To run ads on Facebook, advertisers must connect their ads to a particular Facebook page that they administer. However, Facebook does not limit advertisers to running ads from a single Facebook page. For example, the Trump campaign has been running ads from over 20 different Facebook pages so far this year. Several of these pages are targeted at specific demographics. This is a deep dive of the month-by-month breakdown of how Donald Trump has utilized demographic-specific Facebook pages to run ads.
Facebook Political Advertising Transparency Report
This report summarizes the challenges and concerns that the Illuminating project’s team encountered when using Facebook’s Ad Library to conduct research on the 2020 U.S. presidential election. We provide examples of each problem and explain why hindering the transparency of the online campaigning ecosystem poses a threat to campaign advertising research by academics and journalists. Our report concludes with recommendations that would help make Facebook’s Ad Library more accessible and transparent to journalists, researchers, and the general public.
Trump and Biden ads on Facebook and Instagram focus on rallying the base
The campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden together spent US $65.8 million on social media advertising between June 1 and Sept. 13. With these ads, which amount to about 30% of both campaigns’ spending, the candidates are trying to mobilize voters – find supporters and then spark them to get involved.
The Trump campaign is now running ads from state-specific Facebook pages
By Brian McKernan On September 16 and 17, the Trump campaign started running ads from twelve state-specific pages, such as “Trump For Florida” and “Trump for Wisconsin.” These Facebook pages provide insight into what the Trump campaign considers their must-win
How Joe Biden uses smaller ad microbuys to target voters
An analysis of how Joe Biden’s campaign uses smaller ad buys to target specific subsets of people.