Search TikTok Ad Library

When to use this

Use it to see what a brand or a category advertises on TikTok: each ad with its advertiser, caption, video or images, when it ran and roughly how many people saw it. This is TikTok's Ad Library under the EU Digital Services Act, so it only has ads shown in the EU/EEA, Switzerland, the UK and Turkey. Ads shown only in the US or elsewhere aren't in it.

Search by query, a keyword matched against ad text and advertiser names (so resellers show up too), or by advertiser_name for one advertiser's ads, spelled as the library shows it (e.g. NIKE Retail B.V., as in a result's advertiser_name). Results are ads shown in the last 30 days, most relevant first. region narrows them to one country; an ad that ran in several countries appears under each.

Pagination. 12 ads per page. Pass the response's cursor back as cursor (with the same params) for more; has_more is false at the end. For keyword searches total stops counting at 5,000.

An advertiser_name the library doesn't know returns 404 not_found, with close matches in the message.

Example request

Copy one and replace YOUR_API_KEY with your API key (get one free). The code versions read the key from the LURKAPI_API_KEY environment variable instead.

curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/tiktok/ad-library/search?query=running+shoes&region=DE" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  query: "running shoes",
  region: "DE",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/tiktok/ad-library/search?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_API_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data.ads);

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/tiktok/ad-library/search",
    params={
        "query": "running shoes",
        "region": "DE",
    },
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_API_KEY"]},
    timeout=60,
)
data = res.json()
if not data["success"]:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}")
print(data["ads"])

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"os"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	params := url.Values{}
	params.Set("query", "running shoes")
	params.Set("region", "DE")
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/tiktok/ad-library/search?"+params.Encode(), nil)
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", os.Getenv("LURKAPI_API_KEY"))

	client := &http.Client{Timeout: 60 * time.Second}
	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	var data map[string]any
	if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&data); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	if data["success"] != true {
		panic(fmt.Sprintf("%v: %v", data["code"], data["error"]))
	}
	out, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data["ads"], "", "  ")
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

<?php
$params = http_build_query([
    'query' => 'running shoes',
    'region' => 'DE',
]);
$context = stream_context_create(['http' => [
    'header' => 'x-api-key: ' . getenv('LURKAPI_API_KEY'),
    'timeout' => 60,
    'ignore_errors' => true,
]]);
$body = file_get_contents('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/tiktok/ad-library/search?' . $params, false, $context);
$data = json_decode($body, true);
if (!$data['success']) {
    throw new Exception("{$data['code']}: {$data['error']}");
}
print_r($data['ads']);

require 'json'
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/tiktok/ad-library/search')
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  'query' => 'running shoes',
  'region' => 'DE',
)
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req['x-api-key'] = ENV.fetch('LURKAPI_API_KEY')
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == 'https', read_timeout: 60) do |http|
  http.request(req)
end
data = JSON.parse(res.body)
raise "#{data['code']}: #{data['error']}" unless data['success']
puts JSON.pretty_generate(data['ads'])

Parameters

Add them to the URL after a ?, as in ?query=running+shoes&region=DE. Join several with &.

Example response

A real response, captured from the live API. Lists are trimmed to a couple of items, and long text such as media links is cut short with ….

{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 999988,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "ads": [
    {
      "id": "1876549962700817",
      "url": "https://library.tiktok.com/ads/detail/?ad_id=1876549962700817",
      "advertiser_name": "扬州哲鸟网络科技有限公司",
      "title": "Breathable Running Shoes for Men",
      "category": "Apparel & Accessories",
      "first_shown": 1789603200,
      "last_shown": 1789603200,
      "estimated_audience": "0-1K",
      "videos": [
        {
          "url": "https://library.tiktok.com/api/v1/cdn/1790776192/video/aHR0cHM6Ly92MTZtL…",
          "cover": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn.com/tos-alisg-p-0051c001-sg/owrWfpAWeA…"
        }
      ],
      "image_urls": [
        "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn.com/tos-alisg-p-0051c001-sg/owrWfpAWeA…"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "1876549961564434",
      "url": "https://library.tiktok.com/ads/detail/?ad_id=1876549961564434",
      "advertiser_name": "扬州哲鸟网络科技有限公司",
      "title": "Breathable Running Shoes for Men",
      "category": "Apparel & Accessories",
      "first_shown": 1789603200,
      "last_shown": 1789603200,
      "estimated_audience": "0-1K",
      "videos": [
        {
          "url": "https://library.tiktok.com/api/v1/cdn/1790776192/video/aHR0cHM6Ly92MTZtL…",
          "cover": "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn.com/tos-alisg-p-0051c001-sg/ooNNDEglIq…"
        }
      ],
      "image_urls": [
        "https://p16-common-sign.tiktokcdn.com/tos-alisg-p-0051c001-sg/ooNNDEglIq…"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "total": 5000,
  "has_more": true,
  "cursor": "eyJsYXN0X3NvcnQiOlszNy43Njk1NywxNzg5NjAzMjAwMDAwXSwibmV4dF9jdXJzb3IiOjEyfQ=="
}

Response fields

Every field in a successful response, and what it means. A name with [] belongs to each item of a list: ads[].id is the id of every item in ads. null means there's no value.

Pagination

Results come in pages. For the next page, repeat the call with the same parameters and add the response's cursor as cursor. On the last page, cursor is null. Each page costs 1 credit.

let cursor = null;for (let page = 1; page <= 5; page++) {const params = new URLSearchParams({ query: "running shoes", region: "DE" });if (cursor) params.set("cursor", cursor);const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/tiktok/ad-library/search?${params}`, {headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_API_KEY },});const data = await res.json();if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);console.log(data.ads);cursor = data.cursor;if (!cursor) break; // last page}

Cost and freshness

Each call costs 1 credit. Calls turned away before they reach the platform (invalid parameters, a key or balance problem, a rate limit) are free, and so are 5xx errors. A not_found is charged, since the platform was checked. How charging works.

Answers are cached for up to 1 hour. A repeat call within that time can return the same data, and costs the same.

Errors

A failed call returns success: false, an error message, a code your program can check, and a docs link. These are the errors this endpoint can return. All error codes.

Use it in Claude

Connect LurkAPI to Claude and ask in plain English. This endpoint is the tiktok_ad_library_search tool. For example:

Use LurkAPI's tiktok_ad_library_search tool with query "running shoes", region "DE", then summarize what you find.

Claude calls tiktok_ad_library_search with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit:

{"query": "running shoes","region": "DE"}

To save tokens, tool results leave out empty fields, keep one URL per image or video, and give transcripts as plain text unless you pass timestamps=true. A result over 45,000 characters comes in parts. Its _note gives the offset for the next part, and later parts are free for 15 minutes. Pass trim=false for the full response.