Microsoft’s Xandr gets out of political ads

Xandr, the ad-tech platform acquired by Microsoft in 2021, is getting out of political advertising later this year.

The company has updated its political advertising policy page, forbidding ads for “election-related content including election canvassing and election polls, political parties, candidates, and ballot measures.”

It also outlined other types of political advertising that aren’t allowed, like “fundraising for political candidates, parties, PACs, and ballot measures.”

Clients were informed of the change in an email, which also announced updated policies that restrict or disallow advertising around topics including alcohol and gambling in specific markets, as well as tobacco and vaping. Changes go into effect in September and October. In the email announcing the changes, the company said that the updates are an effort to align Xandr’s policies with Microsoft Advertising’s policies.

Microsoft-owned LinkedIn also prohibits political ads, according to its advertising policy website.

As Google and Meta have cracked down on political advertising—both companies announced restrictions on targeting, including political affiliation, in recent years—many political advertisers have turned to the open web and programmatic advertising to reach voters. Political ad spending during the 2022 election cycle reached $7.8 billion, according to the analytics company Adimpact.

Jake Sticka, a partner at the political ad agency Rising Tide Interactive that uses Xandr, told Marketing Brew that, among other things, platforms that accept political advertising “have to be prepared to ensure that the folks running the ads are legitimate advertisers. And I understand that there is work that goes into that.”

As for why platforms are cracking down on political advertising, he said it could be because they “don’t want to be in a position where they’re refereeing between the accuracy of the ads that they’re running and the political environment, in general.”

Last year, Axios said that a report from the University of North Carolina’s Center on Technology Policy found that programmatic ad-tech companies “have minimal transparency tools and few specific content restrictions.” Xandr was the only programmatic ad company that kept an archive of ads, the researchers found.