YouTube Ad Creative & Advertiser Tracker: MCP config, n8n workflow and API

{
  "searchTerms": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "US"
  ],
  "format": "all",
  "includeVideoDetails": false,
  "resolveVideoIds": false,
  "maxAdvertisersPerTerm": 5,
  "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 3,
  "maxItems": 3,
  "maxConcurrency": 2,
  "onlyNew": false,
  "monitorStoreName": "youtube-ads-monitor",
  "outputFormat": "json"
}

---
name: youtube-ad-creative-and-advertiser-tracker
description: "Dataset with one record per YouTube ad creative plus advertiser diagnostics and a run summary. Ad records include advertiser, queried region, format, thumbnail, YouTube video ID/watch URL/thumbnail/duration when exposed, first/last shown dates, days shown, and scrapedAt. Runs the Apify Actor nimbryxo-studio/youtube-ad-creative-and-advertiser-tracker. Use when the user needs Google Ads Transparency Center data with fields such as recordType, adId, advertiserId, advertiserName, advertiserCountryCode, countryCode and an Apify token is available."
compatibility: "Needs network access, curl, and an APIFY_TOKEN environment variable. Runs are billed to the token owner's Apify account."
metadata:
  actor: "nimbryxo-studio/youtube-ad-creative-and-advertiser-tracker"
  store-url: "https://apify.com/nimbryxo-studio/youtube-ad-creative-and-advertiser-tracker"
---

# YouTube Ad Creative & Advertiser Tracker

Use this skill to fetch Google Ads Transparency Center data with the Apify Actor `nimbryxo-studio/youtube-ad-creative-and-advertiser-tracker` and work with the returned rows.

## Before running

1. Check that `APIFY_TOKEN` is set in the environment. Never print it or write it to a file.
2. Build `input.json` from the user's request using the fields below. Keep limits small for a first run.
3. Confirm the search terms or URLs with the user if the request is ambiguous.

## Input fields

| Field | Type | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `searchTerms` | array | Keywords or domains used to discover advertisers and domains, then scrape their YouTube ads (e.g. 'electric car', 'nike.com'). Keyword searches also use domain suggestions returned by Google. |
| `countries` | array | ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 queried regions sent to the Transparency Center as the ad filter (e.g. US, GB). This is the region the ads were served in, not the advertiser's headquarters country. |
| `format` | one of `all`, `text`, `image`, `video` | Server-side creative format filter. TEXT, IMAGE and VIDEO map to Google's verified format codes 1, 2 and 3. |
| `includeVideoDetails` | boolean | Fetch GetCreativeById for every creative to enrich last-shown dates, served regions and preview assets. Video IDs are resolved from previews even when this is off. |
| `resolveVideoIds` | boolean | Extract videoId, watch URL, thumbnail and duration from creative previews (ytimg/youtube URLs). Missing IDs are omitted, never fabricated. Turn off to save preview requests. |
| `maxAdvertisersPerTerm` | integer | Maximum advertiser matches (and domain suggestions) to scrape per keyword (when searchTerms is used). |
| `maxAdsPerAdvertiser` | integer | Cursor-pagination cap per advertiser or domain, applied before the global maxItems cap. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Hard cap on total ad records returned (1-5000). Advertiser and run-summary records do not count toward this cap. |
| `maxConcurrency` | integer | Advertisers scraped in parallel. Higher is faster but increases rate-limit risk. |
| `onlyNew` | boolean | Output only ad IDs not seen in earlier runs and mark them isNew: true. Reuse the same monitorStoreName for the same competitor list. The first run creates the baseline. |
| `monitorStoreName` | string | Key-value store that remembers seen ad IDs for monitor mode (default: youtube-ads-monitor). |
| `outputFormat` | one of `json`, `csv`, `excel`, `html` | Dataset always receives JSON records. Additionally export results as CSV, Excel, or HTML in the key-value store (OUTPUT.csv / OUTPUT.xlsx / OUTPUT.html). |

Example `input.json` (the Actor's published prefill):

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "nike.com"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "US"
  ],
  "format": "all",
  "includeVideoDetails": false,
  "resolveVideoIds": false,
  "maxAdvertisersPerTerm": 5,
  "maxAdsPerAdvertiser": 3,
  "maxItems": 3,
  "maxConcurrency": 2,
  "onlyNew": false,
  "monitorStoreName": "youtube-ads-monitor",
  "outputFormat": "json"
}
```

## Run

```bash
curl -sS -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nimbryxo-studio~youtube-ad-creative-and-advertiser-tracker/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d @input.json > results.json
```

The call waits for the run to finish and returns the dataset items as a JSON array. If the run needs more than 300 seconds the API answers with HTTP 408; then start the run with `POST /v2/acts/nimbryxo-studio~youtube-ad-creative-and-advertiser-tracker/runs`, poll `GET /v2/actor-runs/{runId}` until `SUCCEEDED`, and read `GET /v2/datasets/{defaultDatasetId}/items`.

## Output

Each item is one record. Published fields include: `recordType`, `adId`, `advertiserId`, `advertiserName`, `advertiserCountryCode`, `countryCode`, `queriedRegions`, `servedRegions`, `format`, `mediaType`, `imageUrl`, `imageWidth`, `imageHeight`, `previewUrl`, `videoId`, `videoUrl`, `videoPageUrl`, `landingUrl`, `videoThumbnailUrl`, `videoDurationSeconds`.

Summarise what was found, cite the record URLs when present, and say how many items came back. Do not invent values for empty fields.