Apify Facebook Ads Library Scraper: Spy on Any Advertiser (2026)
The Apify Facebook Ad Library scraper extracts every active ad from Meta's public Ad Library — by advertiser, keyword or category — with creatives, copy, formats and start dates, in bulk.
The Ad Library is free to browse but painful to research at scale. Scrape it and a competitor's entire live ad strategy becomes a spreadsheet: what they test, what they keep running, and which creative angles survive.
- Every active Meta ad is public — the scraper turns browsable data into a researchable dataset
- Ad longevity is the signal: an ad running 90+ days is probably profitable
- Keyword searches surface whole-niche creative patterns, not just one competitor
- Weekly scrapes = a competitor ad-launch monitoring feed
What the Ad Library exposes
Meta's Ad Library shows every active ad on Facebook/Instagram: the creative (image/video), ad copy, CTA, platform placement, start date, and the advertiser's page. Political ads include spend; commercial ads show everything except performance.
The missing field — performance — is inferable: ads an advertiser keeps running for months are the ones that work. Longevity is the proxy.
Setup: competitor ads in 10 minutes
- Apify Store → Facebook Ad Library scraper — input advertiser page name, keyword, or category
- Country targeting pick the markets you care about (ads vary by region)
- Test run on one competitor — returns each active ad with copy, creative URL, start date, placements — Test run on one competitor — returns each active ad with copy, creative URL, start date, placements
- Full run your 5-10 top competitors, or keyword searches for niche-wide sweeps
- Export CSV — sort by start date to see their newest tests vs longest-running winners — Export CSV — sort by start date to see their newest tests vs longest-running winners
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
The longevity analysis
The single most valuable sort: ads by start date, oldest first. A competitor running the same creative for 6 months is running a winner — that angle, that hook, that offer structure is proven with their budget, not your test spend.
The inverse is intel too: ads that vanish in two weeks are failed tests. Scraped across a niche, you get a map of which creative strategies survive and which die fast — competitor tracking for paid social.
Count ads per advertiser per creative angle — a competitor running 15 variations of one hook is telling you exactly which message converts.
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
Niche sweeps and creative patterns
Keyword searches surface everyone advertising on a term — the full competitive set, not just the ones you knew. Pull a niche keyword weekly and new entrants, seasonal pushes and creative trends appear automatically.
Mine the copy at scale: recurring hooks, offer structures, CTAs across a niche = the proven patterns to adapt. Then produce your own variants fast — the CapCut ad pipeline turns these insights into weekly creative volume.
CapCut
4.8Verified partnerAI-powered video editor for marketing content — Free / $7.99/mo Pro
Monitoring: never miss a launch
Weekly scheduled scrapes on competitor pages diffed against last week = a new-ad alert system. Product launches, promo pushes, and repositioning show up in the Ad Library before anywhere else.
Route diffs through webhooks to Slack or Sheets — the same alert infrastructure as every other monitoring system in this stack.
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
The honest limits
The Ad Library is a public transparency tool — Meta built it to be browsed. Commercial ads show creative, copy and dates; not impressions, spend or targeting. Performance stays inferred from longevity.
Ads are copyrighted creative — study the angles and hooks, produce your own. The line is the same everywhere: mine the strategy, never clone the creative.
Ad Library data is for research — a competitor's ad creative is theirs. Study the angle, steal the strategy, never the assets.
The Apify Ad Library scraper turns Meta's transparency database into a competitive-intel feed: every active ad, every creative test, every long-running winner — in structured data.
Scrape your top 3 competitors this week, sort by start date — the 6-month-old ads are the angles worth adapting.
Ready to get started?
Try the tools from this article risk-free. Free trials available.
FAQ
Can you scrape the Facebook Ad Library?
Yes — Ad Library scrapers extract active ads by advertiser or keyword: creative, copy, CTA, start date and placements, in bulk and exportable.
Is the Facebook Ad Library public?
Yes — Meta built it as a transparency tool; every active ad is browsable. Scraping it for research is standard practice. Ad performance and spend stay private for commercial ads.
How to find competitors' best Facebook ads?
Scrape their active ads and sort by start date — ads running for months are the proven winners; short-lived ones are failed tests. Longevity is the performance proxy.
Can you monitor competitor ad launches?
Weekly scheduled scrapes diffed for new ads = a launch-detection feed. New creative waves signal product pushes and repositioning early.
Apify Ad Library scraper cost?
Light — competitor-page scrapes are small runs; weekly monitoring on 5-10 advertisers fits the free credit or Starter plan.
Tools mentioned in this article
Affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
CapCut
4.8Verified partnerAI-powered video editor for marketing content — Free / $7.99/mo Pro
Alex Mercer
AI Marketing Strategist · 8+ years
Alex has tested 200+ AI marketing tools on real campaigns with $50,000+ in ad spend. He writes hands-on reviews based on actual usage data, not press kits. His work has helped 10,000+ marketers build AI automation stacks that generate real ROI.