Deceptive ads have often flourished on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and others—especially in the lead-up to elections and major public events. These ads are frequently designed to manipulate public opinion, spread misinformation, scam users, and exploit gaps in platform oversight. Despite efforts by social media companies to improve transparency and accountability, many of these ads continue to slip through the cracks, reaching large audiences and shaping political conversations with minimal scrutiny.
A Guide to Spotting Deceptive Ads and Advertisers with PoliDashboard:
- Bookmark PoliDashboard.org and visit the app regularly—daily or weekly.
- Spend 10–15 minutes browsing the list of advertisers shown in the dashboard.
- Use the filter options to narrow down results. Be systematic to avoid duplication and ensure you cover different segments.
- Focus on unfamiliar advertisers—those you don’t recognize or that seem out of place.
- Review the statistics associated with these advertisers (e.g., spending, number of ads, who saw their ads) to get a fuller picture of their ad activity.
- Visit the Facebook page(s) they manage for more context.
- Look at sample ads to assess the tone, messaging, and potential for deception or manipulation.
- If you find an advertiser running deceptive or suspicious
ads, email us at [email protected]
Please include:- Links to the advertiser’s Facebook page(s)
- Links or screenshots of the specific ads in question
- A brief description (150 words or less) of why you believe the content is deceptive or misleading
By taking a few minutes to investigate, you can contribute to greater transparency and help hold advertisers accountable.
- Fake election news ads are luring people into investment schemes: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/more-fake-cbc-ads-investigation-1.7494923
- Misleading election-related ads targeting people 55+ in California, Texas & Florida: https://bsky.app/profile/socialmedialab.ca/post/3l7xnzk26sk2z
- Exploiting Meta’s Weaknesses, Deceptive Political Ads Thrived on Facebook and Instagram in Run-Up to Election: https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-instagram-meta-deceptive-political-ads-election
- An AI powered financial scams ads featuring doctored video and audio of President Biden: https://bsky.app/profile/socialmedialab.ca/post/3kjweqyjtyv2m
- A “dog whistle” ads—advertisements that appears harmless on the surface but carries a hidden message intended to target or provoke specific groups in society: https://getthetrollsout.org/articles/islamophobia-germany-and-its-pigs
Meta Advertisers:
Politics, Elections & Social Issues
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This module displays a list of all advertisers running ads related to politics, elections, or social issues on Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, ranked by the advertiser's total ad spend within the selected date range. (Best viewed on a desktop browser.)
Click on to sort and rank advertisers based on the:- Total number of ads purchased by each advertiser for each of the various ad cost/spend ranges
- Total number of ads purchased by each advertiser
- Total impressions* for all ads purchased by each advertiser
- Total spending* as well as the spending efficiency of each advertiser for all of their ads
[Pro Tip] Use this feature to find advertisers whose ads garnered the most impressions or who spent the most or least amount of money within the selected date range.
* Note: For most countries, except those in the EU, Meta only reports ad spend and impressions as a range (minimum and maximum) instead of an exact amount. To estimate the total ad spend and impressions for an advertiser, we sum the ad impressions and spend for all ads by the advertiser and display the lower bound of those ranges in the table. For more information, see Meta’s Ad Library.
Click on any advertiser to see:
- Which Facebook Page(s) are they funding
- How much are they spending on ads per Facebook Page
- How many ads are they running each day
- An overview and summary of the advertisers’ ad campaign
- Examples of the ads they are running
- Where their ads being shown
- Which demographic groups are seeing their ads
Search for Advertisers in ![]()
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Spending Stats
Total # of Ads Purchased By Each Advertiser, Ranked By Total Spending (Estimated)
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Advertiser's Spending Stats
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This module displays a list of all advertisers with ads related to politics, elections, or social issues on Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, sorted by the demographics of the people who saw the advertisers' ads and ranked by total impressions within the selected date range. [Best viewed on a desktop browser.]
Click on to sort and rank advertisers based on the estimated:- Total ad impressions received by an advertiser from different demographic groups
- Total ad impressions* for all ads purchased by each advertiser
- You can view the list of advertisers either in absolute numbers or as a percentage of the total.
[Pro Tip] Use this feature to find advertisers whose ads were shown primarily to individuals from a specific demographic group within the selected date range.
* Note: For each ad, Meta provides us with its impression range. To estimate the total ad impressions for an advertiser, we sum the ad impressions for all ads by the advertiser and display the lower bound of that range in the table.
Click on any advertiser to see:
- Which Facebook Page(s) are they funding
- How much are they spending on ads per Facebook Page
- How many ads are they running each day
- An overview and summary of the advertisers’ ad campaign
- Examples of the ads they are running
- Where their ads being shown
- Which demographic groups are seeing their ads
Search for Advertisers in ![]()
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Demographics Stats
Display in %:
Total Advertiser Impressions, Sorted By Demographics (Estimated)
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This module displays a list of all advertisers running ads related to politics, elections, or social issues on Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, sorted by the geographic location of the people who saw the advertisers' ads and ranked by total impressions within the selected date range. [Best viewed on a desktop browser.]
Click on to sort and rank advertisers based on the estimated:- Total ad impressions received by an advertiser from different locations across the country.
- Total ad impressions* for all ads purchased by each advertiser.
- You can view the list of advertisers either in absolute numbers or in percentages.
[Pro Tip] Use this feature to find advertisers whose ads were shown primarily to individuals from a specific location within the selected date range.
* Note: For each ad, Meta provides us with its impression range. To estimate the total ad impressions for an advertiser, we sum the ad impressions for all ads by the advertiser and display the lower bound of that range in the table.
Click on any advertiser to see:
- Which Facebook Page(s) are they funding
- How much are they spending on ads per Facebook Page
- How many ads are they running each day
- An overview and summary of the advertisers’ ad campaign
- Examples of the ads they are running
- Where their ads being shown
- Which demographic groups are seeing their ads
Search for Advertisers in ![]()
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Location Stats
Display in %:
Total Advertiser Impressions, Sorted By Location (Estimated)
| Advertiser Name |
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This module searches for advertisers whose ads contain a specified keyword or phrase within the selected date range.
You can choose from two different search methods.- Keyword Search* finds advertisers with ads that contain text matching the search phrase exactly.
The ads will be sorted by the following priority:- The ad contains the full search phrase exactly.
- The ad contains terms that exactly match parts of the full search phrase.
- Semantic Search* finds advertisers running ads with text that has a similar meaning to the search terms, even if the exact words aren't used. Ads are considered similar when their cosine distance** is small.
[Pro Tip] Choose this option when you're looking for ads that are conceptually related to your search, rather than an exact match.
- Take these example sentences:
- "Make sure to vote!"
- "Casting your ballot is essential to democracy."
- "The election is in two weeks."
- "We must tighten the border."
- The first and second sentences are semantically similar because they both focus on the topic of voting.
- The first and third sentences are also semantically similar—they both relate to the concept of elections.
- The first and fourth sentences are not semantically similar. The fourth is about border security, while the first is about elections and voting.
* Note 1: Some advertisers may be listed with [No Advertiser Name]. This occurs when the advertiser is removed by Meta for violating the TOS or because the advertiser disables their account. ** Note 2: Cosine Distance is a measure of how similar or different two pieces of text are based on their underlying meaning, not just the words used. Behind the scenes, your search text and the content of each ad are converted into a numerical representation that captures their key themes. Cosine distance then compares these representations: the smaller the distance, the more similar the ads are in terms of what they’re about, even if they use different wording. Cosine distance ranges from 0 to 2, we designate 0 - 0.55 as High Similarity, 0.55-0.7 as Partial Similarity, 0.7-0.9 as ‘Low Similarity’ and 0.9+ as ‘Not Similar.’ - Take these example sentences:
Disclaimer
The semantic search feature can help identify potential bad actors who might be using paid Meta ads in harmful or deceptive ways.
However, because semantic search focuses on meaning, it will surface all advertisers, both legitimate and malicious, whose ads match your search terms.
You'll need to review the results closely to spot which advertisers are a concern.
Multilingual Search
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Search Method
- To run ads on Meta’s various advertising platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and others), advertisers must have a Facebook Page.
- Meta’s advertisers can create and manage multiple Facebook Pages.
