# 📢 Facebook Ads Scraper — Competitor Ad Tracker (`nexgendata/facebook-ads-library-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Meta's Ad Library for active Facebook and Instagram ads. Track competitor ad creatives, spend estimates, targeting, and campaign duration. Essential for ad intelligence and competitive research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/nexgendata/facebook-ads-library-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [NexGenData](https://apify.com/nexgendata) (community)
- **Categories:** Marketing, Social media, E-commerce
- **Stats:** 13 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$50.00 / 1,000 ad extracteds

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

## Facebook Ads Scraper

Competitor Ad Tracker

### 📊 What you get

Clean JSON output (8 fields):

- `ad_id` — Ad id
- `page_name` — Page name
- `page_id` — Page id
- `ad_creative_body` — Ad creative body
- `ad_snapshot_url` — Ad snapshot url
- `start_date` — Start date
- `platforms` — Platforms
- `impressions` — Impressions

**Pricing:** $0.050 per ad (Pay-Per-Event) — about **20 ads per $1**.

### 🤖 Use with AI agents

Point Claude, the OpenAI Agents SDK, an n8n flow or any MCP-aware client at it.

**Sample agent prompt:**

```
Run Facebook Ads Scraper on my input and return the structured results.
```

**Agentic payments (x402):** Supports agentic payment via x402 — call this actor with USDC, no API key required.

### 🔗 Related tools — Ad & traffic intelligence

[Meta Ad Intelligence](https://apify.com/nexgendata/meta-ad-library-intelligence) · [Competitor Ad Monitor](https://apify.com/nexgendata/competitor-ad-change-monitor) · [Google Ads Transparency](https://apify.com/nexgendata/google-ads-transparency-intelligence) · [Similarweb Traffic](https://apify.com/nexgendata/similarweb-traffic-intelligence)

***

*A NexGenData utility actor.*

# Actor input Schema

## `outputMode` (type: `string`):

Choose your output format. 'Competitor Tracker' adds enriched analytics: advertiser profiles, ad age analysis, creative type breakdown, auto-generated insights, and a summary report as the first row — perfect for weekly competitive monitoring. 'Raw Data' gives flat CSV-friendly rows, one record per ad, ideal for bulk export and custom analysis.

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Enter brand names, competitor names, or keywords to find their ads. Examples: 'Nike', 'teeth whitening', 'meal kit delivery'. Enter multiple terms to compare competitors side by side.

## `pageUrls` (type: `array`):

Track specific competitors by their Facebook page URL. Enter the URL of any Facebook business page to see all their active ads. Example: https://www.facebook.com/Nike

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

Country to search ads in. Use 2-letter ISO code (US, GB, DE, FR, CA, AU, etc.) or full country name. Ads in the Meta Ad Library are country-specific.

## `maxAds` (type: `integer`):

How many ads to collect per search query or page. For weekly monitoring, 50-100 is usually enough to spot new creatives. For deep competitive research, go up to 500+. Higher values take longer.

## `activeStatus` (type: `string`):

Filter by ad status. 'Active' shows currently running ads (best for competitive monitoring). 'All' includes stopped ads too — useful for seeing what competitors have tested and killed.

## `adType` (type: `string`):

Type of ads to search. 'All' covers standard commercial ads plus political/social issue ads.

## `mediaType` (type: `string`):

Filter by creative format. Use 'Videos only' to research video ad strategies, or 'Images only' to focus on static creatives and display ads.

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

Residential proxies are required — Meta's Ad Library blocks datacenter IPs. The default Apify residential proxy works reliably.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "outputMode": "tracker",
  "searchQueries": [
    "nike"
  ],
  "pageUrls": [],
  "country": "US",
  "maxAds": 100,
  "activeStatus": "active",
  "adType": "all",
  "mediaType": "all",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# 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 = {
    "outputMode": "tracker",
    "searchQueries": [
        "nike"
    ],
    "pageUrls": [],
    "country": "US",
    "maxAds": 100,
    "activeStatus": "active",
    "adType": "all",
    "mediaType": "all",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("nexgendata/facebook-ads-library-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 = {
    "outputMode": "tracker",
    "searchQueries": ["nike"],
    "pageUrls": [],
    "country": "US",
    "maxAds": 100,
    "activeStatus": "active",
    "adType": "all",
    "mediaType": "all",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("nexgendata/facebook-ads-library-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "outputMode": "tracker",
  "searchQueries": [
    "nike"
  ],
  "pageUrls": [],
  "country": "US",
  "maxAds": 100,
  "activeStatus": "active",
  "adType": "all",
  "mediaType": "all",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call nexgendata/facebook-ads-library-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=nexgendata/facebook-ads-library-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/0PFsldghMoEZU3r1c/builds/NU4bL4Ckt9XQdbEqJ/openapi.json