Roku Ads Manager allows certain political advertisers to run ads, provided that both the advertiser and their ads comply with our Political Advertising Guidelines, Ad Policies, and all applicable federal, state, and local laws. Failure to comply with these policies may result in account restrictions, including a permanent ban for all of your account(s), so please read them carefully. Roku is committed to transparency and fairness, and does not endorse any particular political viewpoint.
Today, we accept certain federal and local/state political advertisers in all states except Maryland, New York, Virginia, and Wyoming. Political clients in these states will not be able to create accounts. We may make additional states available to political advertisers in the future.
Roku Ads Manager has specific requirements related to account creation, campaign creation, and creative review of political ads. Read on to learn more.
Creating Political Ad Accounts
Political ad accounts can't be changed to another ad account type after it's been created.
When you create a political account, you must provide all required information (e.g., about yourself and the candidates or causes you’re promoting), before you can publish campaigns.
When setting up your account, select "Politics" as your business category. You’ll see a notice explaining that you’re required to complete a verification form before running ads:
After clicking "Save", you'll be directed to the verification form shown below. This is where you'll enter all of the required information.
You’ll start by entering details about yourself or your organization. Then, you'll need to provide more specific identification information depending on the selected state. Finally, you’ll select your advertiser type and political party. Once you’ve entered the information on this screen accurately and completely, simply click Submit to finish account creation.
Creating Political Campaigns
Creating campaigns for political advertisers generally follows the same flow as for any other advertiser, which you can review in detail here.
That said, not all platform capabilities will be available to Political advertisers. Specifically, the ability to change your ad category, the use of certain targeting segments, and the ability to deliver ads to certain states as specified above may be limited or prohibited.
You’ll notice these differences in a few places.
When creating a new campaign or uploading a new creative, you’ll see that we’ve automatically selected “Political” as a special ad category.
When choosing your location targeting, you may select four types of targeting: Market Area, State, Zip-Code, and Congressional District.
Wyoming will automatically be excluded from all campaigns
Only political ad accounts will have access to Congressional District targeting.
When choosing your audience targeting, certain types of targeting, including income targeting, will not be available.
Political creatives have unique requirements, including the inclusion of unobstructed disclaimers within the video ad itself. Be sure to confirm that your disclaimers are clear, legible, and unobstructed, and carefully review political ad guidelines to ensure your creatives will be approved.
Political Ad Guidelines
The most up to date Political Ad Guidelines, including ad creative requirements, can be reviewed here.
In accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws and Roku's policies, certain information about your campaign may be displayed publicly, including on Roku's political transparency page. This information includes but is not limited to your ad creative, targeting choices, and aggregate impressions. Roku only displays reporting data in aggregate.