Facebook Ads Library Scraper — Meta Ads Scraper for Competitor Research, Ad Spy & Dropshipping

The most complete Facebook & Instagram Ads Library scraper on Apify. Three explicit modes (keyword search, full page export, single-ad detail), 240+ countries, all 6 ad categories, every Meta-exposed field including carousel cards, DPA creatives, regional regulation data, and political-ad spend ranges. Built on Chrome TLS-fingerprint impersonation so it keeps working when generic scrapers get 403'd.

Tags: facebook-ads meta-ads instagram-ads ad-library ad-spy dropshipping competitor-research creative-research ecommerce affiliate-marketing political-ads media-buying marketing-intelligence social-listening ad-analytics winning-products dtc agency-tools ad-creative-database

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Why this scraper vs. other Meta ad scrapers on Apify

Feature	This actor	Other Actor A	Other Actor B	Other Actor C
Keyword search	✅	✅	✅	✅
All ads from a page (page ID or vanity URL auto-resolved)	✅	✅	✅	❌
Single-ad detail by archive ID / URL (dedicated mode)	✅	❌	❌	❌
All 6 ad categories (incl. Financial Products)	✅	✅	✅	❌ (only 2)
240+ ISO countries in dropdown	✅	✅	✅	✅ (free-form)
Unlimited maxAds (0 = no cap)	✅	✅	✅	❌ (cap = 500)
Carousel card-level data (per-card CTA / link / video)	✅	partial	partial	❌
extra_images + extra_videos from snapshot	✅	❌	❌	❌
regional_regulation_data (EU DSA disclosures)	✅	✅	❌	❌
reach_estimate + total_active_time	✅	❌	❌	❌
containsDigitalCreatedMedia (AI-disclosure flag)	✅	❌	❌	❌
Threads platform output	✅	❌	❌	❌
Auto-solves Meta JS bot challenge (__rd_verify)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Chrome TLS fingerprint (curl_cffi impersonate)	✅	❓	❓	❓
Pure public scraping — no Facebook login required	✅	✅	✅	✅
Apify-native proxy editor (custom proxies supported)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Stream output (push as you go, partial reads safe)	✅	✅	✅	❌

Things this actor deliberately doesn't bundle (yet):

• AI-generated competitive strategy report (some actors charge extra for it)
• Sentiment analysis on ad copy
• Per-ad change-tracking over time

If you need an LLM-written competitive analysis on top of raw data, layer your own model on top — this actor focuses on giving you the richest, cleanest raw dataset so you're not locked into someone else's interpretation.

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What this actor does

A Meta Ad Library scraper (Facebook + Instagram + Audience Network + Messenger + Threads) for marketers, performance teams, agencies, and dropshippers who need fresh, structured ad data without an expensive ad-spy SaaS subscription. Point it at a brand, a keyword, or a single ad — get clean flat JSON.

Internally: hits the same public Ad Library endpoint the Meta UI uses, fingerprints itself with TLS-level Chrome impersonation, parses the SSR'd HTML for page 1, then paginates via the official GraphQL persisted query (AdLibrarySearchPaginationQuery).

Three scraping modes

Mode (scrapeType)	What you put in items	What you get
search	Keywords: nike, weight loss, iphone case	All ads matching the query, paginated
pageAds	Page IDs or URLs: https://facebook.com/nike or 15087023444	Every ad currently or previously run by that page
adDetail	Archive IDs or ad URLs: ?id=987654321...	Full creative + metadata for a single ad

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Use cases

• Ad spy & competitor research — track every Facebook & Instagram ad your competitors run, when they launched, on which platforms, in which countries.
• Creative research for dropshipping — find winning hooks, video angles, and offers being tested by other DTC brands. Filter by mediaType=video and sort by total_active_time to surface long-runners.
• Media buying intelligence — long ad lifespan → likely profitable. Pull every page's ad library, filter isActive=true, rank by start_date recency.
• Political ad transparency & journalism — funding entity, spend ranges, impression ranges, and regional disclosure data for POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS.
• Brand monitoring & trademark protection — alert when your brand name appears in unauthorized advertisers' creatives.
• Affiliate marketing — discover which offers and angles affiliates are actively promoting in your niche.
• Agency reporting — bulk-export client + competitor ad libraries into Looker, Tableau, BigQuery, Postgres, Sheets.
• AI / LLM training data — collect a clean, structured corpus of real ad copy and creatives for fine-tuning copywriting / vision models.
• EU DSA compliance research — regional_regulation_data carries disclosures specific to the EU Digital Services Act.

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Features

• No Facebook login required — scrapes the public Ad Library only.
• All ad formats — image, video, carousel (with full per-card breakdown), DPA (dynamic product ads), text.
• All 6 ad categories — ALL, POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS, EMPLOYMENT_ADS, HOUSING_ADS, CREDIT_ADS, FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_AND_SERVICES_ADS.
• 240+ countries in the dropdown — every ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, plus ALL for worldwide.
• Per-platform filtering — Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network, Messenger, Threads.
• Pagination handled automatically — set maxAds per item or leave 0 for unlimited.
• Concurrency control — process up to 20 input items in parallel with a single shared Apify proxy session.
• Resilient HTTP — curl_cffi Chrome impersonation, exponential backoff retry, automatic Meta __rd_verify JS-challenge solver, rate-limit (1675004) backoff.
• Charge-limit aware — exits cleanly when the run budget is hit, never wasting credits.
• Stream output — one push per page, so partial reads on long-running scrapes are safe.
• Flat JSON output — one row per ad creative, ready for CSV / Excel / BigQuery / Postgres without any post-processing.

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Input

{
  "scrapeType": "search",
  "items": ["nike", "adidas", "puma"],
  "country": "US",
  "adType": "ALL",
  "activeStatus": "active",
  "mediaType": "all",
  "platforms": ["FACEBOOK", "INSTAGRAM"],
  "maxAds": 200,
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "US"
  }
}

Scrape a single brand's full ad library

{
  "scrapeType": "pageAds",
  "items": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/nike",
    "15087023444"
  ],
  "country": "US",
  "activeStatus": "all",
  "maxAds": 0
}

Pull one ad by URL or archive ID

{
  "scrapeType": "adDetail",
  "items": [
    "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=987654321012345",
    "1677230640306960"
  ]
}

Full input field reference

Field	Type	Default	Description
scrapeType	enum	search	search | pageAds | adDetail
items	string[]	—	Required. Keywords / page IDs / page URLs / ad IDs (one per line in UI).
country	enum	US	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, or ALL.
adType	enum	ALL	ALL, POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS, EMPLOYMENT_ADS, HOUSING_ADS, CREDIT_ADS, FINANCIAL_PRODUCTS_AND_SERVICES_ADS.
activeStatus	enum	active	active | inactive | all
mediaType	enum	all	all | image | video | meme
platforms	string[]	[]	Empty = all. FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, AUDIENCE_NETWORK, MESSENGER, THREADS.
maxAds	integer	100	Per input item. 0 = unlimited.
maxConcurrency	integer	5	Items processed in parallel (1–20).
maxRetries	integer	5	HTTP retry attempts.
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify Residential US	Required. The Apify proxy editor supports custom proxy URLs too.

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Output

One flat JSON record per ad creative, streamed into the dataset as it's scraped.

Sample output record

{
  "adArchiveId": "1677230640306960",
  "adLibraryUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=1677230640306960&country=US",
  "pageId": "151871258163795",
  "pageName": "Amazon Fashion",
  "pageProfilePictureUrl": "https://scontent-dfw6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/...",
  "pageProfileUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/AmazonFashion/",
  "pageLikeCount": 4214235,
  "pageCategories": ["Retail company"],
  "pageIsDeleted": false,
  "adContent": "Fits that go the distance and level up your A-game.",
  "adTitle": "Amazon Fashion",
  "adLinkCaption": "amazon.com",
  "adLinkUrl": "https://www.amazon.com/b?node=...",
  "adCallToActionType": "SHOP_NOW",
  "adCallToActionText": "Shop now",
  "adFormat": "dpa",
  "imageUrls": ["https://scontent-...jpg", "..."],
  "videoUrls": [],
  "videoPreviewImageUrls": [],
  "cards": [
    {
      "title": "Sneakers",
      "body": "Free returns",
      "cta_type": "SHOP_NOW",
      "cta_text": "Shop now",
      "link_url": "https://amazon.com/...",
      "original_image_url": "https://scontent-...jpg",
      "video_hd_url": null
    }
  ],
  "startDate": "2026-02-12T08:00:00+00:00",
  "endDate": "2026-04-26T07:00:00+00:00",
  "isActive": true,
  "containsSensitiveContent": false,
  "containsDigitalCreatedMedia": false,
  "countries": ["US"],
  "platforms": ["facebook", "instagram"],
  "categories": ["UNKNOWN"],
  "impressions": {"lower_bound": "1000000", "upper_bound": null},
  "spend": null,
  "currency": null,
  "fundingEntity": null,
  "regionalRegulationData": {"finance": null, "gambling": null},
  "reachEstimate": null,
  "totalActiveTime": null,
  "collationCount": null,
  "collationId": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-29T08:59:01.004128+00:00"
}

