The EU is ending political advertising on major platforms – what does this mean and how do we advertise from now on?

Date: September 23, 2025

The gist in brief

Major platforms – including Google and Meta (Facebook/Instagram) – in the EU they do not accept advertisements that seek to influence political, electoral, or legislative processesThe change aligns with the EU's new political advertising regulations and EU targeting valid in case.

What exactly happened?

EU regulations on political advertising have tightened to the point that large advertising platforms are reluctant to engage in political advertising due to the risks and compliance burdens. Not allowed in the EU serving such advertisements.

• Google: stopped serving political/issue-based ads to EU audiences (Search, YouTube, Display/Discovery).
• Meta (Facebook, Instagram): announced that it would not allow advertising on political, electoral and social issues in the EU.

Important: the restriction only for paid advertising Organic posts, articles, and videos can still appear on the platforms according to their own rules.

Who is considered affected?

• Political actors, campaign teams, advocacy organizations: Paid advertising reach in the EU is not available on the above-mentioned platforms.
• NGOs, civil organizations: if the creative or landing page is voting behavior / legislation It cannot be run as an advertisement. There may be room for maneuver on other channels with informative, educational (non-advocacy) content.
• Brands, e-retailers: direct impact is small, but around public issues auction dynamics may change (CPC/CPM), or it is worth refining the brand safety settings.

Market impacts – what are we seeing in the advertising ecosystem?

1) Auction effect: the absence of political spending in certain news/public affairs inventories can reduce competition, CPC/CPM may temporarily decrease.
2) Publisher page: short-term loss of income expected due to the lack of political campaigns; may increase direct deals and the context packages role.
3) Adtech trends: woman contextual targeting and the without audience value of optimizations; in measurement, the incrementality, the MMM and server-side conversion tracking.

What can those affected do – and How do we offer paid advertising next?

Since Google and Meta do not allow political advertising in the EU, message and channel strategy must be completely redesignedAs an agency, we work within the following framework:

1) Compliance & creative audit

• Quick review: ad copy, keywords, landing pages, forms.
• Neutralization: separating advocacy/legislative elements, developing an educational narrative.
• In case of rejection playbook: creative/landing swap, targeting swap, appeal.

2) Channel pivot (without paid distribution of political content)

• PR and editorial collaborations (earned media), expert articles, interviews.
• Influencer relationships with organic appearance (contractual exclusion of political paid distribution).
• Contextual and native ads in other networks non-political with messages.
• Retail Media, CTV/OTT, podcast sponsorships trade purposes.
• Email/SMS/CRM: building your own community and database (GDPR-compliant).

3) Measurement framework

• GA4 + server-side conversion (S2S)
• Incrementality tests, MMM
• Search interest (search uplift) and organic visibility tracking.

4) Brand safety for commercial advertisers

• Fine-tune negative keyword lists and topic exclusions.
• Management of public content environments (placement and context rules).
• Experiments with less saturated inventories.

Frequently asked questions

Does this apply to all political topics?
Yes – paid Political/social issue ads cannot run on major platforms in the EU. Organic content remains, but is subject to platform rules.
What about educational campaigns?
If not voter/legislative influence goal, can be advertised on multiple channels; we help you plan this.
I am a brand, what applies to me?
There will be no outright ban, but we will update brand safety and exclusions.

Summary

Following EU regulations, elimination of political paid ads structural change. In the Google and Meta ecosystem no political paid distribution, therefore the key to success is:

• pure compliance,
• organic and partnership channels professional use,
• context-based and commercial focus advertising mix,
• robust measurement and brand safety framework.

Are you interested in working together? Write to us – we will start with a free situation assessment and a quick proposal, then build your new channel strategy within the EU framework.

Resources

• EU legislation: Regulation (EU) 2024/900 on the transparency and targeting of political advertising – start of application: October 10, 2025 (EUR-Lex, official text/PDF). See in particular Article 30 – Entry into force and application. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/900/oj/eng and PDF: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32024R0900
• Google Ads – Political content policy (updated September 2025): Restriction/prohibition of political advertising under EU 2024/900 when targeting EU. https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/16409999?hl=en and https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/16409999?hl=en-IE
• Google Ads – Political content (general page): overview of regional restrictions and requirements. https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/6014595?hl=en
• Meta (Facebook/Instagram) – official announcement (2025.07.25.): "Ending Political, Electoral and Social Issue Advertising in the EU" – From October 2025, political/social issue advertising is not allowed in the EU. https://about.fb.com/news/2025/07/ending-political-electoral-and-social-issue-advertising-in-the-eu/
• News agency confirmation – Reuters (2025.07.25.): Meta will stop political ads in the EU from October. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/meta-halt-political-advertising-eu-october-blames-eu-rules-2025-07-25/
• AP News (2025.07.25.): Meta will stop political ads from October due to new EU rules. https://apnews.com/article/89efeac96723308d2a0469740d24d433
• Professional press – Search Engine Land (2025.08.11.): Google tightens up due to TTPA; advertiser workflows, API/script updates. https://searchengineland.com/google-eu-political-ads-rules-ads-api-scripts-460519
• PPC Land (2025.08.16.): "Google restricts EU political ads to official communications only" – from September only official EU/state communications. https://ppc.land/google-restricts-eu-political-ads-to-official-communications-only/