• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, August 15, 2018

The Trump Make America Great Again committee across the U.S. spent $629,500 on political ads in the current U.S. federal election cycle from May 31, 2018 to the present date, according to Google data.

The data appears in a new section in Google’s Transparency report on political advertising, announced Wednesday, which provides a list of advertisers who have spent amounts greater than $500. These advertisers are listed from highest to lowest amount spent.

Searchable and downloadable information on advertising spend in search, with display and video, details the amount that advertisers spent in any state. For example, political advertisers in California spent $356,900. The information is also categorized into congressional district. For example, advertisers in the CA-10 district spent $26,100.

Other high spenders include One Nation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and Rick Scott for Florida.

Top keywords include “aclu” at $37,000; “diane black” at $37,300; “ron desantis” at $33,700; “beto o’rourke” at $29,800; “rick scott” at $28,700; and “bill nelson” at $25,200.  

The report shows who bought the federal election ads and how much money was spent across states and congressional districts on such ads. It also names the top political advertisers overall.

The Political Ad Library enables people to search and view political ads by advertiser or candidate's name, including the amount spent, the dates when the ad ran, the number of impressions, and ad type. The feature also allows people to search and sort the ads by highest amount spent, most impressions, and most recently launched. Google plans to update the information weekly.

Early in 2018, Google implemented new U.S. requirements for any advertiser purchasing election ads on its platform. Advertisers must provide a government-issued ID and other key information that confirms their U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency, as required by law.

For any Google Ads Services, political election ads also must be clearly marked with a “paid for by” disclosure.