Today, Facebook announced a series of changes in paid advertising on their platform that are categorized as “social issues, elections or politics.” We reached out to our contact at Facebook to ensure we are providing our clients the most pertinent information on how this will impact digital advertising through November 3rd.
Facebook will be restricting the purchasing of new advertisements in the week prior to the November election (October 27th – November 3rd). This means advertisements will need to have gone through their review process and begin serving impressions before October 27th. Advertisements that are placed can be adjusted once serving in this restricted time, however, design and copy will not be able to be altered.
Here is a summary of the changes announced:
No new political advertisements will be accepted starting October 27th through election day.
There will be a forwarding limit through Facebook Messenger on all content limiting to five sends at one time.
More posts will be tagged with information regarding how to vote either by mail or in person.
Informational labels will be attached to posts that suggest one form of voting is more valid than another (i.e. vote by mail, absentee, or in person).
Facebook has partnered with Reuters and the National Election Pool, and if a candidate declares victory on their platform prior to an official declaration from those sources their post will be tagged redirecting to results.
Facebook also owns Instagram so it is important to note that these changes are also implemented on that platform as well.
We as a company are ready to work through these changes with you to make sure there is no impact to messaging. This could be something as simple as adjusting GOTV digital ads to more broadly promote November 3rd opposed to saying “Vote Tomorrow” or “Vote Today.” However, it is worth saying none of this impacts organic traction on the platform, and we will still be able to promote content in an organic form.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to anyone from the RightVoter team with questions or concerns in regards to this announcement. We are ready and confident we will still be able to push out your digital messages.
Most importantly, let’s win this.