/apify-facebook-ads-library-scraper

name: apify-facebook-ads-library-scraper
description: "Research Meta Ad Library ads by advertiser or keyword with creative links, dates and disclosed reach or spend through the harshmaur/facebook-ads-library-scraper Apify Actor."
category: data
risk: critical
source: community
source_repo: harshmaur/apify-facebook-ads-library-scraper
source_type: community
date_added: "2026-10-20"
author: harshmaur
tags: [facebook, meta-ad-library, apify, ad-transparency, research]
tools: [claude, cursor, gemini, codex]
license: "MIT"
license_source: "https://github.com/harshmaur/apify-facebook-ads-library-scraper/blob/main/LICENSE.txt"

Facebook Ads Library Scraper

Turn "what ads does X run" into one run of `harshmaur/facebook-ads-library-scraper` and return one row per ad. The Actor reads the public Meta Ad Library. It takes two kinds of input: an Ad Library search URL for a keyword, or a Facebook Page for one advertiser. The agent's job is to build the right URL and to cap the ad count.

Disclosure: the Actor is paid per result and is built by the skill author. Links carry no affiliate parameters.

When to Use

Use to research public Meta ads by advertiser or keyword, export ad creative and dates, or review disclosed reach and spending.

Example prompts

Prompts this skill handles:

• "Pull every active ad Gymshark runs in the US and sort them by how long they have been live."
• "Find ads for 'protein powder' in the UK that have run for more than 60 days, with their video links."
• "Export the last 30 days of ads from facebook.com/allbirds to a spreadsheet."
• "How much did political advertisers in Germany spend on ads about energy?"

Out of scope (the boundary):

• "Create or pause my Facebook ads" or "show my ad account ROAS" — use the Meta Marketing API with the user's own account.
• "Find TikTok or Google ads" — other ad libraries; use a different Actor.

Prerequisites

• Apify account ([sign up](https://apify.com)). The free plan's monthly credit covers about 10,000 ads.
• Authentication via one of:
• `apify login` (OAuth, if you use the Apify CLI)
• `APIFY_TOKEN` environment variable
• Token from [Apify Console → Settings → Integrations](https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations)
• Apify CLI (`npm install -g apify-cli`), or the Apify MCP server (see "Calling the Actor").

Workflow

Step 1 — Pick the input type

| The user gives you | Put in `urls` | Notes | |---|---|---| | A brand, an advertiser, a Page link | The Page URL: `https://www.facebook.com/<handle>`, a `profile.php?id=` link, or the numeric Page ID | All ads of that advertiser. Filter with the `scrapePageAds.*` fields below. | | A keyword, product or topic | An Ad Library search URL (build it as shown below) | All advertisers whose ads match the words in that country. | | An Ad Library URL the user copied | That URL, unchanged | It keeps every filter the user set on the site. |

Build a keyword search URL like this. Change only `country`, `q`, `active_status` and `search_type`:

https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=active&ad_type=all&country=US&q=protein%20powder&search_type=keyword_unordered&media_type=all

• `country`: a 2-letter code (`US`, `GB`, `DE`), or `ALL`.
• `q`: URL-encoded words.
• `search_type`: `keyword_unordered` (all words, any order) or `keyword_exact_phrase`.
• `active_status`: `active`, `inactive` or `all`.
• `ad_type=political_and_issue_ads`: political and social-issue ads. Only these carry spend and impressions outside the EU and UK.

Filters for Page URLs only:

| Field | Values | |---|---| | `scrapePageAds.activeStatus` | `all` (default), `active`, `inactive` | | `scrapePageAds.period` | `""` (all time), `last24h`, `last7d`, `last14d`, `last30d` | | `scrapePageAds.sortBy` | `impressions_desc` (default), `most_recent` | | `scrapePageAds.countryCode` | 2-letter code or `ALL` (default) |

Amounts and extras:

| Field | Meaning | |---|---| | `count` | Most ads for the whole run, over all URLs. Default 100. `0` means no limit: never send `0` without a cost check. | | `limitPerSource` | Most ads per URL, so one big advertiser does not use up `count`. | | `scrapeAdDetails` | `true` adds the advertiser text and the EU and UK transparency data: reach, age range, gender, countries. It makes the run slower. | | `runTag` | A label copied onto every row. Useful when you merge runs. |

Step 2 — Build the input

{
  "urls": [{ "url": "https://www.facebook.com/gymshark" }],
  "scrapePageAds.activeStatus": "active",
  "scrapePageAds.countryCode": "US",
  "count": 200
}

Note the field names with a dot, for example `"scrapePageAds.activeStatus"`. They are flat keys, not nested objects. Fetch the live schema when a field is in doubt:

apify actors info "harshmaur/facebook-ads-library-scraper" --input --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-facebook-ads-library-scraper 2>/dev/null

Step 3 — Estimate the cost, then run

The price is per ad in the dataset. There is no start fee, and `scrapeAdDetails` costs nothing extra:

| Apify plan | Per 1,000 ads | |---|---| | Free | $0.50 | | Starter | $0.47 | | Scale | $0.43 | | Business and higher | $0.40 |

`cost ≈ count × $0.0005`. 1,000 ads cost at most $0.50. Under about 4,000 ads, run it. Above that, or with `count: 0`, state the estimate and get a yes first.

apify actors call "harshmaur/facebook-ads-library-scraper" \
  -i '{"urls":[{"url":"https://www.facebook.com/gymshark"}],"scrapePageAds.activeStatus":"active","count":200}' \
  --json \
  --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-facebook-ads-library-scraper \
  2>/dev/null

The output gives `status` and the dataset ID at `storage.defaultDatasetId`. A measured run of 12 ads from two URLs took 8 seconds. Large runs with `scrapeAdDetails` take minutes; start them without waiting and poll with `apify runs info "RUN_ID" --json --user-agent apify-awesome-skills/apify-facebook-ads-library-scraper 2>/dev/null`.

Step 4 — Fe