Digital ad spending data for the week of October 10 - 16
Top spenders last week include Exxon, Geothermal, ACE, CAP Action, and LCV
Most big climate, clean energy, and conservation groups appear to have committed to a smaller level of investment in Facebook ads after a huge weeks-long push, but last week ExxonMobil launched the biggest campaign on the platform that we’ve ever seen from them. As a result, polluters outspent climate groups for the first time since we started tracking this data in June.
Facebook + Instagram
Before we dig into it, here are the top 25 spenders on climate and energy-related ads on Facebook from last week:
The top-spending groups running ads about climate action last week - the Alliance for Climate Education, CAP Action, and the League of Conservation Voters - aren’t running any particularly new campaigns. While they’re still running a local campaign in Portsmouth, OH, they’ve just launched a series of vertical video ads that call on Congress to “support local renewable energy production,” and these are mostly being targeted at young women nationwide. LCV and CAP Action, meanwhile, are still running ads pressuring Congress to act boldly on Democratic priorities and highlighting the popularity of President Joe Biden’s agenda. However, while ads like this from CAP Action ran last week, the group isn’t currently running any ads on Facebook as of this writing.
We did notice that while groups like the Environmental Defense Fund and Climate Power aren’t spending as much on Facebook ads as they used to, they have started running new, smaller campaigns focused on connecting environmental disasters to public health and necessary climate action. EDF has started running ads nationwide about the wildfires that have consumed so much of the western U.S., specifically in Oregon where they’re pushing for a robust Climate Protection Program. They’re also running a series of ads targeting PA, KS, KY, OH, NY, TX, OK, LA, NM, WV, and IL that use data visualization to show their target audiences how many orphan oil wells are in their state and where. These are mostly targeted at young women in each state.
Similarly, Climate Power, through their Climate Power Education Fund page, is now running video ads stating that “Extreme weather has thrown America into a constant state of emergency. We need to act now to fight climate change. Later will be too late.” While these ads seek to highlight the scale of the emergency - and by extension, the required scale of any solution - other video ads from the group argue that the “American auto worker can build America's clean energy future and tackle climate change if we invest in tax credits for clean energy and electric vehicles.”
Now, let’s take a look at how ExxonMobil has been spending all that money on Facebook recently. We’ve identified a few campaigns that they seem to have launched at around the same time:
Ads in New York advocating arguing against a natural gas ban in order to “protect New York’s energy future”, in part by leaning on leaning on folks’ preference for gas stoves;
Nationwide ads that push an “American Energy Poll” and argue that “Affordable energy depends on American oil and gas production”;
Ads advocating for oil and gas pipelines that urge folks to “protect American jobs and affordable energy by standing up for critical infrastructure”;
And GOTV ads targeting Virginia and New Jersey. These ads were mostly targeted at older residents in each state. We have no way of knowing for sure, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Exxon used lookalike or other custom targeting to try to mobilize voters (e.g. Republicans) who are more sympathetic to fossil fuels in order to elect lawmakers (e.g. Youngkin, Ciattarelli, et al.) who would be more favorable to the industry.
We’d also like to note that we found a few new ads from right-wing propaganda group PragerU that argue against ESG investing and blame wind and solar energy in the state for the deaths that occurred during the winter storm in Texas this past February.
Overall, here’s how much climate groups, polluters, and other pages spent on Facebook ads last week.
Additionally, here’s how much major groups have spent week-to-week on Facebook ads related to climate, conservation, and energy
Google + YouTube
After weeks of spending six figures each week on YouTube ads, it looks like LCV has also turned down their ad investment on this platform as well. It looks like they may still be running ads advocating for electric school buses and propping up a variety of Democratic lawmakers, but at a fraction of the scale - last week, they spent just $19,400 on the platform, compared to the $205,400 they spent on YouTube ads last week.
We did find that Friends of the Earth is now running a YouTube ad targeting Washington, D.C., criticizing the Biden administration for continuing to approve fossil fuel extractions on public lands despite his campaign pledges to do the opposite. It appears that they’ve spent $2,900 on this ad so far. Check it out:
Snapchat
While Patagonia is continuing to run new organizing ads on Snapchat every week - most recently in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation advocating for a national offshore drilling ban, we found that the Clean Virginia Fund is running new ads on the platform for the first time since the Virginia Democratic primary for governor this summer. Their new ads argue against a rate increase by Dominion and lead to this action page.
Overall, here are the top 10 spenders on climate ads on Snapchat so far this year: