Facebook pulls back the veil (ever so slightly) on political ads

Regardless of which candidate wins the White House, Facebook will emerge as one of the big winners of the 2016 political season. Analysts project $1.1 billion in political ad revenue will to flow to digital platforms in this election cycle — quadruple the spending from the 2012 elections. Facebook and Google likely will scoop up as much as 85 percent of that revenue, with Twitter a distant third, according to Citi Research’s estimates.

Facebook has been preparing for this moment for a while, increasing the size of its government and politics team since the last presidential election and rolling out new features designed to aid political campaigns. The social network stands to reap anywhere from $300 million to $550 million, Citi estimates. (That may seem like a big number, but it’s just 2 percent of Facebook’s projected 2016 revenues.) We took a closer look at why political action committees and campaigns might find Facebook appealing, beyond the obvious: Its massive reach. For the record, 198 million Americans month use Facebook every month — more than the total number of registered voters in the US.