Field reference

Field	Type	Description
adArchiveId	string	Unique Meta ad ID. Use as primary key.
adLibraryUrl	string	Direct link to the ad in the Meta Ad Library UI.
pageId / pageName	string	Advertiser page.
pageProfilePictureUrl	string	HD page avatar.
pageProfileUrl	string	Public Facebook page URL.
pageLikeCount	integer	Page total likes (snapshot at scrape time).
pageCategories	string[]	Page categories (e.g. "Retail company", "Clothing brand").
pageIsDeleted	boolean	Page no longer exists.
adContent	string	Primary body text of the ad.
adTitle / adLinkDescription / adLinkCaption	string	Headline + description shown on the ad.
adLinkUrl	string	Landing page URL (deep-link decoded).
adCallToActionType / adCallToActionText	string	CTA: SHOP_NOW, LEARN_MORE, INSTALL_NOW, etc.
adFormat	string	image | video | carousel | dpa | text
imageUrls / videoUrls	string[]	All creative URLs (HD where available).
videoPreviewImageUrls	string[]	Video poster frames.
cards	object[]	For carousel/DPA: every card with its own copy, image, CTA, link.
startDate / endDate	datetime	ISO-8601 UTC. endDate is null while the ad is live.
isActive	boolean	Currently running.
containsSensitiveContent	boolean	Meta-flagged sensitive content.
containsDigitalCreatedMedia	boolean	AI-generated / digitally altered media disclosure.
countries	string[]	Targeted/reached countries (ISO codes).
platforms	string[]	facebook, instagram, audience_network, messenger, threads.
categories	string[]	Top-level ad categorization.
impressions / spend	object	Range buckets. Political/issue ads only.
currency / fundingEntity	string	Spend currency + "Paid for by ..." disclaimer (political/issue).
regionalRegulationData	object	EU DSA + financial/gambling regional disclosure data.
reachEstimate	object	Targeting reach estimate (when exposed).
totalActiveTime	integer	Seconds the ad has been live.
collationCount / collationId	int / str	If Meta groups variants, this links the variants together.
scrapedAt	datetime	When this row was captured.

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FAQ

Is scraping the Meta Ad Library legal? The Ad Library is a public transparency tool that Meta operates specifically to make ads inspectable for journalists, researchers, and competitors. Scraping public pages is generally permitted, but the data is subject to Meta's terms — review them before commercial use, and don't republish creatives you don't own.

Why doesn't this need a Facebook login? The Ad Library is intentionally public. We use no cookies, no tokens, no Graph API access — just the same HTML/GraphQL the website serves to anonymous visitors.

Can I get spend and impression data? Only for political and issue ads — that's all Meta exposes. Set adType to POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS and look at the spend, impressions, currency, and fundingEntity fields.

Why are some ads missing creatives? Meta sometimes redacts or expires media URLs. The videoUrls / imageUrls reflect what's currently served — if the array is empty but adFormat is video, the asset has been pulled down by Meta.

How do I scrape an entire competitor's ad history? Use scrapeType: pageAds, set activeStatus: all, maxAds: 0. The actor will paginate until Meta returns no more pages.

How fresh is the data? Real-time. Every run hits Meta directly — there's no intermediate cache.

Will this work for Instagram-only ads? Yes. Set platforms to ["INSTAGRAM"], or leave it empty and filter output.platforms downstream.

Does this support the new EU DSA disclosure data? Yes — see regionalRegulationData in every output record. It carries the financial-regulation and gambling disclosure flags Meta exposes for EU member states.

What's containsDigitalCreatedMedia? Meta's AI-content disclosure flag. true means the advertiser self-disclosed that the creative was generated or significantly altered with AI.

How does this compare to other Meta Ads Library scrapers on Apify? Most other actors cover keyword search and per-page export, but stop there. This one adds a dedicated adDetail mode (one ad by archive ID), per-card data for carousels and DPA, extra_images/extra_videos, reachEstimate, totalActiveTime, EU DSA regionalRegulationData, the new AI-disclosure flag, Threads platform output, all 6 ad categories (incl. Financial Products), and unlimited maxAds. It also auto-resolves vanity-URL slugs to numeric page IDs in pageAds mode. Some actors bundle Gemini-based AI analysis for an extra fee — this one leaves that to your own pipeline so you're not locked into someone else's interpretation.

What about TikTok / Twitter / Google ads? Different platforms, different actors. This one is Meta-only (Facebook + Instagram + Audience Network + Messenger + Threads).

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Keywords

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