# Google Ads Scraper: Competitor Ad Monitor (Transparency) (`robustish_ametrine/google-ads-transparency-monitor`) Actor

Enter competitor websites. Get every Google ad they run (Search, YouTube, Display) from Google's public Ads Transparency Center, plus which ads are new or stopped since your last run.

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

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## 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

## Google Ads Scraper: Competitor Ad Monitor (Transparency Center)

See every Google ad your competitors run (Search, YouTube, Display, Shopping), straight from Google's own public **Ads Transparency Center**, and get a change feed: which ads are **new**, which **stopped**, which **restarted** since your last run.

*Not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Google. Google Ads and Ads Transparency Center are Google trademarks, used only to say where the public data comes from.*

### What it does

- Enter competitor websites (`hubspot.com`), brand names (`HubSpot`) or Google advertiser IDs (`AR10072600183532683265`). A brand name matches up to 3 Google advertisers whose name is that brand (plus company words like Inc or a country code), not ones that merely contain it.
- Pick a region (US, GB, CA, AU, DE, … or ANYWHERE).
- Get one row per ad: advertiser, format (text / image / video), first and last date shown, days shown, running or stopped, a link to the ad on Google's Transparency Center, and (for text and image ads) a link to Google's archived preview image.
- Schedule it daily or weekly with **Only new, stopped and restarted ads** on, and you get a clean competitor-ad alert feed. The first run is always the full baseline.

### What it does NOT do (honestly)

- No spend, impressions, clicks or keywords: Google does not publish those for commercial ads.
- No targeting data (Google only shows it for ads served in the EU; not included yet).
- Does not download or copy ad images or videos. You get links to Google's own pages; the creatives belong to the advertisers.
- **Skips political and election ads** (advertisers carrying Google's election-ads verification, or named like a campaign or PAC).
- **Skips advertisers that may be private individuals.** Google's data doesn't say person vs company, so an advertiser is kept only when its name has a company word (Inc, LLC, Ltd, GmbH…) or matches the website it advertises. A name like "John Smith" is left out and counted in the run summary.
- Advertiser-ID inputs whose name has no company word are skipped for the same reason; enter the website domain instead.
- "Stopped" means Google's own *last shown* date is more than 3 days old. An ad missing from one run is never marked stopped (a capped or failed search proves nothing).

### Output (one row per ad)

`change` (baseline / new / unchanged / stopped / restarted), `status` (running / stopped), `target`, `advertiserId`, `advertiserName`, `adDomain`, `creativeId`, `format`, `firstShown`, `lastShown`, `daysShown`, `region`, `adUrl`, `imageUrl`, `checkedAt`.
Run summary (key-value store `SUMMARY`): per competitor, ads found, Google's own estimate, running, new, stopped, skipped political, skipped individual, errors.

### Rules this tool follows (checked 2026-10-13)

- **robots.txt:** `adstransparency.google.com/robots.txt` returns 404 (no rules). The tool re-checks every run and stops on purpose if Google ever adds rules that block its data calls.
- **Google Terms of Service** (effective 2026-07-30): forbid automated access *in violation of machine-readable instructions such as robots.txt*, bypassing protective measures, and using content to violate others' rights. This tool: no login, no Google account, no CAPTCHA or block bypassing, about 1 request per 1.2 s with backoff on 429/5xx, facts and links only (no ad files copied).
- The Transparency Center is a public registry Google runs under ad-disclosure rules (e.g. EU Digital Services Act, Art. 39).
- Data source: the same public data calls the Transparency Center web page makes. Google can change them at any time; the daily self-test fails loudly when that happens.

### Self-test (daily, run by Agent HQ)

`node test/selftest.js --save` checks 3 real advertisers (hubspot.com, mailchimp.com, canva.com) in the US plus a brand-name search (Mailchimp): rows complete, no emails or phone numbers, links only, second run reports only changes, a known election advertiser is skipped, a known person-named advertiser is skipped, charges counted. Last result: `selftest/last.json`.

### Input example

```json
{
  "targets": [
    "hubspot.com",
    "Mailchimp"
  ],
  "region": "US",
  "onlyChanges": true,
  "maxAdsPerTarget": 200
}
```

### Output example (one row, real data from a test run on 2026-10-13)

```json
{
  "change": "baseline",
  "target": "hubspot.com",
  "advertiserId": "AR10072600183532683265",
  "advertiserName": "Hubspot, Inc.",
  "adDomain": "hubspot.com",
  "creativeId": "CR06039634602782359553",
  "format": "text",
  "firstShown": "2025-07-16",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-13",
  "daysShown": 456,
  "status": "running",
  "region": "US",
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR10072600183532683265/creative/CR06039634602782359553?region=US",
  "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/1769084597065357731",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-13T15:17:00.046Z"
}
```

### Pricing draft (pay per event)

Run start $0.005 · each ad row $0.0015 ($1.50 per 1,000). Michael sets the final price.

### Folder

- `src/core.js` pure logic (parsing, skip rules, change detection)
- `src/main.js` fetching, pacing, saving
- `src/runtime.js` Apify on the platform, plain files on the Mac
- `test/` offline tests + live self-test
- `.actor/` Apify config (input, output, Docker)

# Actor input Schema

## `targets` (type: `array`):

Competitor websites (hubspot.com), brand names (HubSpot) or Google advertiser IDs (AR10072600183532683265, from a Transparency Center link).

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

Where the ads were shown. Two-letter country code (US, GB, CA, AU, DE, FR...) or ANYWHERE.

## `onlyChanges` (type: `boolean`):

Leave off for every ad. Turn on for a daily or weekly change feed (the first run is always the full baseline).

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

Keep only these formats: text, image, video. Leave empty for all.

## `maxAdsPerTarget` (type: `integer`):

Newest ads first. Big brands can have thousands; this caps cost. 1 to 2000.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "targets": [
    "hubspot.com",
    "Mailchimp"
  ],
  "region": "US",
  "onlyChanges": false,
  "maxAdsPerTarget": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Every ad row from this run: baseline, new, unchanged, stopped and restarted ads (filters applied).

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Per-competitor counts: ads found, running, new, stopped, skipped political or individual advertisers, and any errors.

# 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 = {
    "targets": [
        "hubspot.com",
        "Mailchimp"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("robustish_ametrine/google-ads-transparency-monitor").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 = { "targets": [
        "hubspot.com",
        "Mailchimp",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("robustish_ametrine/google-ads-transparency-monitor").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 '{
  "targets": [
    "hubspot.com",
    "Mailchimp"
  ]
}' |
apify call robustish_ametrine/google-ads-transparency-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/XjHOzSQN432lkfoLy/builds/2Xl8cfJqnGPzHnzFB/openapi.json