Here's a blog post on the changes we've made (and what we want to do next):
whotargets.me/en/changes-t...

Here's a blog post on the changes we've made (and what we want to do next):
whotargets.me/en/changes-t...

It's pretty technical stuff, as a lot of what Meta provides via its Ad Library is *similar* to what the state requires, but not identical. Meta argues it's too expensive to comply fully. An interesting case about the legal specifics and enforcement of a specific transparency regime.

Sunak ran similar ads last year, to build an audience for his page for further, future ad targeting). The problem with this strategy is, given the party's high turnover of leaders in recent years, it doesn't seem to be a very long term investment.

The scale of scams, the ads, the profitability of all involved is just astonishing. Serious and widespread harm is being done, all over the world. It's a jaw dropping read, with example after example of corporate negligence.

In 2023, they laid off the team responsible for protecting brands from scams, along with many others in trust and safety. This made it harder to detect and remove them, made worse by lenient policy (advertisers could get lots of strikes for fraud, and keep going).

The actions reported on seem to bear that out. E.g. after discovering this (hard to believe it was difficult to notice), they focused on the countries where they were most likely to face regulatory action.

It's been said before, but there are elections, and there are American elections. 💰

Don't quote us on it, but $3.8m in a day, a few days out from a handful of state and local elections, is higher than the peak in any other country's national election (we think Australia is the next highest, with a peak earlier this year of US$3.2m, seen a few days before their federal election).

Reform actually struggled with this in GE2024, over-spending in places they didn't ultimately win, and not spending at all in at least one seat they did. The jump from trying to win <5 seats to trying to win ~50 is a difficult strategic question.

This is quite different to last year's General Election, where they put a lot of money in, albeit to a small number of target seats. The challenge will be, as their appeal broadens, can they find the right places to invest?

Reform actually struggled with this in GE2024, over-spending in places they didn't ultimately win, and not spending at all in at least one seat they did. The jump from trying to win <5 seats to trying to win ~50 is a difficult strategic question.

This is quite different to last year's General Election, where they put a lot of money in, albeit to a small number of target seats. The challenge will be, as their appeal broadens, can they find the right places to invest?

Although the comments were widely written about, Labour will assume viewers will find it striking to see the words coming out of her mouth (and undermine the idea they were merely "poorly phrased").