What You Should Know About Online Political Ads in 2024

This article has been updated with the latest information as of 2024.

Ready to jump in and promote your campaign online? Think you can just spin up some targeted text and posts to target a micro-audience with your message?

Hold on, there. This ain’t the 2012 elections! These days, political social media advertising isn’t nearly as easy as business marketing, where all you need is a credit card and something to promote.

Social media platforms have faced increased scrutiny since 2016. As a result, they have taken action to prevent the spread of misinformation through targeted political advertising. This has led to new rules and restrictions across all the major ad platforms.

But this hasn’t slowed up spending. It’s estimated that 6 billion dollars was spent on political media in the 2019-2020 cycle. This represents a projected 57% growth in political spending from 2018.

Many of our clients have a social media presence. Some choose to advertise, but they’ve been hitting some roadblocks in getting their campaigns verified and their ads approved. It’s been frustrating for some. Even a small campaign that wants to promote themselves with a few ads are finding themselves caught in digital red tape.

To help set the record straight, here are the current ad restrictions for the major social media platforms.

Please note that this information is subject to change at any time.

Google Ads

Google has limited election ads audience targeting to the following categories: age, gender and general location (postal code level) in the United States. Third party audience information is also banned. This applies to both Google search and display ads. This also covers ads on YouTube, which is owned by Google.

In addition, ads containing false or misleading information that could act to undermine participation or trust in an electoral process. This would include, for example, promoting a false election date.

Any individual or organization that purchases an election ad on Google or YouTube must provide information to Google confirming that they are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. Google also requires all political ads to display a ‘paid for’ disclosure.

X/Twitter

As of late 2023, X/Twitter is accepting political advertising. The site prohibits the promotion of false or misleading content, including false or misleading information intended to undermine public confidence in an election. They also provide a global advertising transparency center, similar to Facebook.

Facebook and Instagram

So far, Facebook has not implemented any advertising bans. However, Facebook now requires more disclosure on political ads and who purchases them. Users who want to buy political ads or promote their page must verify their mailing address. All political ads have a “paid for by” disclaimer and are be placed in a political ad archive.

Facebook requires verification from you or a member of your campaign if you want to advertise through the platform. We’ve found this article to be helpful for those who want to begin the verification process.

Paid post loophole?

“Branded content” on Facebook consists of sponsored items posted by ordinary users who are typically paid by companies or organizations. Influential users are directly paid to post about a brand or product. Because Facebook makes no money from paid posts, it does not consider them advertising. (Unless the posts themselves are promoted via Facebook advertising.)

As of now, Facebook will allow campaigns in the U.S. to use this type of paid promotion, provided they’ve been authorized to run political ads and disclose who paid for the sponsored posts. How this change in the rules will be used or exploited by campaigns remains to be seen.

Spotify

While Spotify was never much of a player in political advertising, the company has suspended all political advertising on its platform. The company has stated that it does not have the ability to properly screen the content.

Pinterest, Twitch, and TikTok also prohibit political advertising.

Even if you are interested in other types of digital marketing, like IP Targeting, you will need to provide disclaimer and purchasing information.

While down-ballot and local campaigns may find their online ad options limited, it’s no reason to give up on social media altogether.

For example, on Twitter there are no restrictions on what individual user accounts can post or share to followers. Growing your social media presence will help keep your followers informed and can lead to ‘earned media’, where your content is shared to others beyond your own followers.

If you are planning on running online ads, you should certify your campaign on these platforms as soon as you can.

Start early, as it may take days or even weeks for your organization to be certified. If you wait too long, you may not be able to run ads when you need them.

A campaign website is the hub of your online campaign. Online Candidate makes it easy to start your website and get your social media accounts set up. Find out now which package is best for you.