Digital ad spending data for the week of July 25 - 31
Top spenders last week include The Climate Pledge, Exxon, Volvo, Geothermal, Potential Energy Coalition, and LCV
Spending on climate, environment, and energy ads on Facebook and Google is holding steady as both climate groups and polluters keep running their various campaigns pushing for climate action or arguing against government regulations and taxes.
Before we dig into it, here are the top 25 spenders on climate ads on Facebook from last week:
Week to week, the top Facebook ad spenders - including The Climate Pledge, ExxonMobil, Potential Energy Coalition, EDF, and LCV - are remaining the same as these groups regularly spend anywhere from $50,000 to over $100,000 each week on ongoing campaigns on the platform. A few large climate groups, notably EDF and LCV, have launched new national fundraising and acquisition campaigns on top of their ongoing campaigns pushing for climate action in the upcoming infrastructure packages.
Green New Deal Network is one of the few climate groups that launched new ads last week. They’re now targeting more progressive members of the House of Representatives from Democratic strongholds, including Reps. Ilhan Omar, Ro Khanna, Ayanna Pressley, and Ritchie Torres. Like their ads from early July that targeted moderate Democrats, these ads primarily target young adults in the relevant constituencies.
API’s Energy Citizens Facebook page also launched a new slate of ads targeting Democratic lawmakers. The fossil fuel group this week started running ads targeting the Democratic senators from Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, and Montana. They argue that a federal land ban (on fossil fuel extraction, presumably) would come at a variety of costs; for example, such a ban would allegedly “hurt our schools,” “cost us new roads and bridges,” and “cost jobs.” These ads mostly target older residents of the above states.
Overall, here’s how much climate groups, polluters, and other pages spent on Facebook ads last week:
Google and YouTube
The League of Conservation Voters is continuing to dump tens of thousands of dollars into YouTube ads pushing for climate action at a federal level. Last week, they spent $62,000 on ads like this one, and they and Priorities USA spent $2,000 targeting a handful of New Hampshire zip codes with Google Search ads and the below YouTube ad:
Snapchat
The Sierra Club’s pressure campaign against utilities on Snapchat ended last week, but campaigns from Patagonia and Conservation Colorado. The latter group has so far spent $618 on ads targeting the Denver/Boulder area that push Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper to “invest in climate, clean energy, justice, and jobs.” Patagonia, meanwhile, is using Snapchat to recruit highly skilled volunteers for a variety of climate, clean energy, and conservation groups.
Overall, here’s how much has been spent on Snapchat so far this year on ads related to climate change, clean energy, and the environment: