X (Twitter) political advertising slowly makes a comeback
The platform formerly known as Twitter quietly launched a political ad transparency report in December
📣 This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Civic Shout.
Back in December, X (formerly known as Twitter), quietly began publishing data on political ad spending on its platform. The company has had a complicated relationship with political ads over the years, from banning them in 2019, to slowly bringing them back last year under the ownership of Elon Musk. In this week’s FWIW, we’ll share which political advertisers are spending money to reach users on the platform, and what they’re trying to accomplish. But first…
By the numbers
FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $6 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) is running for U.S. Senate against indicted Sen. Bob Menendez and the state’s First Lady, Tammy Murphy. Kim’s campaign launched new Facebook ads last weekend to share how a viral moment from January 6th, 2021 impacted him and how he aims to “restore integrity” to the Senate:
Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still wasting a bunch of out-of-touch donor money on advertising for his campaign, dropping $77,000 on Facebook ads alone last week. His ads have been promoting a “private sunset reception” with his wife in Oahu. To be clear: this is a weird thing to buy ads for.
Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $1.5 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
As was the case last week, various entities supporting Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign have flooded Google and YouTube with advertising in the final stretch to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. Those groups include the Koch brothers’ AFP Action, as well as SFA Inc and SFA Fund, two PACs affiliated with Haley.
Here’s one of the latest ads from AFP Action, which is targeting voters in a few Super Tuesday states (TN, NC, VA) in addition to IA, NH, and SC:
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From around the internet:
This week, my team at COURIER launched Vibes Only, a new weekly podcast featuring Glennis Meagher and Brian Derrick breaking down the news of the day and the general vibe shifts of the 2024 election. Listen on Apple podcasts here or Spotify here >>
Rep. Robert Garcia entered a Real Housewives of Salt Lake City moment into the Congressional record
For months, the Governor of Iowa has had a kind of secret Twitter burner account, where she expresses how she really feels about politics.
The Biden campaign is hiring a Video Director, view the listing + apply here >
Jud Legum at Popular Information reported on how Elon Musk has repeatedly promoted false and misleading claims about voting to his 168 million followers on X this past week.
“We saw over 200% ROAS in two months!”
Digital Directors are talking about the new list-growth platform that’s quietly becoming the industry standard. See for yourself >>
The biggest political advertisers on X
Back in December, X (formerly known as Twitter), quietly began publishing data on political ad spending on its platform. Like other platforms, X has had a complicated relationship with political advertising - first banning political ads altogether in 2019, and slowly bringing them back in 2023 under the ownership of Elon Musk.
As Max Tani at Semafor has reported, the company has big plans for political ads, even enlisting the CEO’s son to help lead political ad sales with an ambitious target of $100 million in ad revenue this election cycle. (For comparison, Meta brought in $417 million from political ads last year)
Even before the 2019 ban, Twitter was never a place where campaigns spent that kind of money - but political actors have historically placed ads on the site to juice their fundraising numbers or reach influential folks like reporters.
Last year, political advertisers indeed started coming back: 224 political accounts on X spent a total of $5.18 million on the platform. Some sources have estimated that Twitter earned $3 million from its political vertical in the 2018 midterms, while an executive at X told the Wall Street Journal that the real number was closer to $10 million.
The ad dollars came from across the political spectrum - out of the top 50 highest spending advertisers, 23 were Republican or Conservative, 14 were Democratic or progressive, and 13 were corporate or not partisan affiliated lobbying groups.
The top-spending Democratic campaigns on the platform last year were Jon Tester, Ruben Gallego, Gavin Newsom, Colin Allred, and Adam Schiff. Among Republicans, it was Ron DeSantis, Perry Johnson, Vivek Ramaswamy, Francis Suarez, and Tim Scott.
As you can see, most spending from campaigns on X has been for fundraising purposes, and for good reason. Grassroots activists and the politically aware are some of the most likely people to donate to campaigns, and many still spend a lot of time on the site. Another huge amount of money spent on political ads comes from corporate lobbying efforts, trying to reach reporters, elected officials, and other government influencers with their niche industry messaging.
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