Facebook Ads Scraper - Apify Actor

A high-performance Facebook Ads Library scraper built for the Apify platform using Playwright. This actor efficiently scrapes Facebook's Ad Library for ads based on country-keyword pairs with optimized resource usage.

🚀 Features

• High Performance: Optimized for Apify platform with minimal resource consumption
• Batch Processing: Controlled concurrency to prevent memory issues
• Comprehensive Data: Extracts detailed ad information including:
  • Ad status and Library ID
  • Page name and start date
  • Primary text and Call-to-Action (CTA)
  • External links and image URLs
  • Raw ad content
• Robust Error Handling: Continues processing even if individual ads fail
• Real-time Output: Results are saved to Apify dataset immediately

📋 Input Schema

The actor accepts the following input parameters:

{
  "targets": [
    {
      "country": "United States",
      "keyword": "rental properties"
    },
    {
      "country": "Canada",
      "keyword": "vacation homes"
    }
  ],
  "adsLimit": 1000,
  "scrollCount": 3,
  "headless": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 1,
  "delay": 2000
}

Parameters

• targets (required): Array of country-keyword pairs to scrape
• adsLimit (optional): Maximum ads per target (default: 1000)
• scrollCount (optional): Number of scroll actions to load more ads (default: 3)
• headless (optional): Run browser in headless mode (default: true)
• maxConcurrency (optional): Maximum concurrent browser instances (default: 1)
• delay (optional): Delay between actions in milliseconds (default: 2000)

📊 Output Format

Each scraped ad contains:

{
  "country": "United States",
  "keyword": "rental properties",
  "ads": [
    {
      "status": "Active",
      "library_id": "123456789",
      "started": "Started running on Jan 1, 2024",
      "page": "Example Page",
      "primary_text": "Find your dream rental property...",
      "cta": "Learn More",
      "links": [
        {
          "type": "link",
          "url": "https://example.com",
          "text": "Visit Website"
        }
      ],
      "image_urls": ["https://example.com/image.jpg"],
      "raw_text": "Full ad text content...",
      "scraped_at": "2024-01-01T12:00:00.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "ads_count": 150,
  "processed_at": "2024-01-01T12:00:00.000Z"
}

🛠️ Technical Details

Architecture

• Runtime: Node.js 18 with Playwright
• Browser: Chromium with optimized launch arguments
• Concurrency: Configurable batch processing
• Memory: Optimized for low memory usage on Apify

Key Optimizations

• Single browser instance with multiple contexts
• Immediate data saving to prevent loss
• Progressive scroll delays to avoid rate limiting
• Efficient XPath selectors for fast element detection
• Minimal DOM queries with smart caching

Error Handling

• Graceful handling of missing elements
• Automatic retry on transient failures
• Detailed error logging for debugging
• Continues processing even if individual ads fail

📝 Usage Examples

Basic Usage

{
  "targets": [
    {"country": "United States", "keyword": "real estate"},
    {"country": "Canada", "keyword": "homes for sale"}
  ]
}

Advanced Configuration

{
  "targets": [
    {"country": "United Kingdom", "keyword": "property investment"},
    {"country": "Australia", "keyword": "vacation rentals"}
  ],
  "adsLimit": 500,
  "scrollCount": 5,
  "headless": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 2,
  "delay": 3000
}

⚠️ Important Notes

1. Rate Limiting: The scraper includes delays to respect Facebook's rate limits
2. Resource Usage: Optimized for Apify's resource constraints
3. Data Quality: Filters out Facebook-internal links and duplicates
4. Authentication: Designed to work without login (public Ad Library)

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Built with ❤️ for the Apify platform