Declare a political campaign

Declare a campaign, its line items and its creative as an election or issue ad, and see why one is refused, held or locked.

Every campaign has to say whether it is an election ad, an issue ad or neither. A political campaign also needs a verified sponsor, line items that use only contextual and location targeting, and a creative declared the same way. If you are an agency, you do this inside the advertiser's workspace.

Before you start

• A sponsor verified for the countries you want. See Political sponsors.
• A video that shows "Paid for by" and the sponsor's name, for at least 4 seconds at 4% or more of the picture height.
• For election ads in India, the certificate number and date from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee.

Declare the campaign

1. Open Campaigns and select New Campaign.
2. Fill in the usual campaign details.
3. Under Is this a political or issue ad?, choose Not political, Election ad or Issue ad. You cannot leave it blank.
4. For an election or issue ad, enter the Election or issue, up to 200 characters, such as the name of the election or the bill.
5. Choose the sponsor under Paid for by. Only sponsors verified for you appear.
6. Tick the Countries the campaign runs in. Only countries the sponsor is verified for are offered.
7. Select Create Campaign.

If you have no verified sponsor, the form says so and links to Political sponsors.

A campaign for an advertiser categorised as Politics cannot be declared "Not political".

Declare the creative

1. Open Video Creatives and select Upload Creative.
2. Under Is this a political or issue ad?, choose the same kind as the campaign.
3. Enter the Countries.
4. Tick the box confirming the video shows "Paid for by" with the verified sponsor's name.
5. Say whether the ad contains realistic synthetic or digitally altered people or events. If it does, the public library says so.
6. For an Indian election ad, enter the MCMC certificate no. and Certified on. Add the Committee if you have it.
7. Save, then submit the creative for review.

LtvAdx checks the video before approving it: that the disclosure is there and names the sponsor, that the certificate matches for India, and that the landing page is on your verified domain.

Line items

A line item in a political campaign:

• Uses contextual and location targeting only. The form refuses audience segments, household segments, retargeting, demographics, language and screen, device and app targeting, competitor exclusion, journeys and viewing behaviour, and tells you which to remove.
• Gets its countries from the campaign if you leave them empty. It cannot add a country the campaign did not declare.
• Needs a creative declared as the same kind of political ad. A political creative can't be used in a campaign that is not political.
• Can use a deal only with a publisher that takes that kind of political ad.

After it has run

Once any line item of the campaign has run, the political declaration is locked. Only LtvAdx can change it. Ask through Support.

If something goes wrong

"Say whether this campaign is a political or issue ad". You have not answered the question.

"Choose one of this advertiser's verified political sponsors". There is no verified sponsor, or you picked one from another advertiser.

"The sponsor ... is not verified for ...". Verification for that country comes first. See Political sponsors.

"Political ads do not run in ... on LtvAdx". That country is one where political ads are blocked. Remove it.

"Political ads use contextual and location targeting only". Remove the targeting the message lists.

A creative shows "Looks political". Its name, landing page or advertiser name contains words that suggest an election. Declare it as political, or, if it is not, expect LtvAdx to ask why before approving it.

The campaign does not deliver. No publisher may be taking that kind of political ad in those countries yet. Every publisher starts with political ads off. See How political and issue ads work.