- By default, PoliDashboard shows statistics for all ads funded by an advertiser for all the Facebook Pages they manage.
- To view ad statistics for a specific Facebook Page, select a Facebook Page from the list.
Filter by a page
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Polidashboard.org
- Hover over any bar in the chart to view a breakdown of ads that ran on that specific day, grouped by ad cost/spend ranges.
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- The word cloud features the first 50 most frequently used phrases from ads funded by the advertiser.
Note: In this word cloud, larger text indicates words and phrases that appeared more frequently in ads funded by the advertiser. This often occurs when the same ad copy is used across multiple ads.
Generating...
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There was an error generating the Word/Phrase cloud.
Polidashboard.org
- The “#Ads” column shows how many times the advertiser used that exact ad copy in ads during the selected date range.
- Click the “Sample ad” link in the table to see an example of how this advertiser used the selected ad copy.
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| Ad Copy/Primary Text | #Ads | Preview |
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Polidashboard.org
- Hover over a location on the map to see an estimated percentage of the advertiser’s audience from that area.
- For each ad, Meta provides us with a breakdown of the ad’s audience by location (for example, 50% from Ontario and 50% from Alberta), along with an estimate of the total impressions for the ad. To determine the percentage of an advertiser’s total audience from each location, we performed additional calculations.
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Suppose an advertiser ran two ads:
- Ad #1: 1,000 impressions (50% Ontario, 50% Alberta)
- Ontario: 1,000 x 50% = 500 impressions
- Alberta: 1,000 x 50% = 500 impressions
- Ad #2: 100,000 impressions (80% Ontario, 20% Alberta)
- Ontario: 100,000 x 80% = 80,000 impressions
- Alberta: 100,000 x 20% = 20,000 impressions
- Total regional impressions:
- Ontario: 500 + 80,000 = 80,500 impressions
- Alberta: 500 + 20,000 = 20,500 impressions
- Overall percentages:
- Total impressions: 1,000 + 100,000 = 101,000
- Ontario: 80,500 / 101,000 = 79.7%
- Alberta: 20,500 / 101,000 = 20.3%
- Ad #1: 1,000 impressions (50% Ontario, 50% Alberta)
- The percentages (79.7% Ontario, 20.3% Alberta) displayed on the map / chart represent the estimated audience distribution for all ads belonging to the advertiser within the selected date range.
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Suppose an advertiser ran two ads:
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Only Show Regions With 1%+ Audience
Polidashboard.org
- Dots on the chart represent ads from the selected advertiser.
- Hover over a dot on the chart to view an information box showing an estimated percentage of the advertiser’s audience from that specific demographic group, the estimated number of impressions the ad received, and the cost of the ad.
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Along with the information box, you will also see a series of additional black dots appearing along the X-axis. These additional dots represent the same ad and are intended to help you to visually identify whether the same ad was served to or seen by individuals from other demographic groups.
- If all the additional black dots that appear are at or close to 0 on the X-axis, it means that the ad was shown to only that specific demographic.
- Click on any of the dots to view a bar chart displaying the demographic breakdown of the audience for the selected ad, along with a link to the ad.
- Click on a dot to see a barchart showing the demographic breakdown of the audience for the selected ad, as well as a link to the ad.
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Use the toggle to show or hide the box plot chart. In a box plot chart:
- The box represents the interquartile range (IQR), which contains the middle 50% of the data.
- The vertical line inside the box marks the median, which is the midpoint of the data. This means that half of the values fall below this point and half fall above it.
- In this specific context, the median indicates the typical percentage of a specific demographic group shown ads by a given advertiser within the selected date range. It helps highlight how likely a demographic was focused on relative to other groups.
Note: If the selected advertiser has more than 500 ads for the selected date range, the interactive boxplot chart will be replaced with a violin plot. If you still want to see individual ads from this advertiser via the interactive boxplot chart, select a shorter time frame, or if the advertiser manages multiple Facebook pages (see Module 1), select and view ads from one Facebook page at a time.
* Click on any dot to see the demographic breakdown of the audience for the selected ad, as well as a link to the ad.
Boxplot
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Polidashboard.org