# Google Ads Transparency Scraper (`seodatalab/google-ads-transparency-scraper`) Actor

Every Google ad a company runs (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play) from the Ads Transparency Center. Search by domain, advertiser name or ID. Filter by country, format, platform and dates. Optional ad copy, landing pages, YouTube video links and impressions by country.

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

## Pricing

from $1.50 / 1,000 ads

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## 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 Transparency Scraper

See **every ad a company runs on Google**: Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps and Play. This actor pulls them from Google's public [Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com). Search by **website domain, advertiser name, advertiser ID or URL** and filter by country, format, platform and date range. Each ad comes with:

- format and first/last shown dates
- the preview image and a link to the ad
- optionally, the **countries it ran in with impression ranges**
- optionally, the **ad copy**: headline, description, landing page, and the YouTube video ID for video ads

There's no browser and no login, so runs are fast. It costs **$1.50 per 1,000 ads**.

### Why this one

- **Any input.** `nike.com`, `Shopify`, `AR16735076323512287233`, or a URL copied from the Ads Transparency Center with its filters.
- **All filters the website has.** Country, format (text/image/video), platform (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play) and date range or "last N days".
- **Ad copy for video ads.** Headline, long headline, description, landing page URL, display URL, YouTube video link, duration and channel.
- **Reach.** Every country the ad ran in, with first/last shown dates. Where Google publishes them (mainly ads shown in the EU), you also get impression ranges per country and per platform.
- **Fair billing.** Extras are charged only when the data is found. Failed searches cost nothing.
- **Fast and reliable.** 100 ads per request, automatic retries on a fresh IP, and parallel requests when adding extras.

### Input

| Field | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `searches` | `["nike.com", "Shopify", "AR16735076323512287233"]` | Domain, advertiser name, advertiser ID or Ads Transparency URL. One per line. |
| `region` | `US` | 2-letter country code, or `anywhere`. |
| `format` | `video` | `all`, `text`, `image`, `video`. |
| `platform` | `youtube` | `all`, `search`, `youtube`, `shopping`, `maps`, `play`. |
| `lastDays` | `30` | Only ads shown in the last N days. Or set `startDate`/`endDate` (YYYY-MM-DD). |
| `maxAdsPerSearch` | `100` | `0` = all ads. |
| `includeDetails` | `true` | Countries, dates, impressions, platforms. |
| `includeAdText` | `true` | Headline, description, landing page, video link. |

Advertiser names are matched on whole words, in any script (Latin, Cyrillic, CJK and more). The actor picks the matching advertiser with the most ads and writes the choice to the log. Big brands often have several advertiser accounts: set `advertisersPerName` to cover more of them, or search the website domain for full coverage. For an exact match, use the website domain or the advertiser ID (the `AR…` part of the advertiser's URL in the Ads Transparency Center).

### Output

```json
{
  "search": "Shopify",
  "advertiserId": "AR01625195283841286145",
  "advertiserName": "Shopify Inc.",
  "creativeId": "CR16522114888445722625",
  "format": "VIDEO",
  "firstShown": "2025-04-21T22:02:20.000Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-11-02T22:40:22.000Z",
  "daysShown": 283,
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR01625195283841286145/creative/CR16522114888445722625",
  "adText": {
    "headline": "Vende en todas partes",
    "longHeadline": "Vende donde la gente compra: online, en las redes sociales y en persona",
    "description": "Descubre por qué millones de negocios venden con Shopify.",
    "displayUrl": "shopify.com",
    "landingUrl": "https://www.shopify.com/start",
    "videoId": "_2VC1jYTPkM",
    "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2VC1jYTPkM",
    "videoDuration": "0:15",
    "channelName": "Shopify"
  },
  "details": {
    "impressions": { "min": 0, "max": 1000 },
    "platforms": [{ "platform": "YOUTUBE", "impressions": { "min": 0, "max": 1000 } }],
    "regions": [
      { "region": "PA", "regionName": "Panama", "lastShown": "2026-10-26" },
      { "region": "GT", "regionName": "Guatemala", "lastShown": "2026-10-26" }
    ],
    "variationCount": 4
  },
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-02T23:24:53.089Z"
}
```

A real row (shortened; empty fields left out). Every ad also has `domain`, `imageUrl` (for image and text ads) and `previewUrl`.
`adText` and `details` appear only when you turn them on. The dataset has three views: **Ads**, **Ad copy** and **Regions & impressions**.

### Pricing

Pay per result:

- **$1.50 per 1,000 ads**
- with regions & impressions: **+$2 per 1,000**
- with ad copy: **+$1.50 per 1,000**, charged only for ads where copy was found
- plus a small fixed start fee per run

For example, 1,000 ads with everything turned on costs about $5. Use `maxAdsPerSearch`, `region`, `format` and `lastDays` to pay only for the ads you need.

### Use cases

- **Competitor research.** See every ad a competitor is running right now, which formats they use and how long each ad has been live. Long-running ads are usually the winners.
- **Creative inspiration.** Collect YouTube ad videos and headlines in your niche.
- **Market entry.** See which countries a brand advertises in, and with how many impressions.
- **Agencies and monitoring.** Schedule daily runs with `lastDays: 1` to catch new ads, and send them to Google Sheets, Slack or any API with Apify integrations.

### Notes and limits

- Each ad appears once per run, even when several searches match it (for example the domain and the advertiser name). Duplicates are skipped and not charged.
- A line that can't be read (for example a URL with an unknown region) gets an error row and isn't charged. The rest of the run continues.
- **Ad copy:**
  - Google archives many search text ads only as images. For those, the actor returns the image (`imageUrl`) instead of text, and the ad-copy charge does not apply.
  - Video and local/Maps ads usually include full copy.
- **Impressions:** impression ranges and per-country impressions are published by Google mainly for ads shown in the EU (Digital Services Act). Elsewhere you get countries and dates.
- **Source:** data comes from Google's public Ads Transparency Center as published. No login and no API key are needed.

### Pair it with

- [Google Trends Scraper](https://apify.com/seodatalab/google-trends-scraper): demand for a brand's keywords over time and by region.
- [Google Trending Now Scraper](https://apify.com/seodatalab/google-trending-now): what people are searching for right now.

# Actor input Schema

## `searches` (type: `array`):

One per line. Accepts a website domain (nike.com), an advertiser name (Shopify), an advertiser ID (AR16735076323512287233) or an Ads Transparency Center URL (advertiser page, single ad page or ?domain= search). Filters in a URL (region, format, platform, dates) override the ones below for that line.

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

Only ads shown in this country: 2-letter code like US, GB, DE, FR, BR, IN. Use "anywhere" for all countries. UK is accepted for GB.

## `format` (type: `string`):

Only text, image or video ads.

## `platform` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown on this Google platform.

## `lastDays` (type: `integer`):

Only ads shown in the last N days (e.g. 30). Leave empty or 0 for no date filter. Ignored when start/end dates are set.

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD).

## `maxAdsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many ads for each line. 0 = all ads (big advertisers can have 100,000+).

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Per ad: every country it ran in with first/last shown dates, plus impression ranges and platforms where Google publishes them (mainly ads shown in the EU). Charged as an extra event per ad.

## `includeAdText` (type: `boolean`):

Per ad: headline, description, display URL, landing page, call to action, and for YouTube ads the video ID, link, duration and channel. Text ads that Google archives only as images return their image URLs instead (not charged).

## `advertisersPerName` (type: `integer`):

Big brands often run several advertiser accounts (per country, or a parent company plus subsidiaries). A name search covers this many matching accounts, largest first. For full coverage of one brand, search its website domain.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests when adding regions or ad copy.

## `searchConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many lines of "searches" run at the same time.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Each retry uses a fresh IP.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searches": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "region": "anywhere",
  "format": "all",
  "platform": "all",
  "maxAdsPerSearch": 100,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "includeAdText": false,
  "advertisersPerName": 1,
  "maxConcurrency": 16,
  "searchConcurrency": 4,
  "maxRetries": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

One row per ad (creative).

## `stats` (type: `string`):

Counts of searches, ads, requests and retries.

# 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 = {
    "searches": [
        "nike.com"
    ],
    "region": "anywhere",
    "maxAdsPerSearch": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seodatalab/google-ads-transparency-scraper").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 = {
    "searches": ["nike.com"],
    "region": "anywhere",
    "maxAdsPerSearch": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seodatalab/google-ads-transparency-scraper").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 '{
  "searches": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "region": "anywhere",
  "maxAdsPerSearch": 100
}' |
apify call seodatalab/google-ads-transparency-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/imlNW9UIcAlmCHfE4/builds/OaHuYH5nURSjYCpIp/openapi.json