How to scrape Facebook Ad Library Search Ads with JavaScript

Search This tutorial gets it with a short JavaScript program and the Facebook Ad Library Search Ads API. Each successful call costs 1 credit; errors and not-found answers are free.

1. Get an API key

Sign in to get a key and 100 free credits, no card. Then put the key in an environment variable so it stays out of your code:

export SCRAPEIO_API_KEY="your_key_here"

2. Set up JavaScript

npm install axios

3. Write the code

Save this as scrape.js.

const axios = require("axios");

async function main() {
  const params = { "query": "coffee" };
  const headers = { "x-api-key": process.env.SCRAPEIO_API_KEY };
  const items = [];
  while (true) {
    const { data: body } = await axios.get("https://scrapeio.com/v1/facebook/adLibrary/search/ads", { params, headers });
    const data = body.data;
    items.push(...(data.items || []));
    if (!data.has_more || !data.cursor || items.length >= 100) break;
    params.cursor = data.cursor;
  }
  console.log(items.length, "items");
  console.log(items.slice(0, 3));
}

main().catch((err) => {
  console.error(err.response ? err.response.status : err.message);
  process.exit(1);
});

The loop follows data.cursor until data.has_more is false, and stops at 100 items. Each page is one call, so it costs 1 credit.

4. Run it

node scrape.js

The response has the same envelope on every endpoint: success, cached, credits_used, credits_remaining and data. Shared fields such as handle, followers, plays, likes and created_at have the same names on every platform.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
`query` (required)	string	Keyword to search for
`sort_by`	total_impressions, relevancy_monthly_grouped	Sort by impressions (high to low), or Most Recent (relevancymonthlygrouped).
`search_type`	keyword_unordered, keyword_exact_phrase	If you want to search by exact phrase or not
`ad_type`	all, political_and_issue_ads	Search for all ads or only political and issue ads
`country`	string	This can only be one country.
`language`	string	Language to filter ads on.
`status`	ALL, ACTIVE, INACTIVE	Status of the ad.
`media_type`	ALL, IMAGE, VIDEO, MEME, IMAGE_AND_MEME, NONE	Media type of the ad.
`start_date`	string	Impressions start date.
`end_date`	string	Impressions end date.
`trim`	boolean	Set to true for a trimmed down version of the response
`cursor`	string	Cursor to paginate through results

Errors and what you pay

Status	Meaning	Charged
`200`	Success	Yes, unless cached
`400`	A parameter is missing or wrong	No
`401`	The key is missing or invalid	No
`402`	Not enough credits	No
`403`	The account or post is private	No
`404`	Not found on the platform	No
`429`	More than 300 requests a minute	No
`502`	Every source is down; retry shortly	No

Same endpoint in other languages

Python · Node.js · TypeScript · Go · Rust · Java · C# · PHP · Ruby · Kotlin · Swift · R

Prefer no code?

Connect the MCP server to Claude Code, Cursor or Codex and ask in plain English. The agent uses call_endpoint with path /v1/facebook/adLibrary/search/ads for you.

100 free credits, no card. Credits never expire.

Get API key