Your midterm social media leaderboard
Which candidates have the largest and most engaged audiences online?
Next Tuesday brings to a close several competitive primaries from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. While many in the political world remain focused on ad expenditures and polling data, we wanted to do a quick dive into how the campaigns have built followings and sustained engagement on social media.
Which U.S. Senate or Gubernatorial campaigns have the most followers across different social platforms? Which candidates are receiving the most engagement? Who’s the king or queen of TikTok? FWIW, the answer may surprise you.
By the numbers
FWIW, here were the top-spending political advertisers on Meta platforms (Facebook + Instagram) last week:
Abortion rights groups Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Action Fund were the top political ad spenders on Facebook and Instagram last week. The organizations unsurprisingly launched new ad campaigns to turn the crisis-situation for reproductive rights into a mobilization moment.
Among 2022 candidates, Rep. Val Demings’ campaign led the pack, spending over $300,000 on fundraising ads, many focused on the coming Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Meanwhile, here were the top political advertisers on Google platforms last week, including YouTube:
Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations essentially swept Google and YouTube advertising last week, with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker once again leading the pack. The re-election campaigns of both CA Gov. Gavin Newsom and NY Gov. Kathy Hochul began spending heavily on the platform for the first time in a while, running YouTube ads about abortion rights.
Lastly, here are the top political ad spenders on Snapchat so far this year:
Looking for full midterm digital spending data? We provide complete Senate, Gubernatorial, and House race numbers just for paying subscribers.
FWIW stickers are here 💥
Your water bottle / phone case / laptop needs a new look. We’ve got you covered with new FWIW stickers:
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Four years of political ad transparency
Four years ago this month, Facebook (now Meta) launched a searchable database of all political ads running on its sites. The move was quickly followed by other digital ad platforms (including Google, Snapchat, Twitter, Reddit, and Roku) providing some type of political ad transparency in the Iead-up to the 2020 election.
Since then, these valuable data sources provided researchers, journalists, and the public with a comprehensive look at paid political influence campaigns online - and set a new standard for transparency that should be expanded in the future. Here’s a look at what we’ve learned and where we think the industry should go next >>
Your midterm social media leaderboard
Next Tuesday brings to a close several competitive primaries from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. While many in the political world remain focused on ad expenditures and polling data, we wanted to do a quick dive into how the campaigns have built followings and sustain engagement organically on social media. Which U.S. Senate or gubernatorial campaigns have the most followers across different social platforms? Scroll below for detailed charts: