OpenAI/ChatGPT is launching ads in the US. Looks like it'll work similarly to search ads for now. The say no ads next to "sensitive" topics (including politics), but that's not quite the same as "no political ads". We'll see. openai.com/index/testin...

Labour digital ad targeting Gorton and Denton (released this evening).

New Meta ad from Scottish Labour Leader Anas Sarwar this evening (not sure when it was filmed).

Interesting new ad account + ads from Labour, leaning on a fact check from @fullfact.org to dispute claims being made in Green Party ads in Gorton and Denton.

Political ad spending on Meta in Scotland over the last month. Labour dominant, SNP next, Reform basically non-existent. trends.whotargets.me/reports/fb9d...

Follow @wtmadupdates.bsky.social for all the main new digital ads run by parties and leaders ahead of May's elections in the UK.

More bar chart action.

Follow @wtmadupdates.bsky.social for near-live notifications of new Meta and Google ads from the major UK political accounts. Adding more to the bot over time...

Follow our new automated account if you want near-live notifications when UK politics Facebook/Instagram ads launch.

The significant by-election in Gorton and Denton has led to (the start of) a spike in UK digital ad spending. Labour's has nearly doubled theirs and is massively dominant overall, while the Greens are buying their first ads since the 2024 election. Reform's spend is large, but spiky.

Reform are a) taking this by-election very seriously and b) they have plenty of cash for it.

Reform spent £25,000 in three days on this ad promoting a survey to gather data for the forthcoming Gorton by-election. Pricey.

We're tracking digital ad spending in Costa Rica, ahead of this weekend's elections. trends.whotargets.me/reports/fcb8...

We're tracking digital ad spending in Costa Rica, ahead of this weekend's elections. trends.whotargets.me/reports/fcb8...

Once a committed and extensive Facebook ad buyer, Donald Trump's only live ads are for MAGA Christmas ornaments (we assume his team forgot to take them down).

Labour has duelling "two-horse race" bar chart Facebook ads for the Gorton and Denton by-election. The one on the left is targeted a bit younger (assumption: more likely to vote Green), the one on the right a bit older (everyone else).

We're looking for someone to help with research and data classification of political advertisers. Ideal learning opportunity for politics (and similar) students, but all experience/backgrounds considered. Details here: whotargets.me/en/careers-a...

The EU has an open consultation on standardising data for its forthcoming political ad repository. Closes Jan 26th. ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...

Trends tracks political ad spending on Meta and Google by over 120,000 advertisers in over 60 countries, 645 regions and by 800+ parties and groups. Sign up for a free account: trends.whotargets.me/start

New: Who Targets Me Trends now tracks and filters Meta political ad spending for 650 states and regions. E.g. England/Scotland/Wales/NI, US, Brazilian and Australian states, Canadian provinces, New Zealand regions all supported. (Google coming soon). Try it here: trends.whotargets.me

New: Who Targets Me Trends now tracks and filters Meta political ad spending for 650 states and regions. E.g. England/Scotland/Wales/NI, US, Brazilian and Australian states, Canadian provinces, New Zealand regions all supported. (Google coming soon). Try it here: trends.whotargets.me

The EU has an open consultation on standardising data for its forthcoming political ad repository. Closes Jan 26th. ec.europa.eu/info/law/bet...

We're looking for someone to help with research and data classification of political advertisers. Ideal learning opportunity for politics (and similar) students, but all experience/backgrounds considered. Details here: whotargets.me/en/careers-a...

UK political parties and candidates spent £3.1m on Meta and Google ads in 2025. Top 5 accounts were (Meta, unless stated): - Farage: £384k - Conservatives: £326k - Labour £275k - Labour (Google/YouTube): £215k - Reform: £133k 1,899 political accounts ran ads (of 9,344 we track in the UK).

In short, it doesn't matter what side of the political divide you're on. Just be transparent about who you are (particularly so if you're outspending every other political advertiser in the country over the last week)!

