Infrastructure ads flood Facebook, YouTube in recent weeks
At least 35 groups spend nearly $10 million online in the infrastructure fight over the past 6 weeks
The two components of the President’s “Build Back Better” agenda are being hotly debated on Capitol Hill this week by Democrats in both chambers, with centrists eager to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and progressives rallying behind a larger reconciliation plan that could include serious (and very popular) policy wins on climate, immigration, and taxing the wealthy. Industry groups and advocacy organizations across the political spectrum have been steadily ramping up their pressure campaigns online, using digital ads to target swing district members of Congress and make sure their priorities are included.
In this week’s FWIW, we have lots of new data to show how those digital ad campaigns have ramped up over the past six weeks - and which side is ahead in the spending wars.
But first...
Every week, we read lots of other newsletters to get ideas on what to write about. So, we pulled together a list to share with you some of our favorites. Check them out here >>.
By the Numbers
Republicans and conservative groups opposing the Biden agenda dominated Facebook political ad spending last week. Here were the top 10 political ad spenders on Facebook and Instagram nationwide from 9/12 - 9/18:
The National Republican Senatorial Committee topped the list, running dozens of recycled fundraising appeals featuring President Trump and xenophobic rhetoric. Their advertising strategy is unique in that they are running ads from 16 different brands/messengers, a list that oddly includes Newt Gingrich’s page. The group has spent an enormous amount - $4.15 million - on the platform in the past 90 days.
Meanwhile, here were the top political ad spenders on Google last week:
Terry McAuliffe was again a top spender on Google & YouTube last week. The Virginia Governor’s race is supposedly tightening, with poll after poll showing McAuliffe’s lead in the single digits and early voting data showing potential trouble for Democrats. We’ve got the latest in that race in yesterday’s issue of FWIW Virginia >>
...and year to date, here are the top 10 political spenders on Snapchat advertising in 2021:
Build Back Better ad buys get bigger
The legislative battle over the President’s Build Back Better agenda reached a fever pitch this week, as centrist and progressive Democrats struggled with Party leadership to find a way to move two bills forward. (Dan Pfeiffer wrote a great explainer yesterday on why Dems are in, as he puts it, another “legislative logjam.”). Not coincidentally, we have seen enormous investments in online advertising from dozens of grassroots organizations and industry lobbying groups over the past six weeks hoping to pass or kill one or both pieces of legislation.
Since August 8th, we estimate that at least 35 groups have spent over $7.1 million on Facebook ads and $2.7 million on Google ads to influence the legislative fate of the Build Back Better agenda. In fact, it’s safe to say that all of these groups have combined to spend more advertising on this issue than any other period of Joe Biden’s presidency.
We estimate that pro-BBB advertisers have a slight financial advantage in terms of spending on Facebook. Note that these numbers are approximations - while the majority of each group’s spending was related to the BBB plans in Congress, limited ad spending from several of these advertisers may be unrelated.
The vast majority of Democrats’ pro-BBB ad campaigns center around the reconciliation bill’s provisions to counter climate change.
Groups like League of Conservation Voters, NRDC Action Fund, Climate Power, Climate Reality, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Green New Deal Network have filled Americans’ Facebook and Instagram feeds calling for Congressional climate action. We know many of the groups are coordinating this work through digital coalitions and Zoom calls to target their efforts in competitive districts to get the biggest bang for their bucks.
On the Right, the pharmaceutical industry via PhRMA has led online spending in opposition to the reconciliation bill.
As we’ve written before, these industry groups and their allies are threatened by a provision to lower prescription drug costs - and recent reporting suggests their lobbying has been successful in killing that part of the bill. Other conservative messages we’ve seen run against BBB focus on inflation, out-of-control government spending, and taxing small businesses.
These campaigns are running on Google platforms like YouTube, too. At least 22 groups have spent over 2.7 million on infrastructure-related advertising on that site in the past six weeks.
The largest spender in support of the Build Back Better agenda on Google & YouTube is the League of Conservation Voters, while the Federation for American Immigration Reform has been the highest spending opponent, steadily campaigning against Democrats’ hopes of including a legalization measure in the plan.
To give you a taste of some of the opposition ads, centrist group No Labels recently launched this ad attacking the Democrats’ reconciliation bill and supporting the bipartisan package:
All of the spending mentioned above is just the tip of the iceberg. We know of several liberal groups spending six figures or more on other platforms like Hulu, Pandora, CTV, and we’ve seen millions more are being spent on traditional TV advertising (Just watch this ad from a GOP dark money group). That said, legislatively, it seems like we’re very much in the same place we were six weeks ago: every week is infrastructure week, centrists and progressives remain at odds, and groups on both sides are pushing and pulling for their own priorities. As Dan Pfeiffer wrote yesterday, “There is a natural rhythm to these big legislative fights, and near-death experiences are part of the process.”
That’s it for this week! But before we go, we wanted to share this job alert: Our friends at Courier Newsroom are looking for a Senior Digital Marketing Manager to run paid digital campaigns across a portfolio of 8+ news properties in an effort to counter misinformation, spread good information, and build a healthier democracy! Learn more about the position + apply here>>