Biden’s historic win in Arizona created reason to explore how he advertised on Facebook in Arizona, and how that differed from how he advertised overall.
How Biden Used Facebook Ads in Arizona
To Swing or Not to Swing: How Facebook Ads Were Used to Reach Ohio Voters
Ohio has been considered one of the most significant swing states for decades, but for the first time since 1960 the winner did not win the state of Ohio. In this post, we take a look at how the candidates used Facebook and Instagram ads to appeal to voters in Ohio.
Facebook’s election advertising restrictions: an overview
In anticipation of a contentious presidential election, Facebook announced in September 2020 that it would make two changes to its treatment of ads about “social issues, elections or politics” in the US. This post provides an overview of these changes.
Trump’s Ad Spending Breakdown in the “Latinos for Trump” Facebook Page
With the election finally decided, it is clear that the 2020 election was far from predictable. Several key voting demographics defied polling and created an unexpected outcome. In this article, we take a look at the “Latinos for Trump” Facebook page and how ads were used to influence this key demographic of voters.
The Cost of COVID: For Candidates and for the Country
As the death toll in the U.S. climbs to over 230,000, let’s see how Biden and Trump are choosing to discuss COVID.
Battle in the Badger State: Campaign Advertising in Wisconsin
In the final days of the election, the Biden and Trump campaigns have focused a large sum of their ad spending in Wisconsin. In this post, we analyze how each candidate is allocating their money in hopes of winning over last-minute voters in this critical battleground state.
Campaigns’ Different Strategies in States on the Edge
Campaigns may have different strategies depending on if a state leans towards them or their opponent. In this post, Illuminating lead researcher Jeff Hemsley investigates if the Trump and Biden campaigns are using different Facebook ad strategies in six key contested states, including Iowa, Georgia, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona.
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.
Exploring a spike in incivility for the Trump campaign
Although Donald Trump’s re-election campaign traditionally spends more money towards civil ads, a drastic increase in incivility during the week of July 6th, led to 68.8% of that week’s spending contributing towards uncivil ads.