Ultimately, if you check Companies House records, you can work out who the company director is (journalist, ex-IPPR, New Economics Foundation, Fabian Society), but it really shouldn't be needed to understand who's behind a pretty well-funded campaign designed to influence an election.

A new anti-Reform ad campaign from "Common Sense Cymru" has been running in Wales for the last week. So far, they've spent nearly £12,000 on Meta ads. They're running a mixture of attack ads and "register to vote" messaging. www.facebook.com/ads/library/...

A new anti-Reform ad campaign from "Common Sense Cymru" has been running in Wales for the last week. So far, they've spent nearly £12,000 on Meta ads. They're running a mixture of attack ads and "register to vote" messaging. www.facebook.com/ads/library/...

Political ads unbanned on Tiktok in time for next year's US midterms? www.axios.com/2025/12/18/t...

Our ideas for improving the integrity of UK elections got a shout out in @petergeoghegan.bsky.social's latest "Democracy for Sale" newsletter: democracyforsale.substack.com/p/labours-fo...

Not exactly a "Who Targets Me Wrapped", but a bit of a round up of what we've been working on over the last few months of 2025 (and are looking forward to in 2026): fulldisclosure.whotargets.me/p/who-target...

Not exactly a "Who Targets Me Wrapped", but a bit of a round up of what we've been working on over the last few months of 2025 (and are looking forward to in 2026): fulldisclosure.whotargets.me/p/who-target...

Democracy depends on trust. The UK’s current campaign rules struggle with opaque money, global digital reach, and outdated regulation. Here's 20 policy ideas for the forthcoming Elections Bill that would restore public confidence before the next election. whotargets.me/en/restoring...

"The ten most surprising facts from the 2024 election revealed" (includes one of our charts, albeit uncredited, for fact #5). theconversation.com/the-ten-most...

Rival politicians demand that ministers are sacked all the time, but this ad from the Conservatives is a bit different, as it asks voters/supporters to sign a petition calling for Rachel Reeves to go. It's not a tactic we remember seeing before.

Rupert Lowe's new "Great Yarmouth First" party is running ads (in Great Yarmouth) highlighting a poll of 121 residents that puts him miles ahead of his opponents (for an election that's still several years away).

The linked article is worth a read, as it explains well the complexities of UK electoral spending rules and the very blurry distinction between national and local spending. Once you've done that, read on...

X is clearly in breach in all of these areas. There's really no substantive counterargument they can make.

"For a platform that everybody claims to have quit, Facebook is astonishingly resilient. A whopping 71 percent of American adults still use the site." www.theverge.com/news/832132/...

Large donations come in, ads start to pour out (about £35k's worth on Facebook in the last seven days, plus all the ones they ran across newspapers a week ago).

We track ~45,000 online political advertisers in the US every day. Sign up and check out all the data here: trends.whotargets.me/reports/d43e...

Interesting read about the practicalities, for an agency and ad provider, of compliance with the new EU regulations on political ads: advocate-digital.com/blog/the-new...

Loads of fake/inauthentic Facebook ads using RFK to sell quack/dodgy pills at the moment.

Dutch Nazis are advertising on Instagram, despite Meta's "ban" on political ads in the EU. Meta and Google's decision to stop political ads in Europe was (as predicted) a bad one, that favours the extremists and foreign influence campaigns who don't care about the "rules".

Kemi Badenoch has ascended to the top of the UK online political ad charts over the last month. In that time, she spent £26k on Meta ads promoting her Facebook page, outspending Keir Starmer's account tenfold. Explore the data here: trends.whotargets.me/reports/7e7c...

"YouTube’s Right-Wing Stars Fuel Boom in Politically Charged Ads" www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...

When Martin Wolf (FT commentator and must-read for the global jetset policy class) says it's time Meta compensated users for fraud originating on their services, you've got an idea that will only gain more traction. www.ft.com/content/4560...

While all the other websites aren't working, explore a world of political ad data here: trends.whotargets.me/reports

Now up to around £20,000 in the last three weeks on these ads. Weirdly, her page appears to now have fewer followers (155k) than she did when they started running this campaign.