Political advertising plays a critical role in shaping public opinion during election campaigns. Who Targets Me’s data helps you see the advertising voters are being shown online, which can help give you direct, quantified insight into campaign strategies and messaging trends, as well as possible risks to electoral integrity.
1. What does Trends cover?
- Platforms: Primarily Facebook and Instagram, drawn from the Meta Ad Library. For some countries, data from Google (display and search) and YouTube is available. We hope to add more platforms and services in due course (dependent on transparency data being made available).
- Scope: Ads from political parties, candidates, advocacy groups, and other political advertisers.
- Countries: Trends shows data for over 60 countries. If the country you’re observing isn’t currently in our data, get in touch and we can add it.
- Data included:
- Advertiser identity
- Party/group affiliation
- Link to ad library page
- Targeting info (age, gender, location breakdowns, where available)
- Ad spending
- Reach/impressions (coming soon)
- Dates active
- Automated summaries of ad content, themes, tone and topic areas
2. Key uses for election observation
- Track social media ad spending
Get a comprehensive picture of advertising activity over time across party, candidate and other affiliated pages. - Identify narratives and campaign priorities:
Track recurring themes, slogans, or attacks across different demographics and regions. - Spot microtargeting:
Look for variations in messaging between different age groups, genders, or locations. - Assess compliance with regulations:
Check if ads meet transparency and legal requirements (e.g. proper disclaimers, funding disclosure, legitimacy of advertiser, spending outside regulated periods). - Monitor for disinformation risks and foreign interference:
Spot ads making false or misleading claims, or using manipulative framings. - Put data in context
Is an ad or campaign significant? Is it reaching large numbers of people nationwide? Or a narrow group only in one area? - Detect sudden surges in activity:
Large, last-minute spending spikes may be relevant to your election-day context reporting.
3. How to work with the data
- Search by advertiser or keyword:
Focus on the political actors you are monitoring. - Filter by date range:
Align with the official campaign period or a relevant observation window. - Segment by targeting criteria:
Compare ad delivery to different groups, which may reveal tailored persuasion strategies. - Cross-reference with other activity:
Combine with field observations, news coverage, or party statements to build a fuller picture. - Work with us to get data set up the way you need it:
We can customise reports and dashboards to capture data from influential groups (e.g. government-affiliated media or third party campaigners)
4. Best practices for reporting
- Contextualise, don’t just count:
Numbers are valuable, but the meaning comes from interpreting why certain audiences see certain ads. - Include visual examples:
Screenshots of ads (with source attribution) help readers understand tone and design. Using Trends charts and leaderboards in your reporting brings the data to life. - Note platform limitations in your reporting:
Data is based on self-reported and platform-supplied information, which can be incomplete.
5. Limitations and caveats
- Coverage gaps: There are three things Trends doesn’t cover. 1) Ads on Twitter/X, display and other contextual advertising (e.g. banners on newspaper websites), 2) ads that slip through on platforms who “ban” them (e.g. TikTok) and 3) non-paid, organic political content (e.g. TikTok) requires separate monitoring.
- Lag time: Due to the way platforms report data, the charts and dashboards can lag by up to four days.
- Incomplete targeting transparency: Platforms’ targeting data often reveals only broad audience categories, not full parameters.
6. Election missions (full or partial) that have used our data in their analysis:
- 2023: Montenegro
- 2024: UK
- 2025: Poland, Norway, Bolivia, Guyana
Summary:
Who Targets Me Trends helps you observe how and where political actors use social media ads to try to influence voters online. When combined with traditional observation methods, it helps ensure that your reporting captures a significant digital dimension of campaigning – essential in modern elections.