YouTube ad spy tool: see the video ads brands run on YouTube

A YouTube ad spy tool shows you the video ads other brands pay to run on YouTube, so you can see what they promote, where and for how long. In SellWinners, YouTube ads are Google ads on the YouTube network: you search them by words or brand, keep the video ads, see who runs each one, and watch it on Google's Ads Transparency Center. YouTube ads, like every Google ad, are on paid plans.

How YouTube ads fit in the Google ads library

The data sorts Google ads by network: Search, YouTube, Shopping, Maps and Other. SellWinners keeps them in one Google ads library, and an ad names the network it ran on when Google gives one. A YouTube ad is a Google ad whose network is YouTube.

Google ads come in three formats: text, image and video. In the data, most YouTube-network ads are video ads and the rest are image ads; none are text ads. To keep the video ones, set the network and the format.

YouTube ads spy: what you can see

The thumbnail

A still from the video, served from our own host. Explore shows it on the card with a play mark, and the API returns it as the ad's media.url.

The advertiser

The advertiser's name as Google shows it, with the brand's domain and, when we know it, the shop behind it.

The dates

When the ad was first and last seen, its days running, and whether it is still active.

The countries

The countries the ad was shown in, and whether it uses remarketing or interest targeting.

The reach

Google reports a reach for some ads shown in the EU, often only as 10M+; most ads have none.

The brand's site

When the ad is linked to a site, that site's monthly visits and their 30-day growth, and, when known, how many active Meta and TikTok ads the same brand runs.

The Watch on Google link

The ad's own page on Google's Ads Transparency Center, where the video plays. Explore shows it as Watch on Google, and the API returns it as transparencyUrl.

Can you watch the video?

Yes, on Google's site. SellWinners does not host or play the video files of Google ads: the data has the thumbnail of each video ad, not the video. The Watch on Google link opens the ad's page on Google's Ads Transparency Center in a new tab, and the video plays there.

How to spy on YouTube ads

In Explore, the web app on this site, the three steps above go like this:

1. Open Ads and switch to the Google tab.
2. Type a product, a niche word or a brand in the search box, or set Brand to one competitor's shop.
3. Open Advanced filters. Under Audience, set the network to YouTube and the format to video. Under Running, set a minimum number of days running, such as 30.
4. Read the results. A search text ranks them by relevance; clear it to sort by newest or reach.
5. On a video ad, select Watch on Google: the video plays on Google.

Search YouTube ads in Explore (paid plans)

Four ways to use it

Study a competitor's YouTube campaigns

Set Brand to a competitor's shop and keep the YouTube network. You get the video ads it runs on YouTube, with their dates and countries. Sort by newest to see what it launched last, and watch the few that matter on Google.

See how long YouTube ads run

Days running is the plainest signal in the data: a brand that keeps paying for a video ad for months usually has a reason. The days count from the first to the last day Google showed the ad, and every ad shows them. Set Brand to one shop and a minimum of 30 days running to keep its long runs. There is no longest running sort: the data's day count goes on after an ad stops, so it would list ads Google stopped showing.

Find the stores that advertise on YouTube

Search a niche word with the YouTube network and the video format, and read the advertisers in the results. When an ad is linked to a site, it comes with that site's traffic and growth, so you can tell a large brand from a small store. Then check the store's estimated sales, traffic and best sellers, or find the top advertisers in the niche on Meta.

Follow the ad to the landing page

A YouTube ad in the data names the brand's domain, not the exact page the ad sends people to. Visit the domain, or open the brand's Meta ads: the Meta ads library search lists the landing pages its Facebook and Instagram ads point to.

From the API

This is the SellWinners API, not an official YouTube or Google API, and it takes a key on a paid plan. This call lists the YouTube video ads Google still shows, the newest first:

# Search Google ads
curl "https://api.sellwinners.com/v1/google-ads?networks=youtube&formats=video&status=active&sortBy=newest&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

GET /v1/google-ads Parameters and fields in the docs

With a search text, results rank by relevance, so leave out the sort. A POST takes the named filters at the top level of the body:

# Search Google ads with filters
curl -X POST "https://api.sellwinners.com/v1/google-ads/query" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"query": "protein powder", "networks": ["youtube"], "formats": ["video"], "countries": ["DE", "FR"], "limit": 20}'

POST /v1/google-ads/query Parameters and fields in the docs

In each ad of the answer, network is youtube, media.type is video, media.url is the thumbnail and transparencyUrl is the address of the ad on Google's Ads Transparency Center. List the network values with GET /v1/google-ads/facets/networks, and read every parameter and field in the Google ads search reference.

For your AI agent

Over the MCP server, your agent searches YouTube ads with search_google_ads_library. It takes the same filters as the API, the network and the format included. You can ask it, for example, for active YouTube ads for trail shoes, with their links to watch them on Google. The API and the MCP server use the same key and the same monthly credits.

What it does not show

• No video files. No video file is downloaded, hosted or played on our site; only the thumbnail is shown, with a link to watch the ad on Google.
• No views. The data has no view counts, likes or comments for YouTube ads.
• No spend. Google ads have no spend figure, and Google reports a reach for some of the ads shown in the EU only.
• No channel data. There are no YouTube channels, subscribers or organic videos, only ads.
• Not YouTube's library. SellWinners is not YouTube's or Google's official ads library. For Google's own record of an ad, follow its link to the Ads Transparency Center.

For those numbers, use the other libraries of the same ad spy tool, with the same account and key. The TikTok ads library has views, likes and shares, and the Meta ads library search has reach and estimated spend for ads shown in the EU and the UK, on every plan.