Digital ad spending data for the week of July 4 - 10
Top spenders last week include Exxon, Volvo, NRDC, API, and EDF
Overall, spending by climate groups declined from the previous week to last week, largely due to NRDC and the NRDC Action Fund winding down their American Jobs Plan Facebook ad campaigns. Let’s take a look, starting with the top 25 spenders on climate-related Facebook ads last week:
NRDC and their 501c(4) affiliate Action Fund together spent nearly $200k on Facebook ads that mostly advocated for bold climate action in the American Jobs Plan from June 27 - July 3, but from July 4 - 10, the two groups only spent about $45k on the platform. To put that in context, here’s how much climate groups, polluters, and other pages spent on climate ads on Facebook last week.
*Groups in this category include proponents of alternative fuel sources other than solar and wind, power companies and utilities advertising their services, and non-energy companies advertising about clean energy and conservation.
The League of Conservation Voters, on the other hand, has more than doubled their spending on the platform - jumping from $12k the previous week to $26k last week - with grassroots organizing ads and ads pressuring Democratic federal lawmakers in swing states to support climate action.
The lawmakers LCV is targeting with these Facebook ads include Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), Jacky Rosen (NV), Jon Ossoff (GA), Raphael Warnock (GA), Maggie Hassan (NH), and Jeanne Shaheen (NH), as well as Reps. Elaine Luria (VA), Sharice Davids (KS), Antonio Delgado (NY), Peter DeFazio (OR), Tom Malinowski (NJ), Andy Kim (NJ), Carolyn Bordeaux (GA), Lucy McBath (GA), Haley Stevens (MI), Elissa Slotkin (MI), Jared Golden (ME), Susie Lee (NV), Steven Horsford (NV), Tom O’Halleran (AZ), Ron Kind (WI), Abigail Spanberger (VA), and Chris Pappas (NH).
LCV has also started running a YouTube campaign targeting a similar group of Democratic lawmakers, so far spending $14,500 on the platform - their largest investment there since the 2020 elections ended - for ads like the one below, which all target a handful of zip codes in each respective district. For example, here are the geotargeting maps for their ads targeting the Democratic senators of Georgia and Nevada.
Meanwhile, ExxonMobil sharply increased their Facebook ad spending over the past week, dumping nearly $68k on a handful of data-collecting ads that attempt to reinforce the idea that oil and gas “are the backbone of our economy.” These ads mostly target older folks nationwide.
Finally, Patagonia is continuing to bring attention to local conservation efforts with their Snapchat ads, this time targeting this ad to folks in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado that drives traffic to a podcast by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
And with that, here’s how much groups have spent on climate and conservation ads on Snapchat so far this year, although not much has changed since last week:
… one more thing! While Twitter bans “political” ads on issues of national legislative significance, we’ve seen several climate campaigns slip through the cracks by not mentioning legislation or specific regulations. Twitter does allow for “cause-based” ads, if they are not run by a 501c4 nonprofit or PAC and do not mention political actors, legislation, or regulations. Here are some examples we spotted this week: