  "shownInLastDays": 0,
  "extractText": true,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `ads` (type: `string`):

One row per ad with copy, dates and (optionally) impressions, countries, platforms and targeting.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "advertisers": [
        "nike.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("orbifetch/google-ads-transparency-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "advertisers": ["nike.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("orbifetch/google-ads-transparency-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "advertisers": [
    "nike.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call orbifetch/google-ads-transparency-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,orbifetch/google-ads-transparency-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/9KnrdG78S5NLo3clH/builds/yQ3jAMUP3vXgQo2RH/openapi.json