# Google Ads Transparency Scraper: Ad Copy & Competitor Monitor (`rimulabs/google-ads-transparency-scraper`) Actor

Scrape any advertiser's Google ads from the Ads Transparency Center: search-ad headlines and descriptions (read from ad images with OCR), display URLs, YouTube videos, images, countries and first/last seen dates. Search by brand, domain or advertiser ID, or monitor for new ads.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/rimulabs/google-ads-transparency-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Rimu Labs](https://apify.com/rimulabs) (community)
- **Categories:** Marketing, SEO tools, Business
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.05 / 1,000 ad scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 Scraper: ad copy (with OCR) & competitor monitor

See every Google ad a competitor runs, with the **actual headlines, descriptions and display URLs**, not just screenshots. Google archives most search ads only as a picture of the ad; this Actor **reads the text out of those pictures (OCR)**, so you get the copy as data. Search Google's [Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com/) by brand, domain or advertiser ID. Filter by country, format and date, or turn on **monitor mode** to get only the ads that are new since your last run.

Works for Search, Shopping, Display and YouTube ads in every country Google publishes. You need no Google account, no login and no API key.

**Guide:** [How to see competitors' Google search ads as text](https://rimulabs.com/guides/competitor-google-ads-text). Covers the manual way and this Actor, with Python examples.

### What you get for each ad

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| `advertiserName`, `advertiserId` | Hubspot, Inc. · AR10072600183532683265 |
| `format` | `text`, `image` or `video` |
| `headline` | Free Marketing Framework Course |
| `description` | Learn the fundamentals of Loop Marketing with a free course from HubSpot. |
| `callToAction` | Learn more |
| `textSource`, `ocrConfidence` | `preview` (Google's own ad data) or `ocr` (read from the ad image), with OCR confidence 0–100 |
| `sitelinks` | Sitelink texts shown under a search ad, when present |
| `visibleUrl` / `landingUrl` | www.monzo.com/business-bank · full landing URL where Google exposes it (mainly display and video ads) |
| `youtubeVideoId` / `youtubeUrl` | f33QnO8AfvI · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33QnO8AfvI |
| `imageUrl`, `imageUrls`, `width`, `height` | Display ad image and size |
| `firstShown`, `lastShown`, `daysShown` | 2026-02-17 → 2026-10-17 · ran on 243 days |
| `regionsShown` | Every country the ad ran in, with its last-shown date |
| `variationCount` | How many A/B variations Google recorded |
| `adUrl` | Link to the ad on the Transparency Center |
| `isNew` | `true` for new ads in monitor mode |

Turn off **Include ad copy & details** for a faster, cheaper list of ads with dates, formats, images and links.

#### How the ad text is extracted

- **Search (text) ads:** Google usually stores only a rendered picture of the ad. The Actor reads its display URL, headline, description and sitelinks with OCR and marks them `textSource: "ocr"`. On English ads, headlines and descriptions come out word-for-word in our tests; accents can be lost in other Latin-script languages, and ads in scripts like Japanese are returned without text rather than with garbled text. Text cut off in Google's own rendering stays cut off.
- **Display and YouTube ads:** copy, call to action and landing page come from Google's ad data when it's available (`textSource: "preview"`). Banner ads often have their text inside the image, so you get the image.
- OCR is included in the ad-details price. Turn off **Read search-ad text from images** if you only need the images.

#### Sample output

A real result (US, video ads, October 2026), shortened:

```json
{
  "creativeId": "CR00056102314519298049",
  "advertiserId": "AR10072600183532683265",
  "advertiserName": "Hubspot, Inc.",
  "format": "video",
  "headline": "HubSpot Smart CRM",
  "description": "HubSpot Smart CRM — built for your whole team to use from day one. Get started free.",
  "visibleUrl": "hubspot.com",
  "landingUrl": "https://www.hubspot.com/crm/e010a",
  "youtubeVideoId": "f33QnO8AfvI",
  "youtubeUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33QnO8AfvI",
  "firstShown": "2026-02-17T21:34:04.199Z",
  "lastShown": "2026-10-17T11:01:11.959Z",
  "daysShown": 243,
  "variationCount": 4,
  "regionsShown": [
    { "country": "CA", "countryName": "Canada", "lastShown": "2026-10-17" },
    { "country": "US", "countryName": "United States of America", "lastShown": "2026-10-17" }
  ],
  "adUrl": "https://adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/AR10072600183532683265/creative/CR00056102314519298049?region=US"
}
```

### Use cases

- **Competitor ad monitoring.** Schedule a weekly run in monitor mode and get a feed of competitors' new ads, copy and landing pages.
- **Ad copy research and swipe files.** Pull hundreds of live headlines and calls to action for a category in minutes.
- **Offer and landing-page intelligence.** See which pages competitors advertise (display URLs on search ads, full landing URLs where Google exposes them) and spot new offers or launches early.
- **Agency pitches and audits.** Show a prospect exactly what their competitors run, and where.
- **Market research.** Find who advertises in a country, which formats they use and how long ads keep running.
- **AI agents.** Callable through Apify's MCP server and API. Ask "What Google ads is Notion running in Germany right now?" and get structured data back.

### How to use it

1. Add **brands or domains** (e.g. `hubspot.com`, `Xero`), **advertiser IDs** (`AR…`) or **Transparency Center URLs**.
2. Optionally set a **region** (`US`, `GB`, `DE`, `AU`, `NZ`, …), an **ad format** and a **date range**.
3. Set **max ads per target**, then run. Export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or call it through the API.

**Domains or brand names?**

- A **domain** returns every ad that points to that site, including resellers and agencies.
- A **brand name** is matched to the brand's verified advertiser accounts and its own domain.
- For the most precise results, use the domain or the advertiser ID.

**Advertisers only mode** returns advertiser IDs, countries and approximate ad counts for brand names, without scraping ads. It is useful for building a competitor list first.

#### Monitor mode: get only new ads

1. Turn on **Monitor mode** and give the monitor a name (e.g. `competitors-us`).
2. The first run returns current ads. Every later run returns, and charges for, **only ads not seen before**.
3. Add a [Schedule](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules) (daily or weekly). Send results to Slack, email, Google Sheets or a webhook with Apify integrations.

Use a different monitor name for each set of competitors or filters.

### Pricing

You pay per result:

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Ad scraped | **$1.50 per 1,000 ads** |
| Ad copy & details (optional) | **+$2.00 per 1,000 ads** |
| Advertiser found (advertisers mode) | **$2.00 per 1,000 advertisers** |

Apify also charges a small fee when a run starts. You never pay for ads you've already seen in monitor mode, and you can cap the cost of any run with **Max total charge**.

Examples:

- 100 ads with full copy cost about **$0.35**.
- A weekly monitor of 5 competitors that finds about 50 new ads costs about **$0.18 a week**.

### FAQ

**Is this data public?** Yes. Google publishes it in the Ads Transparency Center (required in the EU under the Digital Services Act). This Actor reads the same public data a visitor sees, without logging in. Results are for your own analysis, and you are responsible for how you use them.

**Why are some fields empty?**

- Display (image) ads often have their copy inside the banner: you get the image.
- Google exposes full landing URLs only for some display and video ads; search ads show the display URL.
- Search ads in non-Latin scripts are returned without OCR text when it can't be read reliably.

**Why are ad counts ranges?** Google publishes approximate ranges, for example 600–700 ads.

**How far back can I filter by date?** Google keeps the date filter for recent dates, roughly the last year. Without a date filter you get every ad Google still lists, oldest included.

**Can I get impressions or spend?** Google doesn't publish them for commercial ads, so no tool can. Political ads in some regions are the exception.

**What happens if Google rate-limits the run?** Every blocked request retries from a fresh IP. With the default proxy setting, if Google throttles all the datacenter IPs, the run switches to residential IPs and carries on. The price per ad stays the same. If Google still refuses, the run stops with a clear message and charges only the start fee.

**Something broke or you need a field?** Open an issue on the Issues tab. Issues are answered within 24 hours.

***

Built and maintained by Rimu Labs. Questions: support@rimulabs.com.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Brand names (e.g. "HubSpot") or domains (e.g. "nike.com"). A brand name is matched to its verified advertisers. A domain returns every ad that points to that domain, whoever ran it.

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

Transparency Center advertiser IDs, which start with AR (shown in advertiser page URLs).

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Paste advertiser, creative or domain URLs from adstransparency.google.com. A ?region= parameter in the URL is ignored in favour of the Region setting below.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

"Advertisers only" resolves brand names to advertiser IDs, ad counts and countries without scraping ads.

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

Two-letter country code where the ads were shown (US, GB, DE, AU, NZ, ...), or "anywhere".

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

Only return ads of this format.

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

Only ads shown on or after this date. Google keeps this filter for recent dates (roughly the last year).

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

Only ads shown on or before this date.

## `maxAdsPerTarget` (type: `integer`):

Stops after this many ads for each target. Large advertisers run tens of thousands of ads.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Adds the ad copy (headline, description, display URL), landing page and call to action where Google provides them, YouTube video IDs, images, number of variations and every country the ad ran in. Charged as an extra "ad details" event per ad.

## `extractAdText` (type: `boolean`):

Google stores most search (text) ads only as a picture of the ad. With this on, the Actor reads the headline, description, display URL and sitelinks from that picture (OCR, best for English and other Latin-script ads). Needs "Include ad copy & details". No extra charge.

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

Remembers every ad returned before and only returns (and charges for) ads that are new since the last run. Schedule it daily or weekly to get a feed of competitors' new ads.

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

Optional name for the monitor's memory, e.g. "competitors-us". Use a different name for each set of competitors. If empty, a name is derived from your targets and filters.

## `maxAdvertisersPerTerm` (type: `integer`):

How many matching advertisers to use for each brand name (brands often run ads from several verified accounts).

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

Leave this on the default. Each blocked request retries from a fresh datacenter IP, and if Google throttles them all the run switches to residential IPs at no extra cost to you. If you choose your own proxies, they are used as given.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "hubspot.com"
  ],
  "mode": "ads",
  "region": "anywhere",
  "adFormat": "all",
  "maxAdsPerTarget": 20,
  "includeDetails": true,
  "extractAdText": true,
  "onlyNewAds": false,
  "maxAdvertisersPerTerm": 3,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One row per ad: advertiser, format, dates, ad copy, landing page, images, YouTube ID and countries shown.

## `advertisers` (type: `string`):

One row per advertiser (Advertisers only mode).

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Totals per target, new ads found in monitor mode and request statistics.

# 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 = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "hubspot.com"
    ],
    "maxAdsPerTarget": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("rimulabs/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 = {
    "searchTerms": ["hubspot.com"],
    "maxAdsPerTarget": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("rimulabs/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 '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "hubspot.com"
  ],
  "maxAdsPerTarget": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call rimulabs/google-ads-transparency-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,rimulabs/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/Atnku28jH35P6Huko/builds/yAFeQLWRX74goWMoV/openapi.json