Snapchat Ads Library Scraper

Extract verified ads, creative media URLs, target demographics, and delivery metrics from Snapchat Ads Library.

Ultra-fast HTTP-first extraction · Direct CDN media links · Pay-per-result ($0.005/ad) · Zero browser overhead

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Why this Actor?

Feature	What you get
Direct HTTP-First Engine	Zero headless browser overhead (Playwright/Puppeteer free), resulting in sub-second responses and minimal compute unit (CU) consumption.
Direct Media CDN Links	Resolves direct video (.mp4) and high-resolution image assets hosted on Snapchat CloudFront CDN (cf-st.sc-cdn.net) ready for download or analysis.
Comprehensive EU Gallery Coverage	Multi-country search filtering across all 27 EU member states simultaneously, with paying entity and advertiser attribution.
Historical Political Archive (2018–2026)	Real-time streaming extraction from Snapchat's multi-year political transparency archive with zero local buffer limits.
Audience Demographics & Targeting	Access age brackets (e.g. 18+), gender targeting, impressions delivered, and paid spend disclosures.
Formula Injection Defense	Built-in sanitization neutralizing Excel/CSV formula injection attacks (=, +, -, @) on all text fields.
Pay-Per-Result Pricing	You only pay for successfully extracted ad records ($0.005 per ad / $5 per 1,000 ads) with $0 startup fee.

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Quick start

1. Open the Actor on Apify Console and click Start.
2. Enter the advertiser name or brand keyword (e.g. Nike, Spotify, Adidas).
3. Click Save & Run, and export your dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

{
  "searchTerms": ["Nike"],
  "mode": "all",
  "maxItems": 50
}

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How it works

Brand Query / Advertiser ──▶ Snapchat Transparency API / Public Archive ──▶ Micro-Batch Normalizer ──▶ Clean Dataset Rows

1. Query Dispatch: The Actor takes advertiser names or brand keywords and queries the official Snapchat Ads transparency endpoints.
2. Cursor Traversal: Uncapped pagination automatically retrieves consecutive pages using native cursors with adaptive 1200ms pacing.
3. Data Normalization: Media CDN assets, target country codes, demographic parameters, and impressions are mapped into a standardized flat schema.
4. Dataset Storage: Records are pushed to your default Apify Dataset in streaming micro-batches.

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Input

Basic Input Example

{
  "searchTerms": ["Nike"],
  "countries": ["de", "fr", "es"],
  "status": "ALL",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Full Configuration Example

{
  "searchTerms": ["Nike", "Adidas"],
  "countries": ["de", "fr"],
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "mode": "all",
  "politicalYears": [2024, 2025, 2026],
  "dateFrom": "2024-01-01",
  "dateTo": "2026-12-31",
  "maxItems": 250,
  "maskBillingAddress": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}

Input Fields

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchTerms	Array of Strings	Yes	["Nike"]	One or more advertiser names, brand queries, or organization keywords to search.
countries	Array of Strings	No	[]	Two-letter ISO Alpha-2 country codes (e.g. ["de", "fr"]). Leave empty for Europe-wide coverage (all 27 EU states).
status	String	No	"ALL"	Campaign delivery status: "ALL", "ACTIVE", or "PAUSED".
mode	String	No	"all"	Extraction mode: "all", "commercial", "political", or "creators".
politicalYears	Array of Numbers	No	[2024, 2025, 2026]	Years to query from the Political & Advocacy Ads Archive (2018–2026).
dateFrom	String	No	null	Earliest run date filter in YYYY-MM-DD or ISO format.
dateTo	String	No	null	Latest run date filter in YYYY-MM-DD or ISO format.
maxItems	Integer	No	50	Maximum number of total ad records to extract and save.
maskBillingAddress	Boolean	No	false	Redacts physical street addresses in political disclosures for privacy compliance.
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Apify proxy configuration. Datacenter proxies recommended.

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Output

Every record stored in the dataset represents a single ad creative with delivery metrics and verified media links:

{
  "id": "86ab7bd5-3025-47d6-9f85-b7075bf30e34",
  "source": "COMMERCIAL",
  "advertiserName": "Nike, Inc.",
  "payingEntity": "Nike, Inc.",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "startDate": "2026-05-01T07:00:00.000Z",
  "endDate": null,
  "spend": null,
  "currency": null,
  "impressions": 11796283,
  "targetCountries": ["de", "be", "fr", "it", "es", "nl", "pl"],
  "targetDemographics": "Age: 18+, Gender: MALE",
  "targetAge": "18+",
  "targetGender": "MALE",
  "creativeType": "UNKNOWN",
  "videoUrl": null,
  "imageUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/aps/bolt/aHR0cHM6Ly9jZi1zdC5zYy1jZG4ubmV0L2QvQ0xpSzhleEdEUVA3VDJJek1qOXRmP2JvPUVnMGFBQm9BTWdFRVNBSlFHV0FCJnVjPTI1._RS0,72_FMpng",
  "landingPageUrl": null,
  "callToAction": "SHOP NOW",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-22T18:57:34.084Z"
}

Dataset Field Definitions

Field	Type	Description
id	String	Unique ad identifier from Snapchat Ads Library.
source	String	Origin transparency source: COMMERCIAL, POLITICAL, or CREATOR.
advertiserName	String	Display name of the advertiser running the campaign.
payingEntity	String	Legal entity or organization funding the ad placement.
status	String	Current campaign delivery status (ACTIVE, PAUSED, or COMPLETED).
startDate	String	ISO 8601 timestamp when the ad began serving.
endDate	String	ISO 8601 timestamp when the ad completed (if applicable).
spend	String / Number	Disclosed ad spend or budget range.
currency	String	Three-letter currency code (e.g. EUR, USD).
impressions	Number	Total impressions delivered.
targetCountries	Array of Strings	Targeted two-letter ISO country codes.
targetDemographics	String	Consolidated demographic targeting criteria (age and gender).
targetAge	String	Specific target age range (e.g. 18+, 18-34).
targetGender	String	Specific target gender (ALL, MALE, FEMALE).
creativeType	String	Format of creative asset (VIDEO, IMAGE, STORY, or UNKNOWN).
videoUrl	String	Direct CDN URL to the high-definition video (.mp4) creative asset.
imageUrl	String	Direct CDN URL to the thumbnail or image creative asset.
landingPageUrl	String	Destination landing page URL attached to the ad.
callToAction	String	Interactive swipe-up button text (e.g. SHOP NOW, INSTALL_NOW, SIGN_UP).
scrapedAt	String	ISO 8601 timestamp of data extraction.

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Cost, limits, proxy

• Memory: Runs efficiently on 256 MB container memory (512 MB recommended for 10,000+ item runs).
• Concurrency: Adaptive request pacing with exponential backoff on HTTP 429 (E1009).
• Proxy: Works out of the box with standard Apify Datacenter proxies. No expensive residential IPs required.
• Cost: $0.005 per ad result ($5 per 1,000 ads). Zero startup fee.
• Expected runtime:
  • Small run (50 ads): ~5–10 seconds.
  • Large run (1,000 ads): ~1–2 minutes.

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Recipes

1. Monitor Competitor Ad Creatives & Call to Actions

Track current active promotions, creatives, and messaging for key competitors:

{
  "searchTerms": ["Adidas", "Puma"],
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "mode": "commercial",
  "maxItems": 100
}

2. Multi-Country Market Audit (Germany & France)

Compare regional targeting and impressions across specific European markets:

{
  "searchTerms": ["Spotify"],
  "countries": ["de", "fr"],
  "status": "ALL",
  "maxItems": 200
}

3. Historical Political & Advocacy Transparency Analysis

Extract election and issue advocacy disclosures across recent political cycles:

{
  "searchTerms": ["Vote", "Action Fund"],
  "mode": "political",
  "politicalYears": [2024, 2025, 2026],
  "maskBillingAddress": true,
  "maxItems": 500
}

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
RateLimitError / HTTP 429	Exceeded Snapchat transparency query pacing	The scraper automatically backs off up to 5 times. Ensure Apify Proxy is enabled on platform runs.
Zero ads returned	Brand name has no active disclosures in the selected country/source	Try searching without country restrictions ("countries": []) to query all 27 EU member states, or switch "mode": "all".
videoUrl is null	Ad creative was a static image or story format	Check the imageUrl field which holds the direct graphic asset.
Empty political archive results	Selected brand is commercial rather than political	Set "mode": "commercial" or "mode": "all".

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FAQ

Q: How much does running this Actor cost?
A: Pricing is strictly pay-per-result at $0.005 per scraped ad record ($5 per 1,000 ads). If a search yields 0 results, you pay $0.

Q: Why is this scraper so much faster than other social media scrapers?
A: It connects directly to Snapchat's public transparency HTTP APIs and streaming storage rather than loading heavy browser sessions in Chrome/Playwright. This achieves up to 10x faster execution and 90% lower compute consumption.

Q: Are the video and image URLs permanent?
A: Creative URLs point directly to Snapchat's global CloudFront CDN (cf-st.sc-cdn.net) and public archive buckets. While publicly accessible, we recommend saving media assets immediately if building long-term archives.

Q: What geographic regions are covered?
A: Commercial transparency disclosures cover all 27 EU member states and EEA territories in compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA). The Political & Advocacy Archive covers global disclosures from 2018 through 2026.

Q: Can I export results to Google Sheets, CSV, or Airtable?
A: Yes. All data fields are optimized and flattened for single-click export to CSV, Excel, or JSON, and integrate seamlessly via Apify webhooks with Zapier, Make, and Google Sheets.

Q: Can I copy or republish this Actor?
A: No. This Actor is proprietary software. You may run it on the Apify Platform for your business and analytics workflows. You may not copy, rebrand, republish, or claim authorship. See ./LICENSE.

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Limitations

• Public transparency data only. Private Snapchat conversations, ephemeral snaps, and non-transparency targeting metrics are not accessible.
• Users are responsible for complying with applicable local laws and Snapchat Terms of Service.

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Run it

Ready to extract actionable ad intelligence? Open the Actor on Apify Console and click Start.

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License

Proprietary. All rights reserved. Copyright (c) 2026 REXREUS.

You may run this Actor on Apify. You may not copy, rebrand, republish, or claim this Actor as your own. See ./LICENSE.