Slower Ad Market as the Finish Line Nears
With the last month of the political ad spending cycle in full force, several recent announcements have made planning those final dollars even more important as we approach the last few weeks. Restrictions announced recently on political advertising by Facebook’s parent META and on political fundraising by Tik Tok have some political advertisers pivoting. This news is forcing advertisers and campaigns to be nimble in a political ad season where ad dollars have supported the overall ad market amidst inflationary concerns in 2022.
META’s restrictions include new political advertisements the week leading up to the U.S. midterm elections. They won’t accept new ads about social issues, elections or politics from 11/1 to 11/8. In addition, they will block most edits on advertisements as well. The restriction is designed to draw balance between giving campaigns a voice while allowing scrutiny during the important last week of the election cycle. If candidates or campaigns have had at least one impression served prior to the restriction window, those ads will be allowed to be placed. This effort is a last-week initiative for new ads, so planning today will be helpful for these campaigns and causes.
TikTok will block politicians and political parties from fund-raising on its platform, clamping down on videos asking for donations or parties directing users to donation pages. Those that do are subject to a loss of access to advertising features and monetization services. The platform, touted as an entertainment source with younger audience, has continually drawn more political information causing critics to point to political misinformation.
These changes are efforts to monitor and scrutinize political advertising information the last weeks and months of the political ad season, which is proving greatly energized over 2020.
Updated figures according to AdImpact are expected to reach $9.7 Billion in ad spending on political in 2022. It’s clear political is getting bigger – that’s a 144% gain over 2018’s cycle. The winners of this increase have been Connected TV, accounting for almost 15% of that spend, and with tactics like digital audio increasing 100 times since first half of 2020. These are just a couple examples of how the increased dollars into the system has helped support a sagging ad market in 2022. With inflation concerns and fears of a global recession, marketers need more intelligent planning than ever.
Brkthru is here to help. Contact us today to talk through what this means for your business during this fast-moving political cycle and into 2023. It’s never been more important to be aligned with partners that can help you navigate these changes, pivot quickly if needed, and Brkthru can because we’re on it 24/7.