Digital ad spending data for the week of May 2nd to 8th
American Petroleum Institute recruiting in fossil fuel states
Here are the top 25 spenders on climate-related Facebook ads last week.
The American Petroleum Institute and ExxonMobil continue to be top spenders on Facebook political ads, the latter of which has started running new ads explicitly targeting Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. They’ve also been running a variety of email acquisition ads encouraging folks to “stay informed about industry developments and join Energy Citizens today!” Ads like these are being targeted at mostly older men in fossil fuel-friendly states like OH, LA, CO, NM, TX, OK, AK, ND, and WV.
Common messaging themes across these ads include a focus on “innovation,” “dreaming big,” and “America”, and they suggest that economic recovery from the pandemic will be aided by oil and gas development.
Other oil companies, such as Shell and Chevron, do not currently spend significant ad dollars on Facebook.
The top spender on the platform among climate groups was the Natural Resources Defense Council. Last week, they spent nearly $30,000 on Facebook ads alone. They’ve been running a variety of nationwide fundraising and email acquisition campaigns that touch on a variety of issues, including air pollution in the U.S., ending offshore drilling, Biden’s first 100 days, and, naturally, wildlife conservation.
NRDC is also running a couple non-nationwide campaigns, one of which targets Georgians and urges Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to oppose biomass energy. More generic ads on the issue also target mostly older women in ME, NC, OR, and MN, so far spending at least $2,300 on the campaign. They’ve also spent at least $800 promoting a Teen Vogue op-ed about Chicago teens’ fight against a new metal processing plant that’s planned to be built within a mile of two public schools. NRDC has been promoting the ad mostly to teenage and young adult women in Illinois.
Two local advocacy groups have started running Facebook ads in the past week. In Iowa, a fuel retailers’ group known as the Fuel Choice Coalition has spent just under $9k so far targeting Iowans in various age groups with ads urging GOP lawmakers to oppose the Republican governor’s proposed ethanol mandate.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, progressive digital group ProgressNow Colorado has been targeting young adults in the state with ads supporting SB21-246 - legislation that would direct the state’s electric utilities to provide incentives for homeowners to replace fuel-burning appliances with pure electric ones. ProgressNow Colorado has spent nearly $7.7k on the campaign.
It appears that there has been very little spending on Google or Snapchat political ads in the past week from climate or polluting groups. FWIW, here’s how much climate groups have spent on Snapchat ads so far this year. Any additional spending from the previous week from these groups was on campaigns that we reported on last week.