Meta Ad Library API - Facebook and Instagram Ad Search

Meta Ad Library search by keyword, Facebook Page id or ad archive id, returning the full ad creative, run dates, the Meta platforms each ad ran on, and spend, reach and impressions on political and issue ads. Cursor pagination walks every ad, not just page one. 3 endpoints, 1 credit per page, structured JSON.

Search the Meta Ad Library by keyword, list every ad a Facebook Page is running, or pull one ad by its archive id - with the full creative, the platforms each ad ran on, its run dates, and spend/reach/impressions on political and issue ads. All three endpoints return structured JSON.

The paths are hyphenated: /api/v1/meta-ads/*. Copy them exactly.

When to trigger

Use this skill when the user asks to:

• See what ads a brand or competitor is running on Facebook and Instagram
• Pull every ad from a specific Facebook Page
• Build a creative swipe file - ad copy, headlines, CTAs, images and videos
• Research political or issue ads, their spend, reach and paid-for-by disclosure
• Track how long an ad has been running, and on which Meta platforms
• Scrape a whole keyword or advertiser out of the Ad Library into a dataset

Full cursor pagination is the point

Most Ad Library tools show you a page and stop. This one walks the whole thing.

Page 1 returns 30 ads. After that, next_cursor gets you 10 ads per page for as long as has_next_page is true - across an entire keyword query or an entire advertiser. That is the differentiator over the $79-399/month ad-spy tools.

Each page is 1 credit, so a deep crawl is real but the cost scales with depth: roughly 10 ads per credit past the first 30. Tell the user the budget before starting a walk.

Setup

Get a free API key at scavio.dev (50 free credits to get started, no card required):

bash

export SCAVIO_API_KEY=sk_live_your_key

Every request is a POST with a JSON body and:

text

Authorization: Bearer $SCAVIO_API_KEY

Endpoints

Base URL: https://api.scavio.dev. All paths are under /api/v1/meta-ads - hyphenated. Every endpoint costs 1 credit per page.

Endpoint	Credits	What it returns
POST /api/v1/meta-ads/search	1 per page	Keyword search: 30 ads on page 1, then 10 per cursor page
POST /api/v1/meta-ads/advertiser	1 per page	Every ad from one Facebook Page id, same paging
POST /api/v1/meta-ads/ad	1	One ad in full by archive id. No pagination.

Workflow

1. Keyword: call /meta-ads/search with query and a country.
2. A specific advertiser: call /meta-ads/advertiser with the advertiser's numeric Facebook Page id (page_id).
3. One ad: call /meta-ads/ad with ad_archive_id.
4. Go deeper: send next_cursor back as cursor while has_next_page is true.

Paging rules that will bite you

• The cursor carries the filters. It is an opaque, self-contained blob holding the query variables and Meta's own end cursor, which makes paging stateless - but it means every other filter is ignored when a cursor is present. Changing country or media_type mid-walk does nothing; start a new walk instead.
• Page 1 is 30 ads, every page after it is 10. Size your budget on that, not on a flat page size.
• total_results caps at 50000 with total_is_capped: true. Meta itself only reports ">50,000". Never present a capped total as an exact count.

Parameters

Search (/search)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
query	string	required	Keyword or brand term (1-200 chars)
country	string	US	Exactly two characters
active_status	string	all	all, active, inactive
ad_type	string	all	all, political_and_issue_ads
media_type	string	--	all, image, video, meme, image_and_meme, none
search_type	string	keyword_unordered	keyword_unordered or keyword_exact_phrase
cursor	string	--	next_cursor from the previous response. All other filters are ignored when this is present.

Advertiser (/advertiser)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
page_id	string	required	The advertiser's numeric Facebook Page id (3-25 digits)
country	string	US	Exactly two characters
active_status	string	all	all, active, inactive
ad_type	string	all	all, political_and_issue_ads
media_type	string	--	all, image, video, meme, image_and_meme, none
cursor	string	--	Same rules as search

Ad (/ad)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
ad_archive_id	string	required	The ad's numeric archive id (3-25 digits)

Spend and reach exist only on political ads

Political and issue ads carry spend, reach, impressions and the paid-for-by disclosure. Commercial ads leave all of those null. That is Meta's disclosure regime, not a gap in the data.

To surface them, set ad_type: political_and_issue_ads. If the user is asking "how much is this brand spending on Facebook ads", the honest answer for a commercial advertiser is that Meta does not publish it.

Examples

python

import requests

BASE = "https://api.scavio.dev"
# Your key from https://scavio.dev/?utm_source=clawhub&utm_medium=skill&utm_campaign=meta-ad-library-api. Load it from your environment or secret
# store in real code - keep it out of source control.
API_KEY = "sk_your_key_here"
HEADERS = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}

# 1. Keyword search - 30 ads on page 1
ads = requests.post(f"{BASE}/api/v1/meta-ads/search", headers=HEADERS,
    json={"query": "project management software", "country": "US",
          "active_status": "active", "media_type": "video"}).json()

# 2. Everything one Page is running, by numeric page id
advertiser = requests.post(f"{BASE}/api/v1/meta-ads/advertiser", headers=HEADERS,
    json={"page_id": "20531316728", "country": "US"}).json()

# 3. One ad by archive id
ad = requests.post(f"{BASE}/api/v1/meta-ads/ad", headers=HEADERS,
    json={"ad_archive_id": "1234567890123456"}).json()

# 4. Political ads, where spend and reach are actually published
political = requests.post(f"{BASE}/api/v1/meta-ads/search", headers=HEADERS,
    json={"query": "climate", "country": "US",
          "ad_type": "political_and_issue_ads"}).json()

Walking a whole query. 1 credit per page, 30 ads then 10 per page - cap it:

python

def crawl(path, body, max_pages=10):
    """1 credit per page. Page 1 = 30 ads, then 10 each: 10 pages ~= 120 ads, 10 credits."""
    cursor, pages = None, []
    for _ in range(max_pages):
        # The cursor carries the filters. Sending them again changes nothing.
        payload = {"cursor": cursor} if cursor else body
        data = requests.post(f"{BASE}/api/v1/meta-ads/{path}",
                             headers=HEADERS, json=payload).json()["data"]
        pages.append(data)
        if not data.get("has_next_page"):
            break
        cursor = data["next_cursor"]
    return pages

pages = crawl("search", {"query": "project management software", "country": "US"})

Response shapes

Every response uses the envelope { data, response_time, credits_used, credits_remaining }.

• search - 30 ads on page 1 with the full creative: page name, ad copy, headline, CTA, images and videos, the platforms each ad ran on, and its run dates. For political and issue ads: spend, reach, impressions and the paid-for-by disclosure. Plus total_results, total_is_capped, has_next_page and next_cursor.
• advertiser - the same creative detail for every ad a Page is running, with the same paging fields.
• ad - one ad in full by archive id: creative, advertiser, run dates, platforms, and any political disclosure.

Guardrails

• Use the hyphenated paths. /api/v1/meta-ads/search, not /api/v1/metaads/search.
• Budget before crawling. Page 1 is 30 ads for 1 credit; every page after is 10 ads for 1 credit. Tell the user the number of pages and credits you intend to spend, and cap the loop.
• Never present total_results as exact when total_is_capped is true - Meta only reports ">50,000".
• Never report null spend or reach as zero spend. Meta publishes those figures for political and issue ads only.
• Do not change filters mid-walk. The cursor already carries them and the new values are ignored; start a fresh walk instead.
• Stop on has_next_page: false, not on a short page.
• This is logged-out public data only. Nothing here touches a login or Meta's token-gated ads-archive API, so never claim a Meta developer token is required.
• Never fabricate ad copy, page names, run dates, spend figures or disclosures. Only return API data.
• Ad creative is someone else's copyrighted work. Quote it for analysis; do not present it as the user's own.

Failure handling

The error set here is 400 / 401 / 404 / 429 / 502 - there is no 503 on this platform.

• 400 means an invalid or missing parameter - e.g. a non-numeric page_id or ad_archive_id, or a country that is not exactly two characters. Fix and retry.
• 401 means the API key is invalid or missing. Check SCAVIO_API_KEY.
• 404 means the ad or page does not resolve.
• 429 means rate or usage limit exceeded. Wait before retrying. See https://scavio.dev/docs/rate-limits?utm_source=clawhub&utm_medium=skill&utm_campaign=meta-ad-library-api.
• 502 means upstream is temporarily unavailable - wait a few seconds and retry.
• If a keyword search returns nothing, try keyword_unordered rather than keyword_exact_phrase, or widen country and active_status.
• If SCAVIO_API_KEY is not set, prompt the user to export it before continuing.

Python SDK

langchain-scavio has no Meta Ad Library tool - use the Scavio SDK directly:

bash

pip install scavio==0.15.0

python

from scavio import ScavioClient

client = ScavioClient()  # reads SCAVIO_API_KEY

page1 = client.meta_ads.search("project management software", country="US",
                               active_status="active")
page2 = client.meta_ads.search("project management software",
                               cursor=page1["data"]["next_cursor"])
by_page = client.meta_ads.advertiser("20531316728", country="US")
one = client.meta_ads.ad("1234567890123456")

JavaScript / TypeScript:

bash

npm install scavio@0.15.0

js

import { Scavio } from "scavio";

const scavio = new Scavio(); // reads SCAVIO_API_KEY
const ads = await scavio.metaAds.search({ query: "project management software", country: "US" });
const { next_cursor } = ads.data as Record<string, any>;
const next = await scavio.metaAds.search({ query: "project management software",
                                           cursor: next_cursor });