Political Campaigns in Ads Manager

The political landscape is highly competitive and reaching the right voters with your message is critical. This guide provides a concise overview of our capabilities, key requirements, and best practices for a successful political campaign. Political campaigns are supported across all the following channels: Mobile, Desktop, CTV, OTT, Audio, Direct Mail. IMPORTANT: For Audio campaigns, please see Audio Guardrails section.

Key Capabilities

GroundTruth’s solutions help you connect with voters with precision and impact by allowing you to:

• Target Precisely: Reach voters in specific geographic pockets, like congressional district, or based on voter profiles (e.g., political party, voter history)
• Multichannel Reach: Engage voters across all screens, including Mobile, Desktop, CTV, Audio, Direct Mail, and local news television, to reinforce your message.
• Measurable Engagement: Use retargeting tactics and QR codes to drive measurable action and build your first-party data.

Setup Requirements & Best Practices

To ensure your campaign is compliant, scalable, and effective, please follow these guidelines:

• Setup Process: Use Manual Setup option.
• Creative Approval: Creatives must include a clear and visible “paid for by” disclosure and all campaign creative must be approved by a GroundTruth representative before launch.
• Select the “Political Inventory” checkbox for appropriate supply. This will automatically adjust the categorization to the necessary Politics selection. 

• Lead Time: Submit all target districts (if applicable) and creatives to a GroundTruth representative with a minimum 3-day lead time prior to launch.
• Geotargeting: While the smallest target radius allowed is 0.1mi when geotargeting, we recommend a minimum 0.25mi radius for better performance.
• Scale: We recommend checking campaign scale by using the forecasting tool before launching and using multiple tactics and ad sizes to ensure scalability. Learn more about GroundTruth's forecasting tool.

Audio Guardrails

Please adhere to the following steps to ensure compliance and proper setup for all political audio campaigns.

• Select IAB11-4 Politics from category drop-down (see image below for reference). 
• DO NOT select Political Inventory checkbox.
• Ensure that entire campaign is Audio ONLY. If you have budget for non-Audio channels, activate those in a separate campaign following the above guidelines.
• A "Paid for by" disclosure is not required for audio ads, but please adhere to all local, state, and federal regulations regarding format and content. 
• Creatives do not require approval by a GroundTruth representative before launch, provided all relevant Do's and Don'ts (see Creative Compliance below) are strictly followed.

Creative Compliance

To ensure compliance, all creatives must be approved by a GroundTruth representative before your campaign launches. Unsure who your representative is? Email us at selfservehelp@groundtruth.com.

Do's | Guidelines for Compliant Political Ads

• Comply with election laws: You’re responsible for ensuring your campaign complies with all applicable laws, including US FEC regulations. This includes providing required disclosures, maintaining archives, and reporting.
• Include a clear “Paid for by” disclosure: All creatives must feature a clear and conspicuous disclosure that identifies who paid for the communication and whether it was authorized by a candidate or organization.
• Run Permitted Campaign Types: We permit the following types of campaigns:
  • Non-partisan: Campaigns free from party affiliation or bias, such as for municipal offices, judge elections, or school board.
  • Bi-partisan: Messaging that reflects agreement between major political parties
  • Competitive speech: Campaigns that focus on a candidate’s platform without presenting negative or potentially false information about others

Don'ts | Prohibited Content and Tactics

• No smear campaigns: Do not create ads that attempt to damage or question someone's reputation with negative propaganda. This includes using inflammatory language like “liars,” “cheaters,” or “thieves,” or generally discrediting a person's qualifications.
• No misinformation or fake news: Presenting false or inaccurate information, especially when intended to deceive the public or damage the reputation of a person or entity, is strictly prohibited.
• Avoid extreme political bias: Creatives cannot show a disproportionate weight for or against an idea in a way that is close-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. The focus should remain on respectful and fact-based discourse.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Are political ads allowed on the GroundTruth platform? Yes, political ads are absolutely allowed on the GroundTruth Ads Manager platform across all media channels.
2. What do I need to do before launching my (non-Audio) campaign? There are 2 requirements for campaign setup
   1. Submit all campaign creatives to a GroundTruth representative for approval.

   2. Select the “Political Inventory” checkbox during campaign setup, which will automatically adjust the category to the necessary “Politics” selection.

      For campaigns using custom Blueprinted areas or congressional districts, both of which take time to identify and map, we ask for a minimum 3-day lead time to ensure everything is ready before campaign launch.

3. What do I need to do before launching my Audio campaign? 
   1. Select IAB11-4 Politics from the IAB Category drop-down when creating a new campaign.
   2. Make sure the campaign is targeting only audio in all ad groups. If you have budget to target other channels, build a separate campaign to activate the non-audio budget. 
4. Can I target specific voter demographics? Yes. By leveraging our third-party audiences, you can target audiences based on political party, voter type (e.g., active, early), voter history, and other characteristics. Please note that use of third-party audiences includes an additional charge which your GroundTruth representative will confirm with you once your targeting selection has been determined.

5. How can I maximize my reach to my target audience? GroundTruth’s multichannel approach lets you engage your target audience across all channels (mobile, desktop, CTV, audio, direct mail, local news television) to reinforce your message. 

   In addition to reaching voter characteristics and expanding device reach, consider complementary targeting by leveraging location-based audience targeting such as behaviors (e.g., millennials, veterans, outdoor enthusiasts) and brands (Whole Foods, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart).

   You can also build upon impressions delivered by leveraging retargeting efforts across screens.

6. Can I use Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) for political campaigns? Ads Manager does not currently support political campaigns running on DOOH. This has been added as a request as a future feature.

Need Help?

For additional support and to ensure your campaign is set up for success, please reach out to your dedicated GroundTruth representative, or our Self-Serve team (selfservehelp@groundtruth.com) to be connected to a representative.