And we’re back!
Inside: Your debrief on how digital political spending played out in January 2025
Hi everyone 👋 it’s great to be back!
Allow me to re-introduce myself real quick: My name is Lucy Ritzmann, and I have been a co-author of FWIW for the past two years. (Fun fact: Here’s the first FWIW edition I worked on back in March 2023.)
I’ll be taking over from Kyle and picking up the digital pen on FWIW for the next few months. Here’s what you can expect from me:
➡️ Lots of charts keeping you up to date on what’s going on in the digital political ad world (see below)
➡️ Deep dives on digital spending for the big 2025 races and what they tell us about digital campaigning in this brave new world
➡️ Conversations with key players in the space on what they learned last year and what they’re doing moving forward
➡️ Insight on key digital media and content trends that are shaping political discourse (from a member of Gen Z, albeit an elder one, herself)
For this week’s send, I have your debrief on what’s been going on in the world of political ads for the first month of 2025. We’ll return to business as usual with the weekly charts next Friday, as well as a full deep dive section, clips section, etc.
Now, let’s get into it!
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, U.S. political advertisers spent around $4.1 million on Google and YouTube ads in January 2025. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
A common question echoing through DC has been “Where are the Democrats?”... well, some of them, at least, are over here on Google + YouTube. House Majority Forward is running ads nationwide that are geo-targeted at specific districts represented by House Republicans, telling folks to call them up and insist they stop supporting the Trump admin’s agenda. Save My Country Action Fund is running very similar ads, specifically focused on health care.
We’re also starting to see some key races in 2025 heat up: A Better Wisconsin Together is running attack ads against the Republican running in their state Supreme Court race in April, and some Dems who have announced their candidacy for Governor of New Jersey seem to be working on raising their profiles through PACs and other means ahead of the June primary.
Meanwhile, political advertisers spent around $30.5 million on Facebook and Instagram ads in January 2025 (specifically, 1/3-2/1). These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Given that far-right media and content have been largely “legitimized” by the Trump administration, it’s fairly unsurprising to see them dominating the Facebook + Instagram top spenders chart this past month (FWIW, Last Country, Inc. is Tucker Carlson’s digital media company). Hillsdale College was the top spender, running ads on their bread-and-butter content on immigration conspiracies, CRT, and the CCP.
The Daily Wire is right behind them, running ads for their content on “the devastating impact of gender ideology” and “race hustlers.” It’s worth noting they have both been big spenders on these platforms for a while… but it definitely seems like they’re making the most of this new era.
Over on the Left, Rep. AOC dropped a ton of money into ads in January that double as a call to action for Dems and a fundraising ask. These ads are being shown nationwide, but they seem to be especially targeting New York and California, as well as women over age 35.
On X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers in the U.S. spent around $668,300 on ads year to date in 2025. According to X’s political ad disclosure, here are the top spenders year to date:
As we know, former Trump Vice President Mike Pence’s PAC has been working hard to tank RFK Jr’s chances of becoming Trump’s head of HHS, and that includes running ads from their @AmericanFreedom X/Twitter account that attack RFK Jr for his conspiracy theories and for being pro-abortion.
…and lastly, on Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent around $54,800 on ads year to date in 2025. Here are the top spenders:
The second top spender on Snap political ads thus far in 2025, the Florida Pregnancy Care Network, appears to be a funder of crisis pregnancy centers, a type of organization originally designed by anti-abortion activists. They appear to be a new advertiser on Snap as of 2025 and are running ads targeting women aged 18-35 in Florida. It’s worth noting that these types of centers have faced significant backlash from reproductive rights groups for being deceitful.
Before I sign off, I want to thank you very much for being part of this next chapter of FWIW. It was a joy to write this with Kyle for all of you, and I am so thrilled to be back – I’ve been cooking up some big concepts and content that I can’t wait to share with you all.
If you’re a fan (or you’re just reading this for the very first time and enjoyed it!), would you mind sharing this week’s newsletter on X/Twitter, Threads, or Bluesky? And if you have a tip, idea, feedback, or just want to chat with me, you can reply directly to this email. Otherwise, I’ll see you next Friday!
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Always very interesting! One of the few newsletters I always read!