/apify-ads-intelligence

name: apify-ads-intelligence
description: Research, spy on, and analyze ads across Meta (Facebook & Instagram), Google (Ads Transparency Center + paid search results), TikTok (Ads Library + Creative Center), LinkedIn Ad Library, and X (Twitter — promoted tweets, best-effort) using Apify Actors. Use when user asks about competitor ads, ad library research, winning creatives, ad copy analysis, landing page audits from ads, cross-platform ad audits, brand transparency checks, or any task involving paid ad creatives, advertiser data, or ad targeting from public ad libraries.
author: Sameh Jarour
author_url: https://github.com/samehjarour
metadata:
  keywords: "ads, advertising, competitor-ads, ad-library, creative-research, transparency, facebook, instagram, google, tiktok, linkedin, x, twitter, promoted-tweets"

Ads Intelligence Cluster

Answer natural language questions about ads, ad libraries, and competitor advertising activity by routing to the right Apify Actor and delivering a synthesized answer.

**CLI rules:** Always pass `--user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-ads-intelligence`, `--json` (or the relevant `--format` flag on `datasets get-items`), and `2>/dev/null`. The `--user-agent` flag is critical for telemetry — never omit it.

Note on platform coverage

• **Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn**: real public ad libraries with rich data (creatives, targeting, dates, reach where disclosed).
• **X (Twitter)**: no public ad library exists. Coverage is a **best-effort workaround** that scrapes a brand's tweets and flags items with non-empty `card` field or `source` containing "Ads" as likely promoted. Always include the caveat in synthesis output.

Note on overlap with `apify-ecommerce`

That skill has an `ads-intelligence` intent that routes to `apify/facebook-ads-scraper` for shallow Meta-ad lookups. This skill is the deep dive across all five platforms. If you only need Meta ads as a side detail of an ecommerce question, stay in `apify-ecommerce`. If ads are the main task, use this skill.

Prerequisites

(No need to check it upfront)

• Apify CLI v1.5.0+ (`npm install -g apify-cli`)
• `jq` (recommended for response parsing and filtering; `brew install jq` on macOS, `apt install jq` on Linux)
• Authentication via one of:
• `apify login` (OAuth, opens browser)
• `APIFY_TOKEN` env variable (e.g. `export APIFY_TOKEN=...` or `.env` file)
• Token from [Apify Console → Settings → Integrations](https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations)

Verify auth: `apify info --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-ads-intelligence` — should show username and userId.

Workflow

Copy this checklist and track progress:

Task Progress:
- [ ] Step 1: Detect intent and select Actor(s)
- [ ] Step 2: Fetch Actor schema
- [ ] Step 3: Ask user preferences (output format, result count, country)
- [ ] Step 4: Run the Actor (or Actors in parallel for cross-platform-audit) and fetch results
- [ ] Step 5: Synthesize a direct answer (not a data dump)

Step 1: Detect Intent and Select Actor

Classify the user's message into an intent, then pick the right Actor.

**Intent signals:**

| Signals in user message | Intent | |-------------------------|--------| | "what ads is X running", "competitor [brand] ads", "[brand] FB/Google/TikTok/LinkedIn/X/Twitter ads", "show ads from [page]", "promoted tweets from [brand]" | `competitor-ads` | | "ads about [topic]", "find [keyword] ads", "ads for [vertical]", "fitness/fintech/saas ads" | `keyword-ads` | | "trending ads", "winning ads", "top ads", "best performing", "long-running ads", "creative inspiration" | `top-creatives` | | "where do these ads go", "landing pages from ads", "click destinations", "ad funnels" | `landing-page-audit` | | "compare X's ads across platforms", "all ads from [brand]", "cross-platform ad audit" | `cross-platform-audit` |

If multiple intents detected, ask: *"Do you want [intent A] or [intent B]?"*

**Actor routing — always try Primary first, switch to Fallback only if it fails or returns 0 results:**

| Intent | Platform | Primary Actor | Fallback Actor | |--------|----------|---------------|----------------| | `competitor-ads` | Meta (FB/IG) | `apify/facebook-ads-scraper` | `brilliant_gum/facebook-ads-library-scraper` | | `competitor-ads` | Google | `dz_omar/google-ads-scraper` | `solidcode/ads-transparency-scraper` | | `competitor-ads` | TikTok | `brilliant_gum/tiktok-ads-library-scraper` (`source: library`) | `silva95gustavo/tiktok-ads-scraper` | | `competitor-ads` | LinkedIn | `silva95gustavo/linkedin-ad-library-scraper` | `dz_omar/linkedin-ads-scraper` | | `competitor-ads` | X (workaround) | `apidojo/twitter-scraper-lite` (`twitterHandles: [<brand>]`) + heuristic filter | `apidojo/tweet-scraper` | | `keyword-ads` | Meta | `brilliant_gum/facebook-ads-library-scraper` | `apify/facebook-ads-scraper` | | `keyword-ads` | Google | `apify/google-search-scraper` (`focusOnPaidAds: true`) | — | | `keyword-ads` | TikTok | `brilliant_gum/tiktok-ads-library-scraper` | — | | `keyword-ads` | LinkedIn | `silva95gustavo/linkedin-ad-library-scraper` | — | | `keyword-ads` | X (workaround) | `apidojo/twitter-scraper-lite` (`searchTerms: [<keyword>]`) + heuristic filter | `apidojo/tweet-scraper` | | `top-creatives` | Meta | `brilliant_gum/facebook-ads-library-scraper` (rank by `daysRunning`) | — | | `top-creatives` | TikTok | `burbn/tiktok-top-ads-spy` (sort by CTR / impressions / likes) | `brilliant_gum/tiktok-ads-library-scraper` (`source: creative_center`) | | `top-creatives` | Google | n/a — fall back to `competitor-ads` route, filter to active ads | — | | `top-creatives` | LinkedIn | n/a — fall back to `competitor-ads` route, rank by `impressionsPerCountry` reach | — | | `top-creatives` | X | n/a in v1 — no reliable promoted-content signal across timelines | — | | `landing-page-audit` | Meta | `brilliant_gum/facebook-ads-library-scraper` (`resolveSnapshotUrls: true`) | — | | `landing-page-audit` | Google | `apify/google