INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In an effort to provide more transparency and deliver on a promise to Congress, Google just published an archive of political ads that have
run on its platform.
Google new database, which it calls the Ad Library, is searchable through a dedicated launch page
Anyone can search for and filter ads, viewing them by candidate name or advertiser, spend, the dates the ads were live, impressions and type
For anyone looking for the biggest ad budget or the farthest reaching political ad, the ads can be sorted by spend, impressions and recency,
Google also provided a report on the data, showing ad spend by United States state, by advertiser and by top keywords.
The company added
a bit of context around its other recent ad transparency efforts:
Earlier this year, we took important steps to increase transparency in
We implemented new requirements for any advertiser purchasing election ads on Google in the United States —these advertisers now have to
provide a government-issued ID and other key information that confirms they are a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident, as
We also required that election ads incorporate a clear &paid for by& disclosure.
The search features are pretty handy, but a few things are
While Google database does collect candidate ads in the United States it does not include issue ads — broader campaigns meant to
influence public thought around a specific political topic — nor does it collect state or local ads
The ads are all United States -only, so elections elsewhere won''t show up in here either
Google says that it is collaborating with experts on potential tools that &capture a wider range of political ads& but it gave no timeline
For now, ads that the tool does capture will be added into the library on a weekly basis.
