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Meta Ad Library Scraper — Extract Facebook & Instagram Ad Creatives

Scrape Meta Ad Library ad creatives, spend ranges, impressions, targeting data, and landing pages from any advertiser or keyword. Filter by country, ad status, media type, and publisher platform. Returns structured JSON ready for competitive intelligence, creative research, and AI pipeline consumption.

Compatible with: Apify MCP Server (Claude, ChatGPT), LangChain, Make.com, Zapier, n8n, and direct REST API access.

What does the Meta Ad Library Scraper do?

The Meta Ad Library Scraper connects to the official Meta Graph API when you provide a token, or uses public web/provider fallback when the API path is unavailable. It retrieves ad data from the public Meta Ad Library — the transparency database where Meta publishes all active and recent ads running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Audience Network.

You can search by keyword (find all ads about "AI tools", "weight loss", "real estate") or by specific advertiser (get every ad a brand is running). The actor returns creative text, image/video URLs where available, landing page URLs, run dates, platform placement, and spend/impression/targeting fields when Meta's API exposes them. If Meta blocks or rate-limits the native path, the actor can fall back to configured public-data providers and still return normalized ad records.

No coding required. Works with AI agents via MCP. Pay only for results.

What data can you extract from Meta Ad Library?

How to use the Meta Ad Library Scraper

Step 1: Choose token or no-token mode

For the richest official fields, use a Meta access token:

1. Go to Meta Graph API Explorer
2. Click "Get Token" → "Get User Access Token"
3. Add the ads_read permission (check the box)
4. Click "Generate Access Token" and copy it

No-token runs are also supported. Without metaAccessToken, the actor first tries public web scraping, then configured provider fallback if the native path is blocked or empty. Provider fallback uses public Meta Ad Library data only and does not require Facebook cookies.

Step 2: Configure the actor

Choose your search mode:

Search by keyword — find ads across all advertisers about a topic:

{
"metaAccessToken":"YOUR_TOKEN_HERE",
"searchQuery":"AI productivity tools",
"countries":["US","GB"],
"adStatus":"ACTIVE",
"maxResults":200
}

Search by advertiser — get all ads from specific brands:

{
"metaAccessToken":"YOUR_TOKEN_HERE",
"advertiserPageIds":["123456789","987654321"],
"countries":["US"],
"adStatus":"ALL",
"maxResults":500
}

No-token fallback mode — useful when you want public creatives without maintaining a Meta token:

{
"searchQuery":"AI productivity tools",
"countries":["US"],
"adStatus":"ACTIVE",
"maxResults":100,
"providerFallbackEnabled":true
}

Step 3: Run and download

1. Click "Try for free" in the Apify Console
2. Paste your access token if using token mode, or leave it empty for no-token fallback mode
3. Click "Start" and wait for results (typically 1–5 minutes)
4. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel

How to scrape Meta Ad Library with AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT)

Connect this actor to Claude or ChatGPT via the Apify MCP Server and ask naturally:

"Find me 200 active ads about weight loss supplements in the US"

"Get all Facebook ads from Nike and Adidas running right now"

"Show me ads targeting 25-34 year olds in the UK with video creative"

The AI agent will automatically select and run this actor, returning structured results you can analyze immediately.

Filtering options — how to target exactly the ads you want

By country: Pass ISO country codes in the countries array. Examples: "US", "GB", "AU", "DE", "FR", "CA". Multiple countries return ads targeting any of them.

By ad status: ACTIVE (currently running — best for competitive intelligence), INACTIVE (historical campaigns), or ALL.

By media type: IMAGE (static images), VIDEO (video ads), MEME, or ALL.

By platform: Filter for Facebook-only, Instagram-only, or both via publisherPlatforms.

By date range: Use startDate and endDate (YYYY-MM-DD format) to find ads running in a specific period.

By ad type: Default ALL returns commercial ads. Use POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS for political transparency research (requires US, GB, or EU country).

How much does the Meta Ad Library Scraper cost?

Example costs:

• 100 ads = $0.05
• 1,000 ads = $0.50
• 10,000 ads = $5.00

You only pay for ads actually extracted. If a run returns 0 results (e.g., bad token or no matching ads), you pay nothing.

Use cases for Meta Ad Library data

Competitive ad intelligence — See every ad your competitors are running, how much they're spending, and which creative formats they're testing. Track campaign launches in real time.

Creative research — Analyze winning ad copy patterns across your industry. Find high-spend ads with thousands of impressions to identify what's working at scale.

Lead generation — Extract advertisers who are actively spending in your vertical. Their contact info + spend data = a warm outreach list.

Market research — Map advertiser activity by country, category, and platform. Understand who's advertising, how much, and to whom.

AI pipeline input — Feed ad creative data into Claude or GPT for automatic categorization, sentiment analysis, or landing page comparison.

Trend monitoring — Schedule recurring runs to track new advertisers entering your market or changes in competitor creative strategy.

API & Integration examples

REST API

curl-X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/USERNAME~meta-ad-library-scraper/runs"\
-H"Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"\
-H"Content-Type: application/json"\
-d'{
 "metaAccessToken": "YOUR_META_TOKEN",
 "searchQuery": "AI tools",
 "countries": ["US"],
 "adStatus": "ACTIVE",
 "maxResults": 100
 }'

JavaScript / Node.js

import{ ApifyClient }from'apify-client';
const client =newApifyClient({token:'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN'});
const run =await client.actor('USERNAME/meta-ad-library-scraper').call({
metaAccessToken:'YOUR_META_TOKEN',
searchQuery:'ecommerce tools',
countries:['US','GB'],
adStatus:'ACTIVE',
maxResults:500,
});
const{ items }=await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Fetched ${items.length} ads`);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('USERNAME/meta-ad-library-scraper').call(
 run_input={
'metaAccessToken':'YOUR_META_TOKEN',
'searchQuery':'SaaS tools',
'countries':['US'],
'adStatus':'ACTIVE',
'maxResults':200,
}
)
items =list(client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items())
print(f"Fetched {len(items)} ads")

Integrations: Apify MCP Server, LangChain, Make.com, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Airtable, HubSpot

FAQ

Q: Is this legal? A: Yes. The Meta Ad Library is a public transparency database required by law in many jurisdictions. All data returned by this actor is publicly accessible to anyone at facebook.com/ads/library. See Apify's guide on web scraping legality.

Q: Do I need a Facebook account? A: You need a Meta developer account (free) to generate an API access token. You do not need a Facebook Business account or any advertising spend.

Q: Why does spend show as a range (e.g., $1,000–$5,000)? A: Meta intentionally reports spend and impressions as ranges to protect advertiser privacy. This is a limitation of the public API, not this actor. For EU ads, Meta also provides eu_total_reach (exact number) due to DSA requirements.

Q: Can I get targeting data for all ads? A: Targeting data (age, gender, location) is available for political/regulated ads in all regions and for all ad types in the EU (Digital Services Act). For other ad types in non-EU countries, Meta may return null for targeting fields.

Q: How fast is it? A: Approximately 100–300 ads per minute, depending on API response times and the number of results pages.

Q: Can I schedule recurring runs? A: Yes — use Apify's built-in scheduler to run daily, weekly, or at any custom interval. Pipe results to webhooks, Slack, Google Sheets, or your CRM automatically.

Q: What happens if my access token expires? A: The actor logs a warning and tries provider fallback when configured. Meta access tokens expire after 60 days (long-lived tokens) or when you log out. Generate a new one at developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer/ for the richest official fields.

Q: What does provider fallback return? A: Public Meta Ad Library creative records normalized into the same dataset schema. It is best for ad IDs, page names, creative copy, cards, image/video URLs, run dates, status, platforms, and landing links. Spend, impression, and demographic fields may still be null when the public provider response does not expose them.

Q: Can I search for political ads? A: Yes — set adType to POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS and include "US", "GB", or EU country codes in countries. Political ad data includes additional fields not available for regular ads.

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