The political ad industry appears less flummoxed than in the past by last-minute end-of-cycle marketing restrictions by platform companies. Alphabet, for instance, has told advertisers that post-Election Day they’ll implement a political ad blackout meant to “limit the potential for confusion.”
But that announcement was met with a collective shrug from digital ad practitioners who spoke to C&E.
“There are plenty of digital options even with a Google (and Facebook) ban on post-election ads, and I think a cooling-off period is healthy for our democracy,” said Powers Interactive’s Jordan Lieberman.
Meta, for its part, is still maintaining its limit on campaign advertising from October 29 to November 5, but will allow new ads on “social issues, elections or politics” to be published as of November 6. Campaigns can also start editing their ads then, too.
Meanwhile, other vendors in the space are using Alphabet’s announcement to tout their own offerings – albeit with a tinge of outrage. “Google is right to be concerned about bad actors attempting to use its platform to spread post-election misinformation. However, a complete ban on election-related ads following Election Day could unintentionally harm campaigns engaged in runoff elections and ballot curing operations,” Mark Jablonowski, president of DSPolitical, said in a statement.
Jablonowski believes Democrats will be impacted more by this policy.
“An outright ban would also likely have a disproportionate impact on Democratic campaigns by limiting their ability to effectively engage and mobilize their diverse voter base in the critical days immediately following the election,” he continued. “Runoff campaigns rely on swift and strategic communication, and this policy risks stifling that effort when it’s needed most.”
In fact, evidence backs that up. The Wesleyan Media Project has found that Democrats have been outspending Republicans by three times on Meta and Google’s platforms. But not to worry, adds Jablonowski, DSPolitical will continue selling post-election ad inventory on other platforms.
