Paid adverts – all campaigners

If you pay a digital platform to publish a digital advert, you will need to determine if the advert is ‘political material’. Your advert will be political material if its sole or primary purpose can reasonably be regarded as one of the purposes on the list.

If you are a non-party campaigner campaigning on an issue, the primary purpose of your overall campaign is likely to be based on that issue. However, what matters for whether your digital advert is political material is not your organisation’s overall aim, but whether the sole or primary purpose of a particular paid advert is a purpose that makes the advert political material (see paid adverts section for examples on this point and the definition of political material).

If you are a registered charity, and you follow charity law and guidance from the relevant charity regulator, your material is unlikely to have a sole or primary purpose on the list, because many of the sorts of campaigns that have those purposes are prohibited. For example, charities must remain independent of party politics and must not support a political party or candidate, or create a perception of support as a result of their actions or participation.

This may also apply to other organisations who have limits on their political activities, for example in their constitution.

Last updated: 2 November 2023