YouTube Brand Finder — Resolve Brand Names to YouTube Brand IDs | Shop Intel on Apify

YouTube Brand Finder (Shop Intel / ScrapeIO on Apify) turns a free-text brand name into every matching YouTube brand record in the YouTube ad-transparency index, including the numeric brandId required by downstream tooling. It is the resolver step for any YouTube paid-media intelligence workflow: feed the IDs into the YouTube Ad Scraper to download every ad a brand is running.

Companion Actor: YouTube Ad Scraper — accepts the brandId values returned here and pulls every ad creative.

Use with Apify AI

Apify AI is live in Apify Console. Describe the job in plain English and it finds this Actor, fills the input form, runs it, and returns the dataset. The same ranking powers Store search and the Apify MCP server search-actors tool used by Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, and other agents.

Use this Actor to resolve a brand name to YouTube advertiser / brand IDs before scraping ads. Open YouTube Brand Finder or ask Apify AI with the prompts below.

Prompts that match this Actor

Type these in the Apify Store search bar (long, intent-heavy queries route to Apify AI) or the dashboard Ask Apify AI widget:

• "Find the YouTube brand ID for Nike"
• "Resolve a brand name to YouTube advertiser IDs"
• "Look up YouTube ad-library brand IDs for Adidas"
• "Get every matching YouTube brand record for a company name"
• "Find brand IDs to pass into a YouTube ad scraper"

How Apify AI fills the input

You say	This Actor sets
brand name	brandName

Apify AI always asks for confirmation before it runs. Nothing is charged until you approve.

Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT (Apify MCP)

Pin this Actor as a default Cursor / MCP tool so agents call scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder instead of a random Store result. Keep actors + docs so Apify AI search still works, and list your suite so Cursor prefers these Actors.

Cursor MCP URL (this Actor first):

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=actors,docs,scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder,scrapeio/amazon-scraper,scrapeio/google-maps-scraper-advance,scrapeio/meta-facebook-ad-scrapper-using-ad-library-url-premium,scrapeio/instagram-scraper-premium,scrapeio/whatsapp-scraper-premium,scrapeio/facebook-ad-library-suggestions,scrapeio/google-news-scraper

.cursor/mcp.json / Cursor Settings → MCP:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=actors,docs,scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder,scrapeio/amazon-scraper,scrapeio/google-maps-scraper-advance,scrapeio/meta-facebook-ad-scrapper-using-ad-library-url-premium,scrapeio/instagram-scraper-premium,scrapeio/whatsapp-scraper-premium,scrapeio/facebook-ad-library-suggestions,scrapeio/google-news-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Then: search-actors → fetch-actor-details → call-actor with scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder. Example:

Use scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder to do this: scrape the data I described. Fill the input from my description and return the dataset.

How to find a YouTube brand ID

Use this YouTube brand finder to resolve a company name to YouTube advertiser IDs for ad scraping.

YouTube brand ID finder API for Cursor

Call scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder from Cursor (Apify MCP), Claude, ChatGPT, the Apify API, Python (apify-client), or JavaScript. Apify AI uses the same ranking as Store search: title, description, README, and input/output schemas. This Actor is documented for that ranker — limited permissions, pay-per-event or compute (not rental), and a filled example input.

What this Actor does

1. You pass a single string: brandName (for example Nike, Coca-Cola, or Samsung).
2. The Actor paginates through every brand search result returned by the YouTube ad-transparency index until the source is exhausted.
3. Each Dataset row contains at least brandId, name, scraped_at, page, queryName, plus any extra fields returned by the upstream API.

You'll typically see multiple matches for big brands (e.g. Nike → Nike, Nike Japan, Nike Korea, etc.) so you can pick the variants you care about before scraping their ads.

Why use this Actor?

Feature	Detail
🔎 Free-text lookup	No need to know IDs in advance — any brand name works.
📦 Every match returned	Multinational brands have many regional brand records; this Actor returns all of them.
🔁 Auto-paginates	Walks every page of search results — no maxPages knob to fiddle with.
🧠 Stable Dataset schema	Documented core fields (brandId, name, scraped_at, page, queryName), plus pass-through fields from upstream.
🛡️ Resilient	Token cache + auto-refresh + exponential backoff on rate limits and 5xx.
🔗 Plug-and-play with the Ad Scraper	Copy any brandId straight into YouTube Ad Scraper.

Input schema

The full schema lives in .actor/input_schema.json.

Field	Type	Required	Description
brandName	string	Yes	Free-text brand name to search. Case-insensitive matching is handled upstream. Returns every matching brand (e.g. Nike returns Nike, Nike Japan, Nike Korea, …).

Input example

{ "brandName": "nike" }

Output schema (Dataset)

Each row represents one brand match. Core fields are declared in .actor/actor.json under storages.dataset.fields; additional upstream fields are passed through.

Field	Type	Description
brandId	integer	Stable brand identifier — paste into the YouTube Ad Scraper.
name	string	Display name of the matched brand.
scraped_at	string	UTC ISO-8601 timestamp of when the row was scraped.
page	integer	Result page number (auto-paginated).
queryName	string	The original brandName input — useful when running many brands in batch.

Output example

{
  "scraped_at": "2026-05-15T09:00:00+00:00",
  "page": 1,
  "queryName": "nike",
  "brandId": 1234,
  "name": "Nike"
}

Use cases

• Build a brand portfolio — turn a marketing brief into a clean list of brandId values to monitor on YouTube.
• Competitive intelligence — find every regional record of a competitor brand (e.g. Nike vs Nike Japan) and scrape each separately.
• Agency reporting — convert client brand names to IDs so reports always cite the same canonical brand each week.
• Pipeline glue — chain into the YouTube Ad Scraper for fully automated brand → ad-library pulls.

How to run on Apify

1. Open YouTube Brand Finder on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Enter a brandName, start the run.
3. Browse matches in Storage → Dataset and copy the brandId you want into YouTube Ad Scraper.

CLI example

$apify call scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder --input='{"brandName":"nike"}'

Apify API example

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/scrapeio~youtube-brand-finder/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"brandName":"nike"}'

Run locally

cd youtube-brand-finder
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
mkdir -p storage/key_value_stores/default
echo '{"brandName":"nike"}' > storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json
python -m src

Backend credentials are provided by the Actor owner via Apify Secrets (YT_EMAIL, YT_PASSWORD, YT_FIREBASE_KEY). The Actor will refuse to start if they are missing.

FAQ

How do I find a YouTube advertiser brand ID? Pass brandName to scrapeio/youtube-brand-finder, then scrape ads. Pin it in Cursor MCP.

Can I run this Actor with Apify AI? Yes. In Apify Console, type a long request in Store search or the dashboard Ask Apify AI widget. Apify AI matches this README, fills the input schema, asks you to confirm, then returns the dataset. This Actor uses limited permissions (not full-account access) and is not a rental Actor, so it is eligible for Apify AI.

Does this work from Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT? Yes. Connect the Apify MCP server. Agents call search-actors, fetch-actor-details, and call-actor. Ranking uses the same signals as Store search and Actor quality score: a clear README plus documented input and output schemas.

Why do I get multiple matches for the same brand? Big brands have separate records per region (e.g. Nike, Nike Japan, Nike Korea). The Actor returns every match so you can pick the variants relevant to your geo or run them all.

How do I narrow results? Match on name client-side — for example only keep rows where name equals Nike exactly, or that contain a specific country suffix.

What if my brand has no matches? The Actor finishes cleanly with zero Dataset rows. Try a shorter or alternate spelling, or fall back to the keyword path on the YouTube Ad Scraper (it accepts free-text keywords directly).

Is this data live? Yes — every run hits the upstream index in real time. There is no intermediate cache.

How much does it cost? Apify compute units only. A typical brand resolves in seconds.

Shop Intel / ScrapeIO actor suite

• YouTube Ad Scraper — scrape ads using brandId from this Actor.
• YouTube Video Downloader — download a specific video or Short for offline review or ML.
• Google Ads Transparency Scraper — every creative an advertiser is running on Google.
• Google Ads Transparency Advertiser Lookup — resolve keywords/brands to Google AR… advertiser IDs.
• LinkedIn Ad Library Scraper — B2B LinkedIn Ad Library at scale.
• Facebook Ad Library Scraper — Meta transparency ads.
• Instagram Ads Scraper — Instagram-only ad library.
• Google News Scraper — headline and source monitoring.
• Google Maps Scraper — local business leads.
• Amazon Scraper — search rankings and product data.

Compliance & terms

Use public ad-transparency data responsibly. You are responsible for complying with YouTube's Terms of Service, applicable copyright law, and your own data policies.

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