Apify / Scrape the Meta Ad Library

Apify tool apify-meta-ads-library-search on looot: input fields, $0.06 per call, output shape, and code to run it with curl, JavaScript or Python.

Scrapes publicly running Facebook and Instagram ads for a page or an Ad Library search URL. Send startUrls; maxItems (1 to 100) and timeout (5 to 120 s) bound the run. Returns an Apify run object with status and defaultDatasetId, read the ads with apify-dataset-items.

Tool id: apify-meta-ads-library-search
Provider: Apify
Job: Search the Meta ad library (ads.meta.search)
Price: $0.06 per call. A call that fails at the provider costs $0.

Inputs

Name	Type	Required	Description
`activeStatus`	string	no	active \| inactive \| empty for both
`onlyTotal`	boolean	no	true returns just the ad count
`resultsLimit`	integer	no	max ads per URL
`startUrls`	array	yes	Page URL or Ad Library search URL
`maxItems`	integer	no	server-side result cap; set it on every call. Example: 10
`maxTotalChargeUsd`	number	no	Hard USD ceiling Apify enforces on this run’s pay-per-event charges. Example: 0.04
`timeout`	integer	no	Seconds before Apify itself aborts the run server-side (submit-then-poll now, not bounded by the gateway’s 15s outbound-fetch window). Bounded 5-300. Example: 60

Output

Shape of the run’s result, checked against 1 real answer:

{ data: { id, meta: { origin, userAgent }, actId, stats: { metamorph, netRxBytes, netTxBytes, cpuAvgUsage, cpuMaxUsage, memAvgBytes, memMaxBytes, rebootCount, runTimeSecs, computeUnits, inputBodyLen, restartCount, durationMillis, migrationCount, resurrectCount, cpuCurrentUsage, memCurrentBytes }, output: { dataset }, status, userId, buildId, options: { build, maxItems, diskMbytes, timeoutSecs, memoryMbytes, maxTotalChargeUsd, isMaxTotalChargeUsdSetByUser }, standby, exitCode, startedAt, consoleUrl, eventUsage: { ecommerce-enrichment: { ... }, apify-default-dataset-item: { ... } }, finishedAt, ... ...

The shape is cut here. Signed in, looot inspect apify-meta-ads-library-search prints all of it.

Run it

Every call needs your API token in LOOOT_TOKEN; Sign in shows how to get one. Each run also needs a new idempotency key, so a retry never pays twice. With wait: 30 the answer comes back inline when the run ends within 30 seconds. Otherwise you get the running run back: poll GET /v1/runs/<runId>.

Example input with placeholder values:

curl -X POST "https://api.looot.ai/v1/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LOOOT_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  -d '{"endpointId":"apify-meta-ads-library-search","input":{"startUrls":[],"timeout":60,"maxItems":10,"maxTotalChargeUsd":0.04},"wait":30}'

const response = await fetch("https://api.looot.ai/v1/runs", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.LOOOT_TOKEN}`,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Idempotency-Key": crypto.randomUUID(),
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    endpointId: "apify-meta-ads-library-search",
    input: {
      startUrls: [],
      timeout: 60,
      maxItems: 10,
      maxTotalChargeUsd: 0.04,
    },
    wait: 30,
  }),
});
const run = await response.json();
console.log(run.status, run.result);

import os
import uuid

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.looot.ai/v1/runs",
    headers={
        "Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['LOOOT_TOKEN']}",
        "Idempotency-Key": str(uuid.uuid4()),
    },
    json={
        "endpointId": "apify-meta-ads-library-search",
        "input": {
            "startUrls": [],
            "timeout": 60,
            "maxItems": 10,
            "maxTotalChargeUsd": 0.04,
        },
        "wait": 30,
    },
    timeout=90,
)
run = response.json()
print(run["status"], run.get("result"))

To let looot pick among every provider of this job instead, send job:ads.meta.search as endpointId; see the job page.