What Meta’s Ad Library Shows About Harris and Trump’s Campaigns on Facebook and Instagram

This guide explains how to use Meta’s Ad Library and Python to extract, process, and analyze Facebook/Instagram ads from Jul 21–Oct 30, 2024 for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, including shared sponsors, to estimate spending, regional/demographic targeting, calls to action, and messaging themes. Using averaged spend ranges, it estimates Harris at about $113M vs. Trump at $17M, finds heavier Democratic spend in swing states (notably Pennsylvania), identifies Trump ads as more focused on vote/donate and rally promotion, and Harris ads as more often linking to news and policy topics (e.g., middle class, reproductive freedom) while frequently referencing Donald Trump and Project 2025. The piece outlines filtering tactics, CSV exports, data transformations for state-level and demographic breakdowns, and notes limitations and the value of combining with other transparency sources.