Ad Library Scraper API: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn

An ad library scraper API pulls ads from the public ad transparency libraries run by Facebook, Google and LinkedIn and returns them as structured JSON. You can look up a competitor's active ads, search by keyword or country, and fetch the details of a single ad without scraping the libraries' web pages yourself. BuyProxy's Scraper API has nine ad library endpoints. This guide lists them with their inputs and prices, shows a repeatable competitor-research workflow, and explains how this differs from ad verification.

The Nine Ad Library Endpoints

There are four Facebook endpoints, three Google endpoints and two LinkedIn endpoints. You call each one at /v1/scrape/{platform}/{action}, and you are charged only for successful calls. Prices are as of October 2026.

Eight of the nine cost the base price of about $2.23 per 1,000 calls. The exception is google/ad-company, which lists a whole advertiser's ads in one call and costs about $55.88 per 1,000. Treat that one as a bulk endpoint and use advertiser-search first to confirm you have the right advertiser.

A Repeatable Competitor Ad Research Workflow

Most ad research is the same three steps: find the advertiser, list their ads, then open the ads that matter. Here is how to do it with these endpoints.

1. Find the advertiser. Call facebook/ad-companies-search or google/advertiser-search with a brand name. Pick the exact page or advertiser ID from the results, since similar brand names are common.
2. List their ads. Call facebook/ad-company with the page ID and filter by country, status (for example active) or date range. Use the cursor from each response to fetch the next page.
3. Open the interesting ads. Call facebook/ad, google/ad or linkedin/ad for the full detail of a single ad. The Facebook ad endpoint can also return a transcript for video creative.
4. Store everything. Save results with the date you collected them. Ads change, and a dated archive is the only way to see what a competitor ran last quarter.

Build a Dated Archive, Not Just a Report

The real value of ad library data is history. A library shows what is live now, and once an ad stops running it can disappear from view. If you store each result with the date you collected it, you can later answer questions the library cannot: how long did a competitor run this creative, when did they switch offers, and which countries did they add. A simple structure works well:

Run the same advertiser lookups on a schedule, for example weekly, and compare each snapshot with the last. New ad IDs are new creative, and IDs that stop appearing are ads that have ended. The cost of a weekly sweep of 20 competitors is a few cents, which is why calls priced per request suit this kind of monitoring better than a monthly subscription. For the pricing models side by side, see our scraper API pricing comparison.

What This Is Good For

• Competitor creative research. See which formats, offers and messages competitors run, and how long they keep them live.
• Market and category monitoring. Search ads by keyword to see who is advertising in a niche and in which countries. For wider research workflows, see the market research use case.
• Brand protection. Search for your own brand name to spot lookalike advertisers and copied creative. Our brand protection page covers this in more detail.
• Agency reporting. Pull a client's competitor ads on a schedule and archive them for monthly reviews.

Ad Libraries vs Ad Verification: Different Jobs

An ad library shows you the ads an advertiser is running, as published in a platform's transparency tool. Ad verification checks how ads actually appear to real users in specific places: whether they show up, in what context and to which audience. Verification needs IPs that look like local users in the target region, which is what residential proxies for ad verification are for. Use the ad library endpoints for "what is being advertised" and proxies for "what does a user in Germany actually see." The ad verification use case explains the proxy side.

Worked Cost Examples

The assumptions are yours to adjust: the number of pages per advertiser decides most of the cost. A $5 balance covers all four tasks above with money left over, and the balance does not expire.

Practical Notes

• Some endpoints need one of several inputs. For example, facebook/ad-company needs either pageId or companyName. If you send neither, the API returns an error that says what to provide, and you are not charged.
• Use filters to cut calls. Filtering by country, status and dates reduces how many pages you need to fetch.
• Expect variation. Platforms change their libraries, and a scraper can briefly return fewer fields until it is updated. Handle errors and retry, as shown in the API setup guide.
• Stay on public data. Ad libraries are public by design, but how you use the data is still your responsibility. This is general information, not legal advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which ad libraries can I query with BuyProxy?
Facebook, Google and LinkedIn. That is four Facebook endpoints, three Google endpoints and two LinkedIn endpoints, covering advertiser search, ad lists and single-ad details.

Q: How much does it cost to pull a competitor's ads?
Most ad library calls cost about $0.002235. Listing a Google advertiser's ads with google/ad-company costs about $0.056 per call, so a full Facebook competitor audit usually costs a few cents.

Q: Can I filter ads by country and date?
Yes, where the endpoint supports it. The Facebook search and company endpoints accept country, status, media type and date range, and the Google and LinkedIn endpoints accept region or country and date options.

Q: Is this the same as ad verification?
No. Ad libraries show which ads advertisers publish. Ad verification checks how those ads appear to users in specific locations, which needs local proxy IPs.

Q: Do failed calls cost anything?
No. Errors, timeouts and rate-limited requests are refunded, and you are charged only for successful calls.

Summary

BuyProxy's ad library scraper API covers Facebook, Google and LinkedIn with nine endpoints, mostly at about $2.23 per 1,000 calls. Use advertiser search to find the right account, list their ads with filters, and open single ads for detail, archiving every result with its date. Pair it with proxies when you need to verify what users in a region actually see.

Not sure whether to use the API or build your own collector? Scraper API vs proxies gives you the break-even rule. Prices and the full catalog are on the pricing page and in your dashboard.

Browse the ad library endpoints in the Scraper API →