Most SERP API users filter out sponsored results. That is a mistake. Sponsored results are a direct signal of which competitors are spending money to acquire customers for specific keywords. Ad copy reveals positioning, display URLs reveal landing page strategy, and ad presence over time reveals budget commitment.
What sponsored results tell you
- Who is bidding: direct competitors actively spending on acquisition
- Ad copy: how competitors position their product (features, pricing, social proof)
- Display URL: which landing pages they send paid traffic to
- Ad extensions: phone numbers, sitelinks, callouts reveal GTM strategy
- Presence over time: consistent ads = committed budget, intermittent = testing
Extracting ad data from SERP results
import requests, os
key = os.environ["SCAVIO_API_KEY"]
keywords = ["best crm software", "crm for small business", "hubspot alternative"]
ad_intel = {}
for kw in keywords:
resp = requests.post("https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/search",
headers={"x-api-key": key},
json={"query": kw, "platform": "google", "limit": 20})
results = resp.json().get("results", [])
ads = [r for r in results if r.get("type") == "sponsored" or r.get("sponsored")]
ad_intel[kw] = [{
"advertiser": a.get("displayUrl", a.get("url", "")),
"headline": a.get("title", ""),
"description": a.get("snippet", "")
} for a in ads]
print(f"'{kw}': {len(ads)} ads from {len(set(a['advertiser'] for a in ad_intel[kw]))} advertisers")Building a competitive ad tracker
Run the same keyword set daily. Store results in a database. Over 30 days, you can identify: which competitors advertise consistently (committed budget), which are testing (intermittent), and which keywords have no ads (organic-only opportunity or low commercial intent).
Why this beats the Google Ads Transparency Center
Google's Ad Transparency Center shows that an advertiser ran ads, but not for which keywords. SERP-level data shows the exact keyword-to-ad mapping. For competitive intelligence, the keyword mapping is the valuable signal.
Cost
50 keywords x 1 query/day x 30 days = 1,500 queries = $7.50/month. Compare to SEMrush ($140/mo) or SpyFu ($39/mo) for the same data. The SERP API approach is cheaper but requires you to build the tracking and analysis layer yourself.