Google Launches Election Ads Report, 98 BJP Ads ‘Violate’ Policies

Parties have spent a total of Rs 3.7 crore on election ads on Google’s platforms since February 20

(Photo: Aroop Mishra)

Bharatiya Janata Party is the largest election advertiser on Google, having spent Rs 1.26 crore on 554 political promotions since 20 February.

However, 98 of those advertisements are currently not visible in the election ads library for violating Google’s advertisement policies for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections.

Google, on Thursday, 4 April, launched its India Transparency Report for elections ads. The India-specific report contains all advertisements that feature or are run by a political party, a candidate or a current member of the Lok Sabha and aims to “provide greater transparency in political advertising on Google, YouTube provide greater transparency in political advertising on Google, YouTube, and partner properties,” according to the company.

The transparency report provides information on who is purchasing ads on Google, what ads they are putting out and how much they are paying for them. According to Google’s election ad policies, the advertiser must provide a pre-certificate from the Election Commission. 

Between 20 February and 4 April, a total of 831 ads were ran on Google and its various platforms at a total cost of Rs 3.76 crore.

BJP Biggest Advertiser, Spent Rs 1.21 Crore

BJP accounts for nearly one-third of all the money spent on election ads. Of the total Rs 3.76 crore spent by all advertisers, Rs 1.21 has come from the BJP alone.

The Indian National Congress is a distant sixth, having spent Rs 54,100 on 14 advertisements.

Google’s ads transparency report also provides a breakup of the total amount spent in states. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are the top states when it comes to investing in paid election promotions, with Rs 1.7 crore and Rs 72 lakh spent on audiences on these states respectively.

The top election advertisers on Google(Photo courtesy: Google)

98 BJP Ads Violate Google Policies

Of the 554 advertisments put up by the BJP, 98, or about 18 percent of their ads are currently not visible in the ads library as they appear to have had violated one of the advertising policies.

A google representative said that the policy requires advertisers running election ads in India to provide a pre-certificate issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI), or anyone authorised by the ECI, for each ad they wish to run.

On 10 March, at the announcement for election dates, the EC had said that all political ads on social media will have to be vetted by their Media Certification and Monitoring Committee.

A screenshot of some of the ads that were found to be in violation of Google’s policies. (Photo courtesy: Google)

Google will also be verifying the identity of advertisers before their election ads run on its platforms.

There are four broad categories of violation that a paid advertisement may come under.

1. Prohibited Content
2. Prohibited Practices
3. Restricted Content
4. Editorial and Technical

It is, however, not clear which specific policy the 98 ads violated or if there were multiple types of violations. Google said that it has policies around which languages are supported by Google Ads. If an ad is submitted in a language that they don’t support, they will mark that ad as “policy violating”.

Moreover, according to Google, an advertisement can be visible once again if does submit the approval certificate from the EC’s Media Certification and Monitoring Committee or rectifies the violating element.

Rs 14 Cr Spent on Ads Since Feb on FB & Google

As election approaches, political parties have been pouting in the moolah on targeted election ads across social media platforms. Facebook, which launched its own elections ads library in February, remains the medium of choice with Rs 10.3 crore spent by all advertisers on over 51,000 promotions.

However, unlike Google, which verifies the identity of the advertiser, Facebook allows information of the advertiser’s name, address and contact details to be voluntary. 

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/ The Quint)