Texas: A Political Hotspot For Facebook Ads
In the 90 days after the 88th Texas Legislative Session, $91,213 was spent in Texas on Facebook ads related to elections, politics, or social issues. These ads aren’t just political campaigns raising awareness around candidates, but also third-party advocacy groups shaping public opinion around issues like energy, education, and healthcare.
Following the 2016 election, Facebook created the Facebook Ad Library in an effort to increase transparency. This interactive tool allows users to search by page name or topic and displays current and past ads dating back to May 2018. Within that time frame, users can see how much an organization has spent, every ad that ran, and who they were targeting.
In the 90 days after the regular legislative session ended, the following groups spent the most on Facebook ads in Texas:
Note: Facebook classified the Sound of Freedom movie as an issue ad, which is why it is included in this list.
Since the start of the Facebook Ad Library in 2018, $253,623,514 has been spent in Texas on political or issue ads. Here’s how Texas compares to other states’ ad expenditures. Hover over a state to see the amount.
BEST PRACTICES
Building Supporter Base
Digital Advance highly recommends using the time between legislative sessions to develop and build supporter bases and actively educate followers on important issues and new developments so that they’re informed when the time comes to ask for petition signatures or testimony. The Interim is perfect for building relationships with supporters so subsequent requests like testifying or signing a letter of support don’t feel like a cold call. This can be done through what is called a Page Like campaign (i.e., a campaign to increase the number of likes for a page) or by collecting information to build email lists. Below are a couple of examples for inspiration.
A/B Testing
The most sophisticated digital teams are constantly A/B testing new messages and creatives. In fact, the Donald J. Trump page has run 902,057 different versions of ads since May 2018. The Joe Biden page has run 124,156 variations. (Note: There are several PAC pages and affiliated groups but these are the totals for the official pages). Check out a few ads from the recent campaign run by Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. This type of testing doesn’t cost extra to set up and will automatically optimize the campaign budget to spend on the variations that perform the strongest.
Advertise to Decision Makers
During the off-season there is less competition for ad space, meaning the price to get in front of elected officials and other decision-makers is less expensive. We’d love to work with you on creating a custom list for this type of targeting!
If your organization isn’t running ads around your issue, another group (likely your opposition) is defining the conversation. Use the ad library to research what others are saying or even to get inspiration for an upcoming ad campaign. Reach out to the Digital Advance team if you need a hand developing messages and setting up ad campaigns. Remember, a digital media presence is an essential part of a modern-day public affairs campaign.