Meta Ads Collector

Scans Meta Ad Library API to count active ads, identify ad formats and types, track longest-running ad, and estimate spend for a given brand.

Meta Ads Collector Skill

Purpose

Scans the Meta Ad Library API to find active advertisements for a given brand. Extracts the number of active ads, ad formats used, ad types, and the longest-running ad duration. This collector feeds into the Marketing Audit Pipeline to populate the Paid Ads Strategy section of the final report.

Input Schema

typescript

// Function signature
collectMetaAds(brandName: string, domain?: string): Promise<MetaAdsData>

// brandName: The brand name to search for in the Ad Library (e.g. "Gymshark")
// domain: Optional domain to refine search (e.g. "gymshark.com"). Used to filter
// results and improve relevance when the brand name is ambiguous.

Output Schema

typescript

interface MetaAdsData {
 activeAds: number; // Total count of currently active ads
 formatsUsed: string[]; // e.g. ["image", "video", "carousel"]
 longestRunningAdDays: number; // Days the longest-running active ad has been live
 adTypes: string[]; // e.g. ["POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS", "HOUSING_ADS", "OTHER"]
 estimatedSpend?: string; // e.g. "$10,000 - $50,000" (if available from API)
 error?: string; // Present only when collector fails
}

API Dependencies

• API Name: Meta Ad Library API
• Endpoint: https://graph.facebook.com/v19.0/ads_archive
• Auth: META_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variable (requires a Facebook App with Ad Library API access)
• Additional env vars: META_APP_ID, META_APP_SECRET (used for token generation if needed)
• Cost estimate: Free (no per-request charge)
• Rate limits: Subject to Meta's standard Graph API rate limits (~200 calls/hour)

Implementation Pattern

Data Flow

1. Receive brandName and optional domain from the pipeline
2. Call metaAdsService.getMetaAds(brandName, domain) which queries the Ad Library API
3. Process the returned ads array to extract metrics
4. Map processed data to the MetaAdsData interface

API Query Parameters

typescript

{
 access_token: process.env.META_ACCESS_TOKEN,
 search_terms: brandName,
 ad_reached_countries: "['US']", // Default to US; can be expanded
 ad_active_status: "ACTIVE", // Only fetch currently active ads
 ad_type: "ALL", // Include all ad types
 fields: "id,ad_creation_time,ad_creative_bodies,ad_creative_link_captions,ad_creative_link_titles,ad_delivery_start_time,ad_snapshot_url,page_name",
 limit: 100 // Max results per page
}

Metrics Calculation

Active Ads Count:

• Count the total number of ads returned from the API response

Formats Detection:

• Analyze ad_snapshot_url or creative fields to classify format
• Categories: "image", "video", "carousel", "dynamic", "collection"
• Deduplicate into a unique list

Longest Running Ad:

typescript

const now = new Date();
const longestRunningAdDays = Math.max(
 ...ads.map(ad => {
 const startDate = new Date(ad.ad_delivery_start_time);
 return Math.floor((now.getTime() - startDate.getTime()) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24));
 })
);

Ad Types:

• Extract unique ad_type values from the response
• Common types: "POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS", "HOUSING_ADS", "CREDIT_ADS", "EMPLOYMENT_ADS", general/uncategorized

Estimated Spend:

• Only available for political/issue ads (Meta requirement)
• For other ad types, this field will be undefined
• If available, format as a range string: "$10,000 - $50,000"

Domain Filtering

When domain is provided:

• Filter results to only include ads where the creative body, link caption, or link title references the domain
• This improves accuracy for brands with common names

Error Handling

• Entire function wrapped in try/catch
• On failure, return EMPTY_META_ADS_DATA with error field set:

typescript

return { ...EMPTY_META_ADS_DATA, error: 'Meta Ads data unavailable: <reason>' };

• Never throw -- always return a valid MetaAdsData object
• Log errors with Winston logger including brandName and error details:

typescript

logger.error('Meta Ads collector failed', { brandName, domain, err });

• Common failure scenarios:
• Access token invalid, expired, or lacking Ad Library permissions
• Brand name returns zero results (not necessarily an error -- return zeroed data without error flag)
• Rate limit exceeded (Meta Graph API throttling)
• Network timeout

Example Usage

typescript

import { collectMetaAds } from '../collectors/metaAdsCollector';

// Successful collection
const data = await collectMetaAds('Gymshark', 'gymshark.com');
// Returns:
// {
// activeAds: 47,
// formatsUsed: ["image", "video", "carousel"],
// longestRunningAdDays: 182,
// adTypes: ["OTHER"],
// estimatedSpend: undefined,
// }

// No ads found (not an error)
const noAds = await collectMetaAds('TinyLocalShop');
// Returns:
// {
// activeAds: 0,
// formatsUsed: [],
// longestRunningAdDays: 0,
// adTypes: [],
// }

// Failed collection (graceful degradation)
const failedData = await collectMetaAds('Gymshark');
// Returns:
// {
// activeAds: 0,
// formatsUsed: [],
// longestRunningAdDays: 0,
// adTypes: [],
// error: "Meta Ads data unavailable: Access token expired"
// }

Notes

• The collector depends on metaAdsService.ts for the actual API communication. The collector handles only data aggregation and metric calculation.
• Meta Ad Library API requires a Facebook App registered with Ad Library access. The app must be reviewed and approved by Meta for production use.
• The API only returns publicly available ad data. Spend data is only available for political/issue ads as mandated by Meta's transparency policies.
• Zero active ads is a valid result (small or new brands may not run Meta ads) and should be returned without an error flag.
• The EMPTY_META_ADS_DATA constant is defined in src/types/audit.types.ts and should be imported for fallback returns.
• This collector must never block the pipeline. Even a complete failure returns valid typed data with an error flag.
• Pagination: the Meta API returns a maximum of 100 results per page. For brands with many ads, pagination via the after cursor may be needed. For audit purposes, the first page (100 ads) is sufficient.