Political Advertisers Say They Are Stuck Using Facebook Even Though It Kinda Sucks

One of the last viable ways to push political ads on the internet is through Facebook, which is where your angry uncle goes to vent his irate political opinions.

In order to avoid dealing with toxic communities ripe with misinformation, other major social platforms have turned their backs on political ads. Despite scandals linking its platform to harmful content and political manipulation, Facebook remains the only success story for political advertisers looking to get their message in front of voters. Old reliables are showing signs of wear.

According to a dozen ad agencies, that is the conclusion they came up with. Facebook's targeted ad apparatus brings in less money than it did in the past, according to digital strategists from those firms. It's still better than most other alternatives. Some strategists say there aren't any alternatives.

According to Beth Becker, most of the other platforms won't accept money.

Apparently, the money Facebook takes isn't as much as it used to be. A decade ago, a dollar spent on political campaign ads on Facebook used to translate to more than a dollar in donations, but now most of those ads barely break even, according to an expert. The experts claim that a big part of Facebook's advertising slowdown in recent years is due to Apple's App Tracking transparency feature which lets users opt out of tracking, a tool seemingly designed to hit Facebook's business model where it hurts. According to Facebook, Apple will lose $10 billion in advertising revenues this year. The pain is being passed on to political advertisers.

The site is at risk of losing political relevance in the future due to the fact that it has lost young users. The worst-case scenario for Facebook hasn't happened yet, but its users aren't getting any younger

Beth Becker doesn't think we're there yet We keep an eye on it.

There were other games in town. The role that social media has played in shaping digital age politics has been obvious for a long time. Since then, the social site has not allowed paid political ads, despite the fact that one-third of all U.S. Tweets are political. The power to buy political advertising on platforms brings significant risks to politics where it can be used to influence votes.

With an estimated 214 million U.S. users in 2020, YouTube does allow political advertising but has put in place tighter limits on how advertisers can target those ads than Facebook. In January of this year, the older brothers over at Google showed a willingness to abruptly turn off political ads in politically uncertain moments, as they did in the weeks following the January announcement that they would no longer allow political campaigns to target individuals with ads based on their personal attributes. The promotion of political candidates is not allowed on the platform.