Google Ads Transparency Scraper: ad copy (with OCR) & competitor monitor

See every Google ad a competitor runs, with the actual headlines, descriptions and display URLs, not just screenshots. Google archives most search ads only as a picture of the ad; this Actor reads the text out of those pictures (OCR), so you get the copy as data. Search Google's Ads Transparency Center by brand, domain or advertiser ID. Filter by country, format and date, or turn on monitor mode to get only the ads that are new since your last run.

Works for Search, Shopping, Display and YouTube ads in every country Google publishes. You need no Google account, no login and no API key.

Guide: How to see competitors' Google search ads as text. Covers the manual way and this Actor, with Python examples.

What you get for each ad

Field	Example
advertiserName, advertiserId	Hubspot, Inc. · AR10072600183532683265
format	text, image or video
headline	Free Marketing Framework Course
description	Learn the fundamentals of Loop Marketing with a free course from HubSpot.
callToAction	Learn more
textSource, ocrConfidence	preview (Google's own ad data) or ocr (read from the ad image), with OCR confidence 0–100
sitelinks	Sitelink texts shown under a search ad, when present
visibleUrl / landingUrl	www.monzo.com/business-bank · full landing URL where Google exposes it (mainly display and video ads)
youtubeVideoId / youtubeUrl	f33QnO8AfvI · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33QnO8AfvI
imageUrl, imageUrls, width, height	Display ad image and size
firstShown, lastShown, daysShown	2026-02-17 → 2026-10-17 · ran on 243 days
regionsShown	Every country the ad ran in, with its last-shown date
variationCount	How many A/B variations Google recorded
adUrl	Link to the ad on the Transparency Center
isNew	true for new ads in monitor mode

Turn off Include ad copy & details for a faster, cheaper list of ads with dates, formats, images and links.

How the ad text is extracted

• Search (text) ads: Google usually stores only a rendered picture of the ad. The Actor reads its display URL, headline, description and sitelinks with OCR and marks them textSource: "ocr". On English ads, headlines and descriptions come out word-for-word in our tests; accents can be lost in other Latin-script languages, and ads in scripts like Japanese are returned without text rather than with garbled text. Text cut off in Google's own rendering stays cut off.
• Display and YouTube ads: copy, call to action and landing page come from Google's ad data when it's available (textSource: "preview"). Banner ads often have their text inside the image, so you get the image.
• OCR is included in the ad-details price. Turn off Read search-ad text from images if you only need the images.

Sample output

A real result (US, video ads, October 2026), shortened:

{
  "creativeId": "CR00056102314519298049",
  "advertiserId": "AR10072600183532683265",
  "advertiserName": "Hubspot, Inc.",
  "format": "video",
  "headline": "HubSpot Smart CRM",
  "description": "HubSpot Smart CRM — built for your whole team to use from day one. Get started free.",
  "visibleUrl": "hubspot.com",
  "landingUrl": "https://www.hubspot.com/crm/e010a",
  "youtubeVideoId": "f33QnO8AfvI",
  "youtubeUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33QnO8AfvI",
  "firstShown": "2026-02-17T21:34:04.199Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-17T11:01:11.959Z",
  "daysShown": 243,
  "variationCount": 4,
  "regionsShown": [
    { "country": "CA", "countryName": "Canada", "lastShown": "2026-10-17" },
    { "country": "US", "countryName": "United States of America", "lastShown": "2026-10-17" }
  ],
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR10072600183532683265/creative/CR00056102314519298049?region=US"
}

Use cases

• Competitor ad monitoring. Schedule a weekly run in monitor mode and get a feed of competitors' new ads, copy and landing pages.
• Ad copy research and swipe files. Pull hundreds of live headlines and calls to action for a category in minutes.
• Offer and landing-page intelligence. See which pages competitors advertise (display URLs on search ads, full landing URLs where Google exposes them) and spot new offers or launches early.
• Agency pitches and audits. Show a prospect exactly what their competitors run, and where.
• Market research. Find who advertises in a country, which formats they use and how long ads keep running.
• AI agents. Callable through Apify's MCP server and API. Ask "What Google ads is Notion running in Germany right now?" and get structured data back.

How to use it

1. Add brands or domains (e.g. hubspot.com, Xero), advertiser IDs (AR…) or Transparency Center URLs.
2. Optionally set a region (US, GB, DE, AU, NZ, …), an ad format and a date range.
3. Set max ads per target, then run. Export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or call it through the API.

Domains or brand names?

• A domain returns every ad that points to that site, including resellers and agencies.
• A brand name is matched to the brand's verified advertiser accounts and its own domain.
• For the most precise results, use the domain or the advertiser ID.

Advertisers only mode returns advertiser IDs, countries and approximate ad counts for brand names, without scraping ads. It is useful for building a competitor list first.

Monitor mode: get only new ads

1. Turn on Monitor mode and give the monitor a name (e.g. competitors-us).
2. The first run returns current ads. Every later run returns, and charges for, only ads not seen before.
3. Add a Schedule (daily or weekly). Send results to Slack, email, Google Sheets or a webhook with Apify integrations.

Use a different monitor name for each set of competitors or filters.

Pricing

You pay per result:

Event	Price
Ad scraped	$1.50 per 1,000 ads
Ad copy & details (optional)	+$2.00 per 1,000 ads
Advertiser found (advertisers mode)	$2.00 per 1,000 advertisers

Apify also charges a small fee when a run starts. You never pay for ads you've already seen in monitor mode, and you can cap the cost of any run with Max total charge.

Examples:

• 100 ads with full copy cost about $0.35.
• A weekly monitor of 5 competitors that finds about 50 new ads costs about $0.18 a week.

FAQ

Is this data public? Yes. Google publishes it in the Ads Transparency Center (required in the EU under the Digital Services Act). This Actor reads the same public data a visitor sees, without logging in. Results are for your own analysis, and you are responsible for how you use them.

Why are some fields empty?

• Display (image) ads often have their copy inside the banner: you get the image.
• Google exposes full landing URLs only for some display and video ads; search ads show the display URL.
• Search ads in non-Latin scripts are returned without OCR text when it can't be read reliably.

Why are ad counts ranges? Google publishes approximate ranges, for example 600–700 ads.

How far back can I filter by date? Google keeps the date filter for recent dates, roughly the last year. Without a date filter you get every ad Google still lists, oldest included.

Can I get impressions or spend? Google doesn't publish them for commercial ads, so no tool can. Political ads in some regions are the exception.

What happens if Google rate-limits the run? Every blocked request retries from a fresh IP. With the default proxy setting, if Google throttles all the datacenter IPs, the run switches to residential IPs and carries on. The price per ad stays the same. If Google still refuses, the run stops with a clear message and charges only the start fee.

Something broke or you need a field? Open an issue on the Issues tab. Issues are answered within 24 hours.

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