Top Ads & creative signalsPick a market and industry, then collect examples from TikTok's Top Ads selection. Review the videos and their ranking context before deciding what to test in your own campaigns.
Try these examples for marketing, growth and competitor research.
For a beauty brand, review Top Ads in your market and industry each week. Watch the available videos and note their opening hooks and product demonstrations. Use those patterns to plan tests for your audience.
Keep a reference library with source videos, your notes and the ranking context.
Collect separate lists ranked by CTR and six-second view rate. Compare the examples and their video lengths. A high ranking in one list won't guarantee the same result for another brand.
Make a test list that separates what you observed from what you want to try.
Enable ad details and compare captions, objectives and destination pages. Review how the creative's promise connects to the product or landing-page experience.
Keep an ad-to-landing-page audit with your annotations.
FROM FIRST RUN TO REPEATABLE WORKFLOW
{
"countries": ["US"],
"period": "7",
"sortBy": ["ctr"],
"maxAds": 20,
"maxQueries": 1,
"scrapeAdDetails": false
}Paste this into the Actor’s JSON input editor. Replace the example targets with yours before running.
Check the current input form on ApifyCreative Center is a curated Top Ads collection, not a complete advertiser archive. Use it to study examples, hooks and editing choices. Country, industry, objective, language and ranking filters create separate search combinations.
| Search method | When to use it | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Market selection | When to use itYou need a view of a particular country or market. | What changesSelect supported Top Ads markets below. Empty means all available markets. This coverage is different from TikTok Ad Library and includes the US. Extra countries add query combinations. |
| Ranking selection | When to use itYou want creative references grouped by a particular metric. | What changesEach sort creates a separate ranked Top Ads query. for_you, like, ctr, impression, cvr, play_6s_rate and play_2s_rate select different lists; all requests every ranking. |
| Industry and campaign goal | When to use itYou want broader coverage and can allow a larger run. | What changesUse industry names from Creative Center, such as beauty. Names are matched loosely; a parent industry includes sub-industries. Several industries create separate queries, not a single combined category. |
Caps unique ads across all query combinations. One signed-out query yields at most 20, so maxAds 100 does not force one query to return 100. Add meaningful combinations for broader coverage.
Compare the related scraperUse the exact field names below in JSON. In Apify’s form, enter list items separately, choose filters, and keep numbers and booleans in their proper types.
Default and prefill are different. A default applies when you omit a setting; a prefill is an example already entered in Apify’s form. Review prefilled targets and limits before every run. Some settings have no schema default. You still need to supply at least one supported target.
countriesSelect supported Top Ads markets below. Empty means all available markets. This coverage is different from TikTok Ad Library and includes the US. Extra countries add query combinations.
industriesUse industry names from Creative Center, such as beauty. Names are matched loosely; a parent industry includes sub-industries. Several industries create separate queries, not a single combined category.
objectivesCampaign-objective filters such as traffic or product sales. Each selected objective adds combinations. An objective label is campaign context, not verified performance of your own campaign.
traffic app installs conversions video views reach lead generation product salesadLanguagesThe language of the ads, not the interface language. Several languages add query combinations. Keep empty for all languages when you do not need language-specific research.
periodRanking lookback of 7, 30 or 180 days, supplied as a string. It is a Top Ads ranking period, not a request for every ad delivered during those dates.
7 30 180sortByEach sort creates a separate ranked Top Ads query. for_you, like, ctr, impression, cvr, play_6s_rate and play_2s_rate select different lists; all requests every ranking.
for_you like ctr impression cvr play_6s_rate play_2s_rate allmaxAdsCaps unique ads across all query combinations. One signed-out query yields at most 20, so maxAds 100 does not force one query to return 100. Add meaningful combinations for broader coverage.
maxQueriesCaps country × industry × objective × ad language × ranking combinations. Two countries and two rankings mean four queries when other dimensions are unrestricted. The first combinations can exhaust this cap.
scrapeAdDetailsAdds landing pages, all reported countries, comments, shares and keywords. One extra request per ad. Disable for a quick Top Ads list; missing details are recorded in the run summary.
proxyConfigurationApify Proxy is the default. The Actor retries refused exits and can fall back to residential. Keep the default for a first run; do not assume an empty list always means no eligible ads.
resumeSaves progress about every 30 seconds so an Apify restart or migration can continue the current run. Leave it on for normal use.
continueFromLastRunContinues unfinished work from the previous run with matching input. Earlier results remain in that run’s dataset. Keep false for a fresh collection or a recurring snapshot.
This reference follows the Actor’s published input fields. Check the live form before changing a production workflow. Check the current input form on Apify.
Each example is a separate run. Start small, inspect the results, then increase coverage. Update the targets, countries and dates to match your question.
Two countries and two rankings make four search combinations. With roughly 20 ads available per combination, 80 is a planning ceiling rather than a promised unique count. Ads can appear in more than one ranking.
{
"countries": ["US", "FR"],
"period": "7",
"sortBy": ["ctr", "play_6s_rate"],
"maxAds": 80,
"maxQueries": 4,
"scrapeAdDetails": false
}Combine beauty, product sales and English ads in the US over 30 days. Enable details for the small sample. Use the videos to discuss hooks and execution; a Creative Center ranking does not predict your campaign’s results.
{
"countries": ["US"],
"period": "30",
"industries": ["beauty"],
"objectives": ["product sales"],
"adLanguages": ["en"],
"sortBy": ["ctr"],
"maxAds": 20,
"maxQueries": 1,
"scrapeAdDetails": true
}Use all rankings for one country over 180 days, with no detail requests. This runs the seven supported ranking orders and deduplicates the results. maxQueries 7 keeps the search plan bounded.
{
"countries": ["US"],
"period": "180",
"sortBy": ["all"],
"maxAds": 100,
"maxQueries": 7,
"scrapeAdDetails": false
}Keep the ad ID, video references, country and search combination with available ranking metrics. Metrics belong to the source’s selected Top Ads sample and should not be compared as though every campaign had equal exposure. Detail requests can fail separately from list collection; check SUMMARY.adsWithoutDetails and save expiring media links promptly.
resume protects the current run if Apify restarts it. continueFromLastRun continues an earlier run with the same configuration; earlier records stay in the earlier dataset. Combine both datasets for the complete collection, and raise a previously reached result cap when continuing. Start fresh when you want to see what changed today.
Save one configuration above as input.json. Set APIFY_TOKEN to your Apify API token in your terminal, then send the file as the request body.
curl --fail-with-body --request POST \
--url "https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/jmlp~tiktok-creative-center-scraper/runs" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
--data-binary @input.jsonThe response contains a run ID and defaultDatasetId, not finished results. Wait for the run to succeed, set DATASET_ID to that dataset ID, then fetch its items. For large datasets, use limit and offset to page through the export.
curl --fail-with-body \
--url "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/$DATASET_ID/items?format=json" \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN"Change one setting at a time, keep a small cap, and check the run summary before scaling up.
Caps unique ads across all query combinations. One signed-out query yields at most 20, so maxAds 100 does not force one query to return 100. Add meaningful combinations for broader coverage.
Caps country × industry × objective × ad language × ranking combinations. Two countries and two rankings mean four queries when other dimensions are unrestricted. The first combinations can exhaust this cap.
Adds landing pages, all reported countries, comments, shares and keywords. One extra request per ad. Disable for a quick Top Ads list; missing details are recorded in the run summary.
Success means the Actor finished handling the request, not that the source returned data. Check SUMMARY.inputProblem, SUMMARY.problem and the log for missing targets, unsupported filters or refused requests. Test one known target with fewer filters.
Check the global limit, per-search or per-page limits, platform coverage and deduplication. Several searches can find the same record. A source’s headline count can include records the public endpoint does not return. Review unfinished jobs before treating the dataset as complete.
Keep ad_id, brand_name, ctr, video_duration, rank, scraped_sort and creative_center_url. Watch each video before adding your own hook and offer labels.
Read the setupAsk Claude to organize captions and reported metrics with source links. Give it the actual media or transcripts for video analysis; a URL and caption don't describe the whole creative.
Read the setupCompare video lengths and reported signals by industry, country and ranking. Show the query context and label the results as a Top Ads sample.
Read the setupKeep Top Ads observations with every query dimension. Record which list first found each deduplicated ad, and save the raw metrics before normalizing them.
Read the setup
Inspect jmlp/tiktok-creative-center-scraper and collect US beauty Top Ads from the last seven days ranked by CTR, capped at 50 ads and 10 queries. Summarize captions, video durations and reported metrics, cite creative_center_url, and label the data as a Top Ads sample. Do not infer unobserved video content or guaranteed performance.Keep the collection time and original IDs with your records. You’ll need them to check where a result came from or compare it with a later run.
Top Ads is TikTok's curated, ranked selection. Signed-out collection returns up to 20 ads per query combination. Rankings and reported CTR belong to that source context and don't predict your campaign results. Video URLs can expire within hours. This scraper doesn't collect hashtag, song or creator trend lists.
Creative Center selects and ranks Top Ads for inspiration, including markets such as the US. Ad Library collects Commercial Content Library records across supported EU/EEA, UK and Swiss markets. Use the one that fits your research question.
That is the signed-out Top Ads limit per filter combination. Additional countries, rankings and industries create more queries, with duplicate ads removed by the scraper.
Source and current product details: JMLP’s TikTok Creative Center Actor on Apify.
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