Google Ads Transparency Scraper: Search, YouTube & Display Ads

See every ad an advertiser runs on Google (Search, YouTube, Display, Shopping and Maps) from Google's public Ads Transparency Center. Give advertisers by name, website or Transparency Center id, optionally only ads shown in one country, and get each ad's format, when it was first and last shown, how many days it ran, an image of the ad, its preview and its Transparency Center link. For video ads it can also find the YouTube link. No login, no API key.

$1.50 per 1,000 ads. Advertisers that aren't found and failed calls are free.

What you can do with it

• Competitor ad research: everything a rival has advertised on Google, newest first, with images of the ads.
• Creative history: firstShown, lastShown and daysShown show which ads ran longest.
• Country checks: only the ads shown in the US, the UK, Germany, South Africa or any of 50 countries.
• Video ads: the YouTube video behind a rival's video ads, to watch or transcribe.
• Agency and compliance checks: confirm which ads an advertiser is running, verified by Google.

Input

{
  "advertisers": ["example.com", "Competitor Name", "AR17766143077581324289"],
  "country": "US",
  "format": "any",
  "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 200,
  "youtubeLinks": true
}

• advertisers: one per line: a website (all advertisers whose ads point to it), an advertiser's name (the Transparency Center's own match, preferring advertisers verified in your country), an advertiser id (AR...) or a Transparency Center link.
• country: only ads shown in that country, or ANY.
• format: any, text (search ads), image or video.
• maxAdsPerAdvertiser: up to 5,000, newest first.
• youtubeLinks: open each video ad's preview and return its YouTube link when it has one.

Output

One row per ad. An example (advertiser and ids replaced):

{
  "adId": "CR00000000000000000000",
  "advertiserId": "AR00000000000000000000",
  "advertiserName": "Example, Inc.",
  "advertiserCountry": "US",
  "format": "video",
  "firstShown": "2026-02-17T21:32:21Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-12T12:28:16Z",
  "daysShown": 238,
  "imageUrl": null,
  "previewUrl": "https://displayads-formats.googleusercontent.com/ads/preview/content.js?...",
  "youtubeUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...",
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR.../creative/CR...",
  "region": null,
  "searchQuery": "example.com",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-12T13:05:00Z"
}

• format: text (Google Search ads, which the Transparency Center keeps as an image: imageUrl), image or video.
• imageUrl: an image of the ad when Google keeps one; previewUrl: Google's preview script for rich and video ads.
• daysShown: how many days Google showed the ad.
• The key-value store record SUMMARY gives, per advertiser asked for: the advertiser it resolved to, its verified country, Google's own count of its ads (a range, e.g. 1,000-2,000), other advertisers with a similar name, and notes (for example "no ads shown in ZA").

Pricing

• $0.0015 per ad ($1.50 per 1,000 ads), lower on Apify's Scale and Business plans (Store discounts).
• $0.001 per YouTube link found (only with youtubeLinks; video ads without one are free).
• Free: advertisers not found, ads already returned by another of your advertisers, and failed calls.

Use it from code, automations and AI agents

• API: POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/zaiq~google-ads-transparency-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN with the input as JSON returns the ads in one call. The API tab has Python, JavaScript and cURL examples.
• Python (pip install apify-client):

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("zaiq/google-ads-transparency-scraper").call(run_input={
    "advertisers": ["example.com"],
    "country": "US",
    "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 300,
})
for ad in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(ad["format"], ad["firstShown"], ad["daysShown"], ad["adUrl"])

• No code: schedule weekly runs to catch rivals' new ads, send rows to Google Sheets, Zapier, Make or n8n from the Integrations tab, and get a webhook when a run finishes.
• AI agents (MCP): https://mcp.apify.com?tools=zaiq/google-ads-transparency-scraper adds it as a tool to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client.

Also from Zaiq

• Facebook Ads Library Scraper: the same competitor's ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads.

FAQ

Where does the data come from? Google's public Ads Transparency Center (adstransparency.google.com), the same pages anyone can open. No login, no Google Ads account, no API key.

Name, website or id: which should I use? A website is the most complete: it finds every advertiser whose ads lead to it. A name uses the Transparency Center's own suggestions; when several advertisers share a name, SUMMARY lists the others so you can pass the right id.

Can I get the text of search ads? Google keeps search ads as images in the Transparency Center, so each text ad comes with imageUrl, an image of the ad as shown.

How far back does it go? As far as the Transparency Center shows: Google keeps ads shown in roughly the last year for most advertisers, longer for political ads.

Limits

• 40 ads per page from the Transparency Center; a 1,000-ad advertiser takes under a minute (more with youtubeLinks).
• Up to 5,000 ads per advertiser per run.