Facebook Search Scraper

Facebook Search Scraper

The Facebook Search Scraper is a purpose-built Facebook search scraper tool that discovers and extracts public business page data by combining your categories and locations, then parsing Facebook search results discovered via Google SERP. It solves the problem of manual Facebook search by automating discovery and scraping into clean, structured datasets for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers. As a Facebook search results scraper and Facebook public data scraper, it streamlines lead generation, trend tracking, and competitor analysis — enabling scalable Facebook search automation for your workflows. 🚀

What data / output can you get?

Below are examples of real fields this Facebook data scraper produces for each Facebook Page found. Values may be null when unavailable on the public page.

Data type	Description	Example value
facebookUrl	Canonical Facebook Page URL	https://www.facebook.com/acmebrewery
title	Page title/name	Acme Brewery
categories	Category list from page metadata	["Brewery", "Bar"]
category	Primary category (single value)	Brewery
address	Text address extracted from page	123 Main St, New York, NY
phone	Public phone number	+1 212-555-0123
email	Public email if listed	hello@acmebrewery.com
website	Website domain	acmebrewery.com
websites	Website URLs (normalized)	["https://acmebrewery.com"]
rating	Human-readable rating summary	95% recommend (120 Reviews)
ratingOverall	Numeric rating/percentage if available	95
ratingCount	Number of ratings/reviews	120
followers	Followers count (normalized to integer)	2300
followings	“Following” count if present	150
profilePictureUrl	Profile picture URI from page data	https://scontent.../profile_pic.jpg
coverPhotoUrl	Cover photo URL from page data	https://scontent.../cover_photo.jpg
profilePhoto	Deep link to profile photo by FBID	https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=123456789012345
pageId	Facebook Page ID	123456789012345
pageName	Vanity slug	acmebrewery
pageUrl	Redundant alias for facebookUrl	https://www.facebook.com/acmebrewery
instagram	Detected Instagram handle(s)	[{"username":"acmebrewery","url":"https://www.instagram.com/acmebrewery"}]
business_hours	Business hours text if available	Open now
priceRange	Normalized price range	$$
business_price	Price range with label	Price Range · $$
services	Services text if present	Delivery · Takeout
business_services	Services text (normalized)	Delivery · Takeout
addressUrl	Map deep link built from address	https://www.bing.com/maps/...where1=123%20Main%20St%2C%20New%20York%2C%20NY
likes	Parsed “likes” count if available	5400
info	Additional page info parsed from meta	["5.4K likes","Brewery"]
about_me	About text container	{"text":"Craft beer brewed in NYC."}
creation_date	Formatted page creation date if known	January 15, 2018
ad_status	Ads status text if detected	This Page is currently running ads.
pageAdLibrary	Business page ad library hints	{"is_business_page_active": true, "id": "987654321"}
alternativeSocialMedia	Alternate social link if detected	https://www.instagram.com/acmebrewery
messenger	Placeholder (not populated)	null
ratings	Alias of rating text	95% recommend (120 Reviews)
facebookId	Alias of pageId	123456789012345

Notes:

• Results are pushed live to the Apify dataset during the run. You can export results as JSON or CSV from the Apify Console.
• Bonus outputs include media links (profile and cover photos), ad status hints, map links, and Instagram handles when available.

Key features

• 🔎 Google SERP discovery for Facebook Pages
  Uses “site:facebook.com” queries with the Apify GOOGLE_SERP proxy to find high-quality Facebook page URLs from your category × location keywords.

• 🧭 Smart URL filtering & deduplication
  Normalizes Facebook URLs and skips photos, videos, groups, and other non-page paths to focus on business pages.

• 🌐 Proxy fallback for reliability
  Page scraping automatically falls back across No proxy → Datacenter → Residential when blocks are detected, improving completion rates for tough pages.

• ⚡ Parallel scraping with live saves
  Processes multiple pages concurrently and pushes each item to the dataset in real time for faster feedback loops.

• 🧱 Structured Facebook profile scraper output
  Clean, normalized fields like title, address, phone, email, website, rating, followers, images, Instagram handle, and more.

• 👩‍💻 Developer-friendly Apify actor
  Built with the Apify Python SDK and aiohttp — ideal for programmatic runs and downstream pipelines that treat it as a Facebook search extractor.

• ✅ No login required
  Works without cookies or authentication, targeting public Facebook page data only.

• 🧰 Production-ready infrastructure
  Uses Apify Proxy, robust error handling, and retry logic for resilient scraping across categories and geographies.

How to use Facebook Search Scraper - step by step

1. Sign in to your Apify account and open the Apify Console.
2. Go to Actors and find “facebook-search-scraper”.
3. In the Input, enter:
   • categories: a list of business types (e.g., Pub, Bar, Restaurant)
   • locations: a list of places (e.g., NYC, London)
   • resultsLimit: how many pages to scrape in total (1–500)
   • proxyConfiguration: optional proxy settings for page scraping
4. Start the run. The scraper will:
   • Build queries by combining each category with each location.
   • Use the GOOGLE_SERP proxy to discover Facebook page URLs.
   • Visit each Facebook Page URL and extract structured fields.
5. Monitor the logs to see discovery and scraping progress as items are pushed.
6. When complete, open the OUTPUT tab (Dataset) and export your results as JSON or CSV.

Pro tip: Ensure your Apify account has access to the GOOGLE_SERP proxy group; discovery relies on it. If you don’t have access, discovery may return 0 URLs.

Use cases

Use case	Description
Local business lead generation	Build targeted prospect lists by scraping Facebook Pages for contact info (phone, email, website) across categories and cities.
Competitor tracking for brands	Monitor category peers’ public profile data, ratings, and followers to benchmark position in local markets.
Market research & trend analysis	Aggregate structured page signals across locations to analyze growth, engagement, and category distribution.
Agency account onboarding	Quickly enrich client lists with verified Facebook Page URLs, contact details, and metadata.
Data enrichment pipelines	Feed structured Facebook profile scraper output into BI tools and CRMs via Apify datasets.
Academic & policy research	Collect public business page data for urban studies, economic mapping, and social media presence analysis.
Territory planning	Map addresses and categories to assess coverage and potential in target geographies.

Why choose Facebook Search Scraper?

This Facebook search scraping software is built for precision discovery, structured extraction, and reliable operation at scale.

• 🎯 Accurate discovery via Google SERP filtering to focus on real Pages, not media or groups.
• 🧩 Structured, analysis-ready fields for contact info, ratings, followers, and media.
• 🚀 Parallelized scraping with live dataset writes to accelerate iteration.
• 🌐 Robust proxy fallback strategy that adapts to blocking and keeps jobs moving.
• 👩‍💻 Built on the Apify SDK for developers who need automation-ready Facebook search extractor workflows.
• 🔒 Public data only with no login required, aligning with responsible scraping practices.
• 💸 Efficient at scale — tune resultsLimit (up to 500) to control run time and cost.

In short: a production-grade Facebook search automation tool that outperforms brittle browser extensions and ad‑hoc scripts.

Is it legal / ethical to use Facebook Search Scraper?

Yes — when used responsibly. This actor targets publicly available Facebook Page data and does not access private profiles or authenticated content.

Guidelines:

• Only collect and use public information.
• Respect platform terms and applicable laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA).
• Avoid scraping personal/private data.
• Validate your specific use case with your legal team when in doubt.

Input parameters & output format

Example input

{
  "categories": ["Pub", "Bar"],
  "locations": ["NYC", "London"],
  "resultsLimit": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

Parameters:

• categories (array)
  • Description: Business types to search (Pub, Bar, Restaurant...). Combined with locations → e.g. "Pub NYC", "Bar London".
  • Default: ["Pub"]
  • Required: No
• locations (array)
  • Description: Where to search (NYC, London…) — paired with each category.
  • Default: ["NYC"]
  • Required: No
• resultsLimit (integer)
  • Description: Max pages to scrape across all queries. Higher = more data, longer run.
  • Default: 10 (min: 1, max: 500)
  • Required: No
• proxyConfiguration (object)
  • Description: Optional. No proxy by default. Auto fallback to datacenter → residential if blocked.
  • Default: not set (prefill: {"useApifyProxy": false})
  • Required: No

Example output

{
  "facebookUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/acmebrewery",
  "categories": ["Brewery", "Bar"],
  "info": ["5.4K likes", "Brewery"],
  "likes": 5400,
  "messenger": null,
  "priceRange": "$$",
  "title": "Acme Brewery",
  "address": "123 Main St, New York, NY",
  "pageId": "123456789012345",
  "pageName": "acmebrewery",
  "pageUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/acmebrewery",
  "intro": "Craft beer brewed in NYC.",
  "websites": ["https://acmebrewery.com"],
  "phone": "+1 212-555-0123",
  "email": "hello@acmebrewery.com",
  "alternativeSocialMedia": "https://www.instagram.com/acmebrewery",
  "website": "acmebrewery.com",
  "services": "Delivery · Takeout",
  "rating": "95% recommend (120 Reviews)",
  "followers": 2300,
  "followings": 150,
  "profilePictureUrl": "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-1/...",
  "coverPhotoUrl": "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/...",
  "profilePhoto": "https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=123456789012345",
  "ratingOverall": 95,
  "ratingCount": 120,
  "category": "Brewery",
  "addressUrl": "https://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&pc=FACEBK&mid=8100&where1=123%20Main%20St%2C%20New%20York%2C%20NY&FORM=FBKPL1&mkt=en-US",
  "instagram": [
    { "username": "acmebrewery", "url": "https://www.instagram.com/acmebrewery" }
  ],
  "ratings": "95% recommend (120 Reviews)",
  "business_hours": "Open now",
  "business_price": "Price Range · $$",
  "business_services": "Delivery · Takeout",
  "creation_date": "January 15, 2018",
  "ad_status": "This Page is currently running ads.",
  "about_me": { "text": "Craft beer brewed in NYC." },
  "facebookId": "123456789012345",
  "pageAdLibrary": {
    "is_business_page_active": true,
    "id": "987654321"
  }
}

Notes:

• On failure, items include an "error" field alongside "facebookUrl".
• Some fields may be null or omitted if not present on the public page.

FAQ

Do I need a Facebook login or cookies?

No. The scraper targets public Facebook Pages and works without login or cookies. It fetches page HTML and extracts public fields like title, contact info, ratings, and followers.

Is the GOOGLE_SERP proxy required?

Yes for discovery. The actor uses the Apify GOOGLE_SERP proxy group to find Facebook page URLs via Google search. If your account lacks access, discovery may return 0 results.

What exactly does it scrape — profiles, groups, or posts?

It focuses on public Facebook Pages. Discovery and filters explicitly skip non-page paths such as photos, videos, events, and groups to keep results high-quality for business pages.

How many pages can I scrape per run?

You control this with resultsLimit (minimum 1, maximum 500 as defined in the input schema). The actor builds queries from categories × locations and scrapes up to that limit.

What output fields are included?

Key fields include facebookUrl, title, categories, address, phone, email, website, rating, followers, and profilePictureUrl, plus many more like pageId, priceRange, Instagram handle, and media URLs. See the output section for a full example.

How are results delivered and how can I export them?

Results are pushed to the Apify dataset in real time during the run. You can download the data from the OUTPUT tab as JSON or CSV.

Does it handle blocking or rate limits?

Yes. For page scraping, the actor automatically falls back across No proxy → Datacenter → Residential when blocking is detected, with controlled parallelism and retries.

Can developers integrate this into pipelines?

Yes. It’s an Apify Actor that uses the Apify Python SDK under the hood and outputs structured JSON, making it straightforward to plug into automation and data pipelines.

Closing CTA / Final thoughts

The Facebook Search Scraper is built to discover and extract structured Facebook Page data at scale. By combining Google SERP discovery with resilient page scraping and clean output, it delivers contact info, ratings, followers, and media for efficient research and lead workflows.

Whether you’re a marketer, analyst, or developer, you’ll get fast, structured results you can export to JSON/CSV and feed into your systems. Run it in Apify, tune resultsLimit up to 500, and use proxy fallback for reliable coverage. Start extracting smarter Facebook insights with automation-ready, structured output today.