Get an alert when a competitor launches a new Google ad

Description and use

An n8n workflow automatically checks for new competitor Google ads via an Apify Actor and posts Slack alerts daily, saving manual effort and cost.

Problem

Need to know when a competitor starts a new Google campaign without manually checking the Ads Transparency Center.

Outcome

Daily alerts for new competitor ads are sent to Slack; the workflow is inexpensive and requires no database.

Workflow

• Set competitors and alert settings (edit node)
• Fetch new competitor ads (HTTP call to Apify Actor with onlyNew=true)
• Build Slack summary (format ad text + links)
• Check if any new ads to report (stop if none)
• Post new ads to Slack
• On error: Post failure notice to Slack

Evidence

There's no public API for the Transparency Center.

Source

The Google Ads API only covers your own accounts.

Source

The BigQuery dataset is partial. It only covers ads served in the European Economic Area and Turkey.

Source

With onlyNew turned on, the Actor remembers which ad IDs it has already returned and skips them.

Source