Digital ad spending data for the week of September 26 - October 2
Top spenders last week include Exxon, Wilderness Society, Green New Deal Network, American Chemistry Society, and BP
Spending by both climate groups and polluters on Facebook ads declined last week at similar rates, but the former is still greatly outspending the latter on the platform.
Facebook + Instagram
Before we dig into it, here are the top 25 spenders on climate and energy-related ads on Facebook from last week:
Many groups that have been running Facebook ads focused on energy or the environment - including both climate groups and polluter accounts - have stopped running much of their campaigns on the platform. The Wilderness Society, the Green New Deal Network, the NRDC Action Fund, and the American Wind Energy Association are among those who are currently only running a handful of ads, if that much, as of this writing. However, we found that the League of Conservation Voters and the Alliance for Climate Education have launched new Facebook ad campaigns focused on youth engagement.
LCV’s latest Facebook ads almost exclusively target 18- to 34-year-olds in five key states: New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. They’re running a volunteer recruitment/email acquisition campaign focused on mobilizing young adults to “Join our fight for climate, clean energy jobs, and environmental justice.
ACE - through a page called “Action for the Climate Emergency'' - has been trying to reach young adults nationwide with a variety of ads, including TikToks, petitions, and calls to action around ending Line 3, transitioning to clean energy, and forgiving student loan debt instead of bailing out fossil fuel companies.
Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies themselves are still running Facebook ads advocating against increasing taxes on fossil fuel companies and their products by arguing that the cost of those taxes would be passed directly to the consumer. ExxonMobil, for example, has stopped most of its Facebook ads except ones that argue against the “Plastic Tax” that they claim would result in “$120 BILLION in increased costs for American families.” Similarly, API has been running Facebook ads claiming that “politicians in DC want to increase the cost of American-Made energy.” One 30-second video ad reads:
Arizona runs on affordable energy produced right here at home. But as prices on everything rise, politicians in DC want to increase the cost of American-made energy. That means we may have to rely on foreign producers, making it more expensive to live here while sending more money to Washington, DC. Tell Congressman O’Halleran: Don’t tax American energy producers, because affordable, reliable solutions are made in America.
API’s ads are so far focused on pressuring Reps. Elissa Slotkin, Sharice Davids, Matt Cartwright, Conor Lamb, and Vicente Gonzalez and Sen. Joe Manchin.
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 and YouTube
LCV is still spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on YouTube ads every week; last week, they spent $210,700. They’re now running ads supporting or pressuring more Democratic House members around the Build Back Better Act, including Reps. Josh Harder, Kathleen Rice, Stephanie Murphy, and Scott Peters, and Sens. Maggie Hassan, Mark Kelly, Catherine Cortez Masto, and Raphael Warnock. Many of these ads are not targeted at respective constituencies in their entirety, and are instead geotargeted at specific collections of zip codes or voting precincts. The Nature Conservancy is also running new banner ads targeting Florida that pressure Murphy to support the BBB Act.
We also found that the Arizona Petroleum Marketers Association is now running the same ad that their Nevada equivalent ran earlier this month that argues that the Biden administration’s plan to raise taxes on the wealthy is actually a broken promise to not raise taxes on the middle class.
Snapchat
Once again, Patagonia appears to be the only group that has recently run ads about climate change and conservation. Their ads attempted to organize volunteers in Prescott, AZ, and Boulder, CO, for local demonstrations.
Overall, here are the top 10 spenders on climate ads on Snapchat so far this year: