Social media platforms such as Facebook and Google are not legally required to report information about who is behind political ads on their sites. Archives such as the Facebook Ad Library are provided voluntarily and can be unreliable and difficult to use. These tools from research groups can help you track trends on how voters in your state are being targeted by political ads.

• NYU’s Ad Observatory: At AdObservatory.org you can find trends in Facebook advertising in elections in your state, and set up personalized notifications to get updates in your email inbox. And with Ad Observer, ask your audience to volunteer data for on how they are being targeted on Facebook – information that Facebook does not make public.
• Center for Responsive Politics: CRP has launched a new Online Ads Portal, where you can search political advertising on Facebook and Google. Information is also available by race on state race pages.
• Wesleyan Media Center: Remember TV advertising? It’s still a big deal in many races. Get information on TV political advertising and more at the Wesleyan Media Center.
• Who Targets Me: At Who Targets Me, a project which also tracks Facebook political advertising, you can sign up for notifications in your inbox when specific Facebook ad sponsors runs a new ad.

Wesleyan Media Project coding of Kantar/CMAG data

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