# Google Ads Transparency Center Scraper & Competitor Ad Monitor (`suresignal/google-ads-transparency-library`) Actor

Only pay for new ads. Monitor competitor Google search, display & YouTube ads from the Google Ads Transparency Center by domain, brand or advertiser ID. Each run returns only ads you haven't seen.

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

## Pricing

from $12.00 / 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 Center Scraper & Competitor Ad Monitor

### Only pay for new ads.

**Don't pay for the same competitor ads over and over.** Enter a competitor's domain, brand name or advertiser ID. The first run pulls their current Google ads (search, display and YouTube, up to your limit). After that, every run delivers only the ads you haven't seen yet.

Most ad-library scrapers return a competitor's entire back catalog every time you run them, and you pay for all of it. Long-running ads are re-sent on every run and have to be filtered out by hand. This Actor remembers every ad it has delivered to each monitor and skips them, so you pay only for new ads. You spend less, your feed has less clutter, and you see the new creative, offer or landing page on the day it appears.

**A decision is only as good as the information behind it.** Spotting a competitor's new offer a week early can be worth far more than the pennies the data costs.

#### What it does

Pulls ads from the **Google Ads Transparency Center** (Google's public ad library): ad images, YouTube video links, first and last shown dates, days running, target domain and the countries they ran in.

No Google account, no API key, no cookies. Export to CSV, Excel, JSON, Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make or n8n.

### What can this Google Ads library scraper do?

- 🔎 **Search by domain** (`hubspot.com`): every ad pointing to that website, from any advertiser, including resellers and affiliates
- 🏢 **Search by advertiser name or ID** (`Nike, Inc.` or `AR16735076323512287233`)
- 🧭 **Keyword discovery**: type a brand or category word and scrape the top matching advertisers
- 🌍 **Filter by region** (US, UK, DE, CA, AU, FR, IN and 30+ more), **ad format** (text, image, video) and **date range**
- 🖼️ **Ad creatives**: image URL and size for search and display ads, plus **YouTube URL, video ID and thumbnail** for video ads
- 📅 **First shown, last shown and days running**: long-running ads are usually the ones that make money
- 🔔 **New ads since last run**: schedule it daily and get only fresh competitor ads, with no duplicates
- 🌐 **Add-on: regions shown and variation count** for each ad
- ♻️ **Reliable**: automatic retries, resumes where it stopped after a restart, and clear `inputError` messages instead of silent empty runs

### Who uses it?

- **PPC and performance agencies**: competitor ad research for pitches and audits in minutes
- **Marketers and founders**: see what messaging, offers and creatives rivals are testing right now
- **Brand protection teams**: catch resellers or affiliates bidding on your brand domain
- **Market researchers and AI agents**: structured ad data for dashboards, LLM analysis and trend reports

### How to see competitors' Google ads (3 steps)

1. Add competitor **domains** (easiest) or advertiser names.
2. Pick a **region**, a **format** and optionally a **date range**.
3. Click **Start**, then download the results or connect them to Sheets or Slack. New-ads-only is on by default: add a daily **Schedule** and give each watchlist its own `monitorName`. Turn it off for a one-time full export.

### Input example

```json
{
  "domains": ["hubspot.com", "salesforce.com"],
  "region": "US",
  "adFormat": "ALL",
  "dateFrom": "2026-09-01",
  "maxAdsPerQuery": 200,
  "onlyNewAds": true,
  "monitorName": "crm-competitors"
}
```

### Output example

```json
{
  "advertiserId": "AR16735076323512287233",
  "advertiserName": "Nike, Inc.",
  "creativeId": "CR10921743470246756353",
  "format": "VIDEO",
  "firstShown": "2026-05-01T08:33:22Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-13T08:30:29Z",
  "daysShown": 165,
  "targetDomain": "nike.com",
  "videoUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...",
  "videoThumbnailUrl": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/.../hqdefault.jpg",
  "imageUrl": null,
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR16735076323512287233/creative/CR10921743470246756353?region=US",
  "regionsShown": ["CA"],
  "region": "US"
}
```

Text (search) ads come back as Google's own rendered image of the ad (`imageUrl`), exactly as shown in the Transparency Center.

### How much does it cost to scrape Google Ads Transparency Center?

Pay only for results: **$12 per 1,000 ads**, with lower prices on paid Apify plans. YouTube links are included. The optional *regions shown* add-on costs $3 per 1,000 ads. There's no monthly fee, and `maxAdsTotal` caps what you spend. A 50-competitor daily monitor that returns only new ads usually costs cents a day.

### Why this Google Ads Transparency scraper?

| | This Actor | Typical alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Domain, advertiser name, ID and keyword search | ✅ | Often only one |
| New-ads-only monitoring | ✅ | ❌ |
| YouTube video links and thumbnails | ✅ | Rarely |
| First/last shown and days running | ✅ | Partial |
| Resume after restart, clear input errors | ✅ | ❌ |

### Is there a Google Ads Transparency Center API?

Google doesn't offer an official public API for the Transparency Center. This Actor works as one: call it from the Apify API, Python, JavaScript, Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent through the Apify MCP server, and get JSON back.

### FAQ

**Is it legal to scrape the Google Ads Transparency Center?** The Transparency Center is a public library Google publishes so people can see who is advertising. This Actor only collects public ad data, with no login and no personal data. Check your local laws and Google's terms for your use case.

**Can I search by keyword in the ad text?** Google's library searches advertisers and domains, not ad copy. Use `keywords` to find advertisers, then filter the results.

**Can I see competitors' ad spend or keywords?** No. Google doesn't publish spend, bids or keywords for commercial ads.

**Why did I get zero ads?** The advertiser may not have run that format in that region or date range. Try region `anywhere` and format `ALL`.

**How far back does data go?** As far as Google shows it, usually the past several years for active advertisers.

Questions or feature requests? Open an issue on the Issues tab and we usually reply within one business day.

### More from SureSignal

Other SureSignal data feeds that pair well with this one:

- [Recently Funded Startups: SEC Form D Leads](https://apify.com/SureSignal/sec-form-d-funding-leads): find companies that just raised money.
- [Careers Job Feed](https://apify.com/SureSignal/company-careers-job-feed): see who is hiring, and for what.
- [AI Search Visibility Tracker](https://apify.com/SureSignal/ai-search-visibility-tracker): check if ChatGPT and Perplexity mention your brand.
- [YouTube Transcript Scraper & Channel Monitor](https://apify.com/SureSignal/youtube-transcript-scraper): get transcripts of new videos from channels you follow.

Need a source or field we don't cover? Open an issue on the **Issues** tab and describe what you need.

# Actor input Schema

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Websites whose ads you want, e.g. hubspot.com. Finds every ad pointing to that domain, from any advertiser.

## `advertiserNames` (type: `array`):

Company names as shown in the Transparency Center, e.g. 'Nike, Inc.'. The best match is used.

## `advertiserIds` (type: `array`):

Exact advertiser IDs (start with AR...), from an adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR... URL.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Brand or category words. The top matching advertisers for each keyword are scraped. Google's library searches advertisers, not ad text.

## `advertisersPerKeyword` (type: `integer`):

How many matching advertisers to scrape per keyword.

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

2-letter country code where ads were shown (US, GB, DE, CA, AU, FR, IN...) or 'anywhere'.

## `adFormat` (type: `string`):

Only return this format.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown on or after this date.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

Only ads shown on or before this date (defaults to today).

## `maxAdsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Cap per search.

## `maxAdsTotal` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap for the run (and your cost).

## `onlyNewAds` (type: `boolean`):

On by default: skip ads this monitor already returned, so you only pay for new ads. Turn off for a one-time full export.

## `monitorName` (type: `string`):

Optional name to keep separate 'seen ads' memories for different monitors.

## `extractVideoLinks` (type: `boolean`):

For video ads, add the YouTube URL, ID and thumbnail.

## `includeAdDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Extra request per ad: list of countries the ad ran in and number of variations. Charged as an add-on.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Used automatically if Google rate-limits requests. Default Apify Proxy works for most runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "domains": [
    "hubspot.com"
  ],
  "advertisersPerKeyword": 3,
  "region": "anywhere",
  "adFormat": "ALL",
  "maxAdsPerQuery": 100,
  "maxAdsTotal": 1000,
  "onlyNewAds": true,
  "extractVideoLinks": true,
  "includeAdDetails": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All records from this run (new-only by default).

## `runState` (type: `string`):

Key-value store with NEXT_CURSOR and other run records.

# 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 = {
    "domains": [
        "hubspot.com"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("suresignal/google-ads-transparency-library").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 = {
    "domains": ["hubspot.com"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("suresignal/google-ads-transparency-library").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 '{
  "domains": [
    "hubspot.com"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call suresignal/google-ads-transparency-library --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/ZgMPUerWisHbgIk0t/builds/8eF5wy8tJaUjaBVmu/openapi.json