# Amazon Sponsored Ads Intelligence (`zucchini_gopher_m2v/amazon-sponsored-ads-tracker`) Actor

Extract every Sponsored placement on page one of Amazon search for your keywords, with slot positions and a per-keyword advertiser roll-up. Shows which competitors bid hardest on which terms. Samples each keyword repeatedly. No login needed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/zucchini\_gopher\_m2v/amazon-sponsored-ads-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Faisal Ahdan naufal](https://apify.com/zucchini_gopher_m2v) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$5.00 / 1,000 records

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Amazon Sponsored Ads Intelligence

Extract every **Sponsored** placement on page one of Amazon search for the
keywords you care about — with slot positions and a per-keyword advertiser
roll-up showing **who is bidding hardest on what**.

For brands monitoring competitors' ad strategy and share of voice.

No login, no API key. HTTP-only — no browser.

### What you get

Per sponsored placement:

```json
{
  "recordType": "SPONSORED_AD",
  "keyword": "yoga mat",
  "sampleIndex": 1,
  "position": 1,
  "slotBand": "TOP",
  "asin": "B09M8D4JMD",
  "title": "COOLMOON Yoga Mat Non Slip, Anti-Tear 1/4 Thick TPE...",
  "price": 36.99,
  "currency": "$",
  "rating": 4.6,
  "reviewCount": 1284,
  "isPrime": true,
  "productUrl": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M8D4JMD"
}
```

Plus one summary per keyword — the competitive picture:

```
yoga mat           27 ads / 168 slots (16.1%)  topSlot=9  advertisers=16  avgPrice=$61.26
   positions=[1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 11, 11, 12]
   mostPersistentAsins=[{B09M8D4JMD: 2}, {B0F5VW37M7: 2}, {B0HGL1PBQ6: 2}]

wireless earbuds    2 ads /  48 slots ( 4.2%)  topSlot=1  advertisers=2   avgPrice=$23.49
protein powder     12 ads / 156 slots ( 7.7%)  topSlot=4  advertisers=12  avgPrice=$79.06
```

`mostPersistentAsins` is the core signal: an ASIN appearing in **every**
sample is bidding continuously, not just winning one impression.

### ⚠️ Why it samples each keyword more than once

Amazon auctions ad slots **per impression**, so a single fetch is one draw,
not the truth. Measured in one run:

| Keyword | sample 1 | sample 2 | sample 3 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| yoga mat | 13 ads | 1 ad | 13 ads |
| wireless earbuds | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| **protein powder** | **0** | **0** | **12** |

A single fetch of "protein powder" would have told you **nobody advertises
on it** — on a keyword with twelve advertisers. `samplesPerKeyword` defaults
to **3** for exactly this reason. Raise it to 5 for keywords you care about.

It also means **zero ads is a real answer**, not a bug: measured density
across seven keywords ranged 0%–21.7%. A summary row is emitted either way.

### Input

```json
{
  "keywords": ["yoga mat", "wireless earbuds", "protein powder"],
  "marketplace": "com",
  "samplesPerKeyword": 3,
  "includeOrganic": false
}
```

| Field | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `keywords` | Search terms to monitor |
| `marketplace` | com, co.uk, de, fr, it, es, ca, com.au, co.jp, in |
| `samplesPerKeyword` | 1–5 impressions per keyword (default 3) |
| `includeOrganic` | Also emit non-sponsored results, to compare paid vs organic placement |
| `includeSummary` | Per-keyword advertiser roll-up (default on) |
| `maxResultsPerKeyword` | Cap results parsed per sample |
| `delaySeconds` | Pacing — Amazon serves CAPTCHAs to traffic it dislikes |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Residential **strongly recommended** |

### Things worth knowing

**Prices are forced into the marketplace's currency.** Amazon prices pages
from the request's geo-IP — from an Indonesian IP, amazon.com returned
`IDR 336,939.57` instead of `$19.99`. The actor sends the cookie that pins
the currency, so figures stay comparable wherever the run exits from. The
`currency` field is on every row regardless, so never assume USD.

**Amazon search is fussy about TLS fingerprints.** Most are rejected
outright with a 503 block page; the actor ships only the five profiles
verified to work and rotates through them. This is a different ladder from
the Best Sellers actor — same domain, different defences.

**CAPTCHAs are reported, never solved.** A challenged keyword emits
`CAPTCHA_ESCALATION` and the run continues with the rest.

### Known limits

- **Page one only** — that is where the bidding competition is.
- **This measures ad presence and position, not spend.** No public surface
  exposes bids or CPC; slot position and persistence across samples are the
  observable proxies for aggression.
- Ad density may be lower for anonymous traffic than for a logged-in
  shopper, so counts are a **lower bound**.
- Sponsored Brand banners and video ad units were not present on the pages
  tested; the actor captures in-line Sponsored Product placements.

See [CRAWLING\_METHOD.md](CRAWLING_METHOD.md) for the fingerprint matrix, the
currency-forcing tests, the parsing pitfall that inflated ad counts 7×, and
the full density measurements.

# Actor input Schema

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

Search terms to watch, e.g. \["wireless earbuds", "yoga mat"]. Each is searched on Amazon and every Sponsored placement on page one is extracted with its slot position.

## `marketplace` (type: `string`):

Amazon domain to search. Prices are forced into this marketplace's currency regardless of where the actor runs from.

## `samplesPerKeyword` (type: `integer`):

How many times to search each keyword. Amazon auctions ad slots per impression, so one fetch is a single sample - measured density ranged from 0% to 21.7% of page-one slots across keywords. Sampling 3-5 times gives a far more reliable picture of who is bidding persistently rather than who won one impression.

## `includeOrganic` (type: `boolean`):

Also emit the non-sponsored results, so you can compare an advertiser's paid placement against the organic ranking on the same keyword. Off by default to keep the dataset focused on ads.

## `includeSummary` (type: `boolean`):

Emit one KEYWORD\_SUMMARY row per keyword: sponsored share of page one, ad slot positions, unique advertised ASINs, and which ASINs appeared across the most samples - the 'who is bidding hardest' answer.

## `maxResultsPerKeyword` (type: `integer`):

Cap results parsed from each search page. 0 means parse the whole page (Amazon returns roughly 16-60 results depending on the keyword).

## `delaySeconds` (type: `integer`):

Pause between searches and between samples. Amazon search is defended: most TLS fingerprints are rejected outright and CAPTCHAs are served to traffic it dislikes. Pacing is what keeps a run clean; this actor never solves CAPTCHAs.

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

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED. Amazon search rejects most datacentre traffic and serves CAPTCHAs; a rotating residential proxy plus the built-in fingerprint ladder is what makes a multi-keyword run viable.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "wireless earbuds"
  ],
  "marketplace": "com",
  "samplesPerKeyword": 3,
  "includeOrganic": false,
  "includeSummary": true,
  "maxResultsPerKeyword": 0,
  "delaySeconds": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Sponsored placements and per-keyword advertiser summaries.

# 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 = {
    "keywords": [
        "wireless earbuds"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("zucchini_gopher_m2v/amazon-sponsored-ads-tracker").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 = { "keywords": ["wireless earbuds"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("zucchini_gopher_m2v/amazon-sponsored-ads-tracker").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 '{
  "keywords": [
    "wireless earbuds"
  ]
}' |
apify call zucchini_gopher_m2v/amazon-sponsored-ads-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,zucchini_gopher_m2v/amazon-sponsored-ads-tracker"
        }
    }
}

```

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/ihYV3ZudV17e3R5jB/builds/3VR587N7yRe37Plww/openapi.json