This workflow turns public ad-transparency libraries into a structured, analysable dataset — the practical companion to the investigating political advertising guide. The goal is to move from scrolling an ad library to producing citable evidence about funders, spend, and targeting.
Overview
- Purpose: research political advertising transparently.
- Objective: a structured dataset and spend timeline.
- Difficulty: Intermediate.
- Time: 1–3 hours.
- Output: a structured ad dataset, a spend timeline, and an evidence log.
Step 1 — Define scope
Choose an advertiser, keyword, region, and date range. A tight scope keeps the dataset manageable and the analysis focused on an answerable question.
Step 2 — Search the libraries
Query the Meta Ad Library and the Google Ads Transparency Center. Record advertiser identity and verification status, which are often as revealing as the ad content.
Step 3 — Extract the fields
For each ad, capture: advertiser, funding entity, spend range, impressions, dates, targeting, and the creative. For scale, use the bulk Meta and Google datasets rather than manual collection.
Step 4 — Structure the data
Load everything into a spreadsheet. Normalise advertiser names and currencies so records are comparable, and flag any that need manual review.
Step 5 — Analyse
- Build a spend timeline to see how spending tracks events and dates.
- Look for duplicated creatives across many pages — a signal of coordination or astroturfing.
- Identify funder mismatches between the disclosed payer and the apparent beneficiary.
Step 6 — Preserve and cite
Archive every ad page and cite the transparency source for each figure. Ads get removed; a preserved copy protects your finding.
Outputs
- A structured ad dataset with normalised fields.
- A spend-over-time timeline.
- An evidence log with archived pages and citations.
Common mistakes
- Comparing spend across platforms with different definitions.
- Ignoring each platform's "political" classification caveats.
- Failing to archive ads that are later removed.
Next steps
Read the accompanying investigating political advertising guide for context, and if the data suggests coordination, continue with investigating disinformation campaigns.
Frequently asked questions
How do I research who is behind a political ad campaign?
Search the platform ad libraries by advertiser, page, or keyword, then extract the funding entity, spend, impressions, dates, and targeting into a spreadsheet. Look for funder mismatches and duplicated creatives across pages, and corroborate across multiple libraries.
Can I compare ad spend across platforms?
Cautiously. Each platform defines "political," measures spend, and reports impressions differently, so cross-platform totals are not directly comparable. Analyse each platform on its own terms and disclose the differences.
What outputs should a political ad investigation produce?
A structured dataset of ads and their metadata, a spend-over-time timeline, and an evidence log with archived ad pages and citations for every figure.