Political Ads

#156: Digital Political Advertising Beyond Social Media, with Megan Clasen

January 8, 2023 Digital Strategists

Megan Clasen, Partner at Gambit Strategies, shares her insights into digital political advertising for persuasion and mobilization. We discuss the role of social media ads relative to CTV and OTT advertising, as well as how political ads compete with corporate brands for inventory on these services. Megan also shares her experiences with Facebook’s ad ‘blackout’ period during the 2020 campaign and how the Biden campaign responded to countering Trump’s advertisements. …And much more!

#120: Digital Ads for Political Mobilization and Persuasion, with Nick Ahamed

January 24, 2021 Digital Strategists

Nick Ahamed, Director of Analytics at Priorities USA, shares his research on the effectiveness of digital ads for increasing voter turnout and support for Democrats. We discuss the field and survey experiments that Priorities USA has been running to find the optimal messaging strategies, targeting approaches, and treatment lengths for political social media ads during elections. 

#119: 2020 Year in Review! Social Media and Politics, with Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten

December 20, 2020 Academics

Dr. Anamaria Dutceac Segesten joins for the 5th Annual Social Media and Politics Year in Review! We answer listener questions and present six gifts, each representing big events that shaped social media and politics this year.


25:18 – Platform Year in Review Reports
53:08 – Platforms and Activism (Belarus and Thailand)
1:16:26 – Political Ad Effectiveness
1:38:00 – Platform Regulation (Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act)
2:02:31 – Tweets from the Dead
2:17:00 – Platform Fragmentation


Here’s a list of each platform’s year in review reports:

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, Reddit, Reddit UK, Reddit Moderators, Pornhub Debate Night


Other supplementary material:

Acronym’s ‘Haha Ratio’

Priorities USA’s “Wreck” Ad

Digital Services Act

Margarethe Vestager on the Digital Services Act

Study Modelling Dead Social Media Accounts

Tufts Research on Youth and Political Engagement

Pew Research on Social Media and Persuasion