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

Get every ad a competitor runs on Google Search, YouTube, Display and Shopping. Search by domain, brand or advertiser ID; filter by country, format and date. Returns creatives, first/last shown dates, days active and countries.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/yuri\_silva/google-ads-transparency-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Yuri S.](https://apify.com/yuri_silva) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 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 & Ad Library

**See every ad your competitors run on Google: Search, YouTube, Display and Shopping.** This scraper pulls competitor ads from the public [Google Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com), Google's ad library. Type a domain or brand name and get a clean table of their ads with the creative, first and last shown dates, how many days each ad has been running, and the countries it runs in.

$1 per 1,000 ads. No login, no cookies, no Google account.

### What people use it for

- **Competitor research.** See which ads a competitor has kept running for months. Those are the ones that make them money.
- **Creative inspiration.** Pull hundreds of text, image and video ads in your niche in one go.
- **Agency pitches and audits.** Show a prospect exactly what their competitors are running, and where.
- **Market monitoring.** Schedule a daily run and get alerted when a competitor launches new ads.
- **AI agents.** Clean, flat JSON that works well as a tool for Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client.

### How to use it

1. Add one or more **domains** (`nike.com`), **brand names** (`HubSpot`) or **advertiser IDs** (`AR16735076323512287233`).
2. Optionally pick a **country**, **ad format** and **date range**.
3. Click **Start**. Export the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or pull them through the API.

Tip: a domain search returns every advertiser that points ads to that domain, including resellers and agencies. A brand name search returns ads from the largest advertiser account with that name. The run log lists the other matches with their IDs, so you can pass the exact one you want.

### Input

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `queries` | Domains, brand names or advertiser IDs (`AR...`). |
| `country` | Two-letter country code (`US`, `GB`, `BR`…). Empty = all countries. |
| `format` | `all`, `text`, `image` or `video`. |
| `dateFrom` / `dateTo` | Only ads shown within this date range. |
| `maxAdsPerQuery` | Max ads per query (default 100). |
| `includeCountries` | Also list every country each ad ran in. Slower. |

```json
{
    "queries": ["nike.com", "HubSpot"],
    "country": "US",
    "format": "all",
    "dateFrom": "2026-09-01",
    "maxAdsPerQuery": 500
}
```

### Output

One row per ad:

```json
{
    "query": "nike.com",
    "advertiserId": "AR16735076323512287233",
    "advertiserName": "Nike, Inc.",
    "creativeId": "CR15939700521196060673",
    "format": "text",
    "imageUrl": "https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/archive/simgad/7107869829215750076",
    "previewUrl": null,
    "firstShown": "2022-12-04T00:46:56.000Z",
    "lastShown": "2026-09-29T23:17:35.000Z",
    "daysActive": 605,
    "targetDomain": "nike.com",
    "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR16735076323512287233/creative/CR15939700521196060673?region=US",
    "countries": ["US"]
}
```

- `imageUrl`: a rendered snapshot of the ad (text and image ads).
- `previewUrl`: Google's interactive preview script (some video and rich ads).
- `daysActive`: number of days the ad has been shown. Long-running ads are usually the profitable ones.
- `countries`: only filled when `includeCountries` is on.

### Pricing

**$1.00 per 1,000 ads**, charged per ad saved. Turning on `includeCountries` adds **$2.00 per 1,000 ads**, because it makes an extra lookup for every ad. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options and the scraper stops cleanly when it reaches it.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?** It reads the public Google Ads Transparency Center, which Google publishes so anyone can see who is advertising. It collects no personal data. You are responsible for how you use the data.

**Why do I get fewer ads than the estimate?** Google's counts are rough ranges, and some ads are removed between the count and the fetch.

**Will I get blocked?** Runs use rotating residential IPs and a steady request pace by default, at no extra cost to you. If a run ever stops early, the ads saved so far are kept, and you're only charged for those.

**Something broke or you need a field?** Open an issue on the Issues tab. I usually reply within a day.

Independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Google.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

What to look up. Each entry can be a website domain (e.g. "nike.com"), a brand / advertiser name (e.g. "Nike"), or an advertiser ID from the Transparency Center (starts with "AR").

## `country` (type: `string`):

Only return ads shown in this country. Two-letter code like US, GB, DE, BR. Leave empty for all countries.

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

Only return ads of this format.

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

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

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

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

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

Stop after this many ads for each query. Big brands have tens of thousands of ads.

## `includeCountries` (type: `boolean`):

Also fetch the list of countries where each ad was shown. Slower (one extra request per ad).

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

Residential proxy is on by default so large runs stay reliable. You don't pay extra for it.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "country": "",
  "format": "all",
  "maxAdsPerQuery": 100,
  "includeCountries": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `ads` (type: `string`):

One row per ad: advertiser, creative, format, first/last shown dates, days active, domain and link.

## `adsFull` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "queries": [
        "nike.com"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("yuri_silva/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 = {
    "queries": ["nike.com"],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("yuri_silva/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 '{
  "queries": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call yuri_silva/google-ads-transparency-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,yuri_silva/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/z2dRNDShUO3VDPPSD/builds/n82MdbVtB78Z8hjz7/openapi.json