One group’s $74,000 online push for clean energy in North Carolina
Clean energy group NC WARN is taking on Duke Energy with digital ads across platforms
Durham-based NC WARN has been fighting for climate action in North Carolina for decades, but this year they’ve launched a significant digital ad program to promote clean energy in the state and raise awareness of Duke Energy’s dangerous polluting practices.
So far this year, NC WARN has spent $29,750 on Facebook ads, $25,200 on Google + YouTube ads, and $19,168 on Snapchat ads, almost all of which have been criticizing Duke Energy or pressuring Gov. Roy Cooper to act.
On Facebook, NC WARN has so far this year just run this ad through most of April that mostly targets older women in the Tar Heel State. Facebook’s Ad Library estimates that this ad earned between 600k-700k impressions.
NC WARN’s recent ads elsewhere have been more varied. Starting in Early March, they’ve been running these Google Search ads targeting North Carolinians statewide:
The climate action group has also been running a series of .gif banner ads along the same lines that flip through the following frames, but some of these ads target specific counties in central/western NC. Unfortunately demographic targeting data isn’t typically disclosed in the Google Transparency Report, so it’s unclear which specific groups NC WARN is trying to target on the platform, if any.
As we’ve previously reported, NC WARN is the second-biggest spender on political ads on Snapchat among climate groups. They’ve spent over $19,000 so far on ads that ran in either March or April, like the ones below. These have targeted all adults in some of NC’s biggest metropolitan areas, such as Wilmington, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Winston-Salem, and Asheville.
The ads themselves are pretty straightforward. They ran an image with sirens overlaid and straight-to-camera “swipe up to take action” appeals that unfortunately are not captioned. You can check out the full video ads here and here.