Google Ads Transparency Scraper ($0.90/1K)

What does Google Ads Transparency Scraper do?

It pulls every Google ad a company runs, straight from the public Google Ads Transparency Center. Give it a brand name, a website domain, an advertiser ID, or an Ads Transparency link, and you get a clean spreadsheet of that advertiser's Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, and Play ads, with ad images, formats, first/last shown dates, and how many days each ad has been running.

It also works as a lead generation tool (one row per advertiser, with an approximate ad count) and as an ad alert feed (schedule it and get only the ads that are new since the last run).

It talks to the Transparency Center directly instead of driving a browser, so it's fast and cheap: a few seconds and a fraction of a cent for hundreds of ads.

Why scrape Google Ads Transparency?

• Competitor research: see every ad your competitors are running right now and how long they've kept each one live. Ads that run for months are the ones that make money.
• Creative inspiration: build a swipe file of text, image, and video ads for any niche.
• Agency prospecting: find brands that advertise on Google in a country and pitch them with their own ads in hand. Advertisers mode gives you the company list directly.
• Brand protection: spot advertisers bidding on your brand or domain.
• Market monitoring: schedule a daily run in monitor mode and get only the ads that launched since yesterday.

How to use it

1. Enter one or more targets. Any of these work, in any mix:
   • a brand name: Patagonia
   • a domain: nike.com
   • an advertiser ID: AR16735076323512287233
   • an adstransparency.google.com advertiser page, domain search page, or single creative page
2. Pick Ads or Advertisers under What to return.
3. Optionally filter by country, format (text/image/video), platforms (Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps, Play, pick as many as you like), or date range.
4. Click Start and download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML, or pull them through the API.

Input

Field	What it does
queries	Names, domains, advertiser IDs, or Transparency Center URLs, one per line.
domains	Domains only, for when they come from another system.
advertiserIds	Advertiser IDs (AR...), the most exact target.
startUrls	Transparency Center links: an advertiser page, a domain search page, or a creative page (.../advertiser/AR.../creative/CR...), which fetches just that ad with its details. A link to a .txt or .csv file also works here.
urlsFromFile	A pasted list (one per line) or one link to a public .txt or .csv file. For a CSV the first column is used and a header row is skipped. Google Sheets that need a login are not supported: publish the sheet as CSV and paste that link.
resultType	ads (default) or advertisers.
maxAdsPerQuery	Ads per query (default 100). In monitor mode this limits the new ads returned. Tested up to 10,000 per query (5,000 on two different advertisers and 10,000 on one, all delivered in full); larger values run but are not covered by our reliability tests.
maxAdvertisersPerQuery	Advertisers mode: advertisers per query (default 10, max 50).
advertisersPerName	Ads mode: for a name query, how many matching advertiser accounts to scrape (default 1).
region	Only ads shown in this country. Also ranks name matches toward advertisers registered there.
format	ALL, TEXT, IMAGE, or VIDEO.
platforms	Multi-select: SEARCH, YOUTUBE, SHOPPING, MAPS, PLAY. Empty means all. The old single platform value still works.
dateFrom / dateTo	Only ads shown in this date range (YYYY-MM-DD).
includeDetails	Adds regions and variations to every ad (one extra charge per ad).
includeAdCopy	Adds the ad text: headline, longHeadline, description, callToAction, displayUrl, destinationUrl, businessName, plus adCopyStatus. Turns details on too, so each ad is charged the details event (no extra event). See "Output: ad copy".
detailConcurrency	Detail lookups run in parallel (default 4, max 10) while Apify Proxy is carrying the run; on a direct connection they run one at a time to avoid blocks.
includeRawData	Adds Google's unprocessed creative record as rawData (and rawDetails when details are on).
onlyNewAds	Monitor mode, see below.
monitorStoreName	Name of the key-value store that holds monitor history (default ads-transparency-monitor).
proxyConfiguration	Optional. Apify Proxy switches on by itself when Google rate-limits a run.

Switching from another Ads Transparency scraper? maxAdsPerSearch, adFormat, startDate, and endDate are accepted as aliases for maxAdsPerQuery, format, dateFrom, and dateTo. They are not shown in the input form (use the API, a Task or the JSON editor), and when one is present it wins over the form field. The run log says which aliases were used.

{
    "queries": ["nike.com", "Patagonia"],
    "region": "US",
    "platforms": ["SEARCH", "YOUTUBE"],
    "maxAdsPerQuery": 200,
    "includeDetails": false
}

Monitor mode: only new ads

Turn on Only new ads and schedule the Actor (hourly, daily, weekly). It remembers the creative IDs each query has already returned, in a named key-value store, and returns only ads it has not shown you before.

• The first run returns every ad it finds (up to your limit) and seeds the history. Every run after that returns only new ads.
• Each query has its own history, so nike.com and Nike never mix.
• History is saved as the run goes, so a run that is aborted or stopped by its cost limit does not lose it. An ad is remembered only after it was actually saved, so ads cut off by maxAdsPerQuery or the cost limit show up next time.
• Ads skipped as already seen are never charged.
• Google does not promise newest-first order, so a monitor run looks through at most the larger of 5,000 ads or twice maxAdsPerQuery per target. For huge advertisers, add a Shown on or after date to keep runs short.
• Use a different monitorStoreName for each separate monitor, or to start fresh.

Output: ads

{
    "query": "nike.com",
    "advertiserId": "AR16735076323512287233",
    "advertiserName": "Nike, Inc.",
    "creativeId": "CR14561993098470096897",
    "format": "TEXT",
    "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR16735076323512287233/creative/CR14561993098470096897",
    "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/11975201839024397116",
    "previewUrl": null,
    "imageSize": "348x505",
    "firstShown": "2026-06-05T07:00:00.000Z",
    "lastShown": "2026-09-24T18:30:53.000Z",
    "shownForDays": 111,
    "isRunningNow": true,
    "daysSinceLastShown": 0,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-09-24T19:02:11.000Z"
}

With Include regions and variations switched on, each ad also gets:

{
    "regions": [{ "countryCode": "US", "geoTargetId": 2840, "lastShown": "2026-09-24" }],
    "variations": [{ "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/..." }]
}

• shownForDays is the number of whole days from firstShown to lastShown (0 if both are on the same day, null when either is missing). Long-running ads are the ones that make money.
• isRunningNow is true when the ad was last shown within 48 hours of scrapedAt, and daysSinceLastShown counts the whole days from lastShown to scrapedAt. Use them to separate live ads from old ones.
• imageUrl is a static image of the ad (text ads are archived by Google as screenshots).
• previewUrl is Google's interactive preview script, used for responsive display and video ads.
• A creative page link returns the same fields, except firstShown and shownForDays, which are null because Google does not include a first-shown time for single-creative lookups.
• If a detail lookup keeps failing for an ad, the ad is still saved with a detailsError field and you are not charged for details on it.

Output: ad copy

Switch on Include ad copy to get the words of each ad, not only its picture and dates. For every ad the scraper reads the preview Google serves and fills:

{
    "headline": "Stop chasing data. Start closing deals.",
    "longHeadline": "Everything your team needs to grow. Get started free with HubSpot Smart CRM.",
    "description": "Track every contact, call, and deal in one place so nothing slips through the cracks.",
    "callToAction": "Sign up",
    "displayUrl": "hubspot.com",
    "destinationUrl": "https://www.hubspot.com/crm/e010a",
    "businessName": null,
    "adCopyStatus": "ok"
}

• Turning it on also fetches the ad details, so each ad is charged the Ad details event. No other event is added.
• A field is null when Google gives none. Nothing is guessed, and no pictures are read (no OCR).
• adCopyStatus says why: ok (copy found), image-only (Google archived the ad as a picture only, so there is no text to read), no-text (a preview was read but holds no copy the scraper understands), or unavailable (the preview could not be fetched; the ad is still saved).
• What we measured on build 0.1.11 (50 ads per run): video ads 50 of 50 with headline, long headline, description, call to action and display URL. Nike text ads 32 of 50 with copy: 26 with headline, description and display URL, and 6 dynamic search ads where Google writes the headline and URL at serving time, so only the description and business name are returned (a placeholder is never copied into a field); 17 more were screenshots only. HubSpot's mixed ads 10 of 50 (all 8 video ads, 2 of 40 text ads, the rest screenshots only). Adidas image ads in Germany 4 of 50 (38 screenshots only, 8 previews with no copy fields). So video and display ads usually carry copy, and text ads vary a lot by advertiser. Where there is only a screenshot, use imageUrl.
• The run summary (OUTPUT.adCopy) counts how many ads had copy, per status and per format.
• destinationUrl is the plain landing page. Google's click-tracking links are never returned or opened.

Output: advertisers

Set What to return to Advertisers to get one row per matched advertiser instead of every ad. A name finds all matching advertiser accounts, a domain finds the advertisers running ads that point to it.

{
    "query": "nike.com",
    "advertiserId": "AR18378488041124659201",
    "name": "Nike Retail BV",
    "country": null,
    "approxAdCount": 75000,
    "adCountMin": 70000,
    "adCountMax": 80000,
    "transparencyUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR18378488041124659201",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-10T15:09:01.945Z"
}

• approxAdCount is Google's own estimate; adCountMin and adCountMax are the range Google reports. With country, format, platform, or date filters on, the counts are for ads matching those filters, and advertisers with no matching ads are left out.
• country is the advertiser's registered country when Google returns it (name searches), otherwise null.
• An advertiser appears once per run, even if several queries find it.

How much does it cost?

You pay only for results, per event. The price per 1,000 depends on your Apify plan:

Event	Free and Bronze	Silver	Gold and above
Ad scraped	$0.90 per 1,000	$0.81 per 1,000	$0.72 per 1,000
Ad details (optional, per ad that returned details)	$0.44 per 1,000	$0.35 per 1,000	$0.08 per 1,000
Advertiser row (advertisers mode)	$2.69 per 1,000	$2.69 per 1,000	$2.69 per 1,000
Run start	$0.00005	$0.00005	$0.00005

Scraping 500 of a competitor's ads on the Free plan costs about $0.45. Ads skipped by monitor mode, ads Google returns without an ID, and details Google refused are never charged. If a query fails, you are charged only for the rows that were saved. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options and the scraper stops cleanly when it is reached.

At the start of every run the log shows the price on your plan, the worst-case size of the run, and every limit that can end a query early.

Limits and what the run tells you

Nothing here depends on your Apify plan. The limits are:

• Max ads per query (default 100). Tested up to 10,000 per query: a 10,000-ad run finished in about 18 minutes for about $0.08 of platform usage, and 5,000-ad runs took 10 to 12 minutes. Larger values run but are not covered by our tests. A run that long needs a run timeout above 20 minutes (the Actor's own default is 1 hour).
• A name query tries at most the first 5 matching advertiser accounts and stops after Advertisers per name of them have ads.
• Monitor mode pages through at most the larger of 5,000 ads or twice Max ads per query for each query.
• In Advertisers mode, a domain query takes its advertisers from the first 200 ads of that domain.
• With details on, a query stops after 3 refused detail requests in a row; its ads are saved without details.
• With ad copy on, a run turns ad copy off after 10 ads in a row whose preview could not be fetched; the ads are still saved.

The first log lines list these for your input, and the run's status message and the OUTPUT record say when one of them ended a query.

Reliability. If Google blocks or drops a request, the scraper waits, takes a fresh IP, and retries. A query that still fails is retried once more on a fresh proxy session, resuming where it stopped, so nothing is saved or charged twice. Then the run ends honestly:

• Everything worked: the status message starts with "Done:". If the only limit hit is your own Max ads per query, it reads "Done: 100 ads saved (your limit of 100 per query)", and "Questions?" with the Issues link.
• Some queries did not finish: the run succeeds with the rows that were saved, and the status message starts with "PARTIAL:", names the queries, and points to the Issues tab. You are charged only for saved rows.
• Nothing could be saved: the run fails and no results are charged (only Apify's small run start fee applies).

The OUTPUT record in the run's key-value store has the details: a line per query with its status, rows saved, attempts and error, the limits that were reached, and the billable events counted.

Tips

• Big brands run thousands of ads. Use Max ads per query plus the country and date filters to keep runs focused.
• Brand names can match several advertiser accounts (brands often have one per country). Raise Advertisers per name to scrape more than the best match, or use the domain or advertiser ID for an exact target.
• Searching by domain returns ads from every advertiser that points to that site, including resellers and affiliates.
• For a prospect list, run Advertisers mode first, then feed the advertiserId values you care about back in as Advertiser IDs to pull their ads.

FAQ

Is scraping the Ads Transparency Center legal? The Transparency Center is a public site Google built so anyone can see who is advertising. This scraper collects only that public ad data and no personal information. Check that your own use complies with the laws and terms that apply to you.

Does it need a proxy? No. If Google rate-limits a run, the scraper switches to Apify Proxy automatically (datacenter first, then residential), and replaces any proxy IP that stops answering.

Why is the ad copy empty for some text ads? Google keeps some text ads only as a screenshot (adCopyStatus is image-only). The text is then not available as text anywhere in the Transparency Center, and this scraper does not guess it or read it from the picture. The screenshot link is in imageUrl.

Something broke or you need a field? Open an issue on the Issues tab with the input you used. Turn on Include raw data to see everything Google returns for an ad.