Facebook requires campaigns to verify their identity before running political ads in the United States. There are four steps to this process: confirming your identity, creating a disclaimer, adding an ad account, and claiming responsibility for the page.
In this article, I will walk through how to complete each step and cover some common errors people encounter.
Finding "Issue, Electoral, and Political Ads"
To begin getting verified to run political ads you’ll need to follow these steps
Navigate to “Professional Dashboard” in the left-hand menu of your Facebook page
Find “Page Access” in the left-hand menu
Find “Issue, Electoral, and Political Ads” in the left-hand menu
Under “Issue, Electoral, and Political Ads you’ll find your checklist of steps to complete to get verified.
Verify your Identity
You’ll first need to verify your identity to run ads in the US.
Begin by going to “Settings & privacy” in the top right drop-down menu of your Facebook. Then go to “Settings”
Then find “Account Settings”
And finally “Identity Confirmation”
Under Identity Confirmation, you’ll find step-by-step instructions. You’ll need to upload a picture of your ID, receive a letter in the mail with a confirmation code, and enter that code.
It can take up to 3 weeks to receive your piece of mail so please complete this step as soon as possible!
Create a Disclaimer
Now that you are verified to run political ads in the United States it's time to set up a disclaimer to run with your campaign's ads. This disclaimer will show your campaign has paid for the ad. Creating a disclaimer involves entering your campaign's information and verifying that it is correct. The disclaimer is then submitted for approval by Facebook. Here is Facebook’s guide to creating a disclaimer.
All campaigns need:
Physical Address
Active phone number
Email at a business domain
A website with your campaign’s name listed
To begin click "Create a disclaimer"
If your campaign has an Employer Identification Number or EIN and tax paperwork you can register under disclaimer option 1: “Tax Registered Organization.” To do so you will
Enter your campaigns information
Upload a copy of your EIN paperwork
Verify your campaigns phone number
Verify your campaigns email address
Watch Facebook’s Click through of this process below
If you don’t have an EIN number or aren’t a tax-registered organization you can use the 5th option “Other” to get verified. Under this option you will:
Enter your campaigns information
Verify your phone number
Verify your email address
Watch Facebook’s Click Through of this process below
Are you stuck?
All information entered has to be accurate: When uploading documentation the address, campaign name, website, email, and phone number must match the information you enter into Facebook by hand.
All information entered has to be active: you must be able to receive phone calls, mail, and emails at the addresses entered.
All information entered must exactly match: double check the name and website of your campaign entered match the name on your Facebook page. For example, if your Facebook page says CG for State Rep your disclaimer may be rejected if you enter your campaign name as CG for the People.
It's just not working! This process can be really tricky, if something isn’t working try again! And send us an email at help@deck.tools and we will do our best to help you.
After your disclaimer is submitted it should be reviewed in 24 hours. Pay attention to your email and carefully read the instructions to resolve any errors you’ve encountered. If your disclaimer hasn’t been approved in a week try re-submitting it or reach out for help.
Linking your Ad Account to a Disclaimer
After creating your disclaimer and having it approved you’ll need to link it to an existing ad account.
Then copy and paste your ad account number and hit “Save.” This will then display your disclaimer when you run ads through this ad account. You can find your ad account number by following these instructions.
Assign Responsibility for the Page
Finally, you’ll assign who is responsible for the page. You will see a blue box asking you to select the responsible page. You should select your campaigns page.
After completing all these steps you are now authorized to run political ads on Facebook! Your checklist should look like the checklist below.
You are now ready to link your Facebook page to Deck and begin running ads with our integration. You can learn more about that process here.