If you’re on a marketing team, you probably spend way too much time grabbing data from websites, scraping competitor prices, or pulling social stats. Doing it by hand is boring and error-prone, especially if you need that fresh data every week (or day, or hour). That’s where automating all this with Apify comes in.
This guide walks you through setting up recurring data extraction in Apify—no fluff, just the steps and the gotchas you actually need to know. If you want to free up your team’s time and avoid the “who forgot to run the scraper?” blame game, read on.
Why bother with recurring data extraction?
Marketing teams need up-to-date data for competitor monitoring, price tracking, lead lists, or even just keeping tabs on your own web presence. Manually extracting data is a slog, and it’s easy to miss updates or make mistakes. Scheduling data extraction means:
- It happens on time, every time.
- You don’t have to remember to do it.
- You can spend your brainpower on analysis, not grunt work.
But not all automation is created equal. The trick is to set up something that’s reliable, easy to tweak, and doesn’t turn into another headache.
What is Apify—and what can it do for you?
Apify is a platform for building, running, and scheduling web scrapers (they call them “Actors”). It gives you:
- A place to run data extraction jobs in the cloud (no need to run scripts on your laptop 24/7).
- Scheduling tools to automate when scrapers run.
- Storage and integrations so you can get your data where you need it (Google Sheets, email, S3, etc).
You can use prebuilt scrapers (for things like Google Maps, Amazon, Instagram) or build your own if you’re feeling adventurous. Bottom line: if you want recurring data extraction without wrestling with servers or cron jobs, Apify is worth a look.
Step 1: Figure out what you need to extract—and how often
Before you touch Apify, get clear on:
- What data do you actually need? Be specific (e.g. “Product prices from Competitor A’s site every Monday”).
- How often does it need to run? Daily, weekly, monthly?
- Where should the data go? Google Sheets, email, Slack, or just a file?
PRO TIP: Start small. Don’t try to automate every possible data pull in one go. Pick your highest-priority recurring task and focus there.
Step 2: Choose or build your Apify Actor
Option 1: Use a ready-made Actor
Apify’s marketplace has a bunch of prebuilt scrapers for popular sites. To check:
- Go to the Apify Actors library.
- Search for your target site or data source.
- Check the Actor’s description and reviews. Some are better maintained than others.
- If it fits, try it out with a sample run.
What works: For big sites (e.g. Google Maps, Instagram), the official Actors are pretty reliable. Saves you a ton of time.
What to ignore: Low-quality, outdated Actors—if it hasn’t been updated in a year, skip it.
Option 2: Build your own Actor
If there’s no suitable Actor, you can:
- Use Apify’s “Web Scraper” Actor (good for extracting from most websites without coding).
- Write your own in JavaScript, if you need something custom.
Reality check: Building your own is powerful, but it’s easy to waste hours chasing edge cases or fighting anti-bot systems. For most marketing teams, try the no-code or low-code options first.
Step 3: Test your Actor—don’t skip this
Before you set up anything recurring, always run your Actor manually:
- Use sample data—just a few URLs or a small data set.
- Check the output: Did you get the data you wanted? Any missing fields? Are there weird errors?
Things that go wrong, frequently:
- The site blocks your scraper after a few runs (common with aggressive anti-bot measures).
- The page layout changes and your scraper breaks.
- You collect way more data than you need (and blow through your Apify quota).
Tip: If it fails, fix it now. It’s easier than unpicking a month of bad data later.
Step 4: Schedule the Actor to run automatically
Once your Actor is working, it’s time to automate:
- In Apify, go to your Actor’s page.
- Click “Schedules” (sometimes labeled “Schedule” or “Triggers”).
- Set up a new schedule:
- Frequency: Daily, weekly, custom cron expression (e.g. every Monday at 3am).
- Input: Define the input for each run (e.g. which URLs or keywords to scrape).
- Time zone: Make sure this matches your reporting needs.
What matters:
- Start simple. Run it once a week, then ramp up if needed.
- Be mindful of quotas. Apify charges by compute units. More frequent runs = higher cost.
- Watch for rate limits. Some sites will block you if you scrape too often.
Step 5: Set up data output and notifications
Automation isn’t much use if you never see the results. Decide how you want to get your data:
- Google Sheets: Good for sharing with the team. Many Actors support direct export.
- Email: Apify can send you output files after each run.
- Webhooks/Integrations: Push data to Slack, Airtable, S3, etc.
How to set up:
- On your Actor’s page, look for “Integrations” or “Storage.”
- Connect your preferred output (follow the prompts—usually OAuth or API keys).
- Test it. Make sure the data lands where you expect, in a usable format.
Don’t overcomplicate this. If your team just wants a weekly CSV, skip the fancy integrations.
Step 6: Monitor and maintain your recurring extraction
Scheduled scraping isn’t truly “set and forget.” Here’s what to watch for:
- Scraper failures. Set up email alerts for failed runs.
- Data changes. Sites update layouts, captchas appear, or data fields disappear.
- Quota overruns. If you start getting “out of compute units” warnings, adjust your schedules or data volume.
What works: A quick weekly check-in (5 minutes tops) to make sure your data is flowing.
What doesn’t: Hoping you’ll notice when data stops coming in. Automate alerts, or it’ll bite you.
Real-world tips and common pitfalls
- Don’t scrape more often than you need. If the data only changes weekly, running it daily wastes compute and risks getting blocked.
- Watch for “silent failures.” Sometimes scrapers “succeed” but return empty or partial data. Always spot-check.
- Keep your inputs simple. If you’re feeding 500 URLs in one go, split them up. Smaller batches fail less often.
- Document what you’ve set up. Even a Google Doc with “this Actor scrapes XYZ every Monday, outputs here” saves headaches when teammates change.
What to ignore (for now)
- Complex orchestrations. You don’t need to chain 5 Actors together to start. Get one working reliably first.
- Advanced API usage. Apify’s API is powerful, but if you just want regular data dumps, stick to the UI.
- Custom proxies. Unless you’re scraping very aggressive sites, Apify’s default settings usually work fine.
Wrapping up: Keep it simple, stay flexible
Recurring data extraction with Apify isn’t rocket science, but it does take a little care up front. Start with your most valuable data, automate it with a schedule, and check in regularly. Don’t overthink the integrations or try to boil the ocean on Day 1.
As your team’s needs change, you can always tweak, add new schedules, or get fancier later. For now, automate the boring stuff and get back to work that actually moves the needle.