Google Ads Transparency Scraper - Ad Copy & Creatives

Google Ads Transparency Center scraper for competitor ad research: give it brand names or domains and get every Google ad they run — Search ad headlines and descriptions as text, image creatives, YouTube video ads, and first/last shown dates. No login, no Google account, no API key.

Keywords: google ads transparency scraper, google ads library, google ads spy tool, competitor ads, google ad copy, search ads examples, ppc competitor research, google ads creatives, youtube ads scraper, ad intelligence.

What you get

• Search ad copy as text — headline, description, display URL and sitelinks. The Transparency Center stores most Search ads as screenshots, so other scrapers only return an image URL; this Actor reads the screenshot and hands you the words.
• YouTube video ads — the video ID and watch URL when the ad uses a YouTube video (most brand video ads; auto-generated Performance Max videos have no public YouTube ID).
• Image / display ads — the creative image URL.
• Run dates — when each ad was first and last shown, and on how many days.
• Every advertiser behind a domain — canva.com returns Canva's ads plus resellers and agencies advertising that site.
• Filters — country, Google platform (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play), ad format and date range.

Use cases

• PPC competitor research — collect the exact headlines and offers your competitors bid with, then spot the angles they keep running (long-running ads are the winners).
• Ad copy swipe file — build a library of Search ad copy by industry for copywriting and AI prompt examples.
• Agency pitches and audits — show a prospect what their competitors run on Google today.
• Brand protection — find resellers or affiliates bidding on your brand domain.
• Video ad research — pull a brand's YouTube ad creatives in one list.
• Monitoring — schedule the Actor weekly and diff the results to catch new campaigns.

How to use

1. Enter brands or domains in Brands or domains (domains are the most precise).
2. Pick a region (default US) and, optionally, a platform, ad format or date range.
3. Click Start. A few hundred ads take about a minute.
4. Download the results as CSV, Excel, JSON or HTML, or fetch them via the Apify API.

Output (one item per ad)

{
  "advertiserName": "Hubspot, Inc.",
  "format": "TEXT",
  "headline": "HubSpot Smart CRM",
  "description": "Keep contacts, deals, and conversations current in HubSpot Smart CRM. Get started today.",
  "displayUrl": "hubspot.com",
  "businessName": null,
  "sitelinks": [],
  "copySource": "ocr",
  "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/8502171896821904706",
  "firstShown": "2026-10-15T04:04:27+00:00",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-16T05:56:20+00:00",
  "daysShown": 2,
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR10072600183532683265/creative/CR04680345614729347073?region=US",
  "searchTerm": "HubSpot",
  "region": "US",
  "platform": "ALL"
}

Video ads come with youtubeVideoId / youtubeUrl when they use a YouTube video, plus a previewUrl either way; image ads come with imageUrl.

Input

field	meaning
searchTerms	brand names (Canva) or domains (canva.com)
advertiserIds	Transparency Center IDs (AR…) from an advertiser page URL
region	country code where ads were shown (US, GB, DE, …) or anywhere
platform	ALL, SEARCH, YOUTUBE, SHOPPING, MAPS, PLAY
adFormat	ALL, TEXT, IMAGE, VIDEO
startDate / endDate	only ads shown in this window (YYYY-MM-DD)
maxAdsPerTarget	newest ads first, per brand/domain
maxAdvertisersPerTerm	a brand name can map to several advertiser accounts
extractAdCopy	read text-ad copy and video links (on by default)

Pricing (pay per event)

event	price	when
ad-scraped	$0.0015	every ad returned
ad-copy-extracted	$0.003	a text ad whose headline and description were recovered

Examples: 1,000 ads with copy ≈ $4.50; 1,000 image/video ads ≈ $1.50; turning extractAdCopy off makes every ad $0.0015.

FAQ

Do I need a Google account, Google Ads account or API key? No. The Actor reads the public Google Ads Transparency Center, the same pages anyone can open.

Why do I sometimes get a domain instead of the brand I typed? Google's advertiser search is a prefix match that often hides large brands among look-alike names. When no advertiser with that name has many ads, the Actor searches the brand's own domain instead and says so in the log. Typing the domain gives the most predictable result.

How accurate is the ad copy? It is read from Google's own rendering of the ad, which is clean text, so headlines and descriptions come out nearly verbatim for English and other Latin-script ads. copySource tells you whether copy came from the screenshot (ocr) or from Google's preview data (preview). HTML5 ads have no screenshot and are returned without copy — and without the copy charge.

Which countries are supported? Every country the Transparency Center covers; use its two-letter code, or anywhere.

Can I track competitors over time? Yes — save your input as a task, schedule it weekly, and compare firstShown dates or creativeIds between runs.

Can I use it from my own code, Make, Zapier or an AI agent? Yes. Call it through the Apify API or the official integrations (Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, webhooks). AI agents can run it through the Apify MCP server.

Is it legal? The Transparency Center is published by Google for public inspection of ads. You are responsible for how you use the data; check your local rules if in doubt.

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