LinkedIn Ad Library Scraper: Spy on B2B Competitor Ads & Strategy

LinkedIn ads are expensive.

With CPCs (Cost Per Click) often exceeding $10-$15, a "test campaign" can burn through $5,000 in a week with zero results.

The smartest B2B marketers don't guess. They cheat. (Legally).

They look at what their biggest competitors are running. If a competitor has been running the same ad creative for 3 months, you know it's profitable. If they suddenly stopped running a specific headline, you know it failed.

The LinkedIn Ad Library is a goldmine of this data. But manually searching it is slow, tedious, and hard to organize.

In this guide, we'll show you how to automate your competitor research using the SociaVault API to download, analyze, and replicate winning B2B ad strategies.

Why You Need to Scrape the Ad Library

The official LinkedIn Ad Library interface is... clunky.

• You can't bulk download creatives.
• You can't track changes over time.
• You can't search by keyword across all advertisers easily.

By using an API, you can build a Competitor Ad Dashboard that answers:

1. What formats are they using? (Video vs. Single Image vs. Carousel)
2. What are their hooks? (Analyze the first 2 lines of ad copy)
3. Where are they sending traffic? (Landing page analysis)

How to Scrape Competitor Ads (The Code)

Let's say you want to see every ad Salesforce is running.

Step 1: Search by Company Name

We'll use the /v1/scrape/linkedin-ad-library/search endpoint.

JavaScript Example:

const API_KEY = 'your_api_key_here';
const COMPANY_NAME = 'Salesforce';

async function getCompetitorAds() {
  // Search for ads by company name
  const response = await fetch(
    `https://api.sociavault.com/v1/scrape/linkedin-ad-library/search?company=${COMPANY_NAME}`,
    {
      headers: { 'x-api-key': API_KEY }
    }
  );

  const data = await response.json();
  
  if (data.success) {
    const ads = data.data.ads;
    console.log(`Found ${ads.length} active ads for ${COMPANY_NAME}.`);
    
    // Analyze the ads
    ads.forEach(ad => {
      console.log(`Ad ID: ${ad.id}`);
      console.log(`Copy: ${ad.text.substring(0, 50)}...`); // First 50 chars
      console.log(`Format: ${ad.format}`); // image, video, etc.
    });
    
    return ads;
  }
}

Python Example:

import requests

API_KEY = "your_api_key_here"
COMPANY_NAME = "Salesforce"

def get_competitor_ads():
    url = "https://api.sociavault.com/v1/scrape/linkedin-ad-library/search"
    headers = {"x-api-key": API_KEY}
    params = {"company": COMPANY_NAME}
    
    response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
    data = response.json()
    
    if data.get("success"):
        ads = data["data"]["ads"]
        print(f"Found {len(ads)} active ads for {COMPANY_NAME}.")
        return ads
    else:
        print(f"Error: {data.get('error')}")

ads = get_competitor_ads()

Step 2: Analyze the "Hook" (Ad Copy)

The most expensive part of a LinkedIn ad is the click. The job of the ad copy is to sell that click.

Once you have the JSON data, you can run a simple analysis to find common words and phrases.

• Are they asking questions? ("Struggling with CRM adoption?")
• Are they using stats? ("Increase sales by 30%")
• Are they offering assets? ("Download the 2025 Report")

Step 3: Download the Creatives

The API provides the direct URL to the image or video file. You can write a script to download these and save them to a folder named "Swipe File".

// Simple function to download an image
const fs = require('fs');
const https = require('https');

function downloadImage(url, filename) {
  const file = fs.createWriteStream(filename);
  https.get(url, function(response) {
    response.pipe(file);
  });
}

3 Strategies to Steal (Ethically)

1. The "Format Flip"

If you see a competitor running 90% Document Ads (PDF carousels), that is a huge signal. Document ads currently have some of the highest engagement rates on LinkedIn. If they are doing it, you should test it immediately.

2. The "Pain Point" Mirror

Look at their headlines.

• Competitor: "Stop wasting time on manual data entry."
• Insight: Their customers hate manual work.
• Your Ad: "Automate your data entry in 3 clicks."

You aren't copying their ad; you are copying their customer insight.

3. The Landing Page Spy

The API gives you the destination URL (landing page). Don't just look at the ad. Click through.

• Is it a long-form sales page?
• Is it a simple lead magnet download?
• Is it a "Book a Demo" calendar?

Match your offer to theirs. If they are offering a free ebook and you are asking for a marriage proposal (Demo Request) on the first date, you will lose.

Conclusion: Data > Creativity

In B2B marketing, "boring" often works best. But you won't know which kind of boring works until you look at the data.

By scraping the LinkedIn Ad Library, you turn your competitors' ad spend into your own market research. Let them pay for the failed tests. You just run what works.

Ready to build your B2B ad intelligence dashboard?

Get your API key from SociaVault and start spying today.

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