Google Ads Transparency Scraper

Spy on competitor ads at scale. This actor extracts ad creatives, headlines, advertiser details, and targeting data from the Google Ads Transparency Center — no browser needed, pure API.

Use it as a Google ads spy tool to monitor competitor campaigns, build ad intelligence reports, or track advertiser activity across regions.

Why This Actor

Feature	This Actor	solidcode	devilscrapes	memo23
Keyword/domain search	✅	❌ ID only	❌ ID only	❌ ID only
Headline & description decode	✅ protobuf	❌	❌	✅ Puppeteer (slow)
Sitelinks extraction	✅	❌	❌	❌
Seller rating & app extension	✅	❌	❌	❌
DUNS business number	✅	❌	❌	❌
EU verified identity	✅	❌	❌	❌
Ad Group ID / Customer ID	✅	❌	❌	❌
Region filter	✅	❌	❌	❌
Price per creative	$0.025	unstable	$0.02 + $5 base	$4/1K
Browser required	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

Features

• Keyword & domain search — find competitor ads by product name, brand, or domain without knowing their advertiser ID
• Full ad creative extraction — headlines, descriptions, sitelinks decoded directly from protobuf (no slow browser rendering)
• 31 structured fields per creative including format, dates, dimensions, and preview URLs
• Advertiser intelligence — verified entity name, DUNS number, country of registration, total ad count
• Ad extensions — seller ratings, app extensions with ratings and review counts
• Internal IDs — ad group ID and Google Ads customer ID for cross-referencing with other tools
• Region filtering — get ads shown in specific countries using ISO codes
• Fast and cheap — pure HTTP requests + protobuf decode, no Puppeteer overhead

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
searchQuery	string	Keyword or domain to search (e.g. vpn, nike.com, insurance quotes)
advertiserIds	string[]	Direct advertiser IDs in AR-format (e.g. AR18091944865498coursenull)
domains	string[]	Domains to find ads for (e.g. nike.com, adidas.com)
region	string	ISO country code filter (e.g. US, GB, DE). Empty = worldwide

Provide at least one of: searchQuery, advertiserIds, or domains.

Usage Examples

Search by keyword

{
    "searchQuery": "vpn",
    "region": "US"
}

Search by competitor domain

{
    "domains": ["nike.com", "adidas.com"],
    "region": "GB"
}

Direct advertiser lookup

{
    "advertiserIds": ["AR18091944865498coursenull"]
}

Output Fields

Each result contains up to 31 fields:

Field	Description
creativeId	Unique creative ID (CR format)
advertiserId	Advertiser ID (AR format)
advertiserName	Company/brand name
advertiserCountry	ISO country of registration
verifiedName	EU-verified legal entity name (TFAAR)
isVerified	Boolean verification status
dunsNumber	Dun & Bradstreet business identifier
format	image, video, or text
firstShown	ISO timestamp — when ad first appeared
lastShown	ISO timestamp — last appearance
totalDaysShown	Number of days the ad has been running
previewUrl	Main preview URL
imageUrl	Direct CDN URL for image ads
imageWidth / imageHeight	Image dimensions in pixels
sourceUrl	Link to view in Google Ads Transparency Center
headline	Ad headline (text ads, decoded from protobuf)
description	Ad body text (full unicode)
visibleUrl	Display URL shown in the ad
targetDomain	Destination domain
sitelinks	Array of RSA sitelink headlines
sellerRating	Object: {rating, reviewCount, domain, country}
appExtension	Object: {callToAction, appTitle, appDeveloper, appIconUrl, appRating, appReviews, currency}
adGroupId	Google Ads ad group ID
googleAdsCustomerId	Google Ads account ID (obfuscated)
previewUrls	Array of all preview variant URLs
variations	Array with image dimensions per variant
region	Region filter used
scrapedAt	Timestamp of scraping
advertiserTotalAds	Total active ads for this advertiser
advertiserAdStats	Object: {total, video, image} breakdown

Sample Output

{
    "creativeId": "CR12345678901234567",
    "advertiserId": "AR18091944865498coursenull",
    "advertiserName": "Example Corp",
    "advertiserCountry": "US",
    "verifiedName": "Example Corporation LLC",
    "isVerified": true,
    "dunsNumber": "123456789",
    "format": "text",
    "firstShown": "2024-01-15T00:00:00.000Z",
    "lastShown": "2024-03-20T00:00:00.000Z",
    "totalDaysShown": 65,
    "headline": "Best VPN Service 2024 - Try Free for 30 Days",
    "description": "Protect your privacy online with military-grade encryption. 5000+ servers worldwide.",
    "visibleUrl": "example.com/vpn",
    "targetDomain": "example.com",
    "sitelinks": ["Pricing Plans", "Download Now", "Business VPN", "24/7 Support"],
    "sellerRating": { "rating": 4.6, "reviewCount": 12847, "domain": "example.com", "country": "US" },
    "region": "US",
    "scrapedAt": "2024-03-21T14:30:00.000Z",
    "advertiserTotalAds": 342,
    "advertiserAdStats": { "total": 342, "video": 28, "image": 214 }
}

Pricing

Pay per result: $0.025 per creative. No monthly fees, no base charges.

Creatives	Cost
100	$2.50
1,000	$25
10,000	$250

Platform compute costs apply separately (minimal — no browser used).

How It Works

1. Queries the Google Ads Transparency Center reverse-engineered API
2. Decodes protobuf responses to extract full ad creative data
3. Resolves advertiser identity, verification status, and DUNS mapping
4. Returns structured JSON with all 31 fields per creative

No Puppeteer, no Playwright, no browser. This means faster execution, lower compute costs, and higher reliability compared to browser-based alternatives.

Use Cases

• Ad intelligence — monitor what ads competitors are running and for how long
• Creative research — collect ad copy, headlines, and sitelinks for inspiration
• Compliance monitoring — track advertiser verification status and identity data
• Market analysis — see ad format distribution and regional targeting patterns
• Brand protection — find unauthorized ads using your brand name or domain

FAQ

Can I search by keyword? Yes. Use searchQuery with any keyword, brand name, or domain. This is unique to this actor — most alternatives require you to already know the advertiser ID.

Does it need a browser or proxy? No browser, but a residential proxy is required. Google blocks datacenter IPs on the Transparency Center with a captcha, so the actor defaults to Apify Residential proxy. Datacenter proxy returns zero results.

What regions are supported? All regions available in Google Ads Transparency Center. Use standard ISO country codes (US, GB, DE, FR, JP, etc.).

How fresh is the data? Real-time. Each run queries the live Google Ads Transparency Center API.

What's the difference between searchQuery and domains? searchQuery searches across advertiser names and ad content. domains specifically finds advertisers whose ads point to those destination domains.