Monitor and analyze competitor Facebook ads with Apify, GPT-4o, Gemini, and Google Sheets

Categories
Marketing Intelligence, Ad Operations, Competitive Research, Creative Analysis

Build a Facebook Ad Intelligence Pipeline with Apify, AI, and Google Sheets

This workflow creates an end-to-end Facebook Ad Intelligence pipeline that automatically collects live ads from the Facebook Ad Library, analyzes their creative and messaging using AI, and stores structured insights in Google Sheets for reuse.

The system continuously pulls ads from specified Facebook Ad Library URLs, filters for high-signal advertisers, classifies ads by format (video, image, or text), and applies AI analysis to extract strategy, positioning, and reusable creative angles.

The result is a reliable, no-manual-work system that turns competitor ads into structured, reusable intelligence instead of screenshots and guesswork.

Benefits

Evidence-Based Creative Decisions
Learn from ads that are already live and funded, not assumptions.

Faster Creative Iteration
Reuse proven angles, hooks, and formats without starting from zero.

Centralized Ad Intelligence
All insights are stored in a searchable Google Sheet.

Format-Aware Analysis
Images, videos, and text ads are analyzed using the correct method.

Low Noise, High Signal
Filters remove weak advertisers and surface serious spenders.

How It Works

Ad Data Collection (Apify)

• Scrapes Facebook Ad Library URLs automatically
• Retrieves raw ad snapshots including:
  • Copy and headlines
  • Media URLs
  • Page metadata
  • Engagement and page signals

Signal Filtering

• Filters ads by page popularity, for example pages with more than 5,000 likes
• Ensures only proven advertisers move forward

Creative Type Detection

• A switch node classifies ads as:
  • Video
  • Image
  • Text only
• Each format is routed to its own processing path

AI Creative Analysis

• Image ads
  • Converted to binary
  • Visually analyzed
  • Summarized and reverse-engineered
• Video ads
  • Downloaded and analyzed frame and content wise
  • Described strategically
• Text ads
  • Summarized and rewritten directly
• Outputs include:
  • Deep strategic summaries
  • Repurposed ad copy

Structured Intelligence Storage (Google Sheets)

• All insights are appended automatically
• Ads are deduplicated by ad archive ID
• Each row becomes a reusable asset:
  • Summary
  • Rewritten copy
  • Image or video prompts
  • Page and source data

Required Setup

Apify

• Active Apify account
• Access to the Facebook Ad Library scraping actor

OpenAI

• API key with text and image analysis access

Google Gemini

• API access for video analysis

Google Sheets

• OAuth access
• Edit permissions on the target spreadsheet

Dropbox (optional)

• OAuth access for video storage and reuse

Business Use Cases

Performance Marketers

• Identify winning creative patterns faster

Media Buyers

• Reduce testing waste and creative fatigue

Agencies

• Deliver competitive intelligence as a service

Founders

• Validate messaging before launching campaigns

Growth Teams

• Build creative systems instead of one-off ads

Difficulty Level

Intermediate

Estimated Build Time

60–90 minutes

Monthly Operating Cost

Apify: Usage-based
OpenAI: Usage-based
Google Sheets: Free
Dropbox: Free or paid plan
n8n: Self-hosted or cloud

Typical range: $20–60/month depending on volume

Why This Workflow Works

Live ads represent real budget decisions
Filtering enforces signal quality
Format-specific analysis improves insight accuracy
Structured storage enables reuse at scale
Automation replaces manual ad spying

Possible Extensions

• Auto-tag ads by funnel stage
• Add spend or duration heuristics
• Track creative trends over time
• Generate landing page hypotheses
• Trigger creative briefs from winning ads