Let\u2019s talk about Russians.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about the Russians and online ads and Facebook and what they may have done and what it means for the future of political online ad buying.. Because it\u2019s important. And it\u2019s going to matter to your campaign.<\/p>\n
First, what happened? Well, start with the online ad campaign that Giles-Parscale<\/a> ran for President Trump. In his public statements, Brad Parscale has been clear: He did what every brand advertiser does and took advantage of the power, reach and ubiquity of online to push ads out supporting Donald Trump\u2019s candidacy<\/a>.<\/p>\n When ads didn\u2019t work \u2013 they didn\u2019t lead people to the candidates site \u2013 they came down. When they did, they stayed up until they didn\u2019t work. At one point, Giles-Parscale was reported to be running 60,000 different ads at one time.<\/p>\n That\u2019s it. There may be some nuances in this account but they\u2019re just that \u2013 nuances. At the end of the day the Trump online campaign boiled down to this: Use as much money as you need to buy as many ads as you can making sure those ads are performing as well as they can.<\/p>\n This is where the Russians come sneaking in. And this is probably why special counsel Robert Mueller <\/a>is looking hard and long at \u2018social\u2019 media sites as he investigates the Trump campaigns connections to Russian attempt to influence the 2018 election.<\/p>\n The ad server data from the campaign described above \u2013 like ALL server data – would provide a valuable starting point for anyone wanting to use social media to boost \u2013 let\u2019s call them nefarious ideas \u2013 about Hillary Clinton, the U.S. election process or pretty much anything else. And that data can be shared simply by giving someone a password and log-in. It\u2019s done all the time on brand campaigns (and some political, too).<\/p>\n For instance, let\u2019s say an ad touting President Trump\u2019s support of the 2nd<\/sup> Amendment did really well in Nashville, TN. Someone \u2013 anyone – could use that information to start a Facebook group for Nashville residents to share their views on the 2nd<\/sup> Amendment. The group would get started by asking people who may have joined pro-Trump groups on Facebook to \u201clike\u201d or \u201cshare\u201d news about the new 2nd<\/sup> Amendment group and its members.<\/p>\n This bad actor could join more groups as she found more people sharing her \u201cinterests\u201d<\/a> all the while pumping in links to (real or imagined) stories about Hillary Clinton\u2019s anti-gun stance, and of course, layering on other claims<\/a> as the election neared. Note, this has little to do \u2013 except for the very important data \u2013 with the online ad campaign. The two can run in parallel, not in concert.<\/p>\n So what does this mean? Well, in combination with a lot of bad feelings toward Facebook<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> on other fronts, it almost certainly means the end of self-service political ad buying. Either Congress or the FEC will put an end to automated buying.<\/p>\n What\u2019s automated buying? It\u2019s the way most political ads are bought. You have a DSP<\/a>? You\u2019re buying automatically. You have a vendor who buys Google display or search? That\u2019s automated, too. And automated buying doesn\u2019t have a lot of restrictions: No disclaimers, no substantiation, no standards and practices. All you need is a credit card and a web browser.<\/a><\/p>\n