Facebook Ad Library Scraper

Thirdwatch portfolio: 5K users across 88 public Actors, 2M+ records delivered, and >99% run success. Explore all Thirdwatch Actors.

Scrape public Meta Ad Library results for brands, keywords, and ad categories. Use it to monitor active ads, collect creative text snippets, track CTAs, compare platform mix, and build competitor ad swipe files across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network where Meta exposes the data.

Value prop

Meta's Ad Library is one of the most accessible public sources for seeing which ads are currently active for a brand or keyword. This actor packages that public Ad Library view into Apify dataset rows so growth teams, agencies, researchers, and compliance teams can monitor ad activity without manually searching the Library one brand at a time.

Best fit:

• Growth teams tracking competitor creative angles and CTAs.
• Agencies building swipe files and pitch research.
• Brand teams auditing their own active ad inventory.
• Researchers monitoring political, issue, housing, employment, or credit ads.
• Compliance teams checking regulated ad categories.

What's new

• Brand and keyword search against public Meta Ad Library pages.
• Country filtering with ALL or ISO country codes such as US, IN, GB, CA, and AU.
• Ad category targeting for all ads, political and issue ads, housing ads, employment ads, and credit ads where available.
• Optional creative capture limit so you can run count-only checks or collect sample ads.

What data you get

Field	Description
brand	Brand or keyword searched
country	Country filter applied, or ALL
adType	Ad category requested
url	Meta Ad Library search URL
active	Whether active matching ads were detected
adCount	Count shown by the Ad Library when available
creatives	Array of captured creative samples
creativeCount	Number of creative samples captured
scraped_at	Scrape timestamp

Creative fields

Field	Description
startDate	Date the ad started running when shown
platforms	Platforms shown on the ad card
cta	Call-to-action button text when shown
textSnippet	Visible ad copy snippet

Quick-start input examples

Track active ads for brands worldwide

{
  "brands": ["allbirds", "hoka", "on running"],
  "country": "ALL",
  "adType": "all",
  "maxCreatives": 20
}

Check one country

{
  "brands": ["nykaa", "myntra"],
  "country": "IN",
  "adType": "all",
  "maxCreatives": 50
}

Political or issue ad monitoring

{
  "brands": ["climate policy", "election campaign"],
  "country": "US",
  "adType": "political_and_issue_ads",
  "maxCreatives": 100
}

Count-only monitoring

{
  "brands": ["example brand"],
  "country": "ALL",
  "adType": "all",
  "maxCreatives": 0
}

Sample output snippet

{
  "brand": "allbirds",
  "country": "US",
  "adType": "all",
  "url": "https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=active&ad_type=all&country=US&q=allbirds",
  "active": true,
  "adCount": 42,
  "creatives": [
    {
      "startDate": "Mar 18, 2026",
      "platforms": ["Facebook", "Instagram"],
      "cta": "Shop Now",
      "textSnippet": "New Tree Runners. Comfortable from your first step."
    }
  ],
  "creativeCount": 1,
  "scraped_at": "2026-04-23T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Use cases

• Competitor ad monitoring: See whether a brand is running active ads and collect examples of visible copy.
• Creative research: Build a swipe file of CTAs, hooks, platform mix, and messaging angles.
• Brand auditing: Check your own active ads by country and category.
• Agency research: Prepare pitches with public competitor ad examples.
• Political and issue monitoring: Track active political or issue ad visibility in supported countries.
• Regulated category checks: Review housing, employment, and credit ad examples where Meta exposes them.

Pricing examples

This actor uses pay-per-result pricing on Apify. In the standard output, one dataset item is returned per searched brand or keyword, with creatives nested inside that row.

Example cost formula:

number of searched brands or keywords x current price per result = estimated run cost

Example at a hypothetical $0.002 per result:

Brands or keywords searched	Example cost
25	$0.05
100	$0.20
1,000	$2.00

Check the actor pricing tab for the current live price. If you need pricing per captured creative instead of per searched brand, ask for a custom output shape.

Limitations

• Coverage varies by country and ad category because Meta controls what the public Ad Library exposes.
• In some regions, commercial ads may be less visible than political, issue, housing, employment, or credit ads.
• Creative capture is best-effort because Ad Library pages lazy-load cards as you scroll.
• Text snippets can be truncated to what is visible in the Library card view.
• Spend, impression, demographic, and disclaimer fields are not consistently available for standard commercial ads.
• A brand active in one country can return no results in another country filter.

Competitor and comparison notes

• Compared with Meta's Ad Library UI: This actor is better for repeatable monitoring, exports, and multiple-brand checks. The UI is better for manual review of a small number of ads.
• Compared with Meta APIs: API access and field availability depend on Meta's permissions and ad category rules. This actor is designed for public Ad Library pages and self-serve Apify workflows.
• Compared with social post scrapers: This actor focuses on active paid ads, not organic posts.
• Compared with full creative intelligence platforms: This actor is a lightweight data extraction tool. It does not include built-in spend estimation, creative scoring, or dashboard analytics.

Pairs well with Instagram Scraper for organic post monitoring and TikTok Scraper for cross-platform competitor tracking.

FAQ

Do I need a Facebook account? No. The actor uses public Meta Ad Library pages.

Why do results differ by country? Meta shows different ad inventory by region, and availability can vary by ad category and local rules.

Can I get ad spend data? Not reliably for standard commercial ads. Spend ranges are most commonly exposed for regulated categories such as political or issue ads where Meta provides disclosures.

Can I get images or videos? The standard output focuses on text, CTA, platforms, start date, and counts. Ask for a custom build if you need media URL capture.

Can I monitor the same brands every day? Yes. Schedule the actor in Apify and compare counts or creative snippets over time.

Support and custom builds

Need media capture, spend/disclaimer fields where available, deduplication, daily monitoring, Slack alerts, Looker/Sheets exports, or a custom ad intelligence workflow? Contact Thirdwatch at thirdwatch.dev or through the Apify actor support channel.

Last verified: 2026-04