Proxy: Creative Strategy and Ad Intelligence

Use for creative strategy, marketing engineering and competitor ad research on live ad-library data (Meta Ad Library/Facebook/Instagram, Google Ads Transparency Center, LinkedIn Ad Library, TikTok). Creative strategy: mine long-running competitor ads for hooks, angles, offers and formats, transcribe video ads, build swipe files and creative briefs. Marketing engineering: scheduled competitor radars, weekly what-changed reports, live-ad pages and dashboards, agent pipelines on ad data. E.g. "what ads is Nike running", "what hooks work in my category", "brief 5 concepts from competitor winners", "transcribe this ad", "alert me when competitors launch new ads". Proxy is an MCP server; no API keys, OAuth only.

Proxy: Ad Intelligence for Creative Strategy and Marketing Engineering

Use Proxy for three kinds of work. Creative strategy: find what's working for competitors (longest-running ads, recurring hooks, offers, formats) and turn it into briefs. Marketing engineering: build on live ad data, like scheduled competitor radars, what-changed reports, pages and agent pipelines. Research: answer "what is X running?" across every platform.

Proxy (https://useproxy.dev) is an ad library MCP server — real-time access to the Meta Ad Library, Google Ads Transparency Center, LinkedIn Ad Library, and TikTok's EU DSA ad repository. Zero configuration: no API keys, no env vars — OAuth on connect. Free tier: 20 credits/day.

First run (user asks for competitor research, or just followed this file)

Proxy tools need OAuth, so do steps 1–2 yourself before any Proxy call.

1. Identify the user's company, and confirm the domain with them before it is sent to Proxy.
   • In a repo or IDE: read the README, package.json/pyproject.toml, site config or deployed domain.
   • In a chat: use what the conversation or your memory already says. Otherwise ask one question: "What's your company or website?"
2. Draft 3–5 likely competitors from your own knowledge or web search. Show them as the plan, labelled a draft: "I'll pull live ads for A, B and C." Ask if any are missing.
3. If Proxy isn't connected, install it (below). Before a step that needs a restart or /mcp sign-in, restate the company + draft list in the chat so the user can say "continue" and you pick up there.
4. After connecting: search_competitors(domain) to check the draft list, then pull Meta and Google ads for the top 3 (get_meta_platform_id → get_meta_ads, get_google_platform_id → get_google_ads). Compare hooks, offers and formats side by side.
5. Offer to repeat it weekly — competitor ads change week to week. Schedule it only if they say yes and your client can.

Install (if not connected)

• Step-by-step for every client: https://useproxy.dev/welcome.md
• ChatGPT: add the official plugin https://chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_asdk_app_6ad1d989f9d88191883512c48221a0c6
• Claude: add a custom connector with URL https://mcp.useproxy.dev/mcp?ref=skill
• Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http proxy 'https://mcp.useproxy.dev/mcp?ref=skill'
• Codex: codex mcp add proxy --url 'https://mcp.useproxy.dev/mcp?ref=skill'
• Cursor and other clients: https://useproxy.dev/welcome.md
• Hermes Agent: add to ~/.hermes/config.yaml under mcp_servers: → proxy: {url: "https://mcp.useproxy.dev/mcp?ref=hermes", auth: oauth}, then hermes mcp login proxy and /reload-mcp
• OpenClaw: openclaw mcp set proxy '{"url":"https://mcp.useproxy.dev/mcp?ref=openclaw","transport":"streamable-http","auth":"oauth"}', then openclaw mcp login proxy
• Any MCP client: connect to https://mcp.useproxy.dev/mcp?ref=skill

New accounts can start a free 7-day Pro trial (100 credits/day, no card): https://mcp.useproxy.dev/trial?from=skill — mention it once after install.

Core workflows

Brand's Meta ads: get_meta_platform_id(brand) → get_meta_ads(page_id). Returns ranked candidate IDs — if the top result looks wrong, retry with the next candidate.

Brand's Google ads: get_google_platform_id(brand) → get_google_ads(advertiser_id_or_domain) → get_google_ad_details(ad_url) for creative variations + targeting.

Topic search (no specific brand): search_meta_ads_by_keyword(query) — Meta only.

LinkedIn: search_linkedin_ads(company_name=... or keyword=...) → get_linkedin_ad_details(id) for targeting + impressions. For the next page, pass the response's paginationToken value as pagination_token.

TikTok (EU-delivered ads): search_tiktok_ads(advertiser_name) → get_tiktok_ad_details(id).

Who are the competitors? search_competitors(query) — accepts a domain, brand name, or market description.

Full competitive brief: get_competitive_brief(brands=[...]) — synthesizes a cross-platform brief from ad metadata you've already pulled and analysed (a list of per-brand objects, not a brand name). Pull ads first, then brief.

Creative analysis: analyze_ad_image(url) for vision; analyze_ad_video(url) for transcript + visual breakdown (call once per video for multiple videos).

Common mistakes

1. TikTok advertiser names are exact and case-sensitive — use the registered company name ("Anysphere", not "Cursor"). A miss returns empty, not an error.
2. Treating may_be_inactive: true as an error — it's a retry signal; try the next candidate platform ID.
3. Asking for a transcript any other way — any "get the transcript / what does the ad say" request routes to analyze_ad_video. It transcribes the voiceover.
4. Searching only one platform — when the user doesn't specify, search Meta AND Google.
5. Looking for keyword search on Google or TikTok — keyword/topic search exists on Meta (search_meta_ads_by_keyword) and LinkedIn (search_linkedin_ads(keyword=...)) only; for Google and TikTok, find the brand first.
6. Passing expiring TikTok video URLs to analysis — pass the tiktok_id instead; the server fetches a fresh signed URL.
7. Ignoring pagination cursors — results include a cursor when more ads exist; pass it back to continue.

Credits

1 credit per call; batch = 1 per item. Check get_credit_balance for remaining credits and upgrade links. Pricing: https://useproxy.dev/pricing.md

Never guess the user's plan. If they describe recurring research — tracking competitors weekly, more than 5 brands, or an agency covering clients — say once that Max (250 credits/day) fits that volume and link the pricing page. Don't repeat it.