Facebook Lifts Curtain on Political Ads

Just before Virginia held primary elections on June 12, Facebook began to disclose how candidates and groups buy ads targeted at voters. Facebook’s archive lacks information about what type of voters candidates are trying to reach. But the archive provides some insight into the social media strategy of the three Republican U.S. Senate candidates in the week before the election.

Money Spent

Facebook provided broad ranges, not exact amounts spent

$0.0$2.0k$4.0k$6.0k$8.0k$10k$12k$14k$16k$18k$20k$22k$24k$1.1k$4.0k$5.8k$3.5k$18k$23kNick FreitasCorey StewartEW Jackson

Number of times ads were displayed

Facebook does not indicate if "impressions" resulted in clicks or other engagement

0.0200k400k600k800k1.0M1.2M1.4M1.6M1.8M2.0M2.2M150k350k650k400k1.1M2.1MNick FreitasCorey StewartEW Jackson

Words Most Frequently Seen

The size of each word corresponds to the maximum possible number of times it appeared on users’ screens. (Click on a word to view ads)

USPresidentwillvoteVirginiaTrumphelpsupportnotadcandidateVoteSenatepleasefightjoinkeepSenatoramendmentNeverTrumpTimKaineNickCoreybringsupportsneedaircanagendacampaignrightsAmericatogethergiveunityGodnextCountyneedsendorsedwatchonemeetprotectblesstoughprimarylearnnewVAstandalwayslistenradiofiredonateknowlikefriendsspreadfarestablishmentwidelookStewartloveprayersbeachmakecannotelectionpoliticalsidesno hostilityDonaldfriendseehorriblejudgementwordRichmondrallyjobsgreatsharestoptaketodaywonbelieveillegalrightimmigrationgun militaryexpandmuchveterans

Issues Emphasized

What each ad emphasized, based on VPAP analysis of text and images. To see how VPAP categorized each issue, click here.

Guns
1.1M
Campaign Stop
960k
Trump
940k
Opponent
860k
Political Polarization
390k
GOTV
340k
Immigration
320k
Military/Veterans
320k
Religion
170k
Jobs
150k

Methodology: VPAP scraped Facebook’s political ad archive for ads relating to the three Republican Senate primary candidates. The visual considered only ads that were run in their entirety between 6/4/18 and 6/12/18, and were paid for by one of candidates. When identifying issues emphasized by each ad, VPAP considered the text and images in the ad. A single ad could be associated with multiple issues.

July 8, 2018