Best Practices for Political Ads on Facebook

A Breakdown of the Process

1. Get authorized to run ads about social issues or election based campaigning. This authorization can be done by the advertisers or admins on the campaign Facebook page. They will first need to confirm their identity, so make sure to have proper identification on hand. Facebook can take about two weeks to complete your verification, so make sure you do this step in advance.
2. Set up your disclaimer. Disclaimers should be written in compliance with your respective elections governing board and Facebook’s standards. Be aware that all of this information will be available in the Facebook Ad Library for seven years and is accessible to the public.
3. Create and Verify a Business Manager account. Business Manager is Facebook’s platform that helps your campaign organize and manage its digital presence. The verification process secures your account and ensures that unwanted external actors are not advertising in your name.
4. Link your disclaimer to your ad account. Once your disclaimer has been approved, you can then link the disclaimer to the ad account by following these steps.
5. Link your ad account to Business Manager. Here you will need to first add your page to the Business Manager and then you will need to create your campaign’s ads account.
6. Load in your ad. Make sure you exported your creative in the highest resolution. This is also where you will set your start dates, end dates and target your voters.

We know this seems daunting, but it’s well worth the logistics involved. Facebook advertising is a powerful tool to reach your voters and take your campaign a step closer to victory.

The 3 C’s: Clear, Concise, and Correct

The highest performing ads feature a defined action. Politics are confusing enough already, so be sure to make things as clear as possible when communicating to your voters. If you want them to donate, say that! If you want them to register to vote or volunteer, put it in big, bold letters.

Every impression only equates to a few seconds of a viewer’s attention. We recommend. your ad emphasizes a single takeaway to impress upon your viewers.

This cannot be emphasized enough: make sure your claims are absolutely 100% accurate – no questions asked. Even the perception of a deceptive or misleading claim can have disastrous implications for your campaign. Fact-checking should be delegated to a handful of individuals within the campaign and it certainly could not hurt to recruit a few trusted friends to help as well.

Listen to your data and target accordingly 

Facebook Ad Manager provides real-time analytics to help your campaign implement an effective targeting strategy. Make it a habit of checking daily, even multiple times a day, to keep tabs on engagements. Schedule a weekly meeting to evaluate trends and optimize your targeting. In the age of COVID, these metrics are the next best thing you will get to traditional polling.

Don’t forget that SpeakEasy offers a free suite of Facebook Ad Templates on our site. So whether you want to invite voters to your next Zoom town hall or just get your name out there — we’ve got you